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Young Apprentice (Junior Apprentice in series 1) was 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 12 May 2010, concluding on 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, as it aired before she appeared on the adult version. The programme concluded with Sugar awarding the prize fund to 17-year-old Arjun Rajyagor, with Tim Ankers finishing 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 McCullagh as runner-up.
The third series started on 1 November 2012, also with twelve contestants. The series concluded on 20 December, and was won by Ashleigh Porter-Exley, with Lucy Beauvallet as runner-up. Maria Doran and Patrick McDowell finished in joint third place.
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, featuring 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.
On February 7, 2013, it was confirmed via Lord Sugar's Twitter account that Series 3 of Young Apprentice was its last, stating that the BBC decided not to renew for a fourth series.[1]
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.[2] 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 20 May 2009 episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired!.[3][4] 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".[5] In all, 28,000 people applied and ten of these were selected for the programme.[6]
On 5 June 2009, Sugar was hired as the Labour Party Enterprise Tsar under Gordon Brown's government and assumed the title Lord Sugar.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10][11] Karren Brady, replacing Margaret Mountford, and Nick Hewer, assisted Sugar and oversaw the actions of the ten participants throughout the series.[12] The final instalment of the six episode series was broadcast on 10 June 2010.[13] 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.[13][14]
On 28 August 2010, the BBC confirmed that a second series of the Junior Apprentice had been commissioned. The second series once again featured 16 to 17-year-olds and was an extended 8 episode format. Applications for a third series opened during the second series, and series 3 launched on 1 November 2012.
On 30 August 2012, it was reported that Sugar had axed the show to concentrate on the adult version and also due to declining ratings compared to the ordinary version of the show. Lord Sugar later confirmed on Twitter that the reports were incorrect, and that it was still unknown how long the show would last. However, in February 2013, Lord Sugar confirmed on Twitter that the BBC had indeed cancelled the show.
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.[15] Aiming to win a prize of £25,000, twelve candidates participate in a series of tasks over an eight-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. While 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 Frontera.
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.[15]
The first series featured ten candidates, divided into two teams initially by gender. The boys chose Instinct as their company name, and the girls chose Revolution. This was the second UK series in which every candidate had a chance to be a project manager at some point. This had previously occurred on the second series of the main Apprentice show.
Key:
Twelve candidates took part in this series, and were initially divided by gender as normal. The boys chose the name Atomic for their team name, and the girls chose Kinetic. Two candidates - Mahamed and Ben - never had the chance to be project manager.
Series 3 was initially expected to air in October 2012, but Sugar later announced on Twitter that it would be in November. Twelve candidates are taking part in the series and have been initially divided by gender as normal. The third series started on 1 November 2012 at 20:00 on BBC One.
Notes:
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".[15][16] 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".[36] 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", while 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".[37][38]
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.[39] In The Independent, Tom Sutcliffe suggested that the sight of crying teenagers would leave the audience feeling uncomfortable.[40] 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".[41]
In September 2012, it was announced that Young Apprentice was nominated for the 18th National Television Awards in the category Factual Entertainment.[42]
Episode viewing figures from BARB.[43]
Karren Brady, Doctor Who, Claude Littner, Nick Hewer, The Apprentice (UK series three)
The Apprentice (UK TV series), Bbc, Comedian, Girls Aloud, Mark Burnett
ITV (TV network), Channel 4, BBC One, Gmtv, Adrian Chiles, BSkyB