The Apprentice (British TV series) series 20
| The Apprentice | |
|---|---|
| Series 20 | |
| Starring | |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC One |
| Original release | 29 January 2026 |
| Series chronology | |
The twentieth series of British reality television series The Apprentice premiered on 29 January 2026.[1] Karren Brady and Tim Campbell returned as Lord Sugar's aides. The series featured twenty candidates, the highest number since the tenth series in 2014.[2]
Production
In April 2024, prior to the airing of the previous series, the BBC announced that applications were open for the twentieth series.[3][4] They closed on 15 February 2025.[5] Lord Sugar announced that he would return for this series, and at least two further series thereafter.[6] Karren Brady and Tim Campbell are set to return as Sugar's aides.[7] Tom Allen stepped down from the programme's spin off show The Apprentice: You're Fired! after seven years, with Angela Scanlon taking over as host and the programme being rebranded as The Apprentice: Unfinished Business.[8]
Series overview
Candidates
The twenty candidates appearing in the twentieth series were announced on 19 January 2026.[9]
| Candidate | Background | Age | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conor Galvin | Photobooth business owner | 29 | TBA |
| Dan Miller | Student recruitment company owner | 27 | TBA |
| Karishma Vijay | Beauty brand owner | 28 | TBA |
| Kieran McCartney | Estate agent | 26 | TBA |
| Lawrence Rosenberg | Public relations specialist | 28 | TBA |
| Levi Hague | Former RAF gunner and HGV driver | 32 | TBA |
| Pascha Myhill | Recruitment consultant | 22 | TBA |
| Priyesh Bathia | Global account manager | 28 | TBA |
| Rothna Akhtar | Student wellbeing advisor | 28 | TBA |
| Harry Clough | Financial sales manager | 27 | Fired in the eighth task |
| Rajan Gill | Pharmaceutical sales specialist | 30 | Fired in the seventh task |
| Andrea Cooper | Lettings agency owner | 46 | Fired in the sixth task |
| Carrington Saunders | Online loungewear business owner | 23 | |
| Megan Ruiter | Online clothing brand owner | 26 | |
| Vanessa Tetteh-Squire | Technology project manager | 28 | Fired in the fifth task |
| Roxanne Hamedi | Pharmacist | 32 | Fired in the fourth task |
| Tanmay Hingorani | AI product consultant | 28 | Fired in the third task |
| Marcus Donkoh | Barber shop owner | 28 | Fired in the second task |
| Georgina Newton | Actress and events manager | 31 | Fired in the first task |
| Nikki Jetha | Mortgage broker | 33 |
Performance chart
| Task Number | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| Conor | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSE | LOSS | IN | IN | BR | ||||
| Dan | IN | BR | WIN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | ||||
| Karishma | LOSS | IN | LOSS | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | ||||
| Kieran | WIN | BR | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSE | ||||
| Lawrence | IN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | BR | IN | LOSE | LOSS | ||||
| Levi | IN | IN | IN[a] | LOSS | IN | IN | BR | WIN | ||||
| Pascha | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | BR | IN | LOSS | IN | ||||
| Priyesh | IN | BR | LOSS | IN | LOSS | WIN | IN | IN | ||||
| Rothna | BR | IN | IN | LOSS | WIN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | ||||
| Harry | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | WIN | FIRED | ||||
| Rajan | IN | LOSS | IN | BR | IN | LOSS | FIRED | |||||
| Andrea | BR | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Carrington | BR | IN | LOSE | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Megan | LOSS | IN | BR | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Vanessa | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | FIRED | |||||||
| Roxanne | BR | IN | IN | FIRED | ||||||||
| Tanmay | IN | LOSS | FIRED | |||||||||
| Marcus | IN | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Georgina | FIRED | |||||||||||
| Nikki | FIRED | |||||||||||
- HIRED The candidate won this series of The Apprentice.
- RUNNER-UP The candidate was the runner-up.
- WIN The candidate won as project manager on their team, for this task.
- LOSE The candidate lost as project manager on their team, for this task.
- IN The candidate was on the winning team for this task / passed the Interviews stage.
- LOSS The candidate was on the losing team for this task.
- BR The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task.
- FIRED The candidate was fired in this task.
- FIRED The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.
- LEFT The candidate lost as project manager for this task and left the process.
- IN The candidate did not participate in the task due to illness.
Notes
- ^ Levi did not return for the boardroom following the second task due to illness, and was ultimately unable to compete in the third task.
