Series 18 (UK)

Series 18 of the British version of The Apprentice premiered on 1 February 2024 on BBC One, having been pushed back a month for The Traitors.

Karren Brady and Tim Campbell returned as aides to Lord Sugar. Eighteen candidates took part, as with the last series.

Candidates[]

Candidate	Background	Age	Result
Rachel Woolford	Boutique fitness studio owner	27	Winner
Phil Turner	Pie company owner	37	Runner-up
Dr. Paul Midha	Dental practice owner	29	Fired after interview stage
Flo Edwards	Recruitment consultant	29
Tre Lowe	Musician & wellness entrepreneur	48
Steve Darken	Management consultant	37	Fired in tenth task
Foluso Falade	Project manager	25	Fired in tenth task
Maura Rath	Yoga company owner	32	Fired in ninth task
Raj Chohan	Mortgage broker	41	Fired in ninth task
Noor Bouziane	Jewellery company owner	22	Fired in eighth task
Virdi Singh Mazaria	Music producer	24	Fired in seventh task
Sam Saadet	Perinatal fitness coach	33	Fired in sixth task
Onyeka Nweze	Chartered company secretary	25	Fired in fifth task
Jack Davies	Recruitment director	29	Fired in fourth task
Amina Khan	Pharmacist & business owner	32	Fired in fourth task
Dr. Asif Munaf	Wellness brand owner	34	Fired in third task
Paul Bowen	Pie company director	34	Fired in second task
Oliver Medforth	Alcohol sales executive	27	Fired in first task

Performance chart[]

Task Number
Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Rachel	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	HIRED
Phil	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	IN	BR	IN	IN	BR	WIN	IN	RUNNER-UP
Paul M.	IN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	FIRED
Flo	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Tre	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Steve	BR	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Foluso	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	FIRED
Maura	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	BR	WIN	IN	FIRED
Raj	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Noor	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Virdi	LOSE	IN	IN	BR	BR	IN	FIRED
Sam	IN	IN	BR	BR	IN	FIRED
Onyeka	WIN	IN	BR	BR	FIRED
Jack	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Amina	IN	IN	BR	FIRED
Asif	IN	BR	FIRED
Paul B.	IN	FIRED
Oliver	FIRED

Episodes[]

Week 1: Highlands Corporate Away Day[]

Air date: 1 February 2024
Men's team: Virdi (PM), Asif, Jack, Paul B, Paul M, Phil, Oliver, Steve, Tre
Women's team: Onyeka (PM), Amina, Flo, Foluso, Maura, Noor, Rachel, Raj, Sam
Task: Run luxury corporate away days at Cawdor Castle, in the Highlands. They must give a tour and team building activity, as well as providing lunch.
Task review: The women focus on a tour of the Highlands’ waterways with a team building exercise themed on Highland games and fish cakes and rhubarb crumble for lunch, securing a profit despite issues with the lunch service, including the use of the wrong ingredient in the fish cakes, and ensuing refunds. The men focus on a ‘land tour’ and plan to serve toad in the hole and brownies for lunch and have a highland dancing-themed team building course, but face issues with time management and underprepared food.
Result: Women made £122.43 profit. Men made £506.40 loss.
Winner: Women's team by default.
Reward: A drinks reception at the candidates' house.
Brought into the boardroom: Virdi, Oliver and Steve
Fired: Oliver - for his subpar and ambiguous contributions to the task, and failing to make his presence known to his colleagues.
You're Fired panel: Karren Brady, Raj Samaya, Eddie Kadi
Notes:

Week 2: Cheesecakes[]

Air date: 8 February 2024
Men's team: Phil (PM), Asif, Jack, Paul B, Paul M, Steve, Tre, Virdi
Women's team: Foluso (PM), Amina, Flo, Maura, Noor, Onyeka, Rachel, Raj, Sam
Task: Create two sets of mini cheesecakes; one set to punt to the public, and one set for a corporate client.
Task review: The men create white chocolate cheesecakes for the public, and dragonfruit and avocado for their corporate client; they face issues with costings, negotiations with their difficult client, and selling prices. Meanwhile, the women create mango cheesecakes for the public, and fig-flavoured cheesecakes for their client; they sell well and control their costs, but face issues with logistics.
Result: Women made a profit of £734.58. Men made a profit of £485.85.
Winner: Women's team by £248.73.
Reward: Decadant luxury desserts.
Brought into the boardroom: Phil, Asif and Paul B
Fired: Paul B - For pushing the wrong type of cheesecake to the client in initial negotiations and for making too many mistakes on a task tailored to his line of work.
You're Fired panel: Tim Campbell, Abi Clarke, Nikita Kanda
Notes:

