| The Apprentice | |
|---|---|
| Series 19 | |
| Starring | |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 30 January 2025 |
| Series chronology | |
The nineteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice premiered on the 30 January 2025 in the UK on BBC One. [1] Karren Brady and Tim Campbell will return as Lord Sugar's aides. [2] [3]
In January 2024, whilst the previous series was airing, the BBC announced applications were open for the nineteenth series. The applications closed on 17 February 2024. [4] [5] The BBC confirmed that the series will again feature eighteen candidates, as well as revealing several of the tasks set to feature across the series including "creating a virtual popstar, turning a ton of potatoes and tomatoes into cash, designing and marketing Easter Eggs, jetting off to Turkey for a corporate hospitality challenge and taking on a discount buying task in Stratford-upon-Avon". [6] [7] The first trailer for the series was released in January 2025, which teased the series as the "most demanding yet". [8]
The eighteen candidates appearing in the nineteenth series were announced on 19 January 2025. The first task saw the candidates being formed into mixed gender teams, with neither team having an official name until the fourth episode; the two teams were unofficially referred to as "Team Forest" and "Team Ice". [9] [10] Eventually, by Week 4, "Team Ice" adopted the name Ascendancy and "Team Forest" adopted the name Parallel.
| Candidate | Background | Age | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amber-Rose Badrudin | Convenience store owner | 24 | |
| Anisa Khan | Pizza company owner | 26 | |
| Chisola Chitambala | Virtual assistant company owner | 31 | |
| Dean Franklin | Air conditioning company owner | 34 | |
| Emma Street | Corporate project manager | 23 | |
| Frederick Afrifa | Motivational speaker & former athlete | 28 | |
| Jana Denzel | Cosmetic dentist | 33 | |
| Jonny Heaver | Tutoring company owner | 23 | |
| Jordan Dargan | Animation entrepreneur | 22 | |
| Keir Shave | Telemarketing company owner | 26 | |
| Liam Snellin | Workwear brand owner | 28 | |
| Max England | Senior account manager | 30 | |
| Melica Moshiri | Tech recruitment company owner | 32 | |
| Mia Collins | Meal prep entrepreneur | 25 | |
| Nadia Suliaman | Salon chain owner | 35 | Fired in the fourth task |
| Carlo Brancati | Hair transplant consultant | 37 | Fired in the third task |
| Aoibheann Walsh | Hair and beauty salon owner | 36 | Fired in the second task |
| Emma Rothwell | Online gift store owner | 29 | Fired in the first task |
| Task Number | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Amber-Rose | IN | LOSE | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Anisa | LOSE | WIN | LOSS | LOSS | ||||||||
| Chisola | LOSS | IN | LOSS | LOSS | ||||||||
| Dean | BR | IN | WIN | IN | ||||||||
| Emma S. | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Frederick | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Jana | LOSS | IN | LOSS | BR | ||||||||
| Jonny | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Jordan | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Keir | BR | IN | LOSS | BR | ||||||||
| Liam | IN | LOSS | BR | LOSS | ||||||||
| Max | LOSS | IN | LOSE | LOSS | ||||||||
| Melica | BR | IN | IN | IN | ||||||||
| Mia | IN | LOSS | IN | WIN | ||||||||
| Nadia | IN | BR | LOSS | FIRED | ||||||||
| Carlo | BR | IN | FIRED | |||||||||
| Aoibheann | IN | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Emma R. | FIRED | |||||||||||
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) [11] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 249 | 1 | "Austria Tours" | 30 January 2025 | 5.76 | |
Lord Sugar begins his search for a new business partner for 2025 amongst eighteen new candidates. For their first task, the teams are sent to Innsbrück, Austria and challenged to plan a tour. One team, dubbed "Team Forest" develops a cycling tour through the forest, including yodelling and tree hugging: they sell few tickets, with those that get sold being for various prices. The other team, dubbed "Team Ice" produces an Alpine mountain tour and despite selling at a much lower price than agreed, they sell all the tickets. In the boardroom, Team Forest are revealed to have ultimately made a loss, meaning Team Ice's small profit won them the task by default, leaving the former to face scrutiny over their flawed sales strategy. All but three are called back by Lord Sugar, out of whom Emma Rothwell becomes the first to be fired for failing to sell orders and defend herself in the boardroom. | |||||
| 250 | 2 | "Virtual Pop Star" | 6 February 2025 | 5.35 | |
The second task has the teams assigned to create a virtual pop star, and get sponsorship deals from major brands. Team Forest create a female star called Bami, while Team Ice create a duo called Fred and Nadz. Both teams come under criticisms for different aspects of their virtual stars, with Bami's design being found unappealing, and Fred and Nadz having artificial intelligence-generated voices that prove distracting to potential buyers. Ultimately, despite having nearly half their sales disallowed for a rule breach, Team Forest manage to win out thanks to their doing a better job of persuading buyers to look past the flaws in Bami's design, leaving Team Ice to face Lord Sugar's scrutiny. Of the final three, while Lord Sugar heavily criticizes all of them, Aoibheann Walsh is dismissed for her fatal decision to go with the AI-generated vocals. | |||||
| 251 | 3 | "Discount Buying" | 13 February 2025 | TBD | |
The candidates are sent to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, in order to purchase a list of nine items associated with the bard; the team which manages the lowest overall spend, including fines, will win. Both teams receive fines for not acquiring all the items on the list as well as purchasing incorrect items, but Team Forest are additionally fined for not making it to the finishing location by the deadline, resulting in Team Ice winning and Team Forest facing scrutiny over their spending. Of the final three, although Lord Sugar criticized Team Forest's main team and sub-team leader's performance, Carlo Brancati is fired for his consistently weak contributions on all three tasks to date, as well as being deemed a disruptive influence on the team. | |||||
| 252 | 4 | "Crops to Cash" | 20 February 2025 | TBD | |
The candidates are sent to New Covent Garden Market, where Team Ice, now christened as 'Ascendancy' were given 500kg of tomatoes, and Team Forest, now known as 'Parallel' were given 500kg of potatoes. Both teams are challenged to create products using their assigned produce to sell to the public and a corporate client; the team that made the most money wins. Team Ascendancy opt to sell pizzas to the public and diced tomatoes to their corporate client; despite badly under-delivering to their corporate client, cost control and overall reasonable sales lead to a modest profit. Parallel, despite not agreeing with their project manager’s choice, decide to sell bangers and mash to the public and parboiled potatoes on the corporate side, but significant leadership deficiencies result in issues on the corporate side with quality control, and with a market product that proves difficult to sell, combined with a significant overspend on ingredients. In the boardroom, Parallel ultimately makes a loss, leaving them to face severe questions over their sales figures. Of the final three, Lord Sugar fires Nadia Suliaman almost immediately, for her poor decisions that had led the team to defeat. | |||||
| 253 | 5 | "Easter Eggs" | 27 February 2025 | TBD | |
| 254 | 6 | "Turkey Corporate Hospitality" | 6 March 2025 | TBD | |