| Series Number: | 15 |
| Num Episodes: | 12 |
| Network: | BBC One |
The fifteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 2 October to 18 December 2019. As with the previous series, the first task was conducted abroad, with the candidates travelling further afield than had been previously staged in the programme's history of business-related tasks held in other countries. In addition, the sister programme The Apprentice - You're Fired saw a change in the host before the series broadcast, with comedian Tom Allen overseeing interviews with candidates after their final appearance within this series.[1] Alongside the standard twelve episodes, the series was preceded by the mini online episode "Meet the Candidates" on 24 September, with two specials aired alongside the series – "The Final Five" on 10 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 18 December.
Sixteen candidates took part in the fifteenth series,[2] with Carina Lepore becoming the overall winner.[3] Excluding the specials, the series averaged around 7.17 million viewers during its broadcast.
Applications for the fifteenth series began in late November 2018, towards the end of the fourteenth series, with applicants assessed and interviewed by production staff between January and February 2019. Filming took place during Spring to early Summer that year, once the final line-up of sixteen participants had been finalised, with final editing completed before the programme's premiere episode was broadcast in mid-Autumn. The series maintained the changes to the format introduced in the previous series, though filming for the series involved travelling abroad to South Africa, the most distant place used for a production site in the programme's history. Both teams adopted names in the third task upon each having mixed genders, with the names Empower and Unison used for the rest of the contest. Of those who took part, Carina Lepore would become the eventual winner, going on to use her prize to set up an artisan bakehouse chain of retail units.
| Candidate | Background | Age | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carina Lepore | Artisan Bakery Owner | 30 | Winner | |
| Scarlett Allen-Horton | Recruitment Company Owner | 32 | Runner-Up | |
| Pamela Laird | Beauty Brand Owner | 29 | Fired after the interviews stage | |
| Lewis Ellis | Digital Marketing Project Manager | 28 | ||
| Lottie Lion | Librarian | 19 | ||
| Dean Ahmad | Sports Management Agency Owner | 20 | Fired after the tenth task | |
| Marianne Rawlins | Risk Management Consultancy Owner | 36 | Fired after the ninth task | |
| Thomas Skinner | Pillow Company Owner | 28 | ||
| Ryan-Mark Parsons | Luxury Womenswear Consultant | 19 | Fired after the eighth task | |
| Jemelin Artigas | Network Marketing Consultant | 34 | Fired after the seventh task | |
| Iasha Masood | Account Manager | 27 | Fired after the sixth task | |
| Riyonn Farsad | Events Manager | 30 | Fired after the fifth task | |
| Lubna Farhan | Finance Manager | 33 | Fired after the fourth task | |
| Souleyman Bah | Paralympic Athlete and Motivational Speaker | 20 | Fired after the third task | |
| Kenna Ngoma | Ice-Cream Company Owner | 24 | Fired after the second task | |
| Shahin Hassan | Chartered Engineer | 36 | Fired after the first task |
| Candidate | Task Number | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| Carina | IN | WIN | IN | IN | LOSS | WIN | IN | IN | IN | WIN | IN | HIRED | |
| Scarlett | WIN | IN | LOSS | LOSS | IN | LOSE | IN | IN | IN | IN | IN | RUNNER-UP | |
| Pamela | IN | IN | WIN | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | LOSS | BR | LOSE | FIRED | ||
| Lewis | LOSE | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | LOSE | BR | FIRED | ||
| Lottie | IN | IN | BR | LOSS | IN | BR | IN | WIN | IN | IN | FIRED | ||
| Dean | BR | BR | IN | IN | IN | BR | WIN | IN | WIN | FIRED | |||
| Marianne | IN | IN | LOSS | BR | WIN | LOSS | LOSE | BR | FIRED | ||||
| Thomas | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | LOSE | IN | LOSS | LOSS | BR | FIRED | ||||
| Ryan-Mark | LOSS | BR | IN | IN | BR | IN | BR | PM | |||||
| Jemelin | IN | IN | IN | IN | LOSE | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Iasha | IN | IN | IN | WIN | IN | FIRED | |||||||
| Riyonn | LOSS | LOSS | LOSE | LOSS | FIRED | ||||||||
| Lubna | IN | IN | LOSS | FIRED | |||||||||
| Souleyman | LOSS | LOSS | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Kenna | LOSS | PM | |||||||||||
| Shahin | FIRED | ||||||||||||
Key:
The candidate won this series of The Apprentice.
The candidate was the runner-up.
The candidate won as project manager on their team, for this task.
The candidate lost as project manager on their team, for this task.
The candidate was on the winning team for this task / they passed the Interviews stage.
The candidate was on the losing team for this task.
The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task.
The candidate was fired in this task.
The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.
"Gandhi" comments
Following the broadcast of the second episode, a WhatsApp group used by the candidates to stay in contact was shut down. The action by producers was claimed by Kenna Ngoma, in an interview with Digital Spy, to be in response to a leaked message from the group made by Lottie Lion, in which she referenced Lubna Farhan as Gandhi. Her message led to several complaints against the programme over racism. However, Lion denied these were true and stated that her words had been "misinterpreted" and "taken out of context". The programme's staff gave no comment to the allegations,[4] but did forward the matter to the BBC, who made clear that the behaviour of candidates who appear on the programme must be appropriate during and after filming, deeming that the comments by Lion on WhatsApp had been "wholly unacceptable" regardless of her excuse.[5] After an investigation into further complaints by other candidates and her actions, both the BBC and the production staff made the decision to not have her appear in the final two episodes of You're Fired, after deciding her comments had been "unacceptable" on WhatsApp.[6]
Official episode viewing figures are from BARB and includes viewers on all devices.
| Episode no. | Air date | 7 day viewers (millions) | 28 day viewers (millions) | BBC One weekly ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 October 2019 | 6.77 | 7.43 | 4 | |
| 2 | 9 October 2019 | 6.69 | 7.21 | 4 | |
| 3 | 16 October 2019 | 6.88 | 7.36 | 4 | |
| 4 | 23 October 2019 | 6.98 | 7.42 | 4 | |
| 5 | 30 October 2019 | 7.08 | 7.39 | 5 | |
| 6 | 6 November 2019 | 7.30 | 7.62 | 5 | |
| 7 | 13 November 2019 | 6.87 | 7.15 | 6 | |
| 8 | 20 November 2019 | 6.22 | 6.60 | 7 | |
| 9 | 27 November 2019 | 6.46 | 6.83 | 6 | |
| 10 | 4 December 2019 | 6.28 | 6.68 | 6 | |
| 11 | 11 December 2019 | 7.43 | 7.64 | 3 | |
| 12 | 18 December 2019 | 6.54 | 6.76 | 3 |