The Apprentice (British TV series) series 12

Series twelve of The Apprentice (UK), a British reality television series, began broadcasting on 6 October 2016. Eighteen candidates were featured.

Candidates

See also: List of The Apprentice candidates (UK series twelve)

Candidate	Background	Age	Original team	Result
Alana Spencer	Cake company owner	24	Nebula
Courtney Wood	Novelty gift company owner	29	Titans
Dillon St. Paul	Art director	37	Titans
Frances Bishop	Children's clothing company owner	25	Nebula
Grainne McCoy	Make-up studio owner	31	Nebula
Jessica Cunningham	Online fashion entrepreneur	29	Nebula
Karthik Nagesan	IT consultancy owner	33	Titans
Paul Sullivan	Marketing agency owner	38	Titans
Rebecca Jeffery	Design & marketing agency owner	31	Nebula
Samuel Boateng	Sales manager	27	Titans
Sofiane Khelfa	Senior sales executive	32	Titans
Trishna Thakrar	Recruitment agent	28	Nebula
JD O'Brien	Beachwear company owner	37	Titans	Fired in week 5
Mukai Noiri	Digital marketing manager	36	Titans	Fired in week 4
Aleksandra King	Business consultancy owner	38	Nebula	Quit in week 4
Oliver Nohl-Oser	Food distribution business owner	33	Titans	Fired in week 3
Natalie Hughes	Hair and beauty salon owner	30	Nebula	Fired in week 2
Michelle Niziol	Property Consultancy owner	35	Nebula	Fired in week 1

Weekly results

Elimination chart
Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Alana	BR	BR	WIN	IN	IN
Courtney	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN
Dillon	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN
Frances	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN
Grainne	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN
Jessica	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN
Karthik	IN	BR	IN	BR	IN
Paul	WIN	IN	BR	IN	BR
Rebecca	BR	IN	IN	IN	BR
Samuel	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN
Sofiane	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN
Trishna	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN
JD	IN	BR	IN	IN	FIRED
Mukai	IN	LOSE	BR	FIRED
Aleksandra	IN	IN	IN	LEFT
Oliver	IN	IN	FIRED
Natalie	IN	FIRED
Michelle	FIRED

  The candidate was in the winning team.

  The candidate was in the losing team.

  The candidate became Lord Sugar's new business partner and won The Apprentice.

  The candidate was the runner-up.

  The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

  The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

  The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

  The candidate was fired.

  The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

  The candidate left the competition.

