Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” just keeps falling. The show, which has lost more than half of its audience over the past two years, ended its fifth season with a series-low finale yesterday despite airing against relatively little competition.

The 90-minute show starting at 9:30 p.m. averaged a 4.4 overnight rating among adults 18-49, 23 percent worse than the 5.7 for last season’s ender in December. It was the lowest-rated “Apprentice” finale ever, and was down 28 percent from a 6.1 for the third-season ender last year.

NBC held back the season finales of “Deal or No Deal” and “Apprentice” until nearly two weeks after May sweeps ended, hoping to build big audiences for them against light competition.

The approach worked for “Deal,” which tied a series high with a 5.5 in 18-49s and drew a series-best 18 million total viewers. But “Apprentice” fumbled much of “Deal’s” big audience.

“Deal” averaged a 6.7 in its final half hour at 9 p.m. “Apprentice” fell 36 percent, to a 4.3, at 9:30 p.m.

Sean Yazbeck won the competition, which has been sinking ever since monster numbers for the first edition two years ago, when it aired on NBC’s then-powerful Thursday night. Certainly a good part of its decline is because it no longer airs in the strong Thursday slot, but there’s also been some backlash against The Donald himself.

NBC has wisely put the show on hold for next year, when it won’t return until midseason.

One show that did have a big send-off last night was “Everwood,” the WB’s now-canceled drama. It averaged 4 million viewers for its finale, 11 percent better than its season average of 3.6 million.

Even with “Apprentice” down, NBC easily won the night with a 4.9 average rating and 14 share in 18-49s. CBS was second at 2.6/8, Fox third at 1.8/5, ABC fourth at 1.6/5, the WB fifth at 1.5/4, Univision sixth at 1.4/4, and UPN seventh at 0.8/3.

NBC led at 8 p.m. with a 4.9 for the first hour of “Deal,” followed by CBS’s “King of Queens” (2.1) and “How I Met Your Mother (1.9) at a combined 2.0. ABC was third with a 1.9 for “Wife Swap,” Fox fourth with a 1.5 for the first hour of “Rush Hour 2,” Univision fifth at 1.6, the WB sixth with a 1.4 for “Everwood,” and UPN last with a 0.7 for “One on One” (0.7) and “All of Us” (0.8).

At 9 p.m., NBC led with a 5.5 for “Deal” and “Apprentice,” followed by CBS’s 2.4 for “Two and a Half Men” (2.4) and “New Adventures of Old Christine” (2.5), Fox’s 2.1 for “Rush,” WB’s 1.7 for “Everwood,” ABC’s 1.6 for a “George Lopez” repeat and the first half hour of the “2006 ALMA Awards,” and Univision with a 1.5.

At 10 p.m., NBC led with “Apprentice’s” 4.4, followed by a 3.4 for CBS’s “CSI: Miami” and a 1.5 for ABC’s “ALMA.” Univision averaged a 1.1.

Among households, NBC led with a 9.1/15, followed by CBS at 5.9/10, ABC at 3.1/5, Fox at 3.0/5, WB at 2.6/4, Univision at 1.8/3 and UPN at 1.3/2.

Nielsen also issued national ratings for Sunday night, after a processing glitch delayed the release of overnight ratings yesterday. ABC won the night with a 2.4 average rating in 18-49s and 7 share, followed by Fox at 2.1/6, CBS at 2.0/6, NBC at 1.8/5 and the WB at 0.6/2.

ABC led at 7 p.m. with “America’s Funniest Home Videos” at 1.9, followed by “Dateline” on NBC at 1.7, CBS’s “60 Minutes” at 1.5, Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle” and “King of the Hill” at 1.4, and the WB’s “Reba: Beginnings” at 0.7.

At 8 p.m. Fox led with a 2.5 for “The Simpsons” (2.8) and “War at Home (2.1). ABC was second with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” at 2.3, followed by CBS’s “Cold Case” at 1.9, NBC’s “Dateline” at 1.7, and the WB’s “Charmed” at 0.6.

At 9 p.m., Fox’s “Family Guy” (2.7) and “American Dad” (2.3) led, followed by a “Desperate Housewives” repeat on ABC tied with the first hour of “Ocean’s Eleven” on CBS at 2.4, NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” at 1.9, and WB’s “Charmed” at 0.6.

At 10 p.m., ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” led with a 2.8, followed by a 2.4 for “Eleven” and a 2.0 for NBC’s “Crossing Jordan.”

Among households, CBS led the night at 5.5/10, followed by NBC at 5.4/9, ABC at 3.8/7, Fox at 2.8/5 and the WB at 1.0/2.