The thirteenth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 4 October to 17 December 2017. Unlike a number of series before which had both their filming and broadcast schedules altered to ensure the programme could aired without clashing with live TV coverage of major sporting and political events, primarily within the UK, it is the first series to focus its broadcast around late Autumn to early Winter, rather than in Spring as had been done when the programme first premiered. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, the series was preceded by the mini online episode "Meet the Candidates" on 26 September, with two specials aired alongside the series – "The Final Five" on 8 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 14 December.
Eighteen candidates took part in the thirteenth series,[1] with James White and Sarah Lynn becoming the overall winners, marking it as the first time in the programme's history that a series ended with joint winners.[2] Excluding the specials, the series averaged around 6.94 million viewers during its broadcast.
Applications for the thirteenth series began in late November 2016, towards the end of the twelfth series, with applicants assessed and interviewed by production staff between January and February 2017. Filming took place during Spring to early Summer that year, once the final line-up of eighteen participants had been finalised, with final editing completed before the programme's premiere episode was broadcast in mid-Autumn. Unlike previous series in which the filming schedules had to be rearranged so that the programme's broadcast did not clash with live coverage of major sporting and political events, it was decided that The Apprentice maintain its Autumn broadcast for the foreseeable future, out of convenience seen from the successive rescheduling in past consecutive years after the ninth series. Filming of the first task saw the men name their team Vitality, while the women named their team Graphene.
Of those who took part, both James White and Sarah Lynn would become the eventual winners, an event that marks the first time in the programme's history that Alan Sugar invested in two business partners in the finals as well as choosing joint winners for a series. The aftermath of this result received mixed feedback from viewers and fans of the show. While James would go on to use his investment to start up his IT recruitment firm Right Time Recruitment, Sarah would go on to use her investment to start up an online personalised sweets gift service Sweets in the City.[3]
| Candidate | Background | Age | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| James White | Recruitment firm owner | 26 | Joint Winners | |
| Sarah Lynn | Confectionery company owner | 35 | ||
| Michaela Wain | Construction business owner | 33 | Fired after Interviews stage | |
| Elizabeth McKenna | Florist chain owner | 39 | ||
| Joanna Jarjue | Digital marketing manager | 23 | ||
| Jade English | PR & marketing manager | 25 | Fired after tenth task | |
| Harrison Jones | Sales executive | 27 | ||
| Bushra Shaikh | Clothing company owner | 34 | Fired after ninth task | |
| Charles Burns | Management consultant | 24 | Fired after eighth task | |
| Anisa Topan | PR fashion agency owner | 36 | ||
| Andrew Brady | Project engineer | 26 | ||
| Sajan Shah | Event company owner | 24 | Fired after seventh task | |
| Sarah-Jayne Clark | Clothing company owner | 25 | Fired after sixth task | |
| Ross Fretten | Digital product consultant | 29 | Fired after fifth task | |
| Siobhan Smith | Wedding company owner | 34 | Fired after fourth task | |
| Elliot Van Emden | Legal firm owner | 31 | Fired after third task | |
| Jeff Wan | Business analyst | 28 | Fired after second task | |
| Danny Grant | Online retail store owner | 32 | Fired after first task |
| Candidate | Task Number | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | ||
| James | LOSS | BR | LOSS | IN | IN | IN | LOSE | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | HIRED | |
| Sarah | WIN | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | LOSE | BR | IN | ||
| Michaela | IN | IN | LOSE | IN | LOSS | LOSS | WIN | LOSS | IN | IN | FIRED | ||
| Elizabeth | IN | IN | IN | BR | IN | WIN | BR | IN | BR | IN | FIRED | ||
| Joanna | IN | IN | IN | BR | WIN | IN | BR | IN | IN | WIN | FIRED | ||
| Jade | IN | IN | WIN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | IN | PM | |||
| Harrison | LOSS | LOSS | BR | IN | BR | IN | LOSS | IN | WIN | FIRED | |||
| Bushra | IN | WIN | IN | LOSS | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | FIRED | ||||
| Charles | BR | LOSS | LOSS | IN | LOSS | BR | IN | PM | |||||
| Anisa | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | LOSS | IN | FIRED | |||||
| Andrew | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | WIN | LOSS | BR | IN | FIRED | |||||
| Sajan | LOSS | LOSS | LOSS | IN | LOSE | IN | FIRED | ||||||
| Sarah-Jayne | IN | IN | IN | LOSS | IN | PM | |||||||
| Ross | LOSS | LOSE | LOSS | IN | FIRED | ||||||||
| Siobhan | IN | IN | IN | PM | |||||||||
| Elliot | BR | LOSS | FIRED | ||||||||||
| Jeff | LOSS | FIRED | |||||||||||
| Danny | PM | ||||||||||||
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.
Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.[4]
| Episode no. | Air date | 7-day viewers (millions) | 28-day viewers (millions) | BBC One weekly ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 October 2017 | 6.49 | 6.67 | 6 | |
| 2 | 11 October 2017 | 6.90 | 7.10 | 3 | |
| 3 | 18 October 2017 | 6.73 | 6.95 | 6 | |
| 4 | 25 October 2017 | 6.79 | 7.00 | 4 | |
| 5 | 1 November 2017 | 6.81 | 6.95 | 5 | |
| 6 | 8 November 2017 | 6.76 | 6.84 | 7 | |
| 7 | 15 November 2017 | 7.19 | 7.31 | 4 | |
| 8 | 22 November 2017 | 6.57 | 6.70 | 7 | |
| 9 | 29 November 2017 | 6.29 | 6.44 | 9 | |
| 10 | 6 December 2017 | 6.34 | 6.44 | 10 | |
| 11 | 13 December 2017 | 6.74 | 6.80 | 6 | |
| 12 | 17 December 2017 | 7.99 | 8.09 | 2 |