Week 3: Virtual Escape Rooms[]

Air date: 15 February 2024
Supream: Asif (PM), Amina, Jack, Maura, Onyeka, Phil, Sam, Virdi
Nexus: Flo (PM), Foluso, Noor, Paul M, Rachel, Raj, Steve, Tre
Task: Create a new virtual escape room. They must come up with a concept and develop it, before pitching it to gaming experts.
Task review: Nexus creates a medieval style experience, themed around trying to create a cure for a Black Death type plague, which is seen as having a feeling of resembling a game rather than an escape room. Supream creates an experience themed around survival on a deserted island where nothing is as it seems, which is seen to be confusing.
Result: Supream received an investment of £50,000. Nexus received an investment of £170,000.
Winner: Nexus by £120,000.
Reward: Tomb Raider Live Experience.
Brought into the boardroom: Asif, Amina, Onyeka and Sam
Fired: Asif - For not living up to his promises from his previous boardroom appearance, not providing clear instructions to his team and disregarding the experts' view on the experience as "surreal" during the pitch.
You're Fired panel: Peter Rethinasamy, Elle Osili-Wood, Clem Garrity
Notes:
- Asif's participation in You're Fired was edited out due to controversies over comments he had made on social media.

Week 4: Discount Buying[]

Air date: 22 February 2024
Supream: Jack (PM), Amina, Maura, Onyeka, Phil, Sam, Virdi
Nexus: Raj (PM), Flo, Foluso, Noor, Paul M., Rachel, Steve, Tre
Task: Purchase nine items associated with the Channel island of Jersey at bargain prices. Least amount spent (including fines) wins.
Task review: Nexus managed to secure eight of the items correctly, with generally good negotiations and a clear strategy, although lots of time was wasted waiting around for certain items. Supream managed to secure seven items, but suffered from a clear lack of strategy once they started buying along with poor negotiations from all team members; the sub-team in particular spent much of the day running around unfocused.
Result: Supream spent £669.50 (including fines). Nexus spent £427.23 (including fines).
Winner: Nexus by £242.27.
Reward: Luxury sailing experience at Queen Mary Sailing Club
Brought into the boardroom: All seven members of Team Supream
Fired:
- Amina - For losing control over the sub-team, failing to step up her performance despite being warned in the previous boardroom, displaying limited business skills, and her generally unimpressive performances across all four tasks.
- Jack - For his terrible leadership, lacking a clear strategy, and continuously being on the losing team.
You're Fired panel: Angela Barnes, Linda Plant, Richie Anderson
Notes:
- Initially, Jack decided to bring Amina and Maura back, however, Lord Sugar was unhappy with the team's performance on the task, so asked all the remaining members of Supream to return.
- The aftermath of this task set a new record for the highest number of people having been brought back to the final boardroom at seven. Unlike the previous record of six, which was set in the second episode of series twelve and was the result of both PMs losing and asked to bring back two people apiece, all seven candidates who faced the final boardroom in this episode were from the same team.

