DOLLY BUSBY: Is The Apprentice set to be AXED?

When Alan Sugar was approached by the BBC more than 20 years ago to front the British version of US hit The Apprentice, the brief was clear: he would be taking on the role made famous across the Atlantic by the charismatic young tycoon Donald Trump.

But Sugar was not the Corporation's first choice. Retail magnate Philip Green and outspoken Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary were both offered the role before turning it down, leaving the BBC to turn to the outspoken founder of electronics giant Amstrad.

Sugar agreed on the proviso that the programme, made by production company Fremantle, would be a serious business competition – with candidates battling it out for a single £100,000-a-year job working directly for him.

Hopeful entrepreneurs were thrown into gruelling commercial challenges, each desperate to prove they were worthy of a six-figure job or, in later series, a £250,000 business investment.

Failure, of course, resulted in public humiliation – and Sugar barking his catchphrase 'You're fired!' across the infamous boardroom table. That room, viewers later learned, wasn't real at all but a custom-built set inside Versa Studios in west London.

Even so, in its early years, the format was a roaring success. At its peak in 2011, the show drew in almost 11million viewers and helped launch the careers of contestants who went on to enjoy genuine commercial success.

But as the programme prepares to return later this month for its 20th series, and following a string of scandals, many loyal fans now argue it has drifted too far from its original premise of a hard-nosed business contest into a controversy-ridden reality spectacle, populated by contestants more interested in a career as an influencer than as a CEO. Some insiders even say the show's position is 'untenable'.

The producers' choice of contestants has, in recent years, been dogged by controversy. In 2019, ahead of his appearance as a contestant on the 15th series, it emerged that market trader Thomas Skinner, then 34, had previously been convicted of handling £40,000 worth of stolen goods and possessing more than 2,000 diazepam pills in 2011.

More recently, contestant Dr Asif Munaf, who appeared on the 2024 series, was dropped from the spin-off show after being accused of posting antisemitic tweets denying the Holocaust.

That same year, TikTok star Amber Rose Badrudin, 26, was discovered in a hotel room with boardroom rival Keir Shave, 28 – accused of breaking the programme's strict no-touching rules and reportedly having the 'riot act' read to her by producers.

So far, so unsavoury. But revelations at the weekend about a contestant in the upcoming series, due to begin later this month, have left the future of the show hanging in the balance.

A string of racist and sexist posts on X in 2012 and 2013 made by HGV driver Levi Hague have since been unearthed.

In the now-deleted posts, the 33-year-old referred to Muslims as 'dirty', women as 's**gs' and brands seven police officers who arrested him in 2012 'pigs'.

Mr Hague has since issued an apology, saying: 'They are not a reflection of the values I uphold today.'

The former RAF serviceman insisted that he is 'now in a

completely different headspace' and added: 'I deeply regret the harm and offence these words may cause'.

Yet the episode appears to have driven a wedge between the BBC and The Apprentice's longtime production company, Naked.

When quizzed by the Daily Mail about how Hague's vile X posts could have gone unnoticed following so many previous vetting issues, the Beeb threw Naked, a subsidiary of Fremantle, under the bus.

A spokesman for the Corporation said: 'We were completely unaware that this contestant had made such abhorrent comments.

'We have asked the independent production company to fully review the social media checks undertaken, given the process has clearly failed in this instance.

'The views presented are totally unacceptable and we are taking this extremely seriously.'

Worse still, insiders later revealed that BBC bosses are now facing mounting pressure to axe the show, as higher-ups fear the scandals have rendered it 'untenable'.

One source yesterday told the Daily Mail: 'It's a big joke now. The repeated failures to do sufficient background checks keep resulting in the show being riddled in controversy.'

So what does the man at the heart of it – 78-year-old Lord Sugar – think?

'I think as long as it stays in the headlines, he doesn't care,' said Amy Anzel, a contestant on the show in 2022 and now the CEO of a highly successful beauty brand, Hollywood Browzer.

The 52-year-old has been outspoken about the reality of appearing on The Apprentice, resulting in Lord Sugar blocking her on social media.

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'He doesn't care about anything on the show,' she told the Daily Mail. 'How many brands, how many companies has he parted ways with over the years? He simply cares about the show staying on the air and keeping him front and centre.'

When Ms Anzel signed up for the hit BBC show, she truly believed it was a savvy business move. But her relationship with Lord Sugar quickly fell apart –and, after a bitter exchange on X, she was barred even from

returning to support her fellow contestants in the series finale.

The CEO, who sells facial skincare tools, has previously revealed how producers 'stage' the competition.

'They'll say you have 10 minutes left for a task. There's no clocks... they'll stop a task prematurely so that you don't finish something and then you have to present that version to the buyers.'

And Ms Anzel explained that she has seen first-hand how producers of the show 'set people up to fail'.

'They love all the car crashes because they have to compete with reality TV shows such as Love Island to stay relevant,' she said.

Indeed, The Apprentice's viewing figures have dropped from 7.1million in 2022, when Ms Anzel was on the show, to 6.7million last year.

'Years ago, when it first started,' Ms Anzel said, 'It was a BBC competition, a business competition - that's what made it so interesting to watch.

'It's gone downhill over the years because we know people go on there for fame instead.'

So, as loyal fans tune into the show's 20th series later this month, they will ask themselves: is this The Apprentice's dying breath?