Lord Alan Sugar's reality show was seen by 6.22m (26.4%) in the 9pm hour. 2.29m (12%) turned to BBC Two to catch the You're Fired! spinoff afterwards.
The Apprentice was preceded by DIY SOS: The Big Build (4.07m/20%), while ITV1's Lewis took 5m (22.6%) across two hours from 8pm (+1: 330k/1.6%).
Elsewhere on BBC Two, the 2012 Chelsea Flower Show attracted 1.63m (8%) and Hitler's Children was watched by 1.36m (5.8%).
Channel 4's Secret Eaters was seen by 1.26m (6.2%) and 164k (0.7%) on timeshift. It was followed by 24 Hours in A&E, which grabbed 1.96m (8.3%) from 9pm (+1: 365k/2.1%), and the US version of The Killing, which managed 382k (2.2%).
NCIS continued with 1.18m (5%) on Channel 5 (+1: 144k/0.9%), and Emergency Bikers preceded it with 719k (3.6%).
Overall, BBC One secured primetime victory with 21.8%, beating ITV1's 20.6% (+1: 1.1%). BBC Two came third with 7.7% ahead of Channel 4's 5.4% (+1: 1%) and Channel 5's 4% (+1: 0.3%).
On the multichannels, The Only Way Is Essex took 920k (5.1%) on ITV2 with an additional 267k on timeshift. Peter Andre: My Life had 640k earlier (+1: 197k/1.2%).
Justified and Archer averaged 102k (0.4%) and 52k (0.5%) on 5USA and 5* respectively, and Grey's Anatomy appealed to 209k (1.2%) on Sky Living.
