Lord Alan Sugar wants to do a show about the past winners of ‘The Apprentice’.
The 69-year-old business magnate has led a handful of young people to success over the years with the help of the on-going reality TV series, which sees entrepreneurs fight for a £250,000 investment from the billionaire to help kick start their own business, but he’s desperate for the BBC to create a programme for the winning candidates to prove how far they’ve come under his trusty wing.
Speaking at the press conference for the new series of ‘The Apprentice’ in London on Tuesday (27.09.16), he said: "They’re [the winners] all doing very well and they don’t get enough publicity, the BBC doesn’t get enough publicity over the real purpose of this show.
"The real reason why I do this, I enjoy watching these young people grow a business from scratch, which is what I did 50 years ago.
"And that’s why I get a great buzz out of it. For example, Ricky Martin [the winner of 2012’s series] has about 25 people working for him, Tom [Pellereau, who won in 2011] has got eight or nine people working for him. And Mark [wright, winner in 2014] has got about 30 people working for him. Leah [Totton, who won in 2013] has got two clinics now and Joseph [Valente, who won last year] is just starting. And they all take time to build up. It’s all great and I wish they got a little more publicity about it …
"Some of these people, their lives have changed. They’ve built houses, most of them have got married, got families, they’ve got security and they’re employing people and they’ve turned into great business people.
"I think the BBC need to do something like a programme on where they are now and what they’re doing now because it’ll show the great service that the programme is actually performing for young people, to inspire them."
The next series of ‘The Apprentice’ will return to screens next Thursday (06.09.16) on BBC One at 9pm as 18 fresh-faced candidates fight to prove they’re worthy of Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and, in turn, press on with their business plan.