Episodes

Week 1: Collectables

• Air Date: 6 October 2016
• Titans: Paul (Project Manager), Courtney, Dillon, JD, Karthik, Mukai, Oliver, Samuel and Sofiane.
• Nebula: Michelle (Project Manager), Alana, Aleksandra, Frances, Grainne, Jessica, Natalie, Rebecca and Trishna.
• Task: Selling antiques at Wimbledon Car Boot Sale. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: Nebula got off to a bad start when Alana's market team committed themselves to initiating a fire sale that had no set strategy on pricing, but performed well and ended the day with a bulk sale to a trader. However, Michelle, who displayed no form of leadership, not only failed to prevent her sub-team wasting too much time on getting evaluations, but also went against good advice by settling on heading for Camden, lost the van with their stock when Jessica attempted to make a deal along the way, and failed to control Jessica's erratic sales. Meanwhile, Titans' market team were significantly better as their pricing strategy provided good sales, though things soon slowed down later in the day and did not improve when they relocated to Portobello, thanks to low footfall and some of the men performing poorly. Paul's trader team made a considerable faux pas by wasting time negotiating with a dealer who had no authority to make a purchase, but improved themselves towards the end of the day after they slashed prices on their items. Ultimately, Titans' handling of the task proved to be more effective at achieving a high profit.
• Result: Titans made a profit of £1,428.10, while Nebula made a profit of £959.
• Winner: Titans - By £469.10.
• Reward: Lindy hop dancing
• Brought into the boardroom: Michelle, Alana and Rebecca
• Fired: Michelle - For her extremely weak leadership, poor communication with the sub-team, lacking a pricing strategy, and for bringing Alana back into the boardroom instead of Jessica.
• You're Fired Panel: Hal Cruttenden, Matt Edmondson and Anita Manning
• Notes:
  • Although they were on the winning team, Courtney, JD, and Mukai were singled out by Karren in the boardroom as the worst sellers on their team, stating they "hid behind" the rest of the teammates in the hopes they would be safe. Although this was mostly attributed to their lack of sales experience, Karren insisted that they should have adapted to a new environment. It was heavily indicated that any one of the three could have been fired had Titans lost. In addition, Paul was also criticised for wasting his sub-team's time in attempting to make a sale to a store trader without asking if the trader was the owner and had the authority to purchase from them.
  • Sofiane received great praise for selling an item for £175, after Lord Sugar revealed in the boardroom that it had been bought by his team for only £7. He was credited by both Paul and the You're Fired panel as deserving recognition for aiding his team to victory, as his sub-team was responsible for a majority of the sales that they made. In contrast, Natalie was heavily criticised for selling a pair of vases for just £15, which was a 95% mark-down from their original value of £300. On You're Fired, host Rhod Gilbert believed that of those who had avoided being fired, she had been the luckiest amongst them.
  • While Jessica's erratic selling earned criticism in the boardroom, her failed side deal earned significantly more ire for wasting the trade team's time while they were en-route to Camden, particularly as no one in her sub-team ensured the van carrying their goods was aware of her arrangement. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar remarked that the side deal in his eyes had been nothing more than a "fool's errand", and indicated he would have fired her had she been brought back by Michelle.
  • As Alana had been one of the top sellers on the task and her sub-team was responsible for most of Nebula's sales, Lord Sugar quickly implied she would not be fired after she was brought back. In comparison, Rebecca came perilously close to being fired, since she had only sold £25 and had contributed little to the task overall. She was warned to step up in future by Claude, with Lord Sugar pointing out that he would have almost certainly fired her, had it not been the first task of the process.
  • On You're Fired, two of the panellists thought Michelle deserved to be fired, while the audience were virtually split over the decision but just marginally agreed on it. While Michelle believed that she did not deserve to go, she agreed that she made critical mistakes on the task.

