Lord Sugar reveals what he thinks should happen to The Apprentice when he finally leaves – and it’s bad news for the BBC
WITH the 17th series of The Apprentice reaching a climax this week, Lord Sugar says he can’t imagine a time when he is not hosting it.
And he says that without him, the Beeb show would be better off being scrapped.
The hiring-and-firing telly veteran will be seen picking the winner on Thursday night — the eve of his 76th birthday.
Yet despite his age, Lord Sugar is hellbent on at least making it to his 20th series and insists even his younger counterparts on business-pitching BBC series Dragons’ Den couldn’t fill his shoes on it.
He said: “I don’t want to sound too big-headed but a lot of people underestimate me.
“They hear me talking like a cockney, but I know everything, I really do.
“I’m not degrading people like (Dragons’ Den star) Peter Jones, because they’ve done a lot also.
“But none of them have done as much as I have.
“Who would I put in my place? I can’t think of anybody. There’s loads of people that would queue up.
“There’s no reason why I can’t go on to do 25 years. I’m very fit, so I don’t know whether it stops at 20. But if I ever did stop, I get a feeling the BBC wouldn’t stop it.
“I think they would try to find someone new to do it and that’s where it may kill itself off.”
He pointed to the hit show’s American version — which was hosted by Donald Trump for 14 seasons then aired its 15th and final series in 2017.
‘The world’s gone mad’
Lord Sugar said: “When Donald Trump gave up his one in the US they got Arnold Schwarzenegger to do it.
“But he was pathetic — and Trump was bad enough. It really destroyed the format.
“If it was up to me, I think it should be, ‘Thank you very much, it’s been great, but maybe in ten years’ time we’ll bring it back’. like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, but with different characters hosting.”
The Hackney-born Amstrad business giant is about to film his 18th series, and is contracted to front the 19th.
The milestone 20th, however, is yet to be nailed down, yet Lord Sugar insists it should be a “no-brainer” for the Beeb to sign off.
Which will be true if the buzz that surrounds the show continues — and judging by the viewing figures and online chatter about it this year, there is no reason it shouldn’t.
For Lord Sugar the programme, which first aired in February 2005, is something of an unsung hero of British telly.
He is proud it has outlasted other popular shows like Simon Cowell’s X Factor, which began on ITV less than four months before The Apprentice.
Its format — a series of challenges to win a big-money investment and guidance of an expert — is now echoed in other telly contests.
They include Gordon Ramsay’s Future Food Stars, which launched last year on BBC1 and is about to air a second series.
Lord Sugar doesn’t think it will be getting talked about in 17 years, however.
He added: “Not even in 17 weeks’ time. I mean, I don’t want to start a war . . . ”
But he does feel he hasn’t got the credit he deserves from the TV community, and wants a special recognition award from Bafta.
He said: “They dish out these prizes to the ‘great contributor to music’ — a la Simon Cowell — or ‘the great contributor to food’ — Gordon Ramsay— and there’s me ‘the great contributor to business’ that gets sod all.”
He is convinced that, despite it naming The Apprentice best feature in 2006, the academy doesn’t like him.
But that doesn’t mean Lord Sugar, knighted in 2000 for services to the home computer and electronics industry and given a seat in the House of Lords in 2009, particularly cares what they think.
He values the freedom to speak his mind far too highly.
Not surprisingly, he finds our woke world bewildering, and can often be seen saying so in his Twitter posts.
He said: “The world’s gone bloody mad! It’s the one thing I agree with Piers Morgan about.
“I worry about young people, my grandchildren growing up now. I was with one of my grandchildren last night and they said, ‘You can’t say this and you can’t do that’.
“I said, ‘Where has your own personality gone? You do what you want to do. You’re a decent person’.
“Growing up, we were decent people. We knew what was right and what was wrong. But to start worrying and hanging on every word is ridiculous.”
He points out the fact that, despite him being criticised for his old-fashioned views on many things, all five Apprentice semi-finalists he chose this year were women.
And on Thursday, court advocate and gold medal-winning boxer Marnie Swindells will pit her skills against salon owner Rochelle Anthony.
Lord Sugar said: “Marnie and Rochelle are deserved finalists, there is no question of it — the cream rises to the top.
‘Business is tough’
“You can’t accuse me of being anti-feminist, can you? Girls have won the last few years’ shows too.”
For the business titan, gender was irrelevant. What mattered was their business skills and ability to withstand the rigours of being an entrepreneur.
But he fears our oversensitive world might clash with The Apprentice’s harsh process so much that one day he may have to stop starkly telling people: “You’re Fired!”
He said: “I’ll have to say, ‘I’m sorry to say that you’ve come to the end of this process and I’m sorry you’re going to have to leave’.”
So what message does he have for Millennials who think The Apprentice is too brutal?
“Tough!” he said. “Business is tough. You can’t go around wrapping everyone in cotton wool. It’s gone a bit too far these days.
“If you look deep enough you could criticise anything. I take no notice myself and carry on with my normal self. If people don’t like it, tough.”
He still feels the show is a huge draw for younger generations keen to emulate the success of past winners.
Lord Sugar said: “I’ve turned a few of the candidates into millionaires.
“It’s not so much the initial attraction of, ‘Come on The Apprentice to try to win £250,000.’
“It’s now ‘I wanna come on The Apprentice because I’ve seen what’s happened to the past winners — that’s what I’m targeting’.”
They’re obviously inspired by the host’s personal story too.
He founded Amstrad — an abbreviation of Alan Michael Sugar Trading — at 21. As well as computers, it produced stereos, phones, faxes and set-top boxes for Sky.
Lord Sugar is now estimated to be worth £1.2billion.
But he also believes the show’s continued success is due to it appealing to all ages. So youngsters who watched it 17 years ago still do so.
Lord Sugar added: “People say to me, ‘Oh blimey, not another one — 17 years, my God’.
“But it gets better every year. The candidates obviously make the programme.
“If it were just simply a business programme, it could be dead boring.
“My skill is to mix it up a bit, a bit of lighthearted comedy then come in like a piranha and point out where you’ve made a big error.
“And of course, it’s the firing where I describe to people why they’re no good.”
Just because he sees a long future on TV doesn’t rule out him taking stock of his success — and he would not be against a biopic of his life.
He said with a laugh: “I don’t think it would be a blockbuster, but I’d do it if somebody were to throw the money at it.
“Who would play me? I dunno, I quite like that Martin Freeman. He just looks a bit like me when I was younger and he’s a great actor.”
Lord Sugar has also given some thought to the end of his life, and has even discussed arrangements with his loved ones.
He said: “I’ve told them, the quote on my gravestone will be, ‘I had to do it myself’.
“It’s a general statement, if you want something, do it for yourself.”
The fact he started with nothing and became one of the world’s richest men might also be why he doesn’t fear being judged when he enters the great boardroom in the sky.
Lord Sugar said: “When I meet my maker he’ll look at my balance sheets and he’ll see that I made a load of bloody money!”
- The Apprentice final is on BBC One on Thursday at 9pm.