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) [10] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 261 | 1 | "Hong Kong" | 29 January 2026 | 5.22 | |
|
Lord Sugar begins his search for a new business partner for 2026 amongst twenty new candidates.[11] For their first task, the teams are sent to Hong Kong and tasked with buying a list of nine items. Whichever team spends the least, including any fines for missing or incorrect items, will win. Both teams suffer from severe disorganisation and struggle to identify the correct items. The men's team emerge victorious due to purchasing one more item than the women's team and not being as late back. Following scrutiny over the women's team's disastrous performance, Lord Sugar decides to ask both the project manager and the sub-team leader to bring two of their colleagues each back into the boardroom, and he proceeded to fire one person from each sub-team. Nikki Jetha becomes the first to be fired for her lack of strategy and poor leadership of the team as a whole, while Georgina Newton is also dismissed for her unsuitable personality. | |||||
| 262 | 2 | "Children's Story" | 5 February 2026 | 4.70 | |
|
The teams are summoned to the Paddington Bear Experience, where they are tasked with creating a children's story and an accompanying audiobook. They are to pitch the stories to retailers, with the winners being whoever shifts more copies. Following the double firing the previous week, the women's team are asked to select a member of the men's team to join them. They choose Levi Hague, who is ultimately absent from the final boardroom due to illness. The men's team create a story about an astronaut looking for somewhere to go to the toilet, while the women's team, reinforced by the transfer of Levi, opt for a story about a zebra on his first day of school. Both stories have some problems, with the men's story lacking illustrations on two pages and thought to have too much toilet humour, while the women's story contains visual elements not acknowledged in the narrative. In the end, retailers order more copies of the women's story, leaving the men facing questions about their flawed product. Of the final four, Marcus Donkoh is dismissed for his poor leadership, attempting to back a flawed story, and failing to bring back the sub-team members responsible for the said story into the boardroom. | |||||
| 263 | 3 | "Chicken v Egg" | 12 February 2026 | 5.05 | |
|
The teams are summoned to the historic Café Royal Grill where they are tasked with making a profit on either a recipe of chicken or eggs. Levi Hague was absent from this task due to illness. Alpha is given 25 kilograms of chicken and produce chicken and mushroom pie to sell to the public, but struggles stem from some unclear instructions and partial indecision from the project manager and raised questions about the chicken and courgette canapé flavour. Eclipse is given 25 kilograms of eggs and make carbonara to sell to the public and egg skewers to sell as a canapé corporate order but struggles include dietary restrictions across the recipe team, an inability to calculate the cost of ingredients, poor negotiation skills (negotiating an immediate lower price), struggles in the kitchen and tardiness of the sub-team in service for the corporate side. Despite a larger refund, Alpha emerge victorious after it is revealed they achieved a higher profit than Eclipse, leaving the latter under scrutiny. Of the final three, Lord Sugar fires Tanmay Hingorani for demonstrating poor negotiation skills throughout the task, which doomed the team. | |||||
| 264 | 4 | "Advertising Water" | 19 February 2026 | 4.38 | |
|
The candidates are summoned to the Crossness Pumping Station to design a brand of bottled water, as well as create a TV advertisement and a social media campaign for their product, to which they will pitch to a social media panel, which includes rapper and bottled water entrepreneur Big Zuu. Team Eclipse's campaign caters towards the fitness edge and are praised for their advert, but face criticism of the branding of their product resembling a dairy drink, as well as a disastrous TikTok live stream to promote their product. Alpha focus on promoting their product to commuters, but issues include an unclear vision from the project manager, poor branding of the product, issues in pitching the product and an uninteresting advert, despite their TikTok live stream being deemed more interesting. Ultimately, Lord Sugar decides that Eclipse's campaign is better, leaving Alpha to answer for their failure. Of the final three, Roxanne Hamedi is ejected from the process after being held responsible for creating the team's poor branding. | |||||
| 265 | 5 | "Flowers" | 26 February 2026 | 4.77 | |
|
