The final of BBC1’s The Apprentice recorded its highest ever viewing figures last night as 9.8m viewers (37.9% share) tuned in at 9pm to see who Sir Alan Sugar would hire.
The show built its audience from an initial 9.2m (35.7%) to a high of 10.4m (40%) as hopeful Yasmina Siadatan beat Kate Walsh to the appointment.
The show was an impressive 113% up on the channel’s slot average for the year so far of 4.6m (18.3%). For all of 2008 the channel averaged 5.2m (21%).
The final of the reality show was moved to a Sunday, from its regular Wednesday night 9pm slot, so as to avoid a clash with England’s World Cup qualifier against Andorra which is being shown live on ITV1.
The show’s move didn’t impact on the show’s performance as it brought in a record-breaking audience.
Over the 12-part run The Apprentice has managed a series average of 8.4m (32.4%). It kicked off on 25 March with 8.1m (33.3%) and never once dipped below 6.4m. It was up on the previous series by 1.1m.
The show has also been a huge hit with upmarket viewers as 60.3% of those people who watched the show were ABC1s. The show has also attracted a strong female audience with 58.1% of those watching were women.
BBC1’s kept up the pressure once the final was over by moving straight into its spin-off show The Apprentice: You’re Hired, without the usual junction break, which managed a sizeable 7.7m (36.1%) over an hour. Over that time period BBC1 has averaged 3m (16.2%) so far this year.
Normally, the You’re Hired show airs on BBC2 and only lasts half an hour.
BBC1 also had a strong showing earlier in peaktime with its new drama series Hope Springs bubbling away with a decent 6m (25.8%) over an hour, breaking the slot average for the year so far by 700,000.
Kingdom
The start of the third series of Kingdom made a decent enough start considering it was in the firing line of The Apprentice at 9pm. The drama, starring Stephen Fry, managed 5m (19.1%), a fall of 400,000 compared with the launch of the previous series on 13 January when 5.4m (21.2%) watched at 9.20pm.
The commercial network wasn’t in such a strong position at 8pm as Stephen Tompkinson’s African Balloon Adventure just had3.4m (14.9%) tuning in for an hour. So far this year the channel as averaged a sizeable 7.1m (28%) in that slot.
Celebrity Wife Swap
Channel 4 had something of a new look to its Sunday evening line up. A new run of satirical comedy Bremner, Bird and Fortune, Last Show Before the Recovery, had 1.1m (5.2%) at 7pm and 136,000 on C4+1. Celebrity Wife Swap also kicked off a new run at 8pm with 2m (8.4%) with the show on C4+1 picking up 228,000. After a repeat of The Secret Millionaire at 9pm on just 1.1m (4.1%) Channel 4’s audience picked up again with Big Brother at 10pm on 1.8m (9.9%) and 192,000 watching on the timeshifted channel.
BBC2’s big show of the evening was South Pacific gaining a steady 2m (8.7%) over an hour at 8pm. The following Empire of Cricket though at 9pm could interest just 660,000 (2.5%).
Five’s film Hard Luck, a thriller starring Wesley Snipes, gained just 1m (4.2%) at 9pm. It’s Jackie Chan movie at 7.15pm, First Strike, managed 980,000 (4.4%).
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