| Young Apprentice | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Reality television series |
| Created by | Mark Burnett (original format) Lord Sugar |
| Judges | Lord Sugar Nick Hewer Karren Brady |
| Narrated by | Mark Halliley |
| Theme music composer | Prokofiev |
| Opening theme | Dance of the Knights |
| Composer(s) | Dru Masters |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 14 (as of 12 December 2011) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | for Mark Burnett Production: Mark Burnett C. Scot Cru for Talkback Thames: Sue Davidson Michele Kurland for the BBC: Jo Wallace |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Mark Burnett Productions |
| Distributor | Talkback Thames |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC One |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV |
| Original run | 12 May 2010 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Apprentice (Regular version) (2005–present) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Young Apprentice (Junior Apprentice in series 1) is a British reality television programme in which a group of twelve young people, aged 16 and 17, compete to win a £25,000 prize from the British business magnate Lord Sugar. The six-part series began on BBC One and BBC HD on Wednesday, 12 May 2010, concluding on Thursday, 10 June of the same year, and also featured Nick Hewer and Karren Brady as Sugar's advisors. Karren Brady made her debut on Junior Apprentice, because it aired before she appeared on the adult version. The programme concluded with Sugar awarding the prize fund to 17-year-old Arjun Rajyagor and Tim Ankers finished in second place.
The second series started in October 2011, and this time featured eight episodes and twelve contestants. The series was won by Zara Brownless, with James McCullough as runner-up.
Originally proposed in March 2008 and confirmed in June 2009, Junior Apprentice received mostly positive reviews from critics. The programme is a spin-off from the series The Apprentice, which was in turn spawned from an American series of the same name, which stars the entrepreneur Donald Trump. Sugar's role under Gordon Brown's government sparked a debate over the BBC's political impartiality regulations in the run-up to the UK 2010 election, resulting in both Junior Apprentice and the sixth regular edition of The Apprentice being delayed.
Contents |
On 8 January 2004, the first series of The Apprentice began airing on NBC in America, featuring Donald Trump with production by Mark Burnett Productions and Trump Productions LLC.[1] Rumours of a UK version of The Apprentice were confirmed in March of the same year by FremantleMedia.[2] Both the BBC and Channel 4 bid for the programme’s rights; the former was eventually successful.[3][4] On 18 May 2004, Sir Alan Sugar was confirmed to take Trump's role after names such as Michael O'Leary, Sir Philip Green, Greg Dyke and Sir Richard Branson were suggested.[4][5][6] Up until the airing of Junior Apprentice, five main series and three celebrity editions had been broadcast.[7]
In March 2008, Sir Alan Sugar announced that he had proposed a teenage version of The Apprentice to the BBC to be broadcast around "the six, seven o'clock timeslot featuring 12 to 15-year-old kids"; however, he claimed that "nobody took any notice" of his suggestions.[8] Twelve months later, Sugar said that he was in negotiations regarding the programme and it was officially announced by the BBC and Talkback Thames on the 20 May 2009 episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired!.[9][10] Applicants, of ages 16 and 17 and from a variety of social and educational backgrounds, were encouraged to apply via The Apprentice website in what was originally announced as a five-part series, with Sugar seeking to "promote enterprise amongst young people, as the future of our economy relies on them".[11] In all, 28,000 people applied and ten of these were selected for the programme.[12]
On 5 June 2009, Sugar was hired as the Labour Party Enterprise Tsar under Gordon Brown's government and assumed the title Lord Sugar.[13] Despite debates regarding whether Sugar could continue with his role due to the corporation's political impartiality, the BBC decreed that he was able to continue to feature on The Apprentice and its related programming.[14] However, due to this conflict of interest, both Junior Apprentice and the sixth series of The Apprentice were delayed until after the 2010 general election on 6 May 2010.[15]
