Lord Alan Sugar and The New Series of The Apprentice are Back On Screen This Week

Over 12 weeks, the 20 candidates must compete to stay out of the firing line in a bid to win the £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar by proving their skills in sales, creativity, leadership, strategy and business insight in a series of testing tasks. They all think they have what it takes, but only one candidate can win the final battle for boardroom supremacy.

This year’s budding business partners come from a diverse range of careers and backgrounds; from law and social care to marketing and management, and from fitness and fashion to accountancy and technology.

We meet the 20 candidates on Tuesday, 10 boys and 10 girls and over the coming 12 weeks and this leaves Lord Sugar with the power to give more than one candidate a week the boot. What is the prize they are all competing for? A very cool £250,000 investment into a business, which the winner and Sugar will own 50/50.  

Lord Sugar kicks off the series by splitting the candidates into two teams – girls vs boys. He challenges them to sell products which have all appeared in the first task of the last nine series including sausages, flowers, coffee and fruit. They are also given cash with which to add value to the products and can choose whether to sell the items directly to the public or in bulk to trade. With the aim of making as much money as possible, they must strategize carefully and plan their selling time wisely. But will the candidates prove they can better the last nine years of selling in this supersized sales task?

Each task will, as always, be followed by a showdown in the boardroom. Which candidates will prove cut-throat competitors and who will play it safe? When the losing team returns to face Lord Sugar, who will find their mistakes have led them to hear the infamous words “You’re Fired!”? We can’t wait to find out!

Catch the first episode of the new series on Tuesday 14th October at 9pm on BBC One.