The Apprentice | |
---|---|
Series 10 | |
Starring | |
No. of episodes | 14 |
Release | |
Original network | BBC One |
Original release | 14 October – 21 December 2014 |
Series chronology |
The tenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 14 October to 21 December 2014; [1] due to live coverage in Summer of that year for both the FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until Autumn to avoid clashing with these. [2] It is the last series to feature Nick Hewer as Alan Sugar's aide, who left the programme following the series finale, with the tenth series featuring a guest appearance from Ricky Martin, winner of the eighth series, as an interviewer for the Interviews Stage for this series only.
Production on the tenth series included two prominent tasks traditionally used in the show's format being specially designed towards celebrating The Apprentice's tenth year of broadcast. In addition, other tasks featured a more varied arrangement of challenges that included some being geared towards the technology industry. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, with the first two aired within a day of each other, the series featured two specials before its premiere – "Meet the Candidates", made available online only on 7 October; and "Ten Years of The Apprentice" on 13 October – and two specials aired alongside this series – "The Final Five" on 16 December; and "Why I Fired Them" on 18 December
Marking the programme's tenth series, production staff selected twenty candidates to take part, the highest number to be involved in any variation of The Apprentice globally, with Mark Wright becoming the overall winner. Excluding specials, the series averaged around 7.40 million viewers during its broadcast.
Applications for the tenth series began in Spring 2013, towards the end of the ninth series' broadcast, with the selection process of auditions, assessments and interviews held within mid-Summer of that year. As The Apprentice was now entering its tenth year, production staff and Alan Sugar discussed how to celebrate this milestone before filming would begin, opting on a few key decisions. One such decision was on the design of the tasks; apart from creating more variety in these than in the previous series – some focused on technology and another aimed at dividing teams to work both within the UK and abroad – two traditional tasks – the first sales task, and the bargain-hunting task – were designed around celebrating the programme's milestone, featuring the involvement of items that had been sold within these tasks. However, the more key decision agreed upon was on the number of candidates that would take part in the series. While the production staff selected sixteen candidates, as had been done in the past since the third series, they were kept unaware that a further four applicants had also been selected to take part, until filming for the series began. The decision to increase the number of candidates meant that Sugar was required to perform more multiple firings than before, allowing for the series to include a triple firing outside of the Interviews stage, the first time in the programme's history that this occurred, though reaction from fans was mixed over this decision during the series' broadcast.
During filming, Nick Hewer began to contemplate his future on the programme, after finding the strain on his stamina becoming increasingly difficult to cope with from the amount of work he had do on and off-camera. Alongside other commitments, including his new role as host of Channel 4 's Countdown, he eventually decided that the tenth series would be his last on The Apprentice, revealing his decision towards the end of the tenth series' broadcast, with it fully confirmed by Sugar on social media and the You're Fired half of the series finale. [3] [ non-primary source needed ] [4] Apart from Hewer, Margaret Mountford decided that, after working as an interviewer for the past four series, she would not be returning, leading to Sugar inviting Ricky Martin to interviewing candidates who made it to the Interviews stage.
Prior to filming being completed and editing finalised, the BBC found that it could not place the tenth series in its Spring 2014 schedule because of live coverage of two major sporting events in that year – FIFA World Cup and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As a result, it was forced to have episodes aired in Autumn to where it could have less competition for viewing figures, with Sugar confirming this decision during October 2013. [2] To accommodate the final edit of the tenth series, the premiere was preceded by a special, entitled "Ten Years of The Apprentice", which was focused on highlights from the past nine series of The Apprentice, mainly towards scenes that were memorable for Sugar, Hewer, and Karren Brady. In addition, this series saw the introduction of an online exclusive mini-episode, entitled "Meet the Candidates – using tapes from the selection process, the production staff invited comedian Matt Edmondson, a fan of The Apprentice who had been involved in online spin-offs for the programme, to star in a spoof online episode, in which he "interviewed" the candidates who had secured a place on the tenth series, usually deriving comedy from his responses to genuine answers and replies that each candidate had made to questions.
