| 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 also 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 Glacier" on the first task. [9] [10] Eventually, by Week 4, "Team Glacier" 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 | |
| Jordan Dargan | Animation entrepreneur | 22 | |
| Liam Snellin | Workwear brand owner | 28 | |
| Mia Collins | Meal prep entrepreneur | 25 | |
| Max England | Senior account manager | 30 | Fired in the ninth task |
| Emma Street | Corporate project manager | 23 | Fired in the eighth task |
| Melica Moshiri | Tech recruitment company owner | 32 | |
| Keir Shave | Telemarketing company owner | 26 | Fired in the seventh task |
| Frederick Afrifa | Motivational speaker & former athlete | 28 | |
| Jonny Heaver | Tutoring company owner | 23 | Fired in the sixth task |
| Jana Denzel | Cosmetic dentist | 33 | Left after the fifth task |
| 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 [a] | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| Amber-Rose | IN | LOSE | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | LOSE | LOSS | |||||
| Anisa | LOSE | WIN | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | BR | BR | IN | |||||
| Chisola | LOSS | IN | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | LOSE | IN | LOSS | BR | |||||
| Dean | BR | IN | WIN | IN | IN | IN | BR | BR | BR | |||||
| Jordan | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | IN | WIN | LOSS | IN | |||||
| Liam | IN | LOSS | BR | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | IN | LOSS | WIN | |||||
| Mia | IN | LOSS | IN | WIN | IN | IN | BR | LOSE | IN | |||||
| Max | LOSS | IN | LOSE | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | FIRED | |||||
| Emma S. | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Melica | BR | IN | IN | IN | WIN | IN | BR | FIRED | ||||||
| Keir | BR | IN | LOSS | BR | IN | WIN | FIRED | |||||||
| Frederick | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | BR | FIRED | |||||||
| Jonny | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | FIRED | ||||||||
| Jana | LOSS | IN | LOSS | BR | LEFT [b] | |||||||||
| 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 Glacier" 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 1 creates a female star called Bami, while Team 2 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 1 manage to win thanks to their doing a better job of persuading buyers to look past the flaws in Bami's design, leaving Team 2 to face Lord Sugar's scrutiny. Of the final three, while Lord Sugar heavily criticises all of them, Aoibheann Walsh is dismissed for her fatal decision to go with the AI-generated vocals and her lack of contributions so far. | |||||
| 251 | 3 | "Discount Buying" | 13 February 2025 | 5.70 | |
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 1 are additionally fined for not making it to the finishing location by the deadline. The total spend of Team 2 is revealed to be far much lower than Team 1, who are left to face scrutiny over their spending. Of the final three, although Lord Sugar criticised Team 1's project manager 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 | 5.89 | |
Both teams are challenged to create products using assigned produce to sell to the public and a corporate client; the second team, now known as "Ascendancy", is given 500kg of tomatoes, and the first team, now known as "Parallel", is given 500kg of potatoes. Ascendancy sells 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 disagreements with their project manager's choice, sells bangers & mash to the public and parboiled potatoes to their corporate client, but major disagreements result in issues on the corporate side with quality control, an unsellable market product, and a significant overspend on ingredients. Ascendancy's sales figures are ultimately revealed to be stronger than Parallel's, leaving the latter to face questions over their poor sales. Among the final three, Lord Sugar dismisses Nadia Suliaman immediately for her poor leadership and decisions throughout the task. | |||||
| 253 | 5 | "Easter Eggs" | 27 February 2025 | 6.01 | |
The two teams are tasked with creating Easter eggs that will stand out in a crowded market, and sell them to major retailers. Ascendancy choose to create an egg that uses a luxury tea flavouring, getting positive feedback on the concept and taste, but being criticised for its appearance. Parallel, meanwhile, focus more on the accompanying character created to promote their egg, but the retailers are left confused by the unclear messaging, and find the egg's design unappealing. To Parallel's surprise, their project manager, Jana Denzel, resigns from the process for personal reasons before the result is announced, which turns out to be a landslide victory for Ascendancy, leaving the remainder of Parallel to be questioned over their failure. In the end, Lord Sugar spares the remainder of Parallel after being unable to firmly pin the blame on any of the remaining team members, citing Jana's poor leadership as the sole cause of the loss. | |||||
| 254 | 6 | "Turkey Corporate Hospitality" | 6 March 2025 | 5.85 | |
The teams are sent to Turkey, with the task of hosting a corporate hospitality event. Ascendancy's event in Cappadocia, focusing on a hot air balloon tour and weaving, comes in for some minor criticism over the catering, and the team were not able to get the desired price per head. Nonetheless, their client ends the day satisfied, and pays the full price. Parallel, based in Bodrum, spends less and commands a higher price from their client, but comes in for heavy criticism over a dull mountain tour, a meal seen as lower quality than promised, a lack of wine, and a poorly received budget team building exercise. Those combined factors cause their client to ask for a large refund, wiping out a profit margin that cost them the task, leaving them to face scrutiny regarding the poor quality of the experience. Amongst the final three, Jonny Heaver is ejected from the process for his poor hosting of the tour, and his general lack of contributions throughout the process. | |||||
| 255 | 7 | "Kids' Banking" | 13 March 2025 | 5.80 | |
The teams are sent to the London Stock Exchange where Lord Sugar challenges the teams to create a banking app and accompanying money box, meant to be used by six-to-nine-year-olds, and pitch them to industry experts. Half the teams work on marketing while the sub-teams are sent to Salisbury to work on the app design. Ascendancy design their app and money box around a dog mascot, encountering problems such as a lack of financial information and a money box that is considered incorrect for the brief. Parallel have a noted lack of coordination between their money box looking like a pot of gold and their quiz-based app being themed around a superhero; despite this, they manage to secure investments. Ascendancy fail to secure any investments, leaving them to face further criticism for their failure, during which Frederick Afrifa is immediately fired before the final boardroom for demonstrating poor leadership throughout the task. Of the remainder of Ascendancy, Keir Shave is later dismissed for struggling during the pitch, which was deemed as the main cause of the failure. | |||||
| 256 | 8 | "Hot Sauce" | 20 March 2025 | TBD | |
Lord Sugar challenges the teams to develop their own hot sauce and pitch their concepts to industry experts. Ascendency create a brand focused on bougie, using South-East Asian flavours, but face issues with a viscous sauce and confusion over name, as well as an advert not featuring the sauce. Parallel create a brand targeted at thrill seekers, going for a spicy sauce, but face criticism over their choice of flavour, a poor advert, and a weak brand. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar deems neither team the winner, leaving three members from each to face scrutiny over their poor performance. Amongst Parallel, Melica Moshiri is dismissed for her continued disruption over the past few tasks, and amongst Ascendency, Emma Street is fired for her lack of contribution across many of the tasks to date. | |||||
| 257 | 9 | "TV Selling" | 27 March 2025 | TBD | |
The teams are given the instructions for this task at the house, where Lord Sugar instructs them to sell products during a primetime slot on a shopping channel, with Sugar himself watching. Ascendancy's product selection includes an air fryer, a coffee machine, a vacuum cleaner and a robe; they face issues with problematic presentations, lack of information and poor demonstrations. Parallel's product selection includes light-up gloves, a inflatable canoe and a personal facial spa; they face issues with problematic product selection, false information and one of the products not being used to its full potential. In the boardroom, Ascendancy’s presentation is deemed the best from the figures they achieve, leaving Parallel to be questioned on their failure. Amongst the final three, Max England is ejected from the process for his second failure as project manager and being responsible for the poor product selection. | |||||
| 258 | 10 | "Fashion" | 3 April 2025 | TBD | |
Lord Sugar's candidates launch an environmentally conscious fashion brand. | |||||
| 259 | 11 | "Interviews" | 10 April 2025 | TBD | |
Familiar faces return to interrogate the business plans of the final five candidates. | |||||