The BBC announced on 3 May 2010 that Junior Apprentice was to begin on 12 May 2010 at 21:00 on BBC One and BBC HD.[16][17] Karren Brady, replacing Margaret Mountford, and Nick Hewer, assisted Sugar and oversaw the actions of the ten participants throughout the series.[18] The final instalment of the six episode series was broadcast on 10 June 2010.[7] The series was executive produced by Jo Wallace for the BBC, Mark Burnett and C. Scot Cru for Mark Burnett Productions and Sue Davidson and Michele Kurland for Talkback Thames.[7][19]
On 28 August 2010 the BBC confirmed that a second series of the Junior Apprentice had been commissioned. The new series will once again feature 16 to 17 year olds and will feature an extended 8 episode format.In the sixth episode of the second series it said applications were open for the next young apprentice which means there is going to be a series 3
The format of the programme is very similar to that of the regular series, but it was noted that Sugar, Brady and Hewer adopted a more gentle tone with the comparatively young participants.[20] Aiming to win a prize of £25,000, ten candidates participate in a series of tasks over a six week period. Each week, the group is divided into two teams and must compete in a task relating to business. Each team then selects a project manager, who is responsible for the leadership of the team throughout that task, and the groups are observed by either Brady or Hewer. When the task is over, the teams return to the boardroom and Lord Sugar announces the winner of the task. Whilst the winning team are treated to a reward, Lord Sugar, Brady and Hewer discuss the failings with the team that lost. The project manager of this losing team must then select two of their colleagues to return to the boardroom and face the possibility of being fired; from the fourth week onwards, all members of the losing team automatically return to the boardroom. A further discussion is held and Lord Sugar decides which one of the three he will fire from the competition. Unlike the original version of The Apprentice, none of the fired candidate of The Junior Apprentice are filmed as riding into a taxi during their walk of shame. Instead they take their ride back home in Lord Sugar's Rolls-Royce.
This process was followed until the end of the fifth week, then there were four candidates remaining. The final task saw the four equally divided into two teams and they were accompanied by previously fired candidates. On the tasks's conclusion, Sugar immediately fired the losing team and went onto decide which of the winning candidates to reward with the prize fund. Throughout the series, the candidates reside at a Georgian townhouse in Islington.[20]
Unusually on The Apprentice, every candidate for this series had a chance to be a project manager at some point. The only other series this has happened was the second series of the main programme.
| Candidate | Original team | Age | Hometown | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arjun Rajyagor | Instinct | 17 | Lancashire | Winner |
| Tim Ankers | Instinct | 17 | Lancashire | Fired in week 6 |
| Kirsty Cleaver | Revolution | 17 | Scotland | Fired in week 6 |
| Zoe Plummer | Revolution | 16 | London | Fired in week 6 |
| Emma Walker | Revolution | 16 | Cheshire | Fired in week 5 |
| Hannah Cherry | Revolution | 17 | Bedfordshire | Fired in week 4 |
| Rhys Rosser | Instinct | 17 | Powys | Fired in week 3 |
| Adam Eliaz | Instinct | 17 | London | Quit in week 3 |
| Hibah Ansary | Revolution | 16 | Manchester | Fired in week 2 |
| Jordan De Courcy | Instinct | 16 | County Wicklow, Ireland | Fired in week 1 |
In the first week, the candidates, segregated into teams by sex, were instructed to sell £500 of cheese to consumers from a London market.[20][21] The groups decided upon their project managers and team names; the boys chose Jordan to run Instinct and Hibah led the girls' Revolution.[22] Revolution set up their pitch in Covent Garden whilst Instinct sold from Whitecross Street Market.[23] Despite the fact that both teams sold all of their cheese, the task concluded with Instinct making a loss of £210.01 and Revolution earning a £143.88 profit, resulting in Instinct losing the task.[22][24] The members of the winning team were rewarded with a meal prepared by Tom Aikens, the youngest British chef to hold two Michelin stars.[21] Jordan decided to call Tim and Rhys back to the boardroom and Lord Sugar fired Jordan because he "couldn't control" his team.[24]
