Well even with that in mind, if something was being considered to be axed for low ratings, why on Earth would you put it in a slot that is pretty much guaranteed to reduce them even further?

Because they wanted to use the 9pm timeslots for shows that had more potential most probably.

The 9pm time slots initially had Hunted, which hasn't broadcast since, then Goodnight Britain, which has been repeated but hasn't had a new series, then Panorama which has a long committed following anyway, and finally a Christmas special episode of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, which was a one-off in any case. Doesn't seem like 'shows that have potential' to me.

Well it was the BBC;s call to make. Ultimately, the Series 3 ratings weren't much worse than the Series 2 ratings, suggesting to me that it wasn't the time of airing that was an issue, it was just that not many people were interested.

I think that there should have been more publicity around it. People should have been made more aware of what it actually was all about. I have had a lot of people say to me that they aren't interested in the young series, only for me to show them a series and for them to completely eat their words. I think people assume it's going to be like Beat the Boss on CBBC - ten and eleven year olds doing very elementary tasks and Sugar doing the soft-soap act, and it wasn't like that at all.

The first two series got plenty of publicity I thought? Particularly JA, which had a trailer, etc, so I am not sure what more they could have done in the case of JA, without exceeding what they do for the main series.

I think JA was a little bit more recognised at the start to what it became though. I suppose that may not have equated to viewers, but then I think sometimes these things need time to find their feet. The main Apprentice series did - in the early years, it wasn't as known as it became.

Well, TBF, The Apprentice not only had a proven track record in the USA, also it was on BBC, so it was never going to get that high ratings in the early stages, and also, I'm sure it didn't get much publicity...

Series 1 and 2 were actually on BBC2, though they got pretty high ratings for that channel. Series 3, which moved to BBC1, also did quite well. But as for when the show really hit it big and became a national phenomenon - and I know this is going to cause a lot of gnashing of teeth with some people - that was Series 4.

Yeah, I meant to say BBC2 Basically, the main series was always going to be more successful than YA and the ratings show us that...

And you're right Dave, Series 4 adn 5 were the ones in which the ratings really got high... They ducked a buit for Series 6 but that's probably because there's a lot more competition in the Autumn.

I would say Katie Hopkins probably had a lot to do with that. She became a big media personality as a result of Series 3, and I imagine made The Apprentice a lot more noticeable as a result, and got people back for the next series.

If I had never seen TA before, adn I saw an interview with Katie Hopkins on TV, there's no way that would make me watch the show, so I don't think that's the reason. I just think it's because the show was picking up viewers with each series.

But I imagine a lot of the stuff that went on with her got the programme loads of media publicity. It's the same as when big things happen on Big Brother.

Hopkins probably did help get the show some publicity... but then again, I'd expect that Ruth Badger, the disaster that was the French task and then Simon and his trampoline all helped out as well. It was probably a case of the show getting more and more media attention over the course of Series 2 and 3, and then the start of Series 4 turning out to be when it all hit critical mass.

Was trawling through old threads, and found this article:

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-...-may-quit-soon



Do you think Nick was just looking for a headline?

I'm not entirely sure, but I think Lord Sugar may have suggested that Nick is incorret about this on Twitter. I seem to remember reading something about that, though I may have made that up. Can anyone confirm what I'm thinking?

On the plus side it's only about 3 months now until Apprentice season