The Apprentice is a British business-based reality television series 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 focusses on a group of businesspeople competing in a series of business-related challenges set by British business magnate Alan Sugar, with the aim of winning a business investment.

In order to observe candidates as they undertake these tasks, Sugar is aided by two close business associates who act as observers – these roles are currently performed by Karren Brady and Tim Campbell.

Originally aired on BBC Two, its first series generated favourable viewing figures that led to the creation of a companion discussion programme in 2007, The Apprentice: You're Fired!, with further increasing figures after the second series leading to the programme being aired on BBC One. The success of The Apprentice has led to it receiving its own merchandising, including a magazine and official books, along with one-off celebrity episodes for charity, and a spin-off, Young Apprentice, which ran between 2010 and 2012.

The programme is a staple of the BBC's television schedule, with the programme being the basis of several comedic parodies and imitations, as well as influencing the concepts of other British business-based programmes, such as Tycoon, and Beat the Boss.

History

In March 2004, following the success of the first season of NBC's The Apprentice, FremantleMedia announced its intentions to create a British version of the programme under the same name and format. The company released a request for tender, with the most significant bids coming from the BBC and Channel 4. Negotiations finished on 1 April, when the BBC was announced as the new home of the programme.

In search for a host, the BBC made offers to several businesspeople, including Philip Green, Felix Dennis and Michael O'Leary, but each declined when approached. On 19 May, Alan Sugar agreed to helm the twelve episodes of the programme that had been commissioned. After the success of the first series, Sugar signed on for subsequent series.

Format

Candidate selection The programme's initial stage, which is not filmed, comprises auditions and interviews held across the United Kingdom.

The second stage, usually held in London, comprises group activities designed to test potential candidates' business skills and team work. Following this, between 20 and 30 applicants are chosen and given a psychological assessment and asked to provide references, before the final line-up is selected from this cohort. The number of candidates who appear in a series has varied over the programme's history, though the general arrangement sees a balanced number of men and women.

Tasks Once the candidates are selected, they are divided into two teams (typically men versus women for the first couple of episodes) and adopt a team name for the duration of the series. Each series focusses on ten team-oriented tasks, with the exception of the seventh and eighth series which featured eleven.

Each episode covers a single task, which is designed to test candidates on important business skills, such 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 – examples include procuring items on a limited budget; food production and sales; inventing toys, gym equipment, or furniture; marketing and PR tasks; and tourism tasks. The winner of a task is generally decided by the amount of profit made.

Before a task begins, each team must assign a project manager (PM) to lead them, whose role involves role delegation, making key decisions and managing team members carefully in order to minimise or avoid potential friction and disruptions.

PM selection is usually the result of a team vote: individuals may nominate themselves to stand as PM for the task, or other team members may recommend who would be best placed to be PM for that task. In both instances, reasons are given as to why any individual(s) would be suitable for the role, such as a candidate's business background, expertise or interest in the subject matter, the nature of the task, prior success in previous tasks and the level of confidence the other team members have in them. The PM is then voted upon by the team by the team members.

However, at times, Sugar himself may appoint someone into the role, based upon criteria such as his opinion of their performance in the process, their background or, since the seventh series, their business plan. The pre-task briefing is often used to rearrange teams as candidates are whittled down in the process, and is mainly done to either balance out team numbers, ensure a fair distribution of skills for a specific task, or to give less vocal candidates a chance to demonstrate their abilities.

Each team is provided with two vehicles to use as transport during tasks and they often split into further sub-teams. In some tasks, the candidates are given additional items to use to assist them, such as a shop space or a workshop. Although the teams are expected to work together, the competitive nature of the show means that candidates often focus on their individual roles and needs rather than the greater good of the team. During the execution of their task, each team is followed by one of Sugar's aides, who notes down their opinions, observations and thoughts for later reference in the boardroom, mostly on any noteworthy matters, such as performance, mistakes, and issues, minor or serious; while it is rare for them to intervene, they may do so if an issue gets severe enough.

Boardroom

Once a task is finished, the candidates report back to Sugar in the "boardroom" – either following the task's completion, or on the following day – to hear about feedback on their performance and learn the results of their endeavours. 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 discussion 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, team members are invited to share feedback on each other's performances, whether praise or criticism. After this initial review, the results of the task are revealed, after which the winning team advances to the next stage and, until the nineteenth series, receives a reward for their performance. After they leave, the losing team are dispatched to the "Losers' Cafe" to discuss the factors that contributed to their loss, before they must return to the boardroom 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 are granted 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 several factors, including 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 (the "House"), while remaining members are sent outside to allow Sugar and his aides time to privately discuss their observations and doubts about the "bottom three". Final boardroom – The "bottom three" face a final debrief with Sugar and his advisers that involves further in-depth analysis and criticism of their actions in a task, their performance throughout the process so far, their relationship with other candidates, and any criticism raised against them. The candidates argue their cases and also suggest who amongst them should be fired from the process. Sugar makes a final summary when he calls discussions to an end, relaying his personal thoughts on each member, before eventually making his decision on who is fired – the selected candidate, to 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 also fired in the same week. The surviving candidate(s) return to the "House", while the fired candidate(s) depart via a waiting taxi and are taken "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 regard to the standard boardroom format: 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 bottom three. Reward – Sugar may withdraw the reward, if the winning team's performance on the task is considered to be too inadequate. In this case, they simply return to the "House" after the results. In later series, rewards were withdrawn completely. "Bottom 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 "House" if he feels they do not deserve to return to the boardroom.

Interviews The Interviews are the penultimate stage of the competition, in which the five remaining candidates undergo interviews with a selection of trusted aides of Sugar; for the seventh and eighth series, this stage was the final step and featured four remaining candidates, instead of five.

In this stage, each interviewer questions the candidates over various topics, from their performance in the process, why they applied for the show, the content of their CVs, their business plans, 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 also 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 the interviews, Sugar invites the candidates back to the boardroom to discuss the feedback from the interviewers. He usually fires three candidates at this stage of the competition, leaving two finalists, with the exception of the fourth series that saw him only fire one candidate at this stage. For Series 7 and 8, where the Interviews was the final task, his decision determined the competition winner.

Key: Interviewer

InterviewersSeries number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Nick Hewer Paul Kemsley Claude Littner Margaret Mountford Bordan Tkachuk Karren Brady Alan Watts Matthew Riley Mike Soutar Claudine Collins Ricky Martin Linda Plant

Final