Week 5: Formula E[]

Air date: 29 February 2024
Supream: Paul M. (PM), Flo, Maura, Onyeka, Phil, Sam, Virdi
Nexus: Tre (PM), Foluso, Noor, Rachel, Raj, Steve
Task: Come up with a new concept for a new Formula E team, and then sell sponsorships at a launch event, including a potential separate deal with one major corporate client. Most sales made wins.
Task review: Nexus's concept revolved around plastic pollution and the oceans; despite poor branding from the sub-team, Tre in particular sold the concept very well at the launch event, which led to some very good deals. Supream focused their concept around clean air, but despite one deal, they suffer from, like Nexus, a relatively poor branding effort, compounded with overall poor sponsorship sales at the launch event due to the concept not being properly communicated during the presentation.
Result: Supream made total sales of £21.5 million. Nexus made total sales of £38.7 million.
Winner: Nexus by £17.2 million
Reward: Indoor skydiving at the o2
Brought into the boardroom: Paul M., Onyeka and Virdi
Fired: Onyeka - For delivering a poor presentation at the launch event, which was deemed to have struck a fatal blow to Supream's chances of securing many good sponsorship deals, and for her deeply questionable contributions throughout the five tasks.
You're Fired panel: Christian Purslow, Ortis Deley, Rachel Fairburn
Notes: Nexus' £38.7 million total is the highest ever achieved on the UK version.

Week 6: Cereal[]

Air date: 7 March 2024
Supream: Sam (PM), Flo, Maura, Paul M., Phil, Virdi
Nexus: Steve (PM), Foluso, Noor, Rachel, Raj, Tre
Task: Create a cereal for six to eight-year-olds, including the box, cereal, mascot, and a VR feature, before selling it to retailers at a launch event. Most orders received, wins.
Task review: Nexus' idea revolves around a superhero named 'Mega Bella' as the mascot, accompanied by the brand 'Power Hoops'; despite some issues with the flavour of their cereal, along with concerns that their VR element is deemed to simple, they secure a very large deal at their launch event, along with predominantly positive comments from the present buyers. Supream focus on the Arctic with a polar bear mascot, branding their cereal 'Polar Crunch', but suffer several issues including a bland cereal, poorly designed box, and a VR game that faces heavy criticism from retailers at the launch event.
Result: Supream secured 7,500 orders. Nexus secured 200,000 orders.
Winner: Nexus by 192,500 orders
Reward: Trip to a high-end carnival-themed arcade
Brought into the boardroom: Sam, Maura and Phil
Fired: Sam - For her poor leadership and overseeing an overall extremely lacklustre campaign.
You're Fired panel: Fats Timbo, Mike Soutar, Russell Kane
Notes:

Week 7: Budapest Tourism[]

Air date: 14 March 2024
Supream: Rachel (PM), Foluso, Noor, Phil, Tre, Virdi
Nexus: Maura (PM), Flo, Paul M, Raj, Steve
Task: Plan a tour of the city of Budapest, Hungary. Most profit made, including refunds, wins.
Task review: Nexus focus on a wine tour, although Noor decides to move over to the other team for religious reasons. Despite suffering from the Project Manager switching teams at the last minute, they do well, selling all their tickets at good prices, and offering a high-quality tour with significant extra takings from wine sales. Supream produce a boat tour on the Danube including a visit to Margaret Island, but despite delivering a good tour, they suffer from not selling all their tickets, compounded by those sales being at lower prices.
Result: Supream made a profit of 660.50 Euros. Nexus made a profit of 1170.00 Euros
Winner: Nexus by 509.50 Euros.
Reward: A trip to Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience.
Brought into the boardroom: Rachel, Foluso and Virdi
Fired: Virdi - For being most culpable for the poor sales of the tour, and his awful track record of seven consecutive losses.
You're Fired panel: Timothy Armoo, Charlie George, Marnie Swindells

Week 8: XBUS Advertising[]