Week 2: Advertising: Jeans

• Air Date: 13 October 2016
• Titans: Mukai (Project Manager), Courtney, Dillon, JD, Karthik, Oliver, Paul, Samuel and Sofiane.
• Nebula: Jessica (Project Manager), Alana, Aleksandra, Frances, Grainne, Natalie, Rebecca and Trishna.
• Task: Create an advertising campaign for a brand of Japanese denim jeans, including a TV advert and an interactive bus shelter poster. Best campaign wins.
• Task Review: Nebula decided to focus their campaign solely on women, using the brand name "Unclaimed". However, the team were plagued with issues from the start, with Jessica hastily taking on the role of PM and being quickly overwhelmed, particularly when her sub-team forgot to take their jeans to a photo-shoot. The women managed to rally the following day for the filming of their advert, but their finished campaign was deemed by advertising executives as being unclear, while they were also ridiculed for filming the advert within a Japanese restaurant's toilet, and criticised over their sub-par attempt to incorporate social media into their brand. Despite this, Jessica's pitch to the experts was praised. Meanwhile, Titans focused their campaign on both men and women and using the brand name of "Day After Yesterday", but their execution was just as bad, as Mukai failed to give clear communication on the first day, while Dillon's poor time management that day left them with an incomplete interactive bus shelter poster as a direct result. Mukai's leadership proceeded to become non-existent on the next day, which caused further chaos and was not helped by him clashing with Karthik constantly, while he stumbled during the team's presentation with his first lines. Despite their brand design being seen as much clearer than Nebula's, their bus shelter poster was heavily panned and their advert deemed awful. The views of the experts ultimately led to Lord Sugar declaring that both campaigns were complete failures.
• Winner: None - Lord Sugar hated both campaigns and so declared both teams to have lost.
• Reward: None
• Brought into the boardroom: Mukai, Jessica, JD, Alana, Karthik and Natalie
• Fired: Natalie, with regret - For barely contributing to the two tasks, failing to demonstrate any business initiative, and for her lacklustre defence in the boardroom.
• You're Fired Panel: Zaid Al-Zhady, Grace Dent and Phil Wang
• Notes:
  • Rebecca felt she had been duped out of being PM by Jessica, who claimed she couldn't vote for herself for the role, despite none of the team noticing her contradict her own words by doing the same herself. Karen believed that Jessica had been the wrong choice, especially when she was emotionally overwhelmed when her sub-team forgot their jeans for the poster photo shoot, and was forced to leave the studio to calm down. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar voiced his belief that, apart from being eccentric throughout the task, Jessica had been unwise to take on the role, and that Rebecca should have been PM instead; the You're Fired panellists were in complete agreement with this.
  • Mukai's leadership was greatly criticised by Claude and Paul, as both believed he displayed poor communication on the first day, while the latter felt he was in the "losing team" after the poor presentation that Titans gave to the executives. In the boardroom, Karthik, despite his aggressive attitude, believed he had been a poor leader, while JD believed he had failed to ensure that the team functioned well on the task.
  • Neither Dillon nor Oliver impressed Sugar with their performance on the task - Oliver for lacking presence during the task, and Dillon for his poor time management. The latter was labelled by Claude as a "perfectionist", for the amount of time he wasted on the models that Mukai's sub-team needed. Karthik was much worse, as Sugar was deeply unimpressed with the aggressive behaviour he displayed, labelling him a "loose cannon"; Claude noted that the more aggressively he tried to convey something, the more his team-mates refused to hear him out. Although he narrowly avoided being fired, Sugar hoped he would learn from this, after indicating he was struggling on whether to keep him in the process or not.
  • Lord Sugar was deeply angry that both teams lost on the second task, and after the candidates had left following his verdict on their campaigns, commented to both Karren and Claude that he had been disappointed that it had happened on his favourite task. Prior to them leaving, both Jessica and Mukai were informed that they each had to select two candidates from their teams to return with them to the final boardroom, making it the highest number of candidates to be brought back to the boardroom in the show's history.
  • Prior to firing Natalie, Lord Sugar informed JD that he had given him the "benefit of the doubt" due to his strong defence, despite questioning his lack of presence, and thus he would still remain in the process, as he had considered him least at fault for his team's failure in the task. Although Alana was brought back and struggled during the final boardroom, stopping twice when being questioned, Sugar sympathised with her and sent her back to the house.
  • While the You're Fired audience were marginally in agreement on Natalie's firing, the panellists disagreed, believing that others should have gone; Phil, in particular, felt that Mukai should have gone because of the errors he committed during the task. Natalie expressed relief at leaving the process, believing it was her time to go, and also admitted that she had never seen the programme before and had only stood up for herself in the boardroom because she was too proud not to.

