The Apprentice Final yesterday got 6million viewers, down from 9million who watched last years final. Why do you think the ratings were down so much this series compared to last year?

I think its cos the tasks were repetitive and the contestants werent entertaining enough. This is an entertainment show but there werent enough of the joke or funny contestants this year, nor were there any classic moments.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. There were no stand out characters this year and there were no big blunders that can easily be remembered from this series.

I enjoyed this series, but I'm a big Apprentice fan. To the casual viewer, I don't think the Apprentice this year was very interesting. Also, I imagine the format has got too boring now for a lot of people. It's the same thing every year and many of the mistakes in tasks have been made in previous years by bigger characters.

I think contestants making big mistakes in tasks has lost its funny appeal for a fair few viewers.

Um, I think people may have been busy celebrating the life of a certain old lady last night.

Aside from that, the ratings are about in line with Series 5 & 6 from what I've heard. Down on last year, but that one was REALLY successful by Apprentice standards.

As far as I can see the timing was completely different last year. So this year's final was shown during a bank holiday weekend and at half term, and during the jubilee celebrations, whilst last year's was on the Sunday of a normal working week. There were fewer people about yesterday to watch it.

I think the show is running out of steam,its becoming boring, repetitive and how many times do people want to hear the word 'strategy' over and over again? Also this isn't 'The Apprentice' anymore, there isn't a job here, Sugar wants a business partner. I thought it got a bit boring after Series 5 as Series 6 was totally forgettable to me, 7 was a bit more interesting, this series hasn't been very memorable at all.

Series 3 was the best!!!

Not surprised.

It was an abysmal series and none of the finalists particularly impressed me or endeared themselves to me.

Thor is my least favourite winner to date. Conceited so and so with the most boring business plan imaginable.

The fundamental flaw with this new format is that the weekly tasks have become meaningless (not to mention samey and predictable). We are basically watching a long drawn out version of Dragons Den.

Myself and a lot of friends stopped watching after the 4th or 5th task. It was just too samey, none of the contestants were THAT interesting or stood out and the format was exactly the same, for me it was a bit zzzZZZzz

I can see them making some changes next year if they want to keep viewer interested.

Also I don't know about anyone else, but it became obvious Ricky was going to win it from a few episodes back.

Honest question because I'm confused: How did you know it was obvious when you stopped watching it after the 4th or 5th task?


To the OP:
I think its a mixture of things and though the Jubilee etc did (I feel) play a large part in that downfall, I also feel that on the face of it this looked like a much less exciting F4 than the one in Series 7 (Jim to be demolished, people being more invested in their favourites etc). I'm not sure if that visible differential in the expected quality of the F4s is present in reality, I do think the illusion was there.

Why do they do the final on a Sunday? Why not keep it on Wednesday, I'm sure they would have got more viewers if they had done this.

I think the show has had its day. It needs revitalising. People are tired of the same old reality TV. Its the same with Big Brother, I'm a Celeb, Strictly, Dancing on Ice etc. They are all getting old now.

It was put on Bank Holiday Sunday, a big night for people going out.

The show also started 15-20 minutes late.

So it's no real surprise the ratings fell.

It's a show on the downwards curve. It's as simple as that.

It's still popular enough to squeeze another couple of series out of I reckon. The BBC will flog it to death, but after season 3 it's been a steady decline in quality.

Its got the Big Brother problem that the story is now unrelated to the outcome. It becomes a random survival course. The course tends to weed out the more novel candidates as Lord Sugar votes them out like a BB vote does. The contestants are a bit more savvy and avoid some issues, but the tasks now seem to produce marginal accidental or random wins and no quality results. No one stands out , and if they do and people back them they may go early for no real reason or fail at the end because someone hopeless hasa nail file.

its also made the decision whether to go for more dramatic/funny candidates to keep interest up more difficult. You now need serious business options at the end (though you don't seem to get them) so you have more serious candidates. You also have more small business people and none of the corporate high flyers who do well in the tasks they still set.

Its not clear where they should go. Dancing On Ice has similar problems and tried gimicks but still couldn't get some of its ablest contenders to their full potential - it lost viewers. Strictly Come Dancing added gimicks, failed to get the best out of its best people and often fails to get its best people to dull poor finals, but its still doing well. Do you concentrate on the atsks to get clearer outcomes, pick more exciting candidates with no ideas for the end, put more corporate people in so tasks work better, change the nature of the tasks so that publicity and sales count less than process and strategy, put more dullards in so Lord Sugar has to remove them before he removes the more televisual candidates?

But the problem with that is that the producers think that - and ohen change things supposedly to make them more exciting. Along the way you get twists that ruin the casting by taking out key people, loss of direction as people don't know if they are meant to be learning to dance or to entertain the voters, and people winning for nothing to do with what they have done on the show.

Arguably they would do better to stick to the original essentials - in this case good casting, the old job as a prize and well thought out tasks. You may be right that they need to change, but the same shows you list still seem to work best (and in viewing terms) when the casting is right and they produce a convincing winner - Kara Tointon and Stacey Solomon being good examples.Professional Masterchef is a good example too - the right casting and the old format with a few tweals with the judges judging the issue in hand produces probably their best series last year.

Having watched the Apprentice from the first series, I had viewer fatigue this year but my daughter who has come to watch it lately loves it.

Similar contestants, similar tasks, similar phrases, 110% do I want to win being the most common, same format, same as, same as.

Lord Sugar no longer makes them quake in their boots due to his over familiarity with the previous contestants. Margaret is sorely missed and Nick seems to have gone ga ga. Karen does speak out which I like.

I dont have a solution but something must change.

Spot on - simple as!

I think it also comes down to the fact that most viewers would prefer to see them doing tasks then being interviewed. I must admit I groaned when I read the final was just about interviews.

They should return to having the two finalists do a task aided by some of the former candidates.

I can't wait to see the clueless cartoon gobshites that get cast next year, emboldened by Ricky Martin's fake "journey" to victory and encouraged by the producers because everyone whined that this year's candidates were too "normal" and "boring". Should make Series 4 look like the G8 Summit.

I couldn't watch this year. Too similar characters to previous years - the winner being this year's Stuart Baggs - and exact same tasks. I gave up when they had to create and brand a new CONDIMENT sauce as opposed to last year (or previous year) when they had to create and brand a new PASTA sauce. I daresay next year they will have to create and design a new MAYONNAISE sauce.

Alan - same old script. Nick - same old frown. One team looks like they're streets ahead and hey presto the boardroom results - they lose.

Bank holiday weekend, people were out on the piss.

What are the ratings for the Wednesday shows like, also down 3 million like-for-like?

It was a crap series and probably the last I will watch.

Rubbish contestants and the final outcome really doesnt matter what you have done before, if you have the best business plan you will win.

Do we know for sure that all the fired candidates' business plans were worse than Ricky's?

It was a very dull series this year. I thought the tasks the candidates were given were samey and boring.

Series 5 final - 9,3 million viewers (increase of 600.000 on the first episode)

Series 6 final - 8,6 million viewers (increase of 1.000.000 viewers on the first episode)

I hate to say it but i think its had its day-Having the interviews as the final was awful this year as it seemed flat, none of the business ideas seemed much good to me and i wasn't bothered who won-Its needs a proper final or revert to its old format,the investment doesn't match up with the premise of the show, fine for the junior one but not the full series