Celebrity Apprentice confirms first-ever full series for 2026 as viewers work out why the BBC has commissioned it 'now'
Wanting to emulate the success of the Celebrity Traitors, you say…?!
Lord Alan Sugar has announced that the world of The Apprentice is getting a little bit bigger with the series’ first-ever full-length celebrity version of the BBC boardroom show.
Programme makers Fremantle has revealed that the BBC will air six 60-minute episodes with a full celebrity cast “later in 2026”.
Ahead of this year’s Celebrity Apprentice Christmas special, Lord Sugar’s revealed he’s excited – and so are we!
First-ever full-length Celebrity Apprentice series announced
Earlier today (December 11), it was revealed that the first-ever Celebrity Apprentice has been commissioned by the BBC. It will air after two celebrity specials and mark the first-ever full celebrity series of the BBC boardroom show.
“The six-part series will see a new line-up of famous faces take on weekly business challenges set by Lord Sugar, competing to avoid the words ‘you’re fired’ and ultimately be crowned The Celebrity Apprentice winner,” said the announcement.
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.”
Paul Broadbent, Director of Programmes at Naked, part of Fremantle, added: “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.”
When the Celebrity Apprentice will air on BBC One
The Celebrity Apprentice has a pretty vague “later in 2026” launch date.
The statement concluded: “The first full-length six-part series of The Celebrity Apprentice will be broadcast later in 2026, with more details announced in due course.
“Meanwhile The Apprentice fans can look forward to two special Christmas themed episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice which will air on 29 and 30 December on BBC One and iPlayer and the latest series of The Apprentice will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in early 2026.”
‘Why now?’
Fans of the series have questioned the timing of the announcement. And many suggested that programme makers want to emulate the success of the Celebrity Traitors.
“Does Lord Sugar need the money or something? Why now?” asked one.
“They’ll do a celebrity everything now, after Traitors,” said another. “They definitely done this based on the Celebrity Traitors reaction,” said another.
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