Week 3: Corporate Candy

• Air Date: 20 October 2016
• Titans: Alana (Project Manager), Courtney, Dillon, JD, Jessica, Samuel, Sofiane and Trishna.
• Nebula: Oliver (Project Manager), Aleksandra, Frances, Grainne, Karthik, Mukai, Paul and Rebecca.
• Task: Manufacture and sell sweets. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: Titans focused on luxury styled sweets under the brand name of "Guiltees", creating Cappucino toffee and Strawberry & Champagne pillow sweets. The team suffered only minor issues on the first day primarily over their corporate order for Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, as Sofiane aggressively attempted to get a high price than what the customer was willing to pay, and a machine broke down while making the order. On the second day, despite not providing what the football club had expected, Sofiane's trade team managed to still get their agreed price, and spent the rest of the day selling to traders, haggling down from a high price. Alana's street team, despite getting good footfall, began with slow sales until later in the afternoon when trade eventually began to pick up. Meanwhile, Nebula focused on traditional seaside sweets under the brand name of "Suck It & Sea", making Ice Cream rock and Salt & Vinegar fudge, and had no issues with manufacturing on the first day. However, Oliver's street team failed to have a fixed price strategy on the second day, resulting in sweets being sold at different prices, despite his sub-team managing good sales from the start and eventually selling out by the end of the day. Mukai's trade team were less fortunate, as they failed to sell any of the fudge they had to the traders they met with, while Mukai himself opted to change the original deal with their customer, an upmarket winery, by adding more bags of the same sweets into the order for a reduced price per bag being sold. The lack of a pricing strategy and the performance of the trade team ultimately proved to be costly mistakes for the team.
• Result: Titans made a profit of £785.66, while Nebula made a profit of £615.08.
• Winner: Titans - By £170.58.
• Reward: Master class in free running
• Brought into the boardroom: Oliver, Mukai and Paul
• Fired: Oliver - For his substandard and indecisive leadership, making no significant contributions to either of the prior tasks, and for failing on a task related to his working industry.
• You're Fired Panel: Jamie Laing, Konnie Huq and Susan Calman
• Notes:
  • Lord Sugar decided to mix up the teams - Alana, Jessica and Trishna moved over to Titans, while Karthik, Mukai, Oliver and Paul moved over to Nebula - and then appointed both Alana and Oliver were appointed as PMs; although Alana had experience in confectionery, Oliver ran a business focused on sausages and thus struggled with the task. Before both teams left, Sugar warned them not to repeat their dismal performance from the previous task.
  • Claude was not impressed during the task with Sofiane's handling of the meeting with the corporate customer, mostly for his attempt to push for a higher price than they could afford, despite the customer agreeing to take the football styled sweets that had not been specifically ordered. In the boardroom, he remarked that his attempts for a higher price nearly lost them the deal. Lord Sugar, who was equally unimpressed, also chastised him for not listening to Alana, stating he was not the "project manager", after he chose to ignore her request for more of the team's stock when her sub-team were selling to traders.
  • Throughout the boardroom, Oliver struggled to recall the exact prices that had been used during the task on a few occasions; he initially had to ask his team-mates on price, and then was corrected a few times by Grainne. His leadership and performance were notably poor, after Paul remarked that he acted like a "headless chicken" during the manufacturing of the sweets, while Sugar was greatly disappointed that he failed to sell anything and wasted time tackling the team's tricycle. He was equally unimpressed with his answers in the final boardroom, stating he was "waffling" when he wanted an explanation on his choices of candidates.
  • Mukai was greatly criticised in the boardroom over his handling of the corporate deal. Karren remarked that the fixed deal of 50 bags of sweets for £1.50 a bag was hardly worthwhile, while Paul was more critical over the fact that Mukai changed the deal on the second day by adding additional bags, but at a reduced price of £1.07 a bag for the overall amount. While he narrowly avoided being fired, Lord Sugar indicated that he was close to doing so, stating that he felt that his explanation in regards to the corporate deal "did not add up".
  • In the boardroom, Aleksandra accused Paul of trying to divert blame onto her in order to cover up his own shortcomings in the task, revealing that Mukai, who had argued with him towards the end of the task, suddenly allied with him during the team's discussion in the coffee shop. Although she was revealed to have mis-sold twice to a trader, Lord Sugar noted that she had made £100 in sales while Paul hadn't sold anything at all in the trade team. While Paul was not fired, Lord Sugar informed him that both Karren and Claude had noted a level of despondency coming from him, which he stated came from being frustrated by the end of the task.
  • Both the You're Fired audience and one of the panellists agreed with the decision, with Oliver himself agreeing that he deserved to have been fired. Susan Calman, who agreed, remarked that the brand name sounded terrible, while the lack of a pricing strategy had been a bad mistake to make. Of the two who disagreed, Konnie believed that there were others who had far greater reasons to be fired than Oliver, while Susan remarked that he had been quite a nice guy despite the fact that Paul appeared to be playing a "clever game" and had "stitched him up" in the boardroom.