When filming began, the first task saw the men name their team as Summit, while the women went under the team name of Tenacity after this task – their initial name of Decadence was not changed at any point during filming of this task when it was chosen, and was not edited out by production staff; reviewers for the first episode remarked that this choice was a "terrible" one to select for a team name, despite the reasons for its selection. Of those who took part, Mark Wright would become the eventual winner, going on to use his prize to start up an SEO business called Climb Online. [5]
Candidate | Background | Age | Result |
---|---|---|---|
Mark Wright | Sales Manager – Digital Marketing | 24 | Winner |
Bianca Miller | Owner – Personal Branding Company | 25 | Runner-up |
Daniel Lassman | Director – Pub Quiz Company | 27 | Fired after Interviews stage |
Roisin Hogan | Accountant | 32 | |
Solomon Akhtar | Technology Entrepreneur | 22 | |
Sanjay Sood-Smith | Senior Manager – Banking | 27 | Fired after tenth task |
Katie Bulmer-Cooke | Fitness Entrepreneur | 27 | |
Felipe Alviar-Baquero | Lawyer | 33 | Fired after ninth task |
James Hill | Multiple Business Owner | 26 | Fired after eighth task |
Lauren Riley | Solicitor | 28 | Fired after seventh task |
Pamela Uddin | Assistant Brand Manager | 23 | Fired after sixth task |
Jemma Bird | Operations Manager | 26 | Fired after fifth task |
Ella Jade Bitton | Business Management Graduate | 23 | Fired after fourth task |
Sarah Dales | Former PA and Hypnotherapist | 32 | |
Steven Ugoalah | Social Worker | 29 | |
Nurun Ahmed | Marketing Officer and Fashion Retailer | 36 | Fired after third task |
Lindsay Booth | Owner – Swimming Academy | 29 | |
Scott McCulloch | Clinical Development Strategist | 24 | Fired after second task |
Robert Goodwin | Marketing Manager | 25 | |
Chiles Cartwright | Company Director | 35 | Fired after first task |
Candidate | Task Number | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
Mark | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | LOSE | IN | LOSS | BR | IN | HIRED | |
Bianca | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | BR | IN | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | RUNNER-UP | |
Daniel | LOSS | BR | IN | LOSS | WIN | BR | BR | IN | LOSE | IN | FIRED | ||
Roisin | IN | IN | LOSE | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | BR | IN | WIN | FIRED | ||
Solomon | LOSS | BR | LOSS | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | FIRED | ||
Sanjay | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | IN | LOSE | IN | IN | BR | WIN | FIRED | |||
Katie | IN | IN | WIN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | BR | PM | |||
Felipe | LOSE | LOSS | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | LOSS | WIN | FIRED | ||||
James | LOSS | LOSS | BR | IN | LOSS | WIN | IN | PM | |||||
Lauren | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | BR | FIRED | ||||||
Pamela | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | PM | |||||||
Jemma | IN | IN | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||||
Ella Jade | IN | IN | IN | PM | |||||||||
Sarah | WIN | IN | IN | FIRED | |||||||||
Steven | LOSS | LOSS | IN | FIRED | |||||||||
Nurun | IN | WIN | FIRED | ||||||||||
Lindsay | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||||||
Scott | LOSS | PM | |||||||||||
Robert | BR | FIRED | |||||||||||
Chiles | FIRED |
Key:
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
127 | 1 | "Ten Years of Selling" [1] | 14 October 2014 | 8.22 | |
Lord Sugar celebrates the show's tenth year by searching for a business partner for 2014 amongst twenty candidates. For the first task, candidates must sell a selection of items handpicked from nine years of opening challenges. Both teams opt for the same strategy of branding the same item with a novel design, and making cooked snacks with one of their food products. The women manage good sales, despite selling their branded product for less than potential value and dealing with a frustrating team leader. The men provide a strong performance, but are hampered by one member wasting time to improve the value of their cooked snack, while another focuses priority on less valuable items than their branded product. The women secure victory, leaving the men to face the boardroom over their mistakes. Of the final three, Chiles Cartwright becomes the first to be fired for his lack of sales, mismanaging his sub-team, and for focusing on low-value items than more valuable commodities. | |||||
128 | 2 | "Wearable Technology" [6] | 15 October 2014 | 7.50 | |
