The Apprentice (British TV series)

Alan Sugar and Series 9 winner, Dr Leah Totton

The Apprentice is an British business-themed reality television show. Each series, a group of young entrepreneurs compete to win a £250,000 investment in their business plans from billionaire businessman and member of the House of Lords, Alan Sugar.

Game

A group of contestants compete in several business-themed challenges over multiple weeks. They are split into two teams for each challenge. The challenges usually involve advertising, product design, negotiations, and selling to the public. Each team chooses a leader ("project manager") to make important decisions. After the teams have completed the challenge, they go to Lord Sugar's boardroom, where the results of the challenge are announced. The winning team is usually rewarded with a prize while the losing team must stay in the boardroom and discuss with Lord Sugar and his two assistants, Karren Brady and Tim Campbell, about why they think the team failed. Lord Sugar will then eliminate the person (or people) who he thinks either caused the team's failure or is the weakest contestant by saying "you are fired".

The team challenges come to an end when there is only five contestants left (or four in some series). These remaining contestants are interviewed by a team of Lord Sugar's advisers. In the first six series, the interviews were about the contestants' potential to get a job at one of Lord Sugar's businesses. Since series 7, the interviews have been about the contestants' business ideas that they want Lord Sugar's money for. After the interviews stage, only two contestants remain. These contestants are given a final challenge (since series 7, it has been to advertise their business) with the help of some former eliminated contestants. After the final challenge, Lord Sugar decides the winner.

In series 4, four contestants survived the interviews because Lord Sugar was impressed with more than two. For the final, the finalists competed in teams of two in the challenge. Lord Sugar picked the winner from the winning two. In series 7, the interviews stage was the final challenge. In series 13, Lord Sugar picked two winners.

Overview

Main series

Series	Year	Winner	Contestants	Episodes	Specials	Average viewers per episode (In millions)
1	2005	Tim Campbell	14	12	2	2.60
2	2006	Michelle Dewberry			0	4.43
3	2007	Simon Ambrose	16		2	5.62
4	2008	Lee McQueen			4	7.29
5	2009	Yasmina Siadatan			2	8.37
6	2010	Stella English				7.87
7	2011	Tom Pellereau				8.80
8	2012	Ricky Martin				7.35
9	2013	Leah Totton				7.34
10	2014	Mark Wright	20			7.40
11	2015	Joseph Valente	18			7.33
12	2016	Alana Spencer				7.28
13	2017	James White				6.94
		Sarah Lynn
14	2018	Sian Gabbidon	16			7.32
15	2019	Carina Lepore				7.17
16	2022	Harpreet Kaur				7.09
17	2023	Marnie Swindells	18		0	6.54
18	2024	Rachel Woolford				6.01
19	2025	Dean Franklin				5.63
20	2026	TBA	20			TBA

Spin-off series

The Apprentice: You're Fired!

The Apprentice: You're Fired was a talk show which airs directly after each episode of the main show. The presenter, usually accompanied by well-known television personalities, interview the contestant(s) who has been fired in the most recent episode.

Celebrity Apprentice

Unlike the American version of the show, the British Celebrity Apprentice seasons has two teams competing in only one special task, which is spread across two episodes. All money is donated to Comic Relief. These special episodes have been released in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2019, and 2025.

Young Apprentice

Young Apprentice, first titled as Junior Apprentice, was a spin-off series which ran between 2010 and 2012. It had a similar format to the original show, with the winner having £25,000 invested in their future.

Year	Title	Winner	Contestants	Challenges	Host	Advisors
2010	Junior Apprentice	Arjun Rajyagor	10	6	Alan Sugar	Karren Brady	Nick Hewer
2011	Young Apprentice	Zara Brownless	12	8
2012		Ashleigh Porter-Exley

Other websites

• The Apprentice on IMDb