Week 4: Department Store

• Air Date: 27 October 2016
• Titans: Sofiane (Project Manager), Alana, Courtney, Dillon, JD, Jessica, Samuel and Trishna.
• Nebula: Grainne (Project Manager), Frances, Karthik, Mukai, Paul and Rebecca.
• Task: Handle sales within the department store, Liberty - half the team run a personal shopping service, while the other half run a department, including the promotion of a new line of products. Most sales made, wins.
• Task Review: Titans opted for their sales team to sell scarves, including a new feline-designed line. Efficient use of their window display meant the sales team had good footfall, but most of their sales came during a rush hour towards the end of the day, with some customers voicing dislike over the new line they offered. Their personal shopping team, on the other hand, failed to get specific information, including the budgets of the customers they would be serving, and thus sold less than they could, with some members, particularly JD, hardly doing much to impress. On Nebula, the personal shopping team secured detailed information about what their customers expected and their budget, and had no problems during the day when serving them. The sales team, who focused on more profitable handbags, including a new, futuristic, contemporary line, had decent sales and engaged with customers well, but had low footfall throughout the day in their branch of the store due to their failure to utilise their window display, which was also poorly designed. This mistake ultimately proved costly to the team.
• Result: Titans had sales of £5,259.38, while Nebula had sales of £4,377.99.
• Winner: Titans - By £861.39.
• Reward: Croquet at an English country house
• Left (shortly after the Briefing): Aleksandra - For being overwhelmed by the process and missing her family.
• Brought into the boardroom: Grainne, Karthik and Mukai
• Fired: Mukai - For selling very little, influencing the team to go with handbags, his dismal track record in tasks, and because Lord Sugar felt he was unsuitable to be his business partner.
• You're Fired Panel: Frances Dickens, Gaby Roslin and Hugh Dennis
• Notes:
  • Immediately after Nebula appointed their PM and sub-team leader, Aleksandra announced to the team that she had decided to leave the process, much to their shock, especially after she stated she was not joking about her decision. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar commented about this, adding that it had saved him a "cab fare". This marks the first time in the show's history that a candidate left before a task began. Although she was not named, her departure was leaked prior to the broadcast of the episode.
  • Despite Titans winning, their personal shopping team failed to impress Lord Sugar due to their failure to take down important customer details. Along with forgetting to ask about size and style, they were mostly criticised for not asking about each customer's budget, with Sugar commenting that they lost a "great opportunity" after Karren pointed out that one customer, who bought £1,000 of goods from them, had a £5,000 spending budget. Sugar particularly criticised Alana for the amount of time she spent on a sale, and JD over his low contribution on the task, stating that customers would likely have confused him with a "store detective".
  • Both teams were informed at Liberty that their sales team's footfall could be increased significantly if they utilised their window display effectively through sending someone in to showcase their products. Nebula, along with creating a poorly conceived display, failed to heed this advice despite getting good sales. Mukai, as part of a video message for You're Fired, believed this mistake was a major contributing factor in the team's loss; he was the only one to vocally point out the need to utilise it several times, but Grainne refused to do so, even dismissing his suggestion of sending Rebecca into the display when he raised it.
  • Although he was not fired, Lord Sugar severely warned Karthik that he would be keeping an eye on him, commenting that despite him voicing dislike on the jobs he got and that he had been learning from his previous mistakes, his "loose cannon" nature made him appear untrustworthy to his team-mates. In comparison, Lord Sugar believed that Grainne had potential, stating that he would not fire her and that the mistake with the handbags was largely due to Mukai influencing her to go with them. Rebecca narrowly avoided being brought back, as Grainne initially changed her mind and went with her and Mukai, before changing it back to her original selection.
  • On You're Fired, just over half the audience and two of the panellists believed that Aleksandra made the right decision to walk from the show; Gaby and Hugh, both in agreement, stated that they understood her decision for doing so. Mukai was unable to attend the show as he had recently moved to Japan, so did not receive a vote and his highlights weren't shown, but he was given a gift by You're Fired for which he gave thanks as part of a video message that he sent to the show.