Air date: 21 March 2024
Supream: Noor (PM), Foluso, Phil, Rachel, Tre
Nexus: Paul M (PM), Flo, Maura, Raj, Steve
Task: Create a branding and advertising campaign for an XBUS electric van, which they must later pitch to industry experts. Best campaign, wins.
Task review: Nexus are instructed to brand a camper van targeting consumers in the leisure market, leading to a comedy-style advert and a brand name inspired by the Bed & Breakfast market. Supream are told to pitch a commercial vehicle for business owners, resulting in an advert with issues such as a non-moving vehicle, and disagreements in the sub team about the branding and logo. Both teams conduct market research at the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, which along with the pitches reveals issues with both campaigns.
Winner: Nexus - deemed to have made the better campaign by Lord Sugar.
Reward: Forest segway experience
Brought into the boardroom: No final boardroom; Noor's repeated refusals to admit to the flaws of the team's advert caused Lord Sugar to deem a final boardroom pointless, leading to his firing her on the spot.
Fired: Noor - For failing to prove herself as Project Manager, directing a poor television advert, and refusing to accept the flaws of the team's advert.
You're Fired panel: Dean Forbes, Cally Beaton, Morgan Rees
Notes:
- After Noor's firing, Lord Sugar sent the remaining candidates back to the house, which meant the usual final boardroom scene was not held. The first and only instance of this happening before this episode was in the first series, when Adele Lock left in the fourth episode before the final boardroom could happen, and because of the show's initial rules and reduced number of candidates at the time, a second exit could not be made and therefore the final boardroom was scrapped.
- Additionally, Noor's firing makes her the first ever candidate who did not make it to the interview round to have been fired without ever having made any final boardroom appearances.
- Noor had indicated in the task post-mortem that she would have brought back Tre and Foluso to the final boardroom, as she held Foluso responsible for the branding and logo issues, and accused Tre of being disruptive during filming. While Sugar agreed that Foluso (along with Phil) was at fault for the team's poor branding, Karren defended Tre, pointing out that the advice he gave Foluso was valid.
- Noor declined to participate in You're Fired, partly in support of Asif over his being edited out of the Week 3 episode, and partly because she felt the main show had portrayed her unfairly.

Week 9: TV Selling[]

Air date: 28 March 2024
Supream: Tre (PM), Foluso, Rachel, Steve
Nexus: Raj (PM), Flo, Maura, Paul M, Phil
Task: Choose products to sell live during the Saturday primetime slot on a shopping channel.
Task review: Supream focus on high-price self-care items; despite having problems of not selling in bulk and questionable product selections, what they did sell were at higher prices, which generated decent revenue figures. Nexus focus on unusual mass-market items, but suffer from an overall lack of strategy concerning the selection of products, two of the three presenters turning prospective buyers away, and the gallery team further adding to the mess by dropping the prices on the items far too quickly and frequently.
Result: Supream made total sales of £1,603.79. Nexus made total sales of £1,124.45.
Winner: Supream by £479.34.
Reward: Trip to Sabine Rooftop Bar
Brought into the boardroom: Raj, Flo, Maura and Phil
Fired:
- Raj - For her poor leadership and presenting skills, mis-managing broadcast roles, poorly defending herself in the boardroom, her questionable overall performance in tasks despite it being her first loss, and because Lord Sugar felt she had only made it this far through sheer luck.
- Maura - For primarily being responsible for the record number of complaints received due to a horrible broadcast segment and being regarded as a weak contributor throughout the tasks.
You're Fired panel: Jake Lambert, Will Njobvu, Claudine Collins
Notes:
- This task marked Team Supream's first (and only) victory. This makes it the latest in a series for a team to achieve its first victory, as Team Supream was formed out the men's team.

Week 10: Vegan Alternative to Cheese[]

Air date: 4 April 2024
Supream: Rachel (PM), Foluso, Steve
Nexus: Phil (PM), Flo, Paul M, Tre
Task: Create a brand of vegan cheese with a signature ingredient, before pitching the product and branding to major retailers. Most orders secured, wins.
Task review: Nexus create a high-end truffle-based spread; despite concerns about the branding and the lack of truffle taste within the flavour, the flavour nonetheless was very well received, which leads to orders from both retailers. Supream concocts a curry-flavoured soft cheese; like Nexus they suffer from an overall poor branding effort, but this is compounded with the flavour being very poorly received by the public and the retailers, leading to both retailers not placing a single order.
Result: Supream secured 0 orders. Nexus secured a total of 18,000 orders.
Winner: Nexus by 18,000 orders
Reward: A bespoke dining experience with chef Tom Brown at the candidates' house
Fired (before final boardroom): Foluso - For solely being responsible for the weak branding, failing in her area of expertise and her generally subpar performances in the past few weeks.
Brought into the boardroom: Rachel and Steve
Fired (during final boardroom): Steve - For his role in choosing the curry flavour and not making a convincing argument to be considered a suitable business partner for Lord Sugar.
You're Fired panel: Rachel Ama, Gaby Roslin, Ignacio Lopez
Notes:

