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00:00Wait a second, this isn't the boardroom. Where's Lord Sugar? Where's Tim? Where's Karen? What's going on?
00:07Hi, I'm tech and TV writer Matt Monaghan and the BBC has confirmed a return date for the 19th series of The Apprentice.
00:16Which, wow, 19th series? Can you believe that? It's been on for that long? Blimey, yeah.
00:22Anyway, The Apprentice is returning on Thursday January 30th at 9pm on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer.
00:31Lord Sugar and his trusty advisors Karen and Tim will be back with a fresh batch of 18 new contestants
00:39who are competing to win investment from Lord Sugar of a quarter of a million pounds in their business
00:47as has become familiar to watchers of the show over the years.
00:52And this crop includes a hair transplant consultant, the owner of a virtual assistant company, owner of a pizza company.
01:02There's a lot of variety in the businesses that are going to be involved this year.
01:09And it will air weekly at 9pm on Thursdays on BBC One. It's starting later again this year because of the traitors
01:17taking up Thursday nights on BBC through the early part of the year. That comes to an end on January 24th.
01:25So The Apprentice is starting on Thursday January 30th at 9pm, the usual slot. So expect it 9pm weekly on Thursdays.
01:36The Apprentice, if you remember that far back, first arrived on British TV in 2005, so basically 20 years ago.
01:45And it was an adaptation of the US TV show of the same name, which had started the year before
01:52and was presented by a certain Donald J. Trump. You might have heard of him.
01:57Has he been involved in anything since being on that reality show? Dunno.
02:02And when it first started, Sir Alan Sugar, as he was at the time, would recruit the winner to be his apprentice, thus the name of the show.
02:12But over time, that has morphed. And in 2011, the show has taken on the form that we are familiar with today.
02:22So instead of becoming his apprentice, now they get investments in their business of a quarter of a million,
02:30over £250,000, which is a real boost and obviously very desirable.
02:35Still call it The Apprentice, though they haven't changed it to The Business Plan.
02:39I don't think that has quite the same ring to it, does it?
02:43And he has cycled through a number of advisors over the years.
02:47So they're always a star of the show with their drawl and deadpan reactions to the sort of the harebrained schemes that the candidates come up with.
02:56At first, it was Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford.
03:00So if you remember vintage seasons of The Apprentice, you'll remember Nick and Margaret.
03:06They were the first duo. But after the end of the fifth season, Margaret left the show.
03:13And from the sixth season onwards, it's been Karen Brady there. Nick himself left after the 10th season.
03:21And so from the 11th season onwards, it was Claude Littner, who used to be one of the sort of faces that would come in for the interview process when we got to the sharp end of the competition.
03:34And he was always a bit of a fan favourite and he took over from Nick.
03:39But unfortunately, ahead of the 16th season, he had a bad road accident and was seriously injured and so had to withdraw.
03:49He was replaced by former Apprentice winner Tim Campbell, who has remained on in season 16, 17, 18 and now 19.
03:58Claude did return for one episode in series 17, but had to pull out due to his injuries.
04:04And so Tim and Karen are the duo that we're familiar with in recent years.
04:10And it's going to air probably traditionally, it airs around 12 episodes every season weekly on Thursday.
04:18So expect it to run well into the spring and we'll be providing new coverage across all of our National World websites over the coming weeks.
04:27Join us for everything about The Apprentice all the time. Bye.