The Apprentice: Series launch down 900,000 viewers

The Apprentice is being broadcast on Thursday nights this year

The new series of The Apprentice opened with 900,000 fewer viewers than last year's launch, overnight ratings show.

Thursday evening's opening episode on BBC One attracted an average of 5.5 million viewers, a 26.3% share of the available viewing audience.

The launch of last year's series attracted an average of 6.4 million.

The show, which sees Lord Sugar hunt for a new business idea to invest in, has moved from Wednesday to Thursday nights this year.

It was still the evening's most-watched programme, narrowly beating Emmerdale on ITV, which attracted 5.4 million to the first of its two Thursday evening episodes.

The figures are for the number of viewers watching the programme live and do not take into account those watching via catch-up services after broadcast.

Karren Brady and Claude Littner join Lord Sugar in the new series

The number of viewers watching this year's opening episode was still significantly higher than the first two series, which aired on BBC Two.

It also beat 4.5 million viewers who watched the 2007 series launch - the first time the show was broadcast on BBC One.

The highest rating opening episode in the show's history was in 2009, when an average of 8.1 million viewers watched the fifth series begin.

'Processed entertainment'

The episode received negative reviews from many critics.

Christopher Stevens gave the episode one star in his review for The Daily Mail.

"This isn't real television, it's processed entertainment churned out by soulless production machinery, all empty calories and pap," he wrote.

The launch episode was Thursday evening's most-watched programme

The Guardian's Sam Wollaston said: "I know it still does very well, because it is still undeniably entertaining, but that doesn't mean it's still interesting."

Describing the challenge the candidates had to undertake in the episode, he said: "Bargain Hunt, basically. Here's some stuff, sell it, you win, don't sell it, you're fired. Same old. The tasks could do with some refreshing."

But Chris Bennion in The Times said: "While The Apprentice remains cosmetically identical to previous years, it returns bolshier than ever.

"The Apprentice remains the most grimly watchable schadenfreude in the land. Long may it stand firm."

The contestants were split into teams of men and women in the opening episode

Last week, Lord Sugar called for a new spin-off show which would chart the progress of previous winners of The Apprentice.

Speaking about some of the show's past winners, he said: "They've turned into great business people."

He added: "I think the BBC need to do something about that. They need to do a programme, for example, on where they are now."