Statistics By Season
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of The Apprentice on NBC.
Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.
| Season | Winner | Winner's Project | Timeslot | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Ranking | Viewers (in millions) |
Finale Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Rancic | Trump Tower Chicago | Thursday 9:00PM | January 8, 2004 | April 15, 2004 | 2003-04 | 7 | 20.7 | 28.1 |
| 2 | Kelly Perdew | Trump Place | September 9, 2004 | December 16, 2004 | 2004-05 | 11 | 16.1 | 16.9 | |
| 3 | Kendra Todd | Palm Beach Mansion | January 20, 2005 | May 19, 2005 | 15 | 14.0 | 14.0 | ||
| 4 | Randal Pinkett | Trump Entertainment | September 22, 2005 | December 15, 2005 | 2005-06 | 38 | 11.0 | 12.8 | |
| 5 | Sean Yazbeck | Trump Soho | Monday 9:00PM | February 27, 2006 | June 5, 2006 | 51 | 9.7 | 11.3 | |
| 6 | Stefani Schaeffer | Cap Cana | Sunday 10:00PM | January 7, 2007 | April 22, 2007 | 2006-07 | 75 | 7.5 | 10.6 |
| 10 | Brandy Kuentzel | N/A | Thursday 10:00PM | September 16, 2010 | December 9, 2010 | 2010-11 | 113 | 4.7 | 4.5 |
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- (Note: Given the show has a sequel TV series known as Celebrity Apprentice, the above chart is continued on the article of the show's follow-up TV series, found under "statistics by season" for Celebrity Apprentice. Note as well that season 10 is included in the above chart given the show reverted back to The Apprentice for that season)
The Apprentice was the breakout rookie hit of the 2003–04 U.S. television season and helped NBC at a time when the network's two long-running successful comedies, Friends and Frasier, were ending their series' runs. The Apprentice filled the void on Thursday nights as NBC held on to the tagline Must See TV, even though CBS was quickly becoming the most-watched network on Thursday night.
Although the series is still one of the most-watched programs on NBC in the advertiser-friendly 18–49 age demographic, the franchise's total audience gradually dissolved, starting in late 2004, when it aired its second season that culminated in, what most Apprentice fans deem, an "overextended" 3-hour season finale on December 16, 2004.
The audience numbers (11.25 million viewers) for the June 5, 2006 fifth season finale were not factored in the fifth season average because it aired after the official television season ended.
The audience numbers for the show have still remained on the decline since its first season. Originally, NBC aired the sixth season of The Apprentice, competing against both immensely popular series, Desperate Housewives and Cold Case, just a few weeks before competing against Brothers & Sisters and Cold Case.
Read more about this topic: The Apprentice (U.S. TV Series)
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