Celebrity Apprentice confirmed for full series on BBC after Lord Sugar pointed out key format differences

The first ever full-length series of The Celebrity Apprentice is coming to BBC One in 2026, with a new line-up of famous faces braving Lord Sugar's boardroom.

The six-part season will see a group of celebrities take on weekly business challenges set by Lord Sugar himself, all of whom are hoping to avoid being fired and be crowned The Celebrity Apprentice winner.

Lord Sugar said: "We've had some great celebrity names walk into my boardroom over the years, but they’ve only ever had a small taster of what it’s like to be a candidate. It'll be interesting to see how our future celebrities fare across a full series, removing their PAs, PRs, agents and all the other assistance they have in their day-to-day lives to fully immerse themselves into The Apprentice world."

This comes as a festive edition of The Celebrity Apprentice will be coming to screens later this month on the 29th and 30th December, starring Rob Rinder, Jake Wood, Eddie Kadi, JB Gill, Thomas Skinner, Matt Morsia, AJ Odudu, Kadeena Cox, Charlie Hedges, Sarah Hadland, Shazia Mirza and Angela Scanlon.

Later this month, the celebrity candidates will be headed to Lapland, where they are tasked with creating a magical festive gingerbread biscuit. The famous faces will then have to pitch their biscuits to the UK's biggest retails who will then, for the first time in the show's history, sell the biscuits in stores across the UK - with a percentage of profits going to BBC Children in Need.

And there is plenty more to come from The Apprentice, with the main series returning in early 2026.

Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC added: "The Apprentice is a much-loved part of the BBC's entertainment offering and we can't wait to see how the celebrity candidates rise to the challenge when the series launches later in 2026."

While Paul Broadbent, Director of Programmes at Naked (a Fremantle label), commented: "It's a joy to be bringing The Celebrity Apprentice to our screens for a full series. Viewers have our two fantastic Christmas specials to come, which will give them a taste of what to expect from the next series. The celebrities will need to leave their ego at the boardroom door and prepare to roll their sleeves up for some very challenging – and hugely entertaining – tasks."

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It is likely the new series will follow similar proceedings to the main series, given Lord Sugar previously pointed out the Christmas series format couldn't work outside of a one-off special.

During a Q&A, Lord Sugar told RadioTimes.com and other press: "The thing is that on the main Apprentice show, some of the things that they come up with, they do sell them straight away to the trade and to the public. There's never a product which is mass produced in volume that gets sold to supermarkets."

Karren Brady added: "I think you have to remember the lead time. The public is seeing these while the biscuits are available to buy, where in the main series, we're filming tasks week after week after week.

"And obviously there's a bit of time between the filming of it and when it goes out, so it's not as reactive and as easy to do."

The first full-length series of The Celebrity Apprentice is coming to BBC One and iPlayer later in 2026.

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