The second task saw the teams having to invent a new camping product and pitching it to the retailers Argos, Millets and Marshmallow.[25] Hannah and Adam volunteered as project managers and Lord Sugar made them switch teams; this resulted in Hannah heading Instinct and Adam leading Revolution.[26] Revolution created a multi-purpose storage unit called "Flex N Store", whereas Instinct invented a trolley aimed at festival-goers called "Slide Stuff".[27] Revolution failed to sell any units to the three retailers but Instinct won the task by selling 3,100 and they were rewarded with a fireworks display at Kew Gardens.[25] Adam brought Zoe and Hibah back to the boardroom and Hibah was fired as Lord Sugar believed that her personality did not suit "the cut-throat nature of business".[25]
Week three saw the candidates icing, decorating and selling cupcakes in London's Selfridges.[28][19] The task started with a change in the teams; Arjun moved onto Revolution and Kirsty joined Instinct.[19] Under the leadership of Rhys, Instinct chose a fashion theme for their cakes and Revolution, managed by Zoe, chose an "I heart..." theme.[29] Before the task had concluded, Lord Sugar instructed Adam to depart from the programme after he fell ill.[30] In all, Revolution won the task with a profit of £15.15 and Instinct made a £89.74 loss.[29] Rhys selected Tim and Hannah to return to the boardroom whilst the members of the winning team were rewarded with a meeting with the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.[30] Despite describing him as "a very special person", Lord Sugar chose to fire Rhys.[28]
Emma was appointed as leader of Revolution and Tim lead Instinct in the fourth week.[31] The task saw each group having to negotiation deals with six artists; the teams would then select two of these artists to sell in their respective exhibitions. Revolution selected the works of Tom Lewis and Mark Melvin for their exhibition on Pall Mall and Instinct, stationed on Brick Lane, opted for pieces by Lewis and Sarah Kate Wilson; Lewis opted to work with Revolution, resulting in Instinct substituting him with photography by Andy Taylor Smith.[32] Instinct earned £2247.30 from five pieces of art and Revolution, selling twelve items, profited £6,005.[33] This resulted in Revolution winning and they were rewarded with a visit to the tailor Timothy Everest.[32] Tim, Kirsty and Hannah returned to the boardroom and Lord Sugar, claiming that she was someone who had no practical skills despite being "brilliant on paper", decided to fire Hannah.[31]
Amsterdam, the capital city of The Netherlands, was the setting of the penultimate task in which both teams met six young designers, selected some of their products and returned to the UK to sell them.[34][35] Project manager Arjun was joined by Zoe and Emma in Revolution and Instinct consisted of Kirsty, the project manager, and Tim.[34] After some negotiations between the two teams, Revolution decided to pitch some baby comforters and candle lamps with cutlery sets whilst Instinct had bicycles and dog transportation accessories to pitch to companies such as House of Fraser and Liberty & Co.[36] The task ended with Revolution gaining £10,171.45 and Instinct earning £39,785.09; the highest amount that any team had profited since The Apprentice began, until the fourth episode of Series 6, where a team made over £100,000.[37] Revolution returned to the boardroom and, after sending Arjun through to the final, Lord Sugar fired Emma "with a heavy heart and much regret".[37]
Arjun and Tim competed against Kirsty and Zoe in the final task, in which the teams had to develop a new brand of bottled water and its accompanying advertising campaign before presenting the product to a group of industry professionals.[38] All of the candidates from the preceding weeks returned to help in the final task; Arjun and Tim were assisted by Adam, Emma and Rhys whilst Hannah, Hibah and Jordan worked for Kirsty and Zoe.[39] Deciding on the name "Drip Drop", Kirsty and Zoe targeted the teenage market, whereas Arjun and Tim aimed their product, "A Bottle of Water", at people in their twenties.[39] The teams returned to the boardroom and Lord Sugar decided that Arjun and Tim won the task; this resulted in Kirsty and Zoe being fired.[40] Sugar then decided to hire Arjun in what he called "a tough choice", thus awarding him the £25,000 prize fund.[40]
Arjun and Tim's joint win in this task made them the only male project managers this series to lead a team to victory.
| Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five | The Final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arjun Rajyagor |
Losing team Safe |
Winning team | Winning team | Winning team | Losing team Project manager |
Winner |
| Tim Ankers |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Winning team | Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Losing team Project manager |
Winning team | Runner up |
| Kirsty Cleaver |
Winning team | Losing team Safe |
Losing team Safe |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Winning team Project manager |
Losing team |
| Zoe Plummer |
Winning team | Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Winning team Project manager |
Winning team | Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Losing team |
| Emma Walker |
Winning team | Losing team Safe |
Winning team | Winning team Project manager |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Fired (Week Five) |
| Hannah Cherry |
Winning team | Winning team Project manager |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Fired (Week Four) |
|
| Rhys Rosser |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Winning team | Losing team Project manager |
Fired (Week Three) |
||
| Adam Eliaz |
Losing team Safe |
Losing team Project manager |
Winning team | Departed due to illness (Week Three) |
||
| Hibah Ansary |
Winning team Project manager |
Losing team Brought to the boardroom |
Fired (Week Two) |
|||
| Jordan De Courcy |
Losing team Project manager |
Fired (Week One) |
||||
Key:
| Elimination chart | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
| Arjun | IN | IN | IN | IN | LOSE | WIN | |||||||
| Tim | BR | IN | BR | LOSE | IN | FIRED | |||||||
| Kirsty | IN | IN | IN | BR | WIN | FIRED | |||||||
| Zoe | IN | BR | WIN | IN | BR | FIRED | |||||||
| Emma | IN | IN | IN | WIN | FIRED | ||||||||
| Hannah | IN | WIN | BR | FIRED | |||||||||
| Rhys | BR | IN | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Adam | IN | LOSE | QUIT | ||||||||||
| Hibah | WIN | FIRED | |||||||||||
| Jordan | FIRED | ||||||||||||
| Candidate | Original team | Age | Hometown | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zara Brownless | Kinetic | 16 | Hertfordshire | Winner |
| James McCullagh | Atomic | 17 | County Londonderry, Northern Ireland | Fired in week 8 |
| Haya Al Dlame | Kinetic | 17 | London | Fired in week 7 |
| Harry Maxwell | Atomic | 16 | Northamptonshire | Fired in week 7 |
| Lizzie Magee | Kinetic | 16 | Liverpool | Fired in week 7 |
| Harry Hitchens | Atomic | 16 | Brighton | Fired in week 7 |
| Hayley Forrester | Kinetic | 16 | Shrewsbury | Fired in week 6 |
| Gbemi Okunlola | Kinetic | 16 | London | Fired in week 5 |
| Lewis Roman | Atomic | 16 | Merseyside | Fired in week 4 |
| Hannah Richards | Kinetic | 16 | Berkshire | Fired in week 3 |
| Ben Fowler | Atomic | 16 | Birmingham | Fired in week 2 |
| Mahamed Awale | Atomic | 16 | Brixton | Fired in week 1 |
In the first week, the candidates, segregated into teams by sex, were instructed to make and sell their own ice-cream. Harry H. and Hayley volunteered to lead their respective teams, with the boys choosing to call themselves "Atomic" and the girls calling themselves "Kinetic." Atomic were relatively organised during their production phase, and despite a slow start, managed to sell all their ice cream at Southend-on-Sea. By comparison, Kinetic were severely disorganised while producing their ice cream, and they had to ditch 40% of their mixture when the purchasing sub-team didn't supply enough fruit. However, their location at Chessington World of Adventures proved to be a very good one, and their more daring price (£3 and 20p for a cone, compared to £1.50 for the boys) strategy paid off, with Kinetic sweeping to victory. It was noted that had it not been for a mix-up where the Kinetic subteam didn't realize they had two extra tubs and had to resort to selling it off for 20p a scoop at the end of the day, the girls team would have beaten the boys by a significant margin.
In the boardroom, James was held accountable for Atomic's ice cream being underpriced, and Mahamed came under fire for his aggressive manner, his claim to have been the best salesperson on the team (when in fact the figures showed sold less than half the amount of anyone else on the team bar Lewis, who still sold £10 more), and falsely claiming to have been wholly responsible for the "Pirate" theme which Atomic used to promote their ice cream (as James came up with the theme, whilst Mahamed was responsible only for the mobile team's "treasure chest" design). James and Mahamed were brought back into the boardroom, and Mahamed continued to claim that he was responsible for the theme, even when Harry H. backed up James as having been the one responsible. This ultimately led to Mahamed's firing, though Lord Sugar warned James about his brash and cocky behaviour.
In Week Two, the task for the two teams is to create a product for the baby and parents market. Their products must be imaginative, showing a gap in the market for the product. Atomic, led by Lewis, created a hippo-shaped container for bottles, while Kinetic, under Gbemi's leadership, created a cushion for supporting young babies. Both of the team leaders gave poor pitches to two of the three major retailers that Lord Sugar had arranged appointments with, and gave the last pitch to someone else (Harry H. for the boys, and Haya for the girls). In the end, Kinetic got 7,500 orders, and Atomic just 5,200.
