WEDNESDAY: The National Movie Awards failed to sparkle for ITV1 and was thrashed by The Apprentice and Channel 4’s new fixed camera show, 24 Hours in A&E.

Live coverage of the ceremony, hosted by Daybreak’s Christine Bleakley from Wembley Arena, could only manage to attract an audience of 2.41m (10.74%) across ITV1 and ITV1 HD over a two-hour slot from 8pm.

The awards, which only featured a sprinkling of film stars, drew a further 81,500 (0.39%) on time-shifted ITV1+1, according to overnight Barb figures supplied by Attentional.

It was below ITV1 and ITV1 HD’s slot average of 5.24m (21.58%) for the year so far and was the worst performing National Movie Awards to date.

Over the 9pm hour, coverage averaged 2.08m (8.7%) and it was roundly beaten by the second instalment of The Apprentice.

BBC1’s business competition was hired by a slot winning audience of 7.11m (29.66%) - down on the Tuesday’s launch of 7.79m (30.86%).

24 Hours in A&E also launched with a decent audience, treating 2.26m (9.4%) viewers over the 9pm hour on C4. An additional 360,200 (2%) watched on C4+1. It was above C4’s slot average of 1.81m (7.46%) for the year so far.

Next in line was NCIS, which arrested an audience of 2.06m (8.6%) at 9pm for Channel 5.

Wonderland: the Trouble with Love and Sex performed poorly for BBC2. The film, notable for being the first full-length animated doc made for British TV, drew an audience 610,000 (2.5%) over the 9pm hour.

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