The Apprentice (British series 9)

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Ninth season of UK television series

Season of television series

The Apprentice
TheApprenticeSeriesNine.jpg

Promo group shot of Alan Sugar, Nick Hewer and Karren Brady standing before the candidates for series 9

Starring
Country of origin UK
No. of episodes 14
Original network BBC One
Original release 7 May (2013-05-07) –
17 July 2013 (2013-07-17)

The ninth series of British reality television series The Apprentice (UK) was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 7 May to 17 July 2013.[1] This series saw the task format return to its original arrangement prior to the seventh series. The decision to return to this original format layout meant that Alan Sugar could now get more in-depth knowledge of the finalists’ business plans, unlike in the past two series, through arranging the final task towards them promoting their idea to both himself and a large selection of industry experts.[2] Alongside the standard twelve episodes, with the first two aired within a day of each other, two specials were aired alongside this series – “The Final Five” on 8 July, and “Why I Fired Them” on 11 July.

Sixteen candidates took part in the ninth series, with Leah Totton becoming the overall winner. Excluding specials, the series averaged around 7.34 million viewers during its broadcast.

Series overview[edit]

Applications for the ninth series began in Spring 2012, with the selection process of auditions, assessments and interviews held within mid-Summer of that year. After the sixteen candidates for the final line-up were selected, filming began in October 2012. Following the past two series, production staff and Sugar returned the format of the episode schedule back to the original layout, prior to the seventh series. This decision was aimed at making the final task focused on assigning the finalists of the series with creating a brand for their plan, and pitching their ideas to a large group of experts, regarding their plan’s intentions, cost and pricing details, how it would expand, and other notable business details, thus providing more in-depth information for Sugar to have available than provided by just the Interviews stage. In addition, Sugar brought back the use of exotic filming locations, with the global economic recession coming to an end, by arranging for one of his tasks of this series to be held within Dubai. Alongside these changes, Matthew Riley left the programme after two series, leading to Sugar replacing him with Claudine Collins for the Interviews stage.

In the first task, the woman named their team as Evolve, while the men named their team Endeavour. Of those who took part, Leah Totton would become the eventual winner, and go on to use her investment towards opening up a chain of cosmetic skin clinics, with her first being opened on 22 January 2014.[3][4][5] One notable matter that arose during film, was the discovery that Jordan Poulton had violated one of the rules regarding his application to the show, which prompted production staff and researchers to improve their thorough checks on applicants in future series to avoid further issues.

Candidates[edit]

Candidate Background Age Result
Leah Totton Doctor 24 Winner
Luisa Zissman Retail Entrepreneur 25 Runner-up
Francesca MacDuff-Varley Dance & Entertainment Entrepreneur 32 Fired after Interviews stage
Neil Clough Regional Manager – Soccer Centres 32
Jordan Poulton Business Analyst 26
Myles Mordaunt Marketing Agency Co-Founder 39 Fired after tenth task
Alex Mills Company Director 22 Fired after ninth task
Jason Leech Historian / Property Entrepreneur 29 Fired after eighth task
Natalie Panayi Recruitment Manager 30 Fired after seventh task
Kurt Wilson Health Drink Entrepreneur and Health & Safety Manager 26
Rebecca Slater Pharmaceutical Sales Rep. 35 Fired after sixth task
Zeeshaan Shah CEO of Property Investment Company 27 Fired after fifth task
Uzma Yakoob Entrepreneur & Make-Up Brand Owner 32 Fired after fourth task
Sophie Lau Restaurateur 22 Fired after third task
Tim Stillwell Mexican Food Entrepreneur 23 Fired after second task
Jaz Ampaw-Farr Literacy & Education Company Director 41 Fired after first task

Performance chart[edit]

Candidate Task Number
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Leah IN IN IN IN BR WIN IN IN BR IN IN HIRED
Luisa IN IN IN WIN IN BR IN LOSE IN WIN IN RUNNER-UP
Francesca IN BR IN IN IN LOSE IN BR IN IN FIRED
Neil IN IN IN LOSE IN IN WIN IN WIN BR FIRED
Jordan IN IN WIN IN IN IN IN WIN IN BR FIRED
Myles IN IN IN IN WIN IN IN IN BR FIRED
Alex IN IN IN IN IN IN BR IN FIRED
Jason WIN IN IN IN IN IN IN FIRED
Natalie IN IN LOSE IN BR IN FIRED
Kurt IN WIN IN BR IN IN FIRED
Rebecca IN BR IN IN IN FIRED
Zeeshaan IN IN IN IN FIRED
Uzma BR IN BR FIRED
Sophie BR IN FIRED
Tim IN FIRED
Jaz FIRED

Key:

  The candidate won this series of The Apprentice.
  The candidate was the runner-up.
  The candidate won as project manager on his/her team, for this task.
  The candidate lost as project manager on his/her 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.

Episodes[edit]

Controversy[edit]

Jordan Poulton’s application

As part of the format’s rules since the seventh series for applications to The Apprentice, the producers make clear that any participants who enter the contest must not include any company(s) to their business plan if they do not have either ownership or co-ownership. When Jordan Poulton applied for the programme, production staff hadn’t properly checked his application, which showed that he had named a company in his business plan that was not his, a fact that was not noticed until the interviews stage of the contest, when Claude Littner discovered the staff’s oversight. Although Poulton’s involvement in the programme was broadcast, despite this oversight, he later admitted on Twitter, while thanking his supporters, that he had been “naive” and apologised for “wasting everyone’s time”.[21]

Ratings[edit]

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.[6]

Episode
no.
Airdate Viewers
(millions)
BBC One
weekly ranking
1 7 May 2013 7.25 7
2 8 May 2013 6.64 8
3 15 May 2013 7.22 4
4 22 May 2013 7.69 2
5 28 May 2013 6.88 2
6 5 June 2013 7.29 2
7 12 June 2013 7.81 3
8 19 June 2013 7.48 4
9 26 June 2013 7.30 5
10 3 July 2013 7.53 5
11 10 July 2013 8.24 1
12 17 July 2013 6.74 2

Note: During the 2-hour final, the show was shared with The Apprentice: You’re Hired, and as a result the figures are lower than usual. The first hour was the main show whereas the second hour was You’re Hired.

Specials

Episode Airdate Viewers
(millions)
BBC One
weekly ranking
The Final Five 8 July 2013 3.39 29
Why I Fired Them 11 July 2013

References[edit]

External links[edit]