Fashion with in-built technology is the basis of the next task, as each team must come up with a brand new piece of wearable tech and pitch their concept to retailers. The men design a jumper with a built-in camera and LEDS, but secure no orders due to providing a terrible pitch, alongside negative feedback on their concept's design and tech-based aspect. The women design a jacket with solar panels on the shoulders, and a built in phone charger and heat pads, managing to secure orders from only one retailer, despite concerns over their design, alongside difficulty making their pitches and a lack of presences from their team leader. Tenacity are credited for their win, despite what they create, while Summit are criticised over their flawed product. Amongst the losing team, Robert Goodwin is fired after the results, for failing to heed Lord Sugar's explicit instructions and his lack of contributions, while Scott McCulloch is dismissed later on for his lack of leadership and presence, and failing a task suited to his business background. | |||||
129 | 3 | "Home Fragrance" [7] | 22 October 2014 | 7.79 | |
Each team faces the task of manufacturing a brand new range of fragrances, selling their creations to passing trade and retailers around London. Summit focus on a range made with high-end ingredients and a beach theme of branding, yet reasonable sales of their product is hindered by ineffective salespeople and mistakes made over two deals made by the team. Tenacity focus on a range made with cheap ingredients and a British theme of branding, managing lucrative sales and controlling their costs, despite one product being unappealing and some customers being put off by the high price tag of their entire range. Tenacity's strategy is soon revealed as effective in securing a high profit, leaving Summit to face an in-depth review of their poor performance. Amongst the losing team, Lindsay Booth leaves the process voluntarily after admitting to being out of her depth, alongside her lack of sales, while Lord Sugar fires Nurun Ahmed for her lack of assertiveness and sales, despite her business profession. | |||||
130 | 4 | "Online Video Channel" [8] | 29 October 2014 | 7.63 | |
Each team runs their own YouTube channel, creating unique content for it, with the ability to secure additional views through the support of both a prominent Youtuber and a major website. Tenacity focus on fitness themed videos, yet problematic members cause production errors, their videos are deemed offensive, and their pitch to the website is poorly received. Summit focus on creating culinary comedy videos, securing good views through using a popular Youtuber's promotions, but fail to secure the website over concerns that their content is for the wrong target audience. Summit secure victory thanks to key members of the team, leaving Tenacity to face questions over the flaws in their performance. Amongst the losing team, Lord Sugar fires three members for contributing to their loss – Steven Ugoalah, for presenting a poor pitch to the website and his volatile personality; Sarah Dales, for lacking the experience needed for her proposal and her weak performance in tasks; and Ella-Jade Bitton, for directing the videos poorly. | |||||
131 | 5 | "Coach Tours" [9] | 5 November 2014 | 7.72 | |
Teams are tasked with running their own luxury coach tour, complete with refreshments, with each team choosing two venues for Londoners to visit. Tenacity arranged for their tour to visit Blenheim Palace and Oxford, managing their costs efficiently and make good income, along with receiving good feedback from their customers despite criticism over the refreshments they offered and the tour of the second venue. Summit arranged for their tour to visit Hever Castle and Canterbury, receiving good feedback from customers on their refreshments, but were criticised for a poor tour of the first site, forcing their group to a sing-along, and getting lost and thus having less time to see their second venue. Tenacity win the task with the profit they achieve from their strategy, leaving Summit to be criticised over the poor aspects of their tour. Of the final three, Jemma Bird is fired for her poorly planned guided tour of the first venue, alongside her lack of contributions and presence in tasks. | |||||
132 | 6 | "Board Game" [10] | 12 November 2014 | 7.80 | |
Teams find themselves making their own board games, with each selling their creation to retailers around London. Summit create an educational geography board game, managing positive sales due to retailers praising the design of their creation, alongside the good feedback from their focus group of their concept, yet face issues from the sales tactic of the team leader, while one member makes a mistake that prevents finding further customers within one of the city's borough. Tenacity create a dating board game, but despite making modest sales, their concept is criticised over the sexist and offensive nature of its design by both their focus group and retailers. Summit win the task after their product is deemed the best, leaving Tenacity to face questions over the flaws of their game. Of the final three, Pamela Uddin is ejected from the process for ignoring market research and opting for the flawed concept, her inability to take criticism, and failing to bring the concept's creator back for further scrutiny. | |||||
