Lord Sugar says the original format of The Apprentice backfired badly so he decided to change it.
When the BBC business reality show began in 2005, Sugar, who hosts it, rewarded winners with a mega-paid job. But other staff in his firms became jealous.
The tycoon, 75, revealed: “A lot of people ignore the fact that the original format was that the winner would work for me for a six figure sum. That frankly never worked out too well as the winner had to work in one of my companies where people earned far less than that and were unhappy when they turned up.
“So we changed the format so the winner ends up in a 50/50 business with me and I inject £250,000 from day one. They run the business and I mentor them.
“It has been successful since we started that and we began doing that since series seven, and now we are on series 17.”
Recent winners include Carina Lepore who runs Dough Artisan Bakehouse after he injected cash. Speaking at the Oxford Union, Lord Sugar also laid into petrol giants like BP and called for a cap on prices they can charge.
But he said independent business leaders should not be taxed as heavily.
He told the University’s famous debating society: “Corporations like BP put petrol up and are rolling in profits. The government should stop people exploiting things. But you can’t hold back entrepreneurs.”
