The Apprentice and its spinoff gained their largest audiences of the series so far last night.

The shows continued an upwards trend with the flagship show attracting 7m viewers, 30.2% of the audience, on BBC One at 9pm. Four episodes in, the series is on a 6.6m (27.2%) average.

The Apprentice: You're Fired!, which followed on BBC Two at 10pm, won 3.3m (16.1%) viewers - 700,000 up on last week. Even Newsnight appeared to take a lead-in boost from the show, recording its largest audience of the year of 1.4m (9.6%).

The competition was squarely beaten in the 9pm hour. ITV's Rock Rivals, on 2.2m (9.7%), led Channel 4 by just 7,000 viewers. The latter's Child Genius drew 2.2m (9.6%) at 9pm.

BBC Two documentary Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture attracted 1.9m (8.2%) while Five's Indiana Jones: the True Story interested 1.4m (5.8%).

Despite good ratings for You're Fired!, BBC One led the 10pm hour with The 10 O'Clock News. ITV1's News at Ten drew 1.9m (9.3%) to take joint third place with Desperate Housewives on Channel 4. Sniper, the film on Five, attracted 1.1m (7.9%) from 10pm.

> Click here to read Digital Spy's interview with the latest fired candidate