'Apprentice' holds up against Soap Awards

The audience for The Apprentice held up on Wednesday despite a reasonable turnout for coverage of The British Soap Awards.

The ceremony was watched by an average of 6m (27.5%) on ITV1 from 8pm, exceeding the slot average of 5.2m (22.7%).

However, the figure continued the steady fall in viewers for the Soap Awards since 2001. Last year's show was watched by 6.3m (26.6%).

The coverage also failed to have a visible effect on BBC One's The Apprentice, which began at 9pm. This week's episode was watched by 6.8m (29.2%) - the same number as last week. Between 9pm and 10pm ITV's awards coverage was down to 5.8m (24.8%) viewers.

Elsewhere at 9pm, Channel 4's Grand Designs Live was watched by 1.4m (5.8%) and BBC Two's Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture averaged 1.3m (5.7%). On Five, Al Capone and the Untouchables, a documentary in the True Story strand, interested 1.1m (4.8%).

> British Soap Awards 2008 winners