Despite Kinetic's win, Lord Sugar noted Gbemi's poor leadership and pitching, and held Haya's pitch as what ultimately gave the girls the win. In the second boardroom, Lewis chose to bring back Ben for his lack of contribution and Harry M. for failing to get along with the rest of the team. Lord Sugar felt that despite the team's consensus in regards to Harry M., his contributions and concerns about the product were quite true. Lewis was chastised for being a 'glory hunter' despite his very poor pitching skills but in the end, it was Ben who was fired for his sub-par contribution on both tasks.
In the third week, the contestants task is to sell flowers in their own florist business. Lord Sugar reshuffled the teams, and assigned Lizzie to lead Kinetic, and Hannah to lead Atomic. In addition to selling flowers from their own stall, Sugar set up appointments with three businesses; a hotel, a theatre, and a hair salon. Atomic got the theatre and the salon, but Zara blew the negotiations with the hotel by increasing the price Hannah had told her to offer, meaning that Kinetic undercut them. However, Kinetic had to reduce their price even further after the hotel were unhappy with the arrangements they were provided. Atomic chose to pursue a 2x profit margin on their flowers, while Kinetic went for a 3x margin. Kinetic's decision was ultimately vindicated in the final results, as despite Atomic getting the two business deals and a separate £150 sale by Harry M., they lost to Kinetic by £12.
Lewis admitted he had been the least effective member of the team in the boardroom deliberations, but Hannah surprised everyone by instead choosing to bring back Harry M. for being individually focussed over a team player, and Zara for her mistake in the hotel pitch. Lord Sugar told Lewis and Gbemi they had been lucky to escape the boardroom, and that one of them would have been fired had they been brought back (though he did not name specifically who). Ultimately, Lord Sugar decided that Hannah had made a fatal mistake in her boardroom choices; while he agreed that Harry M. and Zara had their issues, they brought in the vast majority of the team's revenue, and therefore Sugar concluded it would be unjust to fire them. Despite the generally positive comments about her leadership, Hannah was fired, "with regret", much to Lewis' extreme anger.
The fourth task was to pick two gadgets, and sell them at an exhibition for over-50s. James stepped up to lead Kinetic and Haya to lead Atomic (Harry H. and Harry M. also volunteered to lead their respective teams, but their team-mates voted against them). Both teams wanted a designer shopping trolley, but Kinetic got it after Lewis unwittingly sabotaged Atomic's pitch by asking irrelevant questions and behaving in a skittish, unprofessional manner. Kinetic therefore got the trolley and a handheld vacuum cleaner, while Atomic had a pie making machine and a bird house with a built-in camera (Harry M. and Hayley wanted an inflatable support pillow instead of the pie maker, but Haya refused to listen to them) . Both teams struggled to sell anything for the first half of the day, and had to resort to drastically cutting prices as the day went on. The standout performers were Harry H. and Lizzie on Kinetic, who overcame their lack of a discount with very effective product demonstrations of the vacuum cleaner, and Harry M. on Atomic, who single-handedly made almost half of his team's revenue by selling five bird boxes to another exhibitor at the end of the day. Kinetic won out with a profit of £1,138.77, largely due to Harry H. and Lizzie's work with the vacuum cleaners, while Atomic suffered their fourth successive defeat after raising just £847.42.
Although Haya attempted to pin much of blame on Harry M. in the boardroom, accusing him of making a bad recommendation with the bird box after the trolley fell through, she decided to bring back Lewis and Hayley based on them being the two least effective salespeople in the task. Lord Sugar considered Haya to be the person most at fault for the failure of the task, due to her insistence on selling the pie maker along with her failure to control Lewis; Hayley was also strongly criticised, for not contributing much since her stint as Project Manager on the first task. In the end though, Lewis was fired based on his disruption of the all-important pitch, along with his generally poor track record throughout the competition.
Note: Haya's loss as Project Manager here made this the only occasion in the series that she was on a losing team.