Week 11: Interviews[]

Air date: 11 April 2024
Semi-finalists: Flo, Paul M, Phil, Rachel, Tre
Task: The five remaining candidates undergo a gruelling interview process from four interviewers - Claude Littner, Mike Soutar, Claudine Collins, and Linda Plant. Lord Sugar decides on which two proceed based on the feedback on their CVs and business plans.
Candidate Review: Rachel got the best reports from the interviewers, being praised for her solid track record with her existing business, though being questioned over the omission of profit and loss accounts in her business plan, and also being criticised for not offering monthly subscriptions to her current and proposed fitness businesses. Phil also got praise for proposing a business in an industry which his family had long been working, but was accused of being untruthful for claiming that the business had been running since 1933 when it had actually only been set up in 2012, and the interviewers were also concerned about the fact that his existing business had made a loss over the last year. Paul M.'s business proposal confused the interviewers, as despite running a highly successful dentistry practice and being ready to set up another one, he actually wanted to set up a business manufacturing surgical scrubs, leading to all four interviewers advising him to scrap that plan and offer Lord Sugar a stake in his existing practice. While Flo received much praise as a candidate, her plan was strongly criticized, with Claude pointing out that she would have used up the entire £250,000 investment within a few months, and not being convinced of Flo's proposal to gain additional funding from banks. The interviewers were additionally concerned that her suggestion of setting up a recruitment agency was not particularly unique, especially considering that Lord Sugar already owned shares in several such agencies, including one set up by Series 8 winner Ricky Martin. Tre's plan was felt to be the weakest of the group, with all four interviewers pointing out that it was heavily lacking in essential details, that it was in an industry in which Tre had very little experience, and questioning the benefits of the testosterone-boosting "health shot" that Tre was proposing to produce.
Decision: While Lord Sugar noted that the interviewers had been impressed by all five candidates on a purely personal level, he judged both Tre and Flo to have plans that were severely flawed, and fired them first. Paul M. was initially saved from the same fate by taking on-board the advice from the interviewers to scrap his plan, but he made it clear that he was only willing to offer Lord Sugar 50% of the new dentistry practice that he wanted to set up, not 50% of both the new practice and his existing one. Lord Sugar did not find this offer acceptable and fired Paul M., making Phil and Rachel the finalists.
Fired:
- Tre - For the lack of critical financial details in his business plan, and for wanting to create a product that did not appeal to Lord Sugar.
- Flo - For having a business plan which had too much financial risk, and was not felt to be sufficiently unique.
- Paul M - For refusing to offer Lord Sugar 50% of his existing dentistry practice.
You're Fired Panel:
Notes:

Week 12: The Finals[]

Air date: 18 April 2024
Finalists: Phil and Rachel
Phil's Team: Foluso, Paul B, Paul M, Raj, Virdi
Rachel's Team: Flo, Maura, Sam, Steve, Tre
Task: Finalists prepare a pitch for their business plan, including campaigns and branding, before presenting it to a panel of experts. Lord Sugar decides on who is his business partner, based on the feedback on the plan and their overall performance.
Task Review:
Decision: In the final boardroom, Lord Sugar expressed concerns that the gym market was over-saturated, and that Rachel would not be able to scale her business up. However, Sugar was severely perturbed by two statements that Phil made in the boardroom, firstly when he disagreed with Lord Sugar's and the experts' opinions that his online pie deliveries wouldn't generate enough of a profit margin, and then in turn when he implied that he did not consider making a profit to be the most important part of running a business. After much consideration, Lord Sugar decided that Rachel would be a better investment prospect, and hired her.
Runner-Up: Phil, due to his disagreeing with Lord Sugar's opinion that he should focus on shops rather than online deliveries for his pies, making comments that caused Sugar concern over his commitment to running a profitable business, and for his poor track record of having been on the losing team in nine of the ten tasks.
Hired: Rachel, for her very solid track record throughout the process, and because her business was seen to have more long-term potential by Lord Sugar.
You're Hired Panel:
Notes: