The Apprentice is back with Lord Sugar for its 18th series

The BBC’s award-winning business show, The Apprentice, will return to screens for its 18th series in 2024, the BBC has announced.

Lord Sugar, 76, and his trusted advisers Baroness Brady, 54, and Tim Campbell, 46, will be joined by 18 candidates completing new tasks for Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.

To kick off the series, candidates from the men’s and women’s teams will be asked to organise a corporate hospitality challenge in the Scottish Highlands, hosting a luxury away-day for clients, to avoid being sent home in the loser’s black cab.

If they are successful they will go on to complete a host of other tasks, including a virtual escape room, creating cereals for children, discount buying in Jersey, a tourism challenge in Budapest and the return of the infamous TV shopping channel task.

Each candidate will need to prove that they are a business winner to become Lord Sugar’s new partner and winner of The Apprentice 2024.

After the main show, comedian, writer and actor Tom Allen, 40, will return to host The Apprentice: You’re Fired, which will air every week on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

He will analyse and debate the progress of candidates with business leaders and celebrity fans.

Over the course of the competition, Lord Sugar has invested £3 million in winning pitches to help create successful businesses.

The 17th series of the BBC show saw boxing gym owner Marnie Swindells hired as Lord Sugar’s business partner after an all-female finale.

Swindells, a court advocate and gold medal-winning boxer from London, went head to head with Rochelle Anthony to secure Lord Sugar’s investment and the chance to form a business partnership with him.

Swindells, who owns community-focused boxing gym Bronx, said: “What an incredible opportunity and moment for a girl like me to get to a place like this and have become Lord Sugar’s business partner.”