History
In March 2004, following the success of the first season ofFormat
Candidate selection
The show's initial stage, which is not filmed, focuses on open auditions and interviews held across the country; this stage searches for the candidates for a series before filming of it begins, which often attracts thousands of applicants. A second round will usually be held inTasks
Once the candidates are selected, they are divided into teams and given a series of business-themed tasks – every series focuses on ten team-oriented tasks, with the exception of the seventh and eighth series where it was eleven. Each episode covers a single task, which is designed to test candidates on important business skills – salesmanship, negotiation, requisitioning, strategy, leadership, teamwork, and organisation. Before each task is given, the teams are briefed by Sugar over what kind of challenge they will be conducting, what rules they must adhere to during the timespan of the task, and the conditions for winning – an example of this could be that they must buy supplies on a limited budget, convert them into a product, and then sell their creation all within a single day, with the win determined on who makes the highest profit from their concept. Before a task begins, each team must assign aBoardroom
Once a task is finished, the candidates report back to Sugar at the " boardroom" – either following the task's completion, or the day after it has ended – to hear about feedback on their performance and learn the results of their endeavors. During team-based tasks, the process is played out in three stages in the following order – Results, Task Review, and Final Boardroom. Each stage is conducted in a different fashion, but follows a general format: # Result – Sugar and his advisers conduct an initial discuss with teams about their performance, and review what they did on the task – in tasks where a product, video marketing promotion, or branding is created, such items are provided in the boardroom for examination. During this stage, discussions take a look over feedback on the performance of candidates within their respective team, issues encountered, and any praise or criticism that needs to be addressed. After this initial review of performance is made, the results of the task are given out, in which the winning team advances to the next stage and receive a reward for their performance. After they leave, the losing team are dispatched to the "Losers' Cafe" to discuss amongst themselves over what factors contributed to their loss, before they must return for an in-depth review of their performance. # Task review – The losing team are subjected to an extensive review of their performance in the boardroom, including open criticism of performance and/or contribution on the task. Candidates within the team are allowed the freedom to argue their cases for their respective performance and contributions, voice opinions about other members, and counter criticism if they feel it to be unjustified. After a period of discussion with each member, the appointed PM must then select two members of the team to return with them for a final boardroom discussion; a choice is not required if the team has only three members left in it. The choice made by the PM can be influenced by factors that they perceive about each member – these include responsibility for the team's loss, inexcusable mistakes, lack of contribution, and clash of personalities. Those not picked are free to return to the candidates' accommodation, while remaining members are sent outside to give Sugar and his aides time to discussion in private about the PM and other members in regards to concerning observations and doubts about each. # Final boardroom – The PM and their two choices face a final discussion with Sugar and his advisers, which focuses on further in-depth analysis and criticism of their actions in a task, their performance throughout the process by that stage, their relationship with other candidates, and any criticism raised against them. Remaining members retain the freedom to argue their cases and also denote who amongst them should be fired from the process based on the reasons they feel justifies their dismissal. Sugar makes a final summary when he calls discussions to an end, relaying his personal thoughts on each member before him, before eventually making his decision on who is fired – the selected candidate, whom he gives his reasons for their removal, is pointed at and proclaimed eliminated with the words "You're fired!", a process that may be repeated if another candidate is deemed by him to have no further potential to continue in the process. The surviving candidate(s) return to the candidates' accommodation, while the fired candidate(s) depart via a waiting taxi and taken on "home", conducting a brief interview to reflect on their elimination. While the boardroom scenes differ for the Interviews and Final (see sections below), there are a number of exceptions in regards to the boardroom format after tasks, which can occur during this scene: * Candidate firing – Sugar can choose to fire a candidate at any time in the boardroom, if he deems it noteworthy. Thus a candidate could be fired during the first or second stage of the boardroom, rather than as a part of the final three. * Reward – Sugar may withdraw the reward, if the winning team's performance on the task is considered to be too inadequate to his liking. In this case, they simply return to the candidates' accommodation after the results. * "Final three" selection – Sugar may opt to choose who returns for the final boardroom discussion, rather than let the PM make this choice themselves, while he can freely send someone back to the candidates' accommodation if he feels they do not deserve to return.Interviews