133 | 7 | "Advertising – New York" [11] | 19 November 2014 | 6.77 | |
Each team splits in two – one half stays in London to devise a brand new soft drink, while the other half head to New York to create a promotional campaign for it, before pitching it to American industry experts. Summit create a new brand of fizzy drink, being praised over its taste and promo campaign, despite the experts having issues with the brand's logo and their TV advert. Tenacity create a new brand of health drink, but face criticism over a dull presentation, the drink's poor taste, and both the advertising and branding, despite receiving good feedback on their concept. When back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar reveals that from the feedback he received, Summit's concept is the best, leaving Tenacity to face criticism over the flaws of their creation. Amongst the losing team, Lauren Riley is dismissed for contributing to the team's poor pitch, failing to step up her performance, and becoming unsuitable for Lord Sugar's investment opportunity. | |||||
134 | 8 | "Country Show" [12] | 26 November 2014 | 7.04 | |
Heading to the Royal Bath and West Show, each team must select two new products and one sure-fire seller, and then sell their choices to visitors at the event. Summit opt for selling hanging chairs, folding wellingtons and lawnmowers, but make poor sales throughout the task, due to a lack of focus by those handling the chairs and wellingtons, and inefficient salesmanship by those selling the lawnmowers. Tenacity focus on selling hot tubs, bike trailers with a child seat and transforming handbags, achieving significant sales with the hot tubs, yet in-fighting between those selling the trailers and handbags impacts sales on these. Summit face the boardroom due to the arguments and issues that effected their performance, as Tenacity secure victory with their sale figures. Amongst the final three, James Hill is fired for his poor decisions as team leader, his immature and arrogant attitude, and for being inexperienced to start a new company. | |||||
135 | 9 | "Ten Years of Discount Buying" [13] | 3 December 2014 | 6.66 | |
Lord Sugar has a list of ten items he requires, each handpicked from those featured in his negotiations task over the past nine years, requiring each team to get each for a bargain price. Summit focus on sourcing items before seeking out bargain, managing good negotiation on some purchases, but being hampered by a problematic member wasting time and forcing another to conduct deals in their stead. Tenacity spend little time on sourcing items, but despite strong negotiators securing good bargains, two purchases are disallowed for not matching specifications. Summit are amazed to achieve victory, as Tenacity face serious questions on their performance after their total spend is impacted by the fines they receive. Of the final three, Felipe Alviar-Baquero is fired for making the critical purchase that was disallowed and contributed to the team's loss, alongside demonstrating a lack of business skills and his overall track record. | |||||
136 | 10 | "Premium Pudding" [14] | 10 December 2014 | 7.31 | |
Each team must create a brand new premium pudding, complete with packaging, and pitch their creations to retailers. Tenacity create a line of exotic trifles, but receive few orders from retailers due to criticism on their packaging, the appointed pitcher struggling with their presentations, and one member lack proper cooking knowledge and thus giving one of their flavours an overpowering taste. Summit create a line of tea-based cheesecakes, earning favourable orders thanks to good feedback on their creation and its flavour, despite the initial pitch being poorly received and the team having some concerns over the taste of their desert. Tenacity find themselves facing the boardroom, after the creation loses out to that of Summit and the order total they achieve. Amongst the losing team, Lord Sugar decides to fire Katie Bulmer-Cooke for creating an unpopular flavour and lacking experience for her business proposal, while Sanjay Sood-Smith is dismissed over his poor contributions on the task in the process and for raising doubts over his business proposal. | |||||
137 | SP–1 | "The Final Five" [15] | 16 December 2014 | N/A | |
As this year's series of The Apprentice draws closer to its finale, this special episode takes a look at profiling the true story behind the five remaining candidates. Discussing their backgrounds, experiences, personality, and strengths and weaknesses, are a selection of each candidate's friends, family and colleagues, as well as Lord Sugar's aides, Nick Hewer and Karren Brady. | |||||
