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The Apprentice Ratings 2015


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Old 17-10-2015, 09:00
hownwbrowncow
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The first episode got 6.4m. Down on last year's equivalent, 6.7m.

The second episode got 5.52m. Down on last year's equivalent, 6.1m.

I'm not sure if these ratings are bad? To lose 800,000 viewers from one night to the other cannot be a good thing surely...
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Old 17-10-2015, 09:15
slouchingthatch
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The first episode got 6.4m. Down on last year's equivalent, 6.7m.

The second episode got 5.52m. Down on last year's equivalent, 6.1m.

I'm not sure if these ratings are bad? To lose 800,000 viewers from one night to the other cannot be a good thing surely...
I can't say I'm surprised by the slight decline - pretty typical for a long-running show. Still strong numbers, though.

I haven't checked whether the drop-off between episodes 1 and 2 is typical. I suspect it is. I certainly know of a few people who commented that they only knew there was a second episode on Thursday because I happened to mention it on Twitter. Odds are a few people missed it, or perhaps recorded it to watch later in the week. It wouldn't surprise if the final ratings between the two episodes end up being a bit closer.

As ever, probably not worth reading too much into two data points.
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Old 17-10-2015, 11:17
george.millman
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Of course, these days ratings don't mean as much as they once did, as a lot of the time people watch on iPlayer.
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Old 17-10-2015, 11:58
slouchingthatch
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Of course, these days ratings don't mean as much as they once did, as a lot of the time people watch on iPlayer.
Overnight (i.e. 'live') ratings certainly don't mean as much as they used to although they're often still indicative of a programme's overall performance. I'm not sure how The Apprentice does in terms of time-shifted viewing, but certainly Doctor Who and Top Gear have always been heavy hitters in terms of delayed viewing numbers - I forget the exact numbers but Who often adds as much as 20-25% once you add in time-shifting (which is kind of appropriate if you think about it!)

While the overnights obviously don't take into account iPlayer views, the consolidated ratings based on viewing up to 7 days after transmission do (as well as time-shifted viewing via Sky+ boxes and other PVRs). As a (very broad) rule of thumb, I wouldn't be surprised if the final figures for the first two episodes are at least 1 million more than the overnights, and very possibly more.

Also, I'm sure many people know this already, but viewing figures are based on a sample of viewers - if you're not part of the sample, your viewing doesn't count.
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Old 17-10-2015, 12:07
hownwbrowncow
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Overnight (i.e. 'live') ratings certainly don't mean as much as they used to although they're often still indicative of a programme's overall performance. I'm not sure how The Apprentice does in terms of time-shifted viewing, but certainly Doctor Who and Top Gear have always been heavy hitters in terms of delayed viewing numbers - I forget the exact numbers but Who often adds as much as 20-25% once you add in time-shifting (which is kind of appropriate if you think about it!)

While the overnights obviously don't take into account iPlayer views, the consolidated ratings based on viewing up to 7 days after transmission do (as well as time-shifted viewing via Sky+ boxes and other PVRs). As a (very broad) rule of thumb, I wouldn't be surprised if the final figures for the first two episodes are at least 1 million more than the overnights, and very possibly more.

Also, I'm sure many people know this already, but viewing figures are based on a sample of viewers - if you're not part of the sample, your viewing doesn't count.
The system is somewhat flawed tbh, with it just being a sample who are represented.

Last year's first episode gained 1.5m in the full ratings, and was the highest rated first episode since 2011, so it was never going to be easy to follow to be fair.
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Old 19-10-2015, 13:06
slouchingthatch
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The system is somewhat flawed tbh, with it just being a sample who are represented.

Last year's first episode gained 1.5m in the full ratings, and was the highest rated first episode since 2011, so it was never going to be easy to follow to be fair.
Using any sample is flawed, of course, but as long as the sample size is large enough (which it is) and, just as importantly, demographically representative, then the statistical margin of error is small.

The BARB household panel comprises over 5,000 households all of which are fitted with a black box that monitors their TV watching. A statsitician will be able to tell you what the confidence limits and intervals are for a sample of that size, but it's small - I think you can be 99% confident that the numbers are accurate to within plus or minus 2%, I think (that's plus or minus 20,000 per million viewers). Bear in mind that a sample of 5,000 is 4-5 times the size used for things like general election polls.

The only thing that could cause major sample error is if the sample is demographically representative of the UK as a whole - geography, ethnicity, age, income levels etc etc. Given that BARB have been running audience research for several decades and it's all done professionally, I don't think there's any reason to assume their sample is skewed. I know they review and revise the system every few years, with one of the most notable changes being the inclusion of first PVRs and more recently iPlayer views.

Of course, you could get a 100% accurate view of audience numbers by monitoring every TV set in the country, but that would require the consent of every person in the UK, require technology to be fitted to every TV set and computer and be both practically impossible and incredibly expensive too! So using a sample that is never realistically going to be out by more than 100,00 viewers works just fine.
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Old 20-10-2015, 20:43
boab34
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I don't find any of this year's lot appealing

maybe that's why ratings are down ...
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Old 22-10-2015, 14:44
Eric Estrada
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I don't find any of this year's lot appealing

maybe that's why ratings are down ...
This.