The Interviews stage of the process takes place as the penultimate step of the competition, in which the five remaining candidates in the competition each undergoes an individual set of interviews with a selection of trusted aides of Sugar; for the seventh and eighth series, this stage was assigned as the final step, and featured the four remaining candidate in each respective series' competition. The aim of this stage is to determine the suitability of the candidate for the prize being offered by Sugar. In this stage, each interviewer questions the candidates over various matters, from their performance in the process, why they applied for the show, the content of their CVs, and any concerns about their personalities. Discussions often focus around brash or controversial statements that candidates have made on their CVs and application forms, with the interviewers determining whether such claims are truthful, exaggerated or deceitful. Since the seventh series, following the change of prize, the interviewers now question the candidates about their business plans, discussing the feasibility of the idea, how the candidate would go about setting up the business, and whether they have the temperament and skills to deliver the plan. After candidates have been through their interviews, and Sugar has heard feedback from the interviewers, he conducts a boardroom session to discuss with the candidates over what he has learnt about them, as well as reviewing their performance on the tasks they undertook. Eventually, he will determine who he feels has potential to move on to the Final, with his decision usually resulting in three candidates being fired at this stage of the competition; there has only been one instance in the show's history where Sugar fired just one candidate, as the feedback from the interviewers during the third series' competition made it difficult to fire more than one. For Series 7 and 8, where the Interviews was the final task, his decision determined who won the competition. Key: : Currently stars : Previously starredFinal
The final stage of the competition sees the finalists of the process compete against each other in one final task, with the outcome influencing Sugar's decision on who wins the current series' competition, though his choice is determined through a comparison of the two candidates, and is not influenced purely on how successful a candidate is in the final stage, but also other factors connected with them such as their overall performance in the competition, and the overall feedback he has received about them. Whereas in Series 7–8, the Interviews stage was the final task, prior to these series and after them, the task sees the finalists being able to form a team out of a selection of returning candidates that had been fired over the course of the competition, their choices affected by past experiences with them, how well they worked together, or if their skill set can help improve their chances of winning. For Series 1–6, the final stage was a purely business-styled task, as a final test of a candidate's skill set and their suitability to the job being offered as a prize in these series. For Series 7–8, following the change of prize, the task primarily focused on determining how potential a candidate's business plan was for investment, via interviews. Since the ninth series, the final task reverted to a similar format prior to Series 7, though was altered in that the finalists' task is to promote their business idea, presenting their proposed plan along with its brand identity to a group of industry experts. In all versions, the finalists eventually reconvene at the boardroom in which Sugar discusses with them over their performance, the feedback they got, and voices his final opinions of the candidates, Eventually, he declares his choice, proclaiming to the winner he points to with the words "You're hired!", at which point the winner departs in Sugar's limousine and conducts a brief victory interview, reflecting on their success in the competition. While only two finalists ever reach the final stage, Series 4 featured four finalists, who were divided up into pairs, working as joint project managers respectively on the final task, with Sugar effectively firing the pair who performed poorly, and making his final decision on who won, between the candidates within the remaining pair.The Board
Each boardroom session featured in the show consists of the same setup for "The Board", in the form of a panel that evaluates the performances of the candidates in the competition. Along with Alan Sugar (the "boss"), the panel consists of his two personal advisers, who are assigned to watch over the candidates during each task of the competition; to date, four people have operated as Sugar's advisers, of which two currently remain a part of the show in this respective role. The following details each member of the board: *Series overview
Series 1 (2005)
The first series began in February 2005, with the opening theme being "Series 2 (2006)
The second series began on 22 February 2006, with a spin-off programme introduced onSeries 3 (2007)
For the third series, 10,000 applications were received by the production staff, with a promise made to incorporate "tougher tasks and better people", after Alan Sugar expressed concerns that the show was becoming similar in format to that of '' Big Brother''. Alongside this, theSeries 4 (2008)
Candidates applying for the fourth series were invited to do so through the programme's official website, leading to 20,000 applications being submitted for the series, and 16 of them making it through to take part in the show. Its first episode aired on 26 March 2008, with its debut attracting 6.4 million viewers. This climbed to around 8.9 million viewers for the final episode, with an additional 800,000 viewers tuning in for the episode's final 15 minutes, to catch Lee McQueen winning the series. Lee went on to initially work for Sugar's company AMSHOLD, where he phoned in sick on his first day.Series 5 (2009)
Prior to the start of filming for the series, Adam Freeman, one of the lucky sixteen that had made it onto the fifth series, was forced to pull out; it was stated that his reasons for doing so were due to a "family matters". This meant that when the series began on 25 March 2009, viewers got to see fifteen candidates vying for the prize, withSeries 6 (2010)
Following Mountford's departure,Series 7 (2011)
Applications for the seventh series began in April 2010. Between the applicants being processed, to the filming of the first task, Sugar announced that the prize had been changed, and that now participants of the show were competing for an investment from him of £250,000, with Sugar becoming their business partner, owning a 50% share, but also providing guidance and support from himself and a team of experts to help develop the winning candidate's plan. Those applying prior to this announcement, were not aware of the prize change until later on. The change was due to the issue involving English and that Sugar was finding it difficult to find roles for the winners. The sixteen candidates who eventually secured a place on the series were revealed on 3 May 2011, via the official website and in a press launch, with the opening episode aired a week later on 10 May. In a change to format, the final involved the Interviews that candidates undertook, though these included a scrutinising of the candidates' business plans as well. Thomas Pellereau became Sugar's first business partner, whereupon he used his prize to launch a range of manicure products with assistance from Sugar, including a line of curved nail files – the S-file, the S-Buffer and the Emergency File, two curved nail clippers, the S-Clipper and S-Clipper mini and a curved foot exfoliator, and the S-Ped – which were made available with major retailers in the country. While Susan Ma failed to win the series, Sugar said that he liked her plan, later investing into her skincare company Tropic in 2012.Series 8 (2012)
The eighth series began on 21 March 2012, and was the last to use the format for the task layout as was used in the previous series. The series was won by Ricky Martin, who used his prize to launch his joint venture recruitment company called Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS), on 23 October 2012, which was designed to deal with recruitment in the field of science. Ricky was subsequently invited back to appear on the tenth series as an interviewer.Series 9 (2013)
The ninth series began on 7 May 2013, and saw the format of the task layout reverted to its original approach prior to the seventh series, though with the final task amended to focus on the investment prize, in which the finalists of the process had to conduct a presentation of their business idea to a panel of experts, including branding, an advert, and answering any questions given about their proposal. The series was won by Leah Totton, who used her prize to open her first cosmetic skin clinic on 22 January 2014.Series 10 (2014)
Because of theSeries 11 (2015)
Due to the 2015 General Election, the show was postponed until mid-Autumn, to avoid clashing with the political event due to Sugar's ties with it at the time. Because of Hewer's departure,Series 12 (2016)
As before, the BBC postponed the twelfth series to mid-Autumn, so as to avoid clashing with live coverage ofSeries 13 (2017)
The thirteenth series of the show was broadcast in late Autumn 2017, maintaining the broadcast schedule set by the previous three series. The series began on 4 October 2017, and was won by both James White and Sarah Lynn, making it the first time in the show's history where two finalists were joint winners. Each would go on to use their individual investment to set up their own business – White would use his to start up an IT recruitment firm called Right Time Recruitment, while Lynn would use her investment to start up an online personalised sweets gift service called Sweets in the city.Series 14 (2018)
Unlike the last three series of the programme, the fourteenth series, which took place in late Autumn 2018, reverted to involving 16 candidates vying for Sugar's investment offer, and included a number of subtle changes to keep the format fresh such as candidates being sent abroad for the first task. The series began on 3 October 2018, and was won by Sian Gabbidon, who used her investment to launch a luxury swimwear range.Series 15 (2019)
As with the previous series, the format for the fifteenth incorporated the new changes introduced, including the first task taking place abroad, the number of candidates taking part being at 16, and teams not being named until each consisted of a mix of women and men. The series began airing on 2 October 2019. The series was won by Carina Lepore, who will be using Lord Sugar's investment to fund new stores for her "family-run" baking business across London.Series 16 (2022)
The sixteenth series was originally planned for filming to begin in Spring 2020, but the onset of theFilming
Schedule
Every series of ''The Apprentice'' is pre-recorded before its broadcast – although the show's twelve-week broadcast schedule gives the impressions that each episode was filmed over a period of 12 weeks, in reality, each series' filming schedule is conducted within a two-month period, a few months before the show is to be aired. While the candidates do have a break between tasks to relax within the large rented house or apartment with which they are provided by the production team for the duration of the competition, each task is generally performed with a much closer time-frame than it appears on the programme. Compared to the US series, the British version has a more rigid format that requires the production team to provide enough footage for each series, that is to be then incorporated into twelve separate episodes. Early rules in filming meant that multiple firings were not allowed in the first two series, a fact that was acknowledged as an issue by Sugar when he expressed his desire to fire both Alexa Tilley and Syed Ahmed following a task in the second series, but could only get rid of the former. In subsequent series, this rule was changed after the show increased the number of candidates for the competition, meaning that Sugar could conduct double firings where needed by the film crew as part of the filming schedule.Locations
Filming for many of the tasks involve locations within London and across the UK in various cities and towns, and on a number of occasions when tasks take the teams abroad, across Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. For each series, the candidates are provided with accommodation within an upmarket area of London selected by the production team, with every episode's opening and ending scene being filmed at this location, utilising a mixture of exterior and interior shots of scenes; filming is also done on site if the candidates are conducting work on a task within the building. For other outdoor shots used as part of the other scenes in an episode, the locations have varied. Between the first and third series, both the show's opening credits and the post-firing "walk of shame" exit sequences were filmed outside the Amstrad HQ building in Brentwood, but from the fourth series onwards, following Amstrad's sale to BSkyB in 2007, filming of these scenes are done in front of theCandidates and tasks
Filming of an episode can usually take a considerable amount of time to be done and as such, each task is usually filmed back-to-back, rather than weekly as it appears in the broadcast schedule for a series. For each episode, four television crews are used to follow the candidates during a task, and often are focused on picking up on mistakes and issues between candidates, than on their overall performance. The final edit of an episode often trims down a task that took 1–3 days to be done, to fit it within approximately about half of what will be televised for that episode, meaning candidates may appear to make minimal contributions when in reality they made more, while others may not feature as much if Sugar or his advisers feel they did well and completed their duties, as emphasis is often put on moments that can be entertaining for audiences. Often the filming of an episode can hamper the efforts of candidates in a task, due to film crews usually having to get filming permission first from the respective owner of a store or establishment, which can often be a time-consuming and cumbersome process as a result, whilst the strict rules of theBoardroom, 'Walk of Shame" and Final
Scenes filmed in both the "boardroom" and the reception area that resides next door to the room, are in fact done within a custom-built set at Black Island Studios, with the boardroom receptionist actually being an employee of the production company, Talkback Thames, and not Alan Sugar's real secretary. Filming of each candidates' "walk of shame" exit sequences is mainly done towards the beginning of a new series, which can lead to the fired candidate's clothing and hairstyle being different to that in their final boardroom scene before their dismissal from the competition. The post-firing taxi ride that occurs after their departure does not take the candidate home as it appears in the show, but merely takes them around the block to allow their taxi interview to be filmed, after which they are then taken to a local hotel to stay the night before being finally allowed to leave after packing up their belongings from the house. For the final, multiple endings are filmed for the candidates who make it to the end of the process, although Sugar does not reveal who he will hire until shortly before transmission. This determines which ending is shown as part of the series finale's final edit. Notably, the BBC has released two statements regarding the decision procedure which are considered to be contradictory; while the first states that Sugar makes his decision on the day that the final boardroom sequence is filmed, based on the contestants' performance in the final task, and keeps it secret until just before transmission, the second states that he decides after a six-month trial period. Former candidate,Spin-offs
''The Apprentice: You're Fired!'' (2006–present)
Following the decision to commission a second series of the programme, the BBC decided to create a spin-off companion programme to accompany ''The Apprentice'', with its format operating in a similar manner to that of ''''Comic Relief Does The Apprentice'' (2007–2019)
Following the second series of ''The Apprentice'', the BBC announced that, as part of its early-2007 programming schedule, a celebrity version of the programme would be recorded in aid of the charity''The Apprenticast'' (2007–2009)
The beginning of the third series saw the launch of a weekly''Sport Relief Does The Apprentice'' (2008)
After the first ''Comic Relief'' celebrity version proved a success, the BBC gave the green light for another edition the following year for Sport Relief 2008. Designed once again as a two-part special called ''Sport Relief Does The Apprentice'', it was aired on 12 and 14 March 2008, and functioned on the same format as the Comic Relief version. For the Sport Relief edition, the celebrities that participated were''Young Apprentice'' (2010–2012)
As the main programme began to grow in success, Sugar took notice of the number of young viewers the show was attracting, and went into discussions with theSpecial programmes
Series
The following is a list of specials that have aired alongside the majority of the series: * ''The Apprentice: The Final Five'' is a documentary special which first aired alongside the third series under the title, ''The Apprentice: Beyond the Boardroom''. The programme focuses on the remaining final five contestants who have made it into the final stages of the competition, in which each candidate is interviewed about their overall performance at that stage, as well as their personal interests and past experiences. Along with interviews with the candidates, the programme also features each candidate's close friends, family members, including parents, children, and partners, and Sugar's advisers, each airing their views and opinions on the candidate currently being talked about. * ''The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them'' is a documentary special which first aired alongside the third series, and focuses on Lord Alan Sugar looking back over the current series, and discussing the merits and shortcomings of the candidates he fired up to the time the programme is aired. Joined by his advisers, he explains in more detail about why he fired each candidate at each stage of the competition, whilst reviewing the performances of the finalists for that series. For the seventh series, the programme was not broadcast, but instead was replaced with documentary special, ''How To Get Hired'', presented by Dara Ó Briain.Specials
The following is a list of programmes that were one-offs: * ''The Apprentice: Tim in the Firing Line'' was an hour-long documentary that aired on 19 February 2006, prior to the launch of the second series. The programme followed Tim Campbell, the winner of Series One, during the first twelve months of the job that he had won, in which he worked withinParodies and imitations
The show has been imitated in theReception
Praise
The programme has been given positive reviews by several newspapers. In the popular press, '' The Sun'' newspaper has called it "The thinking man's reality show", and ''Criticism
The programme has been criticised in the British media for suggesting that success in the business world requires possession of unsavoury qualities.Viewing figures
Throughout the programme's history, ''The Apprentice'' has received high viewing figures with each series. When its first series was broadcast in 2005 on BBC Two, it attracted an average of 2.5 million viewers per episode, with an audience share of 11% for its timeslot that allowed it to beat popular programmes being aired on rival channels at the time, such as ''Awards
''The Apprentice'' won theMerchandise
On 10 February 2005, Lord Alan Sugar released a book to coincide with the first series, called ''The Apprentice: How to Get Hired Not Fired''. On 16 February 2006, the book was revised with additional information relating to the second series. An official magazine was first released on 23 May 2007. It includes items aboutReferences
External links
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