Lord Sugar visits the candidates' house personally to deliver the next challenge: to turn petals into profits by selling flowers to the public and corporate clients, in a special twist on the very first ever task on the first series of The Apprentice. Team Eclipse pitch to a fragrance manufacturer, and despite their client being a little disappointed with the quality of their floral display, the team manage to salvage a price close to the originally agreed one by including some bouquets. Eclipse also sell out of flowers while selling to the public. Alpha pitch to a West End theatre, who are roundly unsatisfied with their The Devil Wears Prada-themed floral wall and only give them half the agreed price, while the team's failure to prepare enough bouquets sees them fail to sell all the flowers that they ordered. The teams also sell their bouquets to the public in a shopping centre. Eclipse managed to score a landslide win, leading to Alpha facing scrutiny for the troubles they had caused. Of the final three, Vanessa Tetteh-Squire is fired for her poor leadership of the team, and for bringing a teammate back into the boardroom without a good reason. | |||||
| 266 | 6 | "Egypt" | 5 March 2026 | TBD | |
|
Continuing after the previous boardroom, a postcard from Lord Sugar is delivered to the house, revealing the next task where the candidates will travel to El Gouna, Egypt to provide corporate away days. Alpha opts for a tour of the desert, along with a coffee-making experience and a meal, and get generally positive feedback despite some criticism over their meal, causing their client to ask for a small refund. Eclipse's event, featuring a boat trip on the Nile, is panned for its sudden kayaking experience and bad meal service, resulting in their client asking for a large refund. Alpha emerge victorious after finishing the task with a profit, while Eclipse are left facing severe criticism over their loss. Amongst the losing team, Lord Sugar fires three members for specific reasons – Megan Ruiter for her generally poor track record in the process and leading the team to a heavy defeat on a task she was qualified to lead; Carrington Saunders for her mismanagement of the team's kitchen which led to many complaints from the client; and Andrea Cooper for her negative attitude throughout the task. | |||||
| 267 | 7 | "Gamified Fitness" | 12 March 2026 | TBD | |
|
The candidates are summoned to MARS Volume where they are challenged to create a virtual reality game with a fitness theme. The branding teams go to Holborn Studios to create their game brand and pitch their games to industry experts including Christine Ohuruogu and Miles Jacobson at The O2 Arena. Eclipse decide to create a game where players must defeat frog-like creatures, while Alpha designed a game involving the collection of gold coins. Alpha win the task after securing a higher investment, leaving Eclipse to face questions over its characters and lack of storyline. Of the final three, Rajan Gill is dismissed for his lack of overall contributions and for continuously highlighting errors without offering any solutions. | |||||
| 268 | 8 | "Discount Buying: Take Two" | 19 March 2026 | TBD | |
|
The candidates are summoned to the Cutty Sark where Lord Sugar gave the remaining candidates an opportunity for redemption after a disastrous performance on the previous discount buying challenge in Hong Kong. This time, they are challenged to secure nine more items for the best price on the Isle of Wight. At the end of the day, they must arrive at the hovercraft at Ryde. In the reverse of the Hong Kong task, both teams perform well, securing impressive discounts and arriving at the destination on time. Eclipse emerges as the victor, thanks to only missing one item, while Alpha missed two. Of the final three, Lord Sugar faced a difficult decision on who to fire, but ultimately, with regret, Lord Sugar decided to fire Harry Clough, whose hasty purchase of a paddleboard is judged to have been ultimately responsible for the team's defeat. | |||||
| 269 | 9 | "TV Selling" | 26 March 2026 | TBD | |
|
The candidates take on selling their socks off on a TV channel | |||||
| 270 | 10 | "Pet Product" | 2 April 2026 | TBD | |
|
As the final tasks approach, the candidates must design and pitch a pet product, and create a social media campaign to promote it. | |||||
References
- ^ "The Apprentice returns this month… but you'll have to wait longer for series 20". Tech Advisor. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ Sansome, Jessica (19 January 2026). "The Apprentice 2026 line-up confirmed amid BBC show 'first'". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 19 January 2026.
- ^ Staples, Louis (6 February 2025). "The Apprentice at 20: how Trump and Alan Sugar's reality TV baby became little more than ritual humiliation". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ "The Apprentice | Shows and tours". BBC. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ "All you need to know about new The Apprentice from candidates to start date". Wandsworth Times. 20 January 2025. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ "The Apprentice: Lord Sugar signs up to stay on show into his 80s". BBC. 20 March 2025. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ Molina-Whyte, Lidia. "The Apprentice's Lord Sugar confirms 3 more seasons in works | Radio Times". Radio Times. Retrieved 12 December 2025.
- ^ "The Apprentice: Unfinished Business is coming to BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds". BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
- ^ "The Apprentice 2026: Meet the 20 hopefuls vying for Lord Sugar's investment". The Independent. 19 January 2026. Retrieved 19 January 2026.
- ^ "Weekly top 50 shows". BARB. Retrieved 15 March 2026.
- ^ "The Apprentice - Series 20: 1. Hong Kong" – via www.bbc.co.uk.