With the teams completely reshuffled, Lord Sugar assigned them to create their own brand of deodorant, and with it a can and a television advert. As the only candidates that had not yet been project manager, Harry M. and Zara were assigned to lead Kinetic and Atomic respectively. Zara was initially weak in her leadership role and let her team-mates dictate the ideas for their campaign, but she finally took control of the team when it came to making their advert. By contrast, Harry M. was much more autocratic and didn't pay much attention to the advice his team-mates were giving him, which eventually led to Gbemi and Lizzie (who were designing the can) deciding to return the favour and not pay attention to his ideas on the can design. Lord Sugar said that this was the closest decision in any of the advertising tasks since the UK Apprentice began, but ultimately handed Atomic their first win based on the fact that Kinetic's advert and can design were both badly made and did not stand out.
Lizzie was let off the hook relatively early in the boardroom after Nick Hewer complimented the presentation that she had given to the advertising executives, meaning that it was between Harry M., James and Gbemi as to who would go. The two boys were ultimately saved by their previous achievements in the competition (James's victory as project manager the previous week, and Harry M.'s sales prowess), while Gbemi's generally less impressive track record and her poor job of designing the can, despite her claimed design expertise, led to her exit.
Note: Harry M's firing here meant that he had lost five tasks in a row hence making him a joint Apprentice UK record holder with Katie Hopkins from Series 3 alongside Tom Pellerau and Vincent Disneur of Series 7.
Called to one of London's top tourist attractions, Madame Tussauds, both teams are given just ten hours to find ten items for ten waxworks. Whichever team spent the least money would win. After another team reshuffle, Lizzie became the leader of Atomic, while Haya took charge of Kinetic (Harry H. initially volunteered, but ceded the position to Haya due to her better knowledge of London). Kinetic immediately left Tussauds, and initially suffered a lack of organization, with Haya not setting a specific list of who should buy what, which nearly resulted in the team buying two three-piece suits for Tussauds' Justin Bieber waxwork, but the team generally negotiated well, with James in particular being a stand-out. One item which caused the team trouble was a Dashiki, which they spent the day fruitlessly searching for after Harry H. was mistakenly told it was an Arabic garment (instead of an African one). Despite being initially more organized, Atomic's sub-team consisting of Hayley and Zara wasted a lot of time travelling to and from Croydon in order to obtain a pocketwatch which they paid wildly over the odds for, under the mistaken belief that it had to be made from gold. On top of that, Harry M. led the team on a wild goose chase to buy the suit, continually asking adult tailors even after repeatedly being told that they would need to ask a children's tailor for a suit in Bieber's dimensions. Lizzie also made a serious mistake by deciding not to negotiate any discount on a set of shoes near the end of the day, resulting in a massive fine. The end result of these errors was that Atomic suffered a crushing defeat, spending £1,500 compared to Kinetic's £950 outlay.
Harry M. got criticised in the boardroom for his mistakes during the search for the suit, but Lizzie decided to let him go back to the house, feeling he had been the best negotiator. Hayley attempted to persuade Lizzie to bring Harry M. back instead of her because he had lost every single task, but Lizzie did not alter her decision. Lord Sugar felt that Lizzie had been a bad leader, and was annoyed that Zara attempted to claim credit for the team's correct identification of the Dashiki (which actually came from a method suggested by Harry M.), but Hayley was fired due to a perceived lack of contribution to the tasks, as well as concerns that she was too quiet and polite.
Note: Harry M's firing here meant that he had lost six tasks in a row, a new record for any series of the UK show.
Lord Sugar arrived at the candidates' house and gave them their task; to produce two flavours of popcorn and market them to Odeon Cinemas, the Jet2.com airline, and Morrisons supermarkets. He then informed the candidates that only two people would advance to the final, meaning that the entire losing team would be fired, along with one person from the winning team. After one last team reshuffle, James became the leader of Kinetic, and Harry H. the leader of Atomic. Kinetic created a type of Mediterranean popcorn called "La Popcorn," while Atomic created an American-inspired popcorn called "Empire State Popcorn." Despite their popcorn flopping with Jet2.com, who didn't order any bags at all, Kinetic managed a huge order from Morrisons, which single-handedly won them a task. The three Atomic members, Harry H., Harry M. and Lizzie were therefore all fired. This also made Harry M. the least successful candidate in any incarnation of The Apprentice to date, having been present on seven tasks and lost every single one, though Lord Sugar told him he was a very strong candidate and did not deserve to hold such a record.