138 | 11 | "Interviews" [16] | 17 December 2014 | 7.17 | |
After facing ten tasks as teams, the five remaining candidates now compete as individuals in their next task – a series of tough, gruelling interviews with four of Lord Sugar's most trusted associates. Each member faces scrutiny over their backgrounds, work experience, track record, and business proposals when questioned by interviewers. Feedback to Lord Sugar, alongside observations by his aides, leads him to firing Solomon Akhtar for his vague and poor proposal, Roisin Hogan for raising concerns over the costs of her proposal, and Daniel Lassman for questions over his business proposal and failure to demonstrate sales skills. Of the remaining two, both Bianca Miller and Mark Wright receive praise from the interviewers alongside Lord Sugar deeming their proposals to be very appealing, despite minor concerns over each candidate (over-complicated and a competitive industry respectively). | |||||
139 | SP–2 | "Why I Fired Them" [17] | 18 December 2014 | N/A | |
As the final looms, Lord Sugar takes a look back to the tasks he set for this year's series of The Apprentice. From making board games and selling soft drinks in New York, to operating coach tours and bargain hunting items from across 10 years, he relives all of the mistakes, doomed decisions, and other notable events that occurred during the process, and provides his reasons behind each firing he made amongst the candidates for the process, which ultimately whittle them down to the two finalists for this series. | |||||
140 | 12 | "The Final" [18] | 21 December 2014 | 7.22 | |
After facing a multitude of business tasks and a tough interview, the two finalists, aided by old friends, face the task of presenting their business proposal to an audience of business and industry experts, detailing key areas in it – its name, its goals, its target market, and its business structure. Bianca works to present her plans for a tights and hosiery business, but faces questions over her lack of manufacturing experience, product pricing and branding, despite her presentation being well received and her concept deemed good. Mark works to present his plans for a SEO business for supporting small companies, receiving praise for his strong industry expertise and brand name, yet faces questions over his proposal's target market and staff costs. Based on feedback from these presentations, Lord Sugar deems that Mark Wright will be his business partner for 2014 for his strong proposal he had expertise to create and being the stronger of the two finalists, leaving Bianca Miller to finish as runner-up due to the many concerns raised about her proposal and her leadership skills (despite having beaten Mark when they were opposing project managers in Week 7). Notes: This episode was originally broadcast as part of a two-hour crossover special with the programme's sister show, You're Fired. After the crossover special, this episode was broadcast separately in subsequent repeats. |
Official episode viewing figures are from BARB. [19]
Episode no. | Airdate | Viewers (millions) | BBC One weekly ranking |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 14 October 2014 | 8.22 | 3 |
2 | 15 October 2014 | 7.50 | 6 |
3 | 22 October 2014 | 7.79 | 5 |
4 | 29 October 2014 | 7.63 | 5 |
5 | 5 November 2014 | 7.72 | 4 |
6 | 12 November 2014 | 7.80 | 6 |
7 | 19 November 2014 | 6.77 | 8 |
8 | 26 November 2014 | 7.04 | 7 |
9 | 3 December 2014 | 6.66 | 9 |
10 | 10 December 2014 | 7.31 | 4 |
11 | 17 December 2014 | 7.17 | 7 |
12 | 21 December 2014 | 7.22 | 6 |
Note: During the 2-hour final, the show was shared with The Apprentice: You're Hired , and as a result the figures are lower than expected. The first hour was the main show whereas the second hour was You're Hired. Original overnights for the final put the first hour at one million viewers more than the 2-hour average. [20] [ non-primary source needed ]
Specials
Episode | Airdate | Viewers (millions) | BBC One weekly ranking |
---|---|---|---|
Ten Years of The Apprentice | 13 October 2014 | — | — |
The Final Five | 16 December 2014 | — | — |
Why I Fired Them | 18 December 2014 | — | — |
The Apprentice is a British business-styled reality game show created by Mark Burnett, distributed by Fremantle and broadcast by the BBC since 16 February 2005. Devised after the success of the American original and part of the international franchise of the same name, the programme focuses on a group of businesspeople competing in a series of business-related challenges set by British business magnate Alan Sugar, in order to prove themselves worthy of a prize offered by him. To observe candidates as they undertake these tasks, Sugar is aided by two close business associates who act as observers with little involvement in what is conducted – these roles are currently performed by Karren Brady and Tim Campbell.
