The first ever full-length series of The Celebrity Apprentice will air in 2026. The six-part series, ordered by Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC, is a co-production with Fremantle label Naked and MGM Alternative UK for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Lord Sugar says: “We’ve had some great celebrity names walk into my boardroom over the years, but they’ve only ever had a small taster of what it’s like to be a candidate. It’ll be interesting to see how our future celebrities fare across a full series, removing their PAs, PRs, agents and all the other assistance they have in their day-to-day lives to fully immerse themselves into The Apprentice world.”
Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC says: “The Apprentice is a much-loved part of the BBC’s entertainment offering and we can’t wait to see how the celebrity candidates rise to the challenge when the series launches later in 2026.”
Paul Broadbent, Director of Programmes at Naked, adds: “It’s a joy to be bringing The Celebrity Apprentice to our screens for a full series. Viewers have our two fantastic Christmas specials to come, which will give them a taste of what to expect from the next series. The celebrities will need to leave their ego at the boardroom door and prepare to roll their sleeves up for some very challenging – and hugely entertaining – tasks.”
Paul Broadbent is the Executive Producer; Francesca Maudslay is Consultant Executive Producer and Rachael Hankinson is Production Executive. For MGM Alternative UK, Dom Bird is Executive Producer; Sarah Clay and Jo Wallace are Commissioning Editors for the BBC. It is produced and distributed pursuant to a licence from Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.
The first full-length six-part series of The Celebrity Apprentice will be broadcast later in 2026, with more details announced in due course.
(Image: BBC/Naked/Ray Burmiston/Rufina Breskin)
Pippa Considine
Share this story
