Date: Friday, November 14, 2025
Boardroom Boss: Lord Alan Sugar
Advisors: Baroness Karren Brady and Mike Soutar
Number of Candidates: 12
Number of Episodes: 2
Network: BBC One and BBC iPlayer
The first celebrity edition of The Apprentice first aired in 2007, with the aim of raising money for Comic Relief.
While the show has arrived on BBC One a handful of times, it was last seen on TV screens six years ago.
However, the all-star version of the much-loved competition series will soon return with a two-part special for BBC Children in Need and is part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule.
Celebrity Apprentice is scheduled to air on Friday, November 14, 2025, bringing together 12 famous apprentices for a festive Lapland challenge.
The Boardroom
Lord Alan Sugar will return to the boardroom to hire, guide, and fire this year’s celebrity candidates.
Karren Brady will return to his side as one of his trusted advisors, and business expert Mike Soutar steps in for Tim Campbell, as he was unable to attend filming for the celebrity version.
As always, the advisors will keep a watchful eye on this year’s contestants, monitoring their successes, mishaps, and epic mistakes.
The Celebrity Contestants
12 famous faces will be split into two teams of six on the 2025 edition of Celebrity Apprentice.
Team One will include:
- AJ Odudu – A TV presenter
- Jake Wood – EastEnders actor
- Eddie Kadi – A comedian
- Charlie Hedges – A Radio 1 DJ
- Rob Rinder – A TV personality and barrister
- Kadeena Cox – a Paralympic gold medallist
Team Two will comprise:
- Angela Scanlon – A broadcaster
- JB Gill – A TV presenter and member of the boy band JLS
- Shazia Mirza – A comedian
- Thomas Skinner – A TV personality and former contestant on The Apprentice
- Sarah Hadland – An actress
- Matt Morsia – A Gladiators TV personality
The Lapland Challenge
The celebrity candidates will travel to Lapland for the ultimate festive challenge. The two teams of six will need to work together to develop, create, and market a signature festive gingerbread biscuit that people will want to buy.
When they are not busy bickering over Christmas recipes, branding, and pricing, they will need to pitch their product to retailers and sell their festive biscuit to generate a huge return on investment.
The good news is that the British public will have an opportunity to buy and try the delicious Christmas biscuits in select retailers across the country, including Asda, Tesco, Boots, Amazon Online, Ocado, and more.
The festive gingerbread biscuits will reportedly go on sale on November 14, and a percentage of the profits will go directly to BBC Children in Need 2025, which supports projects for disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.
Lord Sugar recently commented, “It’s the first ever time on Celebrity Apprentice that the public can buy products that were created by the celebrity candidates. It’s added some real pressure to the process. I think the celebs thought they were in for an easy ride, but they were wrong! Raising money for BBC Children in Need is serious business, so the candidates really need to deliver if they want to avoid ending up on my naughty list.”
The public will have two unique biscuits to choose from. Team One created the Jolly McTrouble, a gingerbread biscuit with butter toffee, vanilla, and Christmas pudding-flavored icing.
Team Two created Gary the Penguin, which is a penguin-shaped biscuit with a distinctive blend of lemon, white pepper, and bubble gum. It will allow viewers to sample the biscuits while watching the development process on TV.