The second series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC Two, from 22 February to 10 May 2006. Following the success of the previous series, the BBC commissioned additional episodes of the programme, along with ordering the creation of a new companion discussion programme titled The Apprentice: You're Fired!, which was aimed at being aired on BBC Three alongside the main programme's broadcast schedule. A special titled "Tim in the Firing Line", focusing on Tim Campbell's life after winning the first series, aired on 19 February 2006 and preceded this series' premiere. Alongside the standard twelve episodes of the series, it is the only series to not feature any specials being aired alongside its broadcast.
The first series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC Two, from 16 February to 4 May 2005. After securing the rights to creating a British version of American original, the BBC commissioned a total of twelve episodes, a standard that would be used for consecutive series. It is the only series not to feature a boardroom scene after a candidate quit the programme following a task. Alongside the twelve episodes that were produced, two specials were also created and aired alongside this series – "The Story so Far" on 2 April, aimed at bringing viewers up to speed on the series; and "You're Hired!" on 7 May, aired after the series finale, with a format that would be later adapted for use in The Apprentice: You're Fired when it began the following year.
The third series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 28 March to 13 June 2007. Following favourable ratings, the BBC moved the programme onto its mainstream channel and thus to a much wider audience, with its companion discussion show The Apprentice: You're Fired! being reallocated to BBC Two as part of the move. For this series, Alan Sugar commented that its production would include "tougher tasks and better people" as a means of making the programme stand out from other shows like Big Brother. Alongside the usual twelve episodes, the series also featured two specials – the first, titled "Beyond the Boardroom", was aired on 3 June prior to the eleventh episode; the second, titled "Why I Fired Them", was aired on 10 June prior to the broadcast of the series finale.
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Nicholas Radbourn Hewer is a retired English television presenter, company director (2010) and former public relations consultant. From 2005 to 2014, he appeared as Alan Sugar's adviser in the British television series The Apprentice. From 2012 to 2021, he presented the Channel 4 programme Countdown with Rachel Riley and Susie Dent.
The fourth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 26 March to 11 June 2008. Around over 20,000 applications were made by potential participants seeking to take part on the programme, with the fourth series being the only one to date to feature more than two finalists moving on beyond the Interviews stage. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, four specials were aired alongside the series – "The Worst Decisions Ever" on 3 April; "Motor Mouths" on 18 April; "The Final Five" on 2 June; and "Why I Fired Them" on 8 June.
The Apprentice: You're Fired is a companion discussion programme, aired alongside The Apprentice since 2006, created by Mark Burnett for the BBC. The programme, initially shown on BBC Three before moving to BBC Two in 2007, focuses on interviews between the host and panel of guests, with a prominent candidate from the latest episode of the main programme that had been broadcast, often mixing general discussion, expert opinion and interviews, with highlight clips and small sketches designed for comedic effect. The programme is currently hosted by Tom Allen since 2019; over the course of its broadcast history, it has been hosted by Adrian Chiles, Dara Ó Briain, Jack Dee, and Rhod Gilbert.
