Who will get the most viewers on the three occasions when BB is up against our beloved Apprentice? If it’s BB Launch Night v Apprentice, I’ll watch BB. If it’s a regular show on, I’ll watch The Apprentice.

I think BB will rob The Apprentice of viewers. Any other thoughts?

agree totally. I am going to the launch night so there is no way i can watch the apprentice........our vid recorder is broken so i will have to see tuesdays repeat BUT ill probably lose control of my hands and they will find out who has been fired by looking at the website

Hang on.......if i can do maths..............

This Wednesday: 7 left

Next Wednesday: 6 left

God its happening quickly so the finale is on 13th June.....not bad and my FAVE TWO are still remaining....Jadine and Kristina

Well I think it will move to 10pm this year. Channel 4 clearly preferred this towards the end. Was celeb on at 9 or 10? forgotten already. So it'd be just the launch night, that's if of course heat is correct.

BB Launch probably would win, if it's up against the show with a normal highlights, apprentice probably would win, because people would forgo big brother for one night

And I don't know if you know, but this year's celeb version, you were able to watch the highlights on 4OD for free, I assume they'll be doing the same this year

I'll be watching the apprentice. Either way they will both be repeated at some point.

Channel 4 are going to launch BB on a Thursday night (31 May) like last year. I hope they put BB on at 10. It was better to have it on then, rather than intruding into the regular schedule.

Sadly, I can't see this happening. By the time BB starts, ER and Desperate Houswives will still be on, occuping the 10 o'clock slot and they won't move them back to 9, so I can see it being a mish-mash of 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock nights again this year.

Going back to the original quesiton, I can see the Apprentice winning hands down. A regular highlights show normally gets about four million, so it won't really challenge the Apprentice.

I like both. I'd watch the Big Brother launch night and catch The Apprentice repeat if they clashed, but on other occasions I'd choose The Apprentice over Big Brother. There's just so much of Big Brother, and if a housemate boils a particularly interesting-looking egg, or makes a mildly amusing comment, I'll be able to see the web clips and read all the details from a thousand viewpoints here on Digital Spy.

No contest, Apprentice, BB is about 3 series past its sell by date.

The problem with C4 is that they put really good US imports later than earlier. ER did very well on Wednesdays at 9pm, so why can't it be like that anymore, and move Desperate Housewives on, maybe, Sundays at 9pm.
BB does better at 10pm, so there won't be any competition.

But it still astonishes viewers and critics alike. By now, ratings were tipped at being 50% down, yet in 2006, its ratings were 100,000 viewers up on the previous year.
You have to consider that both of them are aimed at different audiences - business and social. Yet both shows have something in common - editing and tension.
Plus, you also have to accept the fact that we are comparing BBC1 to Channel 4. Of course BBC1's share will be higher than C4's anyday (except on special occasion like The Ashes, Friends, BB3 final). BBC1 is more mainstream, and The Apprentice is shown once a week, yet BB is on a less mainstream channel, shown every day of the week. But, BB gets more press coverage.

It's a hard one.

big bro u can catch up on so apprentice ppl will stick with it, we will lose the ppl who choose to watch a prog without sticking to whole series who just watch random episodes

Even though i mostly post in the BB thread , i want The Apprentice to win

No problem. I'll watch a live BB and catch up on The Apprentice on TV Catch-up courtesy of Virgin Media. I do have a problem though with the final of The Apprentice, assuming it's 13th June, I'm going to France for a week on that day. Will just have to try not to hear about the winner, having set up for it to be recorded before I leave.

Easy. For BB fans who like The Apprentice, they can always watch the repeat on Tuesdays on BBC Two, so you can watch the whole of BB8.

But, it wouldn't feel the same, especially with Tre's swearing.

That sounds good in theory.

In practice, however, you'd have an impossible job avoiding news of who'd been fired on the Apprentice for 6 whole days.

I'm a big BB fan but I'll watch The Apprentice.

Definitely The Apprentice. BB gets way too much coverage so I think people would rather miss an hour of BB than an hour of The Apprentice.

I prefer watching Apprentice but like to gossip about BB

Oh god, I have just lost the will to live. I thought I had found people of a similar ilk who enjoy the cut and thrust of the Apprentice (whilst acknowledging it is in essense a reality show), but that's all gone knowing that you would rather watch the opening of BB (a bunch of pond life lazing around doing nothing remotely taxing or interesting). No wonder you're all up in arms about Katie, you really are from different worlds.

So, because a few people have said that they'd rather watch Big Brother than The Apprentice, you've lost the will to live? Sounds a bit drastic dont you think?

I'm taping the Apprentice instead and watching the opening of Big Brother. It's what the video recorders for, so I'm gonna put it to good use.

I suppose the point I am trying to make is - why would anyone want to watch BB? As I say pond life lazing around doing nothing.

I watch it because I find it interesting. Quite the contrary to what you've said but meh, everyone's entitled to say what they like (not trying to sound cocky there by the way).

As for who will win the ratings war between BB and The Apprentice, I have a feeling that it'll be BB, seeing that it's always Channel 4's biggest ratings success. Not by much though.

the BB launch show goes up against the apprentice 2 weeks from now, BB will definitely win then

It looks like the BB highlights are moving to 10pm too, so that will be the onlt time they clash

I'm doing the same.

I'm pretty sure BB will win on launch night, it always pulls in a lot of viewers on the opening night.

In response to another FM, at least I have variety!