The Apprentice dominated its timeslot on its return but fell short of last year's premiere numbers, according to overnight data.
Series eight of the BBC One reality show opened with 6.42m (25.9%) in the 9pm hour. Last year, the premiere took 7.8m.
The Apprentice: You're Fired! was also down compared to the previous year. The BBC Two spinoff appealed to 1.99m (10.2%) from 10pm - in 2011, it began with 2.84m.
BBC also showed The Fisherman's Apprentice with Monty Halls (1.7m/7.2%) and Wikileaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower (652k/2.6%).
On ITV1, a two-hour instalment of Midsomer Murders averaged 4.43m (18.3%), with an additional 242k (1.2%) on timeshift.
Channel 4's Four Rooms managed 1.35m (5.7%) from 8pm (+1: 165k/0.7%), with One Born Every Minute getting 2.56m (10.3%) from 9pm (+1: 410k/2.4%).
On Channel 5, Big Body Squad took 1.07m (4.5%), NCIS had 1.41m (5.7%) from 9pm (+1: 136k/0.8%) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent was watched by 995k (5.7%).
Overall, BBC One comfortably won primetime with 24.7%, ahead of ITV1's 17.1% (+1: 0.8%). Channel 4 followed with 6.3% (+1: 1.1%) beating BBC Two's 5.5% and Channel 5's 4.7% (+1: 0.2%).
On the multichannels, The Secret Circle and Grey's Anatomy drew 205k (0.9%) and 134k (0.8%) respectively on Sky Living.
