Celebrity series of The Apprentice to air on BBC for 20th anniversary – with hopes of signing Cheryl and Piers Morgan
THE creators of The Apprentice will make a celebrity version of the show next year as it celebrates its 20th birthday.
It’s the first time the spin off from the BBC one business contest, hosted by Lord Sugar, has been staged in 16 years.
Producers will be hoping to sign up from big names who’ve appeared on the celeb version before including Cheryl Tweedy and Piers Morgan.
A TV insider said: “Execs want to get a-list stars involved for this very special version of The Apprentice, and signing up Piers in particular would be TV gold as there’s a long-running stand off between him and Lord Sugar.
“Few celebrities have been approached yet as the show is still at the early stages and they want to take their time carefully selecting the right mix for the programme.”
The new version is likely to go out towards the end of 2025, and will air just before the release of the 20th series. The show had to miss a season in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
The first episode of the UK’s Apprentice, which was hosted by the then Sir Alan Sugar, was on February 15, 2005, and it was almost an instant hit with viewers.
Then came the celeb spin offs in 2007, first for Comic Relief, featuring Piers, Cheryl, Maureen Lipman and Karren Brady, who went on to star in the “civilian” version of the show alongside Lord Sugar.
The second was in 2008 for Sport Relief with a line up that included Alan Carr, Jonathan Ross, Michelle Mone and Patsy Palmer.
In the same year Piers went on to star in the US version of the show when the now President of the United States, Donald Trump, was fronting the contest. It was also the cementing of a personal relationship between the two men.
A spokeswoman for the creators declined to comment.