Mark Wright’s win in The Apprentice helped Lord Sugar’s BBC1 show to its biggest audience for a final in three years with more than 6 million viewers on Sunday night.
The two-hour final, in which Wright beat his rivals to Sugar’s £250,000 investment with his plan for a digital marketing agency, had an average of 6.2 million viewers across two hours from 9pm on Sunday, a 27% share of the audience.
It was half a million viewers up on the 5.7 million who watched Leah Totton’s win last year, a seven-year audience low for the show, and the 6.1 million who watched in 2012.
But it was still way short of the show’s high of 9.1 million viewers who saw Tom Pellereau triumph in 2011.
The Apprentice had the good fortune of going up against a Midsomer Murders repeat on ITV, which could only entertain 2.7 million viewers, a 12% share, also from 9pm.
Elsewhere in the 9pm slot, Channel 4’s Homeland was watched by 1.4 million viewers, 5.6% of the audience, while BBC2 movie premiere Salmon Fishing in the Yemen had 1.6 million viewers (6.3%).
Earlier, ITV’s Surprise Surprise Christmas Special unwrapped 3.6 million viewers (14.9%) between 8pm and 9pm, unsurprisingly falling short of the 5.4 million (22%) who saw BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow.
Overnights so bright for Channel 4, they gotta wear shades
Movie premiere Men in Black 3 sent Channel 4’s ratings into orbit with 4.1 million viewers, a 17.6% share from 7pm, the sort of ratings normally reserved for Benefits Street or Friends (one for older readers, that one). It was up 234% on the three-months slot average.
Channel 5 had a movie premiere of its own, Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino – or Man in a Grump – which had 1.8 million viewers (8%) from 9pm.
All ratings are Barb overnight figures, including live, +1 (except for BBC channels) and same day timeshifted (recorded) viewing, but excluding on demand, or other – unless otherwise stated. Figures for BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 generally include ratings for their HD simulcast services, unless otherwise stated
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