The Apprentice (UK TV series)

The Apprentice
Genre	Reality game show
Created by	Mark Burnett
Starring	Lord Sugar (2005-present) Nick Hewer (2005-2014) Margaret Mountford (2005-2009) Karren Brady (2010-present) Claude Littner (2015-present)
Narrated by	Mark Halliley
Theme music composer	Dru Masters
Opening theme	"Dance of the Knights" by Prokofiev
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	12
No. of episodes	132
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Production company(s)	Talkback (2005) Talkback Thames (2006–11) Boundless (2012–) Mark Burnett Productions (2006–13) United Artists Media Group (2014–)
Distributor	FremantleMedia
Release
Original network	BBC Two (2005–06) BBC One (2007–)
Picture format	16:9 (1080i HDTV)
Original release	16 February 2005 (2005-02-16) – present
Chronology
Related shows	The Apprentice (US version) The Apprentice (Irish version) The Apprentice: You're Fired! Young Apprentice
External links
Website

The Apprentice

The Board

Lord Sugar (series 1–) Nick Hewer (series 1–10) Margaret Mountford (series 1–5) Karren Brady (series 6–) Claude Littner (series 11–)

Series One

Hired: Tim Campbell Runner-up: Saira Khan Other candidates: Paul, James, Miriam, Raj, Ben, Sebastian, Rachel, Matthew, Adele, Miranda, Lindsay, Adenike

Series Two

Hired: Michelle Dewberry Runner-up: Ruth Badger Other candidates: Ansell, Paul, Syed, Tuan, Sharon, Samuel, Jo, Mani, Alexa, Karen, Nargis, Ben

Series Three

Hired: Simon Ambrose Runner-up: Kristina Grimes Other candidates: Katie, Tre, Lohit, Naomi, Jadine, Ghazal, Adam, Paul, Natalie, Sophie, Gerri, Rory, Ifti, Andy

Series Four

Hired: Lee McQueen Runner-up: Claire Young Other candidates: Helene, Alex, Lucinda, Michael, Raef, Sara, Jennifer, Jenny, Kevin, Lindi, Simon, Ian, Shazia, Nicholas

Series Five

Hired: Yasmina Siadatan Runner-up: Kate Walsh Other candidates: Debra, Lorraine, James, Howard, Ben, Mona, Philip, Noorul, Kimberly, Paula, Majid, Rocky, Anita, Adam

Series Six

Hired: Stella English Runner-up: Chris Bates Other candidates: Jamie, Joanna, Stuart, Liz, Laura, Christopher, Sandeesh, Alex, Paloma, Melissa, Shibby, Joy, Raleigh, Dan

Series Seven

Hired / Business Partner: Thomas Pellereau Runner-up: Helen Milligan Other Candidates: Susan, Jim, Natasha, Melody, Zoe, Leon, Glen, Edna, Vincent, Ellie, Felicity, Gavin, Alex, Edward

Series Eight

Hired / Business Partner: Ricky Martin Runner-up: Tom Gearing Other Candidates: Nick, Jade, Adam, Stephen, Gabrielle, Jenna, Laura, Azhar, Katie, Duane, Jane, Michael, Maria, Bilyana

Series Nine

Hired / Business Partner: Leah Totton Runner-up: Luisa Zissman Other candidates: Francesca, Neil, Jordan, Myles, Alex, Jason, Natalie, Kurt, Rebecca, Zeeshaan, Uzma, Sophie, Tim, Jaz

Series Ten

Hired / Business Partner: Mark Wright Runner-up: Bianca Miller Other candidates: Daniel, Roisin, Solomon, Sanjay, Katie, Felipe, James, Lauren, Pamela, Jemma, Ella Jade, Sarah, Steven, Nurun, Lindsay, Scott, Robert, Chiles

Series Eleven

Hired / Business Partner: Joseph Valente Runner-up: Vana Koutsomitis Other candidates: Richard, Gary, Charleine, Brett, Selina, Scott, David, Sam, April, Mergim, Elle, Natalie, Ruth, Jenny, Aisha, Dan

Series Twelve

Hired / Business Partner: Alana Spencer Runner-up: Courtney Wood Other candidates: Frances, Jessica, Grainne, Trishna, Sofiane, Dillon, Paul, Samuel, Karthik, Rebecca, JD, Mukai, Aleksandra, Oliver, Natalie, Michelle

The Apprentice is a British reality game show in which a group of aspiring businessmen and women compete against each other in a series business related challenges, in order to win a prize offered by British business magnate, Lord (Alan) Sugar. For series one to six, the prize was to become his "apprentice" and work at his former company, Amstrad (sold to BSkyB in 2007), or one of his other companies, Viglen,Amsprop or Amshold, receiving a six-figure salary, but since the seventh series, the prize is £250,000 investment towards a business of the candidate's creation, with Sugar as a 50% owner. Rumours of a UK version of The Apprentice were confirmed in early 2004 by FremantleMedia, with the BBC successfully outbidding Channel 4 to secure the rights for the show. Billed as a "job interview from hell", the programme operates in very similar format to that of the American original, with its creator Mark Burnett producing the UK version; Lord Sugar became the finalised choice to head the programme's first series, after the broadcaster's initial choices, Philip Green, Felix Dennis and Michael O'Leary, turned down the offer to head the show, whereupon he returned for subsequent series after this, despite initial doubts he wouldn't for the second series.

Each series of the programme consists of twelve episodes, and the first two series were aired on BBC Two in 2005 and 2006 respectively, before its success led the BBC to commission more series and move the show over to BBC One; subsequent series were usually shown in the Spring, or delayed to the Autumn to avoid clashing with major political and sporting events being held in that year. During the broadcast of the twelfth series in late 2016, it was confirmed that applications had opened for a thirteenth series, to be aired in 2017.

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Wikipedia