Young Apprentice returns with 4 million viewers

Alan SugarThe second series of Young Apprentice got off to a lacklustre start last night with just 4 million viewers.

{jcomments on}The series is a spin-off from The Apprentice and features Lord Alan Sugar’s search to find a young tycoon – it aired last year under the title Junior Apprentice. It’s run last year hardly set the ratings alight and it hasn’t got off to the best of starts this year either. According to overnight ratings the opening instalment at 9pm on BBC One had just 4 million viewers – less than half the audience of Doc Martin on ITV1. The comedy drama starring Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz had 8.6 million viewers with an additional 300,000 viewers on the time-shift channel.

Elsewhere last night University Challenge had 3 million viewers for BBC Two at 8pm followed by Home Cooking Made Easy with 2 million viewers. At 9pm on the channel Origin of Us had 1.5 million viewers. On Channel Four Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret had 1.4 million viewers at 9pm. The Hotel Inspector continued to perform well for Channel Five with 1.1 million viewers at 9pm but the broadcaster’s biggest audience was for Big Brother at 10pm with 1.4 million. Terra Nova continued its run on Sky One at 8pm with just over 700,000 viewers.

In terms of investigative programming last night Inside Out at 7.30pm on BBC One had 3.3 million viewers while an hour later Panorama had 2.6 million. ITV’s new series Exposure had 1.5 million viewers from 10.45pm.