[Cody™]

The finale of BBC1's The Apprentice drew an audience of 6.8m (27.4%) at 9pm as Channel 4's Big Brother struggled with just 2.1m (8.5%). But it was ITV1's blockbuster Britain's Got Talent which streaked ahead as its audience surged to 7.9m (33.9%) at 10pm.

The Apprentice was the most watched episode of the 12 part series and hit a peak of 7.4m (29%) in the final 15 minutes as Simon Ambrose was declared the winner.

Over the entire run The Apprentice has averaged a sizeable 5.5m (22.6%).

BBC2 also benefited as its spin-off show The Apprentice: You're Hired! gained an impressive 4.2m (18.4%) for half an hour.

While BBC1's The Apprentice was on air it was level-pegging with ITV1's Britain's Got Talent which over 90-minutes managed to average 7.1m (29.2%).

With both the two main channels performing strongly C4's reality show Big Brother suffered badly at 9pm with the 60-minute update of events bringing in just 2.1m (8.5%), the fifth lowest ever audience for a peaktime edition of the show.

C4's slot average for the year so far is 3.8m (16.4%).

The audience size will be particularly embarrassing for the broadcaster as Big Brother has been C4's consistently most popular show in recent years. Last night's edition also found itself in the embarrassing position of being easily outclassed by a natural history programme on BBC2.

The final edition of Natural World, which looked at the countryside along the river Wye, brought in 3.1m (12.6%) over 50-minutes. The ensuing 10-minute short The Rabbits of Skomer took 2.8m (11.2%).

Five's film Exit Wounds trailed the terrestrial pack with 1.5m (6.9%).

Snakes and ladders

To rub salt into Big Brother's wounds the channel's repeat of an episode of Property Ladder in the earlier slot of 8pm had more viewers than the reality show with 2.4m (10.5%).

Once again though C4 lost out to BBC2 which continued its Springwatch series. The corporation's 60-minute show, hosted by Bill Oddie and Kate Humble, gained a strong 3.6m (15.9%).

Top of the 8pm heap was The Bill on 5.6m (25%), comfortably ahead of BBC1's Traffic Cops on 5m (21.9%). Five struggled on 298,000 (1.2%) for Families at War.

All hours shares for Wednesday 13 June 2007: ITV1 – 23.2%, BBC1 – 22.4%, BBC2 – 9.6%, C4 – 8.6%, Five 4.8%, multichannel – 31.4%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 29.5%, BBC1 – 23.3%, BBC2 – 11.7%, C4 – 8.1%, Five – 4%, multichannel – 23.3%.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/broadc...StoryID=169526