I was about 10 mins into episode 3 and just switched off. Won't be watching any more. This year is dire.

And I was really looking forward to the new series too
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Old 22-10-2015, 18:03
hownwbrowncow
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6.07m last night. Up 0.5m on Episode 2. Having an episode on a Thursday must have hurt them.
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Old 29-10-2015, 13:54
hownwbrowncow
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5.59m (25.8%).

500k down on last week. Oh dear.

The officials for the first 2 episodes are quite good though. On par with Series 8 and 9.
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Old 20-11-2015, 09:54
hownwbrowncow
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The Apprentice attracted 5.03m (21.7%) whilst clashing with IAC. Down 800k on last week.

Last year's NY episode which was also clashed with IAC's first week got 5.1m. So not too bad compared to last year.

But yeah the ratings really slumped last year while IAC was on and never really recovered. I wish they'd get The Apprentice back to the early Spring slot for the sake of ratings!
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Old 20-11-2015, 10:14
BigDaveX
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Not going to happen, by the looks of it. Considering they only just opened applications for Series 12, I think we can safely assume that the show's autumn placing is now permanent.
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Old 20-11-2015, 10:25
hownwbrowncow
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Not going to happen, by the looks of it. Considering they only just opened applications for Series 12, I think we can safely assume that the show's autumn placing is now permanent.
Yes, that's what I thought - unless Series 12 airs in Spring 2017, but I doubt it. All I can say is I'm happy there's going to be a twelfth series - really is getting into the big numbers now!
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Old 20-11-2015, 11:21
slouchingthatch
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Yes, that's what I thought - unless Series 12 airs in Spring 2017, but I doubt it. All I can say is I'm happy there's going to be a twelfth series - really is getting into the big numbers now!
Yep, if you work out the timeline, it's clear they probably won't finalise the candidates until after Christmas now. That points at filming in mid-to-late spring for, say, 7 weeks. And then there is the period between the interviews and the final/actual result, during which the real due diligence is done on the finalists' business plans (as opposed to the largely cosmetic grilling they get at interviews) - I'm never sure exactly how long this is but it seems to be 3-5 months. I don't see how the production timeline can be shortened significantly. So, autumn 2016 it is, then.

Complex production as The Apprentice is, it's hard to see how they could break out of the 12-month cycle again, short of overlapping one year's process with the next, which requires more production resource - and at this stage of the series's life-span, that's not going to happen.

Out of interest, as is common with many series, we're now getting to the point where finalisation of each episode is now getting very close to the transmission date. The preview screeners I get every Friday are less and less complete now. So episode 7, for instance, was missing Mark Halliley's voiceover, both the previously and next time segments, the end credits and unfinished sound/incidental music - it's what's known as a 'picture-locked' version. The final broadcast version is probably only being delivered to the BBC just a handful of days in advance.
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Old 27-11-2015, 09:40
hownwbrowncow
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4.95m for Wednesday's episode (Party Planners). Surely this is one of the worst overnight ratings of recent times for The Apprentice? It was over 2m behind IAC. This is why The Apprentice doesn't work at this time of year!
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Old 27-11-2015, 14:11
hownwbrowncow
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7.57m official for the Handy Man task. Gained 1.75m throughout the week. I am concerned about how it will do in the officials since the clashes with IAC have started.
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Old 27-11-2015, 15:03
Dan R
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7.57m official for the Handy Man task. Gained 1.75m throughout the week. I am concerned about how it will do in the officials since the clashes with IAC have started.
It will do just like it did last year, possibly being up YOY as timeshifts in general TV are up and the overnight was pretty level last week.
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Old 30-11-2015, 17:05
hownwbrowncow
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An official of 6.97m for Episode 7. Sixth on BBC One that week. Not so bad I guess, considering IAC's officals for the week are pretty much all between 7m and 8m.

Perhaps being overly optimistic but it looks like TA actually might hold up quite well against IAC this year compared to last year.
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Old 03-12-2015, 17:17
hownwbrowncow
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4.57m overnight for Episode 9. Series low, unfortunately. Shame it was against Lady C quitting on IAC!
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Old 07-12-2015, 14:03
hownwbrowncow
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6.65m official for Episode 8. #6 on BBC One that week.
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Old 07-12-2015, 14:05
hownwbrowncow
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Perhaps it's unfair to compare when we only have the officials for 8 out of 12 episodes, but the series average is now 7.32 - the lowest since Series 4.
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Old 08-12-2015, 10:45
Dan R
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There will be a big jump this week with no IAC, maybe 6+ million again hopefully.
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Old 08-12-2015, 10:48
Dan R
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Shame about the IAC thing because otherwise I think the autumn/winter slot works well. Maybe put it at 8pm for those few (3) weeks next year?
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Old 08-12-2015, 11:01
Johnny_Cash
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Its probably the worst season this season, but not bad enough to cancel.
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Old 10-12-2015, 20:19
hownwbrowncow
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"The Apprentice recruited 5.3m (24.6%) over the 9pm hour - its biggest audience in four weeks and a slot-winning performance"

Not bad I guess.
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