# The Apprentice (2005)

> Young entrepreneurs compete through business tasks and weekly firings to win a partnership with a successful British tycoon.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/2346

## Facts

- Seasons: 20
- Episodes: 266
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: reality
- Created by: Mark Burnett
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Samantha Moon, Claude Littner, Michelle Dewberry, Ruth Badger, Nick Hewer, Lord Alan Sugar, Karren Brady, Thomas Skinner
- TMDB rating: 7.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450897/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: competitive, brisk, cutting, tense, pressured

## Synopsis

The Apprentice (2005-present) is a British reality competition series created by Mark Burnett for BBC One. Young entrepreneurs vie for a business partnership with self-made tycoon Lord Alan Sugar, who acts as the boss and hands down the final verdict. Each week the candidates are split into teams and sent through business tasks in areas such as marketing, sales, advertising, product design and manufacturing, and every episode builds toward a boardroom meeting where one candidate is fired. The engine of the show is survival: contestants must impress Sugar and his aides, Nick Hewer, Karren Brady and Claude Littner, while avoiding the blame that falls on whoever is judged weakest. Narrated with brisk, pointed commentary and built around the tension of the boardroom, the series runs as a continuing competition across twenty seasons, moving from one cohort to the next. Its tone is sharp, competitive and often cutting, with an atmosphere of corporate pressure and public scrutiny. Fans of Survivor and Shark Tank will find resonance in its elimination format and high-stakes pitching, and the show remains a defining British tradition of business reality television.

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