The BBC has confirmed the full cast for the first ever full-length series of Celebrity Apprentice, with twelve familiar faces set to face Lord Sugar across six episodes in a new boardroom located inside a London city skyscraper.
Singer Alexandra Burke, Sky News presenter Kay Burley and Emmerdale actor Danny Miller headline a lineup that also includes presenter Gethin Jones, dancer Jordan Banjo, actress Maddie Grace Jepson, TikTok personality Max Balegde, Gladiator Sheli McCoy, UK garage artist DJ Spoony, BBC presenter Richie Anderson, comedian Laura Smyth and Love Island alumna Toni Laites. Each celebrity will be competing on behalf of a chosen charity, with a £100,000 prize awaiting the winner.
While Celebrity Apprentice has previously appeared in shorter Comic Relief and Sport Relief formats — first in 2008 and most recently in a Christmas special in 2025 — this marks the first time the concept has been developed into a full standalone series. Filming began on Saturday and the show is expected to air later this year.
Lord Sugar made clear that the celebrity status of the contestants would afford them no advantage once inside the boardroom. “Just because they’re celebrities, it doesn’t mean they’re going to get an easy ride, especially when there’s £100,000 at stake for their chosen charity,” he said, promising six weeks of what he described as “brilliant business challenges.”
Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC, said the extended format would allow viewers to see the celebrities tested in ways a shorter run could not accommodate. “They’ll be tested on leadership, teamwork and commercial instinct, and only those who can truly deliver will make it through,” she said. “It’s bold, unpredictable and hugely entertaining.”
The news arrives fresh on the heels of the conclusion of the main Apprentice series, in which 28-year-old beauty entrepreneur Karishma Vijay was named Lord Sugar’s 21st winner after impressing with her pitch for skincare brand Kishkin Skin. She secured a £250,000 investment, beating 22-year-old Pascha Myhill — the youngest candidate in the process — in a closely contested final.
Vijay, who had been sleeping on a mattress at her parents’ home in Croydon in the months prior to filming, described her victory as transformative on a personal level but also as carrying broader significance. “The winner of the Apprentice is the daughter of an immigrant and that is a huge statement and a light of hope to people who feel things will never change,” she said.
She also spoke candidly about the barriers she felt she had faced within the beauty industry. “I have been locked out of that list for such a long time because of what I look like,” she said. “I am not conventionally the Eurocentric beauty standard that people go for. I am the girl next door — and people actually buy what the girl next door talks about.”
Both The Apprentice and the forthcoming Celebrity Apprentice series are available or will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
