The Apprentice: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

The Apprentice sees fourteen candidates, competing against each other for a position at Lord Alan Sugar's company. Each week the candidates take part in a task set by Lord Sugar. Each team will have a Team Leader who managers that group for that task. The team that performs the best will win a reward and avoid the boardroom. The losing team will be summoned to the boardroom where their team leader will be forced to pick two people in their team who we join them in the boardroom and a chance to be fired. After twelve weeks Lord Sugar will be left with his Apprentice, who will work for him at a salary of £100,000. Lord Sugar is very busy so he has Nick and Karen, who act as his eyes and ears, to inform him of what's going on.

Series details

• Title: The Apprentice
• Format: Reality
• Language: English
• Premiere date: 2005-02-16
• Status in TVmaze: Running
• Network listed by TVmaze: BBC One
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 6.9/10
• TVMaze ID: 2958

Cast and credited roles

• Alan Sugar — Alan Sugar
• Mark Halliley — Narrator
• Karren Brady — Board Member
• Nick Hewer — Board Member
• Margaret Mountford — Board Member
• Claude Littner — Board Member
• Timothy Campbell — Board Member

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2005-02-16; final listed air date 2005-05-03; episode order: 13.
• Season 2: premiered 2006-02-22; final listed air date 2006-05-10; episode order: 12.
• Season 3: premiered 2007-03-28; final listed air date 2007-06-10; episode order: 14.
• Season 4: premiered 2008-03-26; final listed air date 2008-06-11; episode order: 15.
• Season 5: premiered 2009-03-25; final listed air date 2009-06-07; episode order: 15.
• Season 6: premiered 2010-10-06; final listed air date 2010-12-19; episode order: 14.
• Season 7: premiered 2011-05-10; final listed air date 2011-07-17; episode order: 14.
• Season 8: premiered 2012-03-21; final listed air date 2012-06-03; episode order: 14.
• Season 9: premiered 2013-05-07; final listed air date 2013-07-17; episode order: 14.
• Season 10: premiered 2014-10-14; final listed air date 2014-12-21; episode order: 14.
• Season 11: premiered 2011-03-13; final listed air date 2015-12-20; episode order: 14.
• Season 12: premiered 2016-10-06; final listed air date 2016-12-18; episode order: 14.
• Season 13: premiered 2017-10-04; final listed air date 2017-12-17; episode order: 14.
• Season 14: premiered 2018-10-03; final listed air date 2018-12-16; episode order: 14.
• Season 15: premiered 2019-10-02; final listed air date 2019-12-18; episode order: 14.
• Season 16: premiered 2022-01-06; final listed air date 2022-03-24; episode order: 14.
• Season 17: premiered 2023-01-05; final listed air date 2023-03-23; episode order: 12.
• Season 18: premiered 2024-02-01; final listed air date 2024-04-18; episode order: 12.
• Season 19: premiered 2025-01-30; final listed air date 2025-04-17; episode order: 12.
• Season 20: premiered 2026-01-29; final listed air date 2026-04-16; episode order: 12.

Source and licence

Adapted from The Apprentice on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.