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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Kirsten McStay

BBC The Apprentice to return next year with Claude Littner

The BBC ’s award-winning business show The Apprentice will return to our screens for a 17th series next year. The brand new series will see more candidates and tasks overseas, setting it up to be the best yet.

Joining Lord Sugar will be his trusted advisors Baroness Karren Brady, Tim Campbell MBE and Claude Littner, who returns for two episodes.

For the first time since series 13, the show will return with 18 new candidates, all competing to win a life-changing £250,000 investment in their businesses. The hopeful candidates will be thrown in at the deep end from day one, seeing them travel to Antigua where they are tasked with creating and selling excursions to tourists.

Candidates are going to be put through a series of gruelling tasks to show Lord Sugar they are the best person to be his business partner, from creating their own cartoon, to the world of male beauty, from immersive events, to street food.

With the stakes higher than ever and the loser’s cab on standby, as always there’s no easing gently back into boardroom life in this series as candidates bid to become Lord Sugar’s next business partner and winner of The Apprentice.

Lord Sugar with last year's winner Harpreet Kaur (PA)

Over the years, Lord Sugar has invested close to a staggering £3million into winning pitches, and this year’s ambitious entrepreneurs will be doing their utmost to prove they mean business as they fight it out for the life-changing investment opportunity.

Comedian, writer and actor Tom Allen will return as host of The Apprentice: You’re Fired, which will air each week on BBC Two, straight after the main show. Casting a wry eye over each week’s events, Tom will be joined by a host of celebrity fans and business professionals to dissect and debate the candidates' progress through each task.

Series 16 of The Apprentice saw a record return, peaking at 8.9M for the launch episode (highest ep since 2017 final). The series saw a standout young performance averaging 2.1M across the series, making it one of the highest rating young titles on the BBC of this year.

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