NBC's two-hour premiere of The Apprentice, which featured civilian competitors, took a hard fall last night, with it drawing just 4.7 million viewers and a preliminary 1.5/5 with adults 18-49. Those numbers are down 53% from March's Celebrity Apprentice premiere and 44% below the Thursday (Sept. 17, 2009) premiere of The Jay Leno Show last year. Last night's debut also marks The Apprentice's lowest-rated premiere and episode in its history.
On The CW, both The Vampire Diaries and freshman series Nikita fell from last week's premieres, down 13% to a 1.4/5 and 14% to a 1.2/4 respectively in the key adults demo.
Despite a night of repeats, CBS won Thursday night thanks to a Big Bang Theory "marathon" that earned the net an overall 2.2/7 rating/share with adults 18-49 and 7.9 million viewers.
Fox and ABC aired repeats.