The fifth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 25 March to 7 June 2009; because of ITV's live coverage of a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match involving England, the final episode was broadcast three days earlier to avoid clashing with this. It is the last series to feature Margaret Mountford as one of Alan Sugar's aides, after deciding to leave following the conclusion of the fifth series to focus on her education, although she would retain a place in the programme until the end of the ninth series. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, two specials were aired alongside this series – "The Final Five" on 3 June; and "Why I Fired Them" on 5 June.
The sixth series of British reality television series The Apprentice was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 6 October to 19 December 2010; due to the 2010 General Election, which Alan Sugar had political ties with following his appointment as a Lord within the House of Lords, the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until Autumn of that year to avoid a potential conflict of interest from the broadcaster.
Young Apprentice is a British reality television programme and a spin off of The Apprentice, in which a group of young people compete against each other in a series of business related challenges to win a £25,000 investment from British business magnate Lord Sugar. In addition to Sugar, he was also joined by his adviser Nick Hewer, and new adviser Karren Brady, prior to her debut on the main show, upon Margaret Mountford's departure from the role in 2009.
The seventh series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 10 May to 17 July 2011; due to a qualifying match for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League set to be aired live on 20 July, the final episode was given an earlier broadcast date to avoid clashing with this.
The eighth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 21 March to 3 June 2012. While only one minor change was made to the format of the first task, the general format of the programme itself remained virtually unchanged for this series. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, two specials were aired alongside this series – "The Final Five" on 29 May, and "Why I Fired Them" on 2 June. Sixteen candidates took part in the eighth series, with Ricky Martin becoming the overall winner. Excluding specials, the series averaged around 7.35 million viewers during its broadcast.
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The eleventh series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 14 October to 20 December 2015; due to the 2015 General Election being held in Spring, which Alan Sugar had ties to, the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until the middle of Autumn. This series saw Claude Littner, an interviewer during the Interviews stage of a series, being announced as Lord Sugar's new aide, after Nick Hewer made his departure from the programme after the last series. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, with the first two aired within a day of each other, the series was preceded by the mini online episode "Meet the Candidates" on 6 October, with two specials aired alongside the series – "The Final Five" on 9 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 16 December.
The twelfth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 6 October to 18 December 2016; due to live coverage of the UK EU membership referendum in late Spring of that year, alongside live coverage of Euro 2016 and the 2016 Rio Olympics during Summer, the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until the middle of Autumn to avoid clashing with these major events.
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The fourteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 3 October to 16 December 2018. This series saw a number of subtle changes being made by the production staff to keep the programme fresh, including the candidates going abroad to conduct their first task, and team names not being created until the start of the third task. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, the series was preceded by the mini online episode "Meet the Candidates" on 25 September, with two specials aired alongside the series – "The Final Five" on 11 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 13 December.
The fifteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 2 October to 18 December 2019. As with the previous series, the first task was conducted abroad, with the candidates travelling further afield than had been previously staged in the programme's history of business-related tasks held in other countries. In addition, the sister programme The Apprentice - You're Fired saw a change in the host before the series broadcast, with comedian Tom Allen overseeing interviews with candidates after their final appearance within this series. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, the series was preceded by the mini online episode "Meet the Candidates" on 24 September, with two specials aired alongside the series – "The Final Five" on 10 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 18 December.
The sixteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) premiered on 6 January 2022 in the UK on BBC One. It is the first series to be broadcast since the COVID-19 pandemic, with filming originally planned to begin in spring 2020, however the pandemic forced the BBC to postpone production until the following year. The BBC instead aired six special compilation episodes featuring highlights from previous series which aired from 1 October to 5 November 2020. The series features sixteen candidates and sees Tim Campbell, the winner of the first series replace Claude Littner as Lord Sugar's aide, after Littner suffered an injury whilst cycling. The candidates for the sixteenth series were revealed on 4 January 2022, two days before the show's premiere.