With one candidate from Kinetic still to be dismissed, Sugar asked the team members who should be fired; James and Haya voted for each other, and Zara voted for Haya. This, along with Zara's generally very strong record throughout the competition, ensured that Lord Sugar made her the first finalist. Sugar had numerous concerns with James, specifically his overly dictatorial leadership style and his poor choice of brand name. However, his 2-0 record as project manager and numerous good performances in the past helped ensure him through to the final at the expense of Haya, who it was widely felt had spent most of this task in the background. Haya was therefore fired, and James and Zara became the final two.
Note: James' victory in both this task and in Week 4's task made him the only boy to manage a team successfully in this series. Harry M's firing here meant that he had lost seven tasks in a row, a new record for any series of the UK show.
The two remaining candidates are given the task to design a new video game with the help of all the finalists from this series.
| Elimination Chart | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||||
| Zara | IN | IN | BR | IN | WIN | BR | IN | WIN | |||||
| James | BR | IN | IN | WIN | BR | IN | WIN | FIRED | |||||
| Haya | IN | IN | IN | LOSE | IN | WIN | FIRED | ||||||
| Harry M. | IN | BR | BR | IN | LOSE | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Lizzie | IN | IN | WIN | IN | IN | LOSE | FIRED | ||||||
| Harry H. | LOSE | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Hayley | WIN | IN | IN | BR | IN | FIRED | |||||||
| Gbemi | IN | WIN | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||||
| Lewis | IN | LOSE | IN | FIRED | |||||||||
| Hannah | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Ben | IN | FIRED | |||||||||||
| Mahamed | FIRED | ||||||||||||
Young Apprentice received a generally positive response from critics. Writing for The Guardian, Tim Lusher was complimentary of the programme's tone by claiming that "for once, even the losers look as if they could be winners one day" and Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy said that from the opening minutes of the first episode it was clear that "this spinoff series isn't going to be any softer or less entertaining than the original".[20][22] The Daily Telegraph's Benji Wilson also praised the series and argued that it "had all of the staggering self-regard and dim-witted hilarity we have come to expect from the contestants on the grown-up Apprentice".[41] The online version of Heat magazine, heatworld.com, praised the series and said that it was "amazing...might just be the best show we’ve seen all year", whilst The Guardian's Johnny Dee claimed that the programme was of better quality than its adult counterpart and proved that reality television "doesn't have to be nasty to be entertaining".[42][43]
Despite branding it as "compelling", John Crace of The Guardian claimed that the programme "gave us a first glimpse of the nightmare possibilities of Cameron Youth" and claimed that Sugar's softer approach to the young candidates came across as "unnatural". As well as the character of Zoe Plummer, also seen to be unnatural.[44] In The Independent, Tom Sutcliffe suggested that the sight of crying teenagers would leave the audience feeling uncomfortable.[45] Shortly before the programme started, both the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies and the Institute of Directors criticised the programme's lack of relevancy to business; the former argued that the BBC should instead be focusing on some of Britain's four million small businesses and the latter claimed that the programme should be more informative instead of "entertainment masquerading as business".[46]
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 May 2010 | 10 June 2010 | 6 |
| 2 | 24 October 2011 | 12 December 2011 | 8 |
Episode viewing figures from BARB.[47]
| Episode No. | Airdate | Total Viewers | BBC One Weekly Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 May 2010 | 4,620,000 | 22 |
| 2 | 19 May 2010 | 4,340,000 | 23 |
| 3 | 26 May 2010 | 5,490,000 | 8 |
| 4 | 2 June 2010 | 4,590,000 | 11 |
| 5 | 9 June 2010 | 4,720,000 | 16 |
| 6 | 10 June 2010 | 5,420,000 | 8 |
| Episode No. | Airdate | Total Viewers | BBC One Weekly Ranking |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24 October 2011 | 4,740,000 | 19 |
| 2 | 31 October 2011 | 4,760,000 | 24 |
| 3 | 7 November 2011 | 4,730,000 | 25 |
| 4 | 14 November 2011 | Under 4,530,000 | Outside Top 30 |
| 5 | 21 November 2011 | Under 4,220,000 | Outside Top 30 |
| 6 | 28 November 2011 | 4,340,000 | 29 |
| 7 | 5 December 2011 | 4,610,000 | 28 |
| 8 | 12 December 2011 |
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