Week 5: Cycling Crowdfunding

• Air Date: 3 November 2016
• Titans: Samuel (Project Manager), Alana, Courtney, Dillon, Grainne, Karthik and Trishna.
• Nebula: JD (Project Manager), Frances, Jessica, Paul, Rebecca and Sofiane.
• Task: Create a crowdfunding campaign, including a promotional video, for a new cycling product, along with performing a PR stunt and pitching the product to cycling retailers. Most money raised from pledges, wins.
• Task Review: Nebula opted to promote a set of cyclist headphones that were designed with safety in mind, producing a promotional video to demonstrate this and hiring a gospel choir to sing a specially modified song for their PR stunt. However, pledging was delayed by an hour due to the sub-team handling the crowdfunding site's creation failing to discuss rewards with the product's creator until the day of pledging, while filming of their PR stunt led to a badly created viral video. Their biggest problem came from their terrible pitch, which failed to impress the retailers and lacked proper pricing information. Meanwhile, Titans focused on promoting a cycle gilet with built-in LED lights, with their promotional video focused on promoting the style and safety factors of its design. Although the team had minor issues, from a poorly conceived PR stunt that failed to attract attention, and a slight misspelling of the product on their site, their pitch impressed retailers, due in part to Karthik's presentation, which ultimately secured significant pledges to ensure the team's victory.
• Result: Titans received £788 of pledges, while Nebula received £681 of pledges.
• Winner: Titans - By £107.
• Reward: Cooking Michelin star food at Aveqia
• Brought into the boardroom: JD, Paul and Rebecca
• Fired: JD - For his hands-off leadership, being too nice, his consistent lack of contribution throughout many of the tasks, and for bringing Paul back into the boardroom instead of Sofiane.
• You're Fired Panel: Allyson Stewart-Allen, Jenny Eclair and Guz Khan
• Notes:
  • Prior to the task beginning, Lord Sugar adjusted the teams to balance them out - Sofiane, JD and Jessica moved over to Nebula, while Grainne and Karthik moved over to Titans - and then had both teams quickly decide on who would lead them as PM.
  • Despite his team winning, Samuel was greatly criticised in the boardroom. Grainne felt his leadership had been poor and that he refused to let others voice ideas, while both Lord Sugar and Claude felt that his idea for the PR stunt had been poorly conceived, describing it as "absurd" and "useless", with Claude disagreeing with him that it attracted an audience when the team performed it at Waterloo station and that he went with an idea, whether it was "right or wrong". Sugar remarked, after the result was given, that Samuel had been "very lucky", implying he would have likely been fired had his team lost.
  • Both Alana and Karthik received good feedback on their performance in the task. Claude praised Alana for her idea for the team's promotional video, while Karthik, despite being described as "disruptive" during the filming of the promo, was informed by Lord Sugar that one retailer felt he had been "superb" during the team's pitch, with Karren adding that he had been quite engaging.
  • Although he was not brought back, Sofiane received criticism in the boardroom for failing to mention the pricing information in the team's pitch, with Karren adding that he had been given responsibility to do so despite passing it over to Frances. He was further criticised for clashing with Paul during the creation of the crowdfunding site; Sofiane claimed Paul was not letting him make any input, while the latter felt he was a "maverick" for disrupting him constantly. JD commented that if the pair hadn't been clashing and instead worked together, then the information about the rewards on their site could have been significantly better.
  • While Paul was not fired, Lord Sugar told him that, despite his good defence, his difficulty with Sofiane on the task, and the fact that JD had been wrong to bring him back, he needed to "man up" after voicing concerns that his stability of character might make him an unlikely to be his business partner. Rebecca, who also avoided being fired, was told by Sugar that he was unimpressed with her, despite her claiming she brought in £200 of pledges, and informed her she was going to have "one more chance" to prove herself.
  • On You're Fired the panellists and the audience all agreed on Lord Sugar's decision, with both Allyson and Guz remarking that JD should have done more as PM during the task, though the former approved of him owing up to his mistakes rather than trying to conceal them from his team.

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures (28 days) are from BARB.

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers (millions)	BBC One weekly ranking
1	6 October 2016
2	13 October 2016
3	20 October 2016
4	27 October 2016
5	3 November 2016
6	10 November 2016
7	17 November 2016
8	24 November 2016

External links

• Official site BBC