When does The Apprentice 2023 start? How to watch season 17 and meet the candidates

• By Sasha
• January 4, 2023
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Season 17 will feature 18 entrepreneurs battling it out to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 business investment

The Apprentice is back for a seventeenth season, in which 18 candidates will battle it out to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 business investment.

The candidates will go head to head across a series of challenges, including running tours in Antigua and selling bao buns to the public.

Lord Sugar will be joined by Karren Brady, Claude Littner and Tim Campbell, who will help him find his next business partner and, of course, decide which candidate to fire every week.

Speaking to PA about the new season, Lord Sugar said: “We’re coming back bigger than ever before mainly because we’ve come out of the Covid period … Look forward to the good old Apprentice type of episodes.”

Find out below how to watch the new season of The Apprentice, and who are the 18 businesspeople set to face Lord Sugar’s tasks.

When does The Apprentice start?

The Apprentice returns to our screens on Thursday, January 5 at 9pm on BBC1. In the first episode the candidates will head to Antigua to sell and run bespoke tours.

The Apprentice: You’re Fired will then air at 10pm on BBC2. Both episodes will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

The Apprentice will then air every Thursday at 9pm.

The Apprentice 2023 candidates

Eighteen candidates will enter the boardroom this season in the hopes of winning Lord Sugar’s investment.

Rochelle Raye Anthony

Rochelle is a “tenacious” hair salon and academy owner from Bedfordshire. She believes a partnership with Lord Sugar would be “an absolute force to be reckoned with”.

Denisha Kaur Bharj

Denisha is a financial controller and lives in Leicestershire. She says her determination and work ethic have allowed her to reach the peak of her potential.

Emma Browne

Emma is a senior account executive who lives in County Kildare. She says she’s a “workaholic” and “disgustingly competitive”.

Sohail Chowdhary

Sohail owns a martial arts school and lives in Southampton. He has “astronomical” aspirations for his business and says: “I am calm and collected but if they do come at me? I will bite and I will sting, and I will leave my mark.”

Kevin D’Arcy

Kevin is an accountant who lives in Dublin. He started his water sports equipment business during lockdown and is looking to expand into the UK.

Reece Donnelly

Reece is the owner of a theatre school and lives in Glasgow, who says he is “going to be turning over a million pounds before [he’s] 30”.

Dani Donovan

Dani owns a hair salon and lives in Hertfordshire. She started her business as a teenager and wants to inspire would-be business owners.

Gregory Ebbs

Gregory is the owner of an online antiques marketplace and is a local councillor who lives in Shropshire. He describes himself as being “slightly more unusual than most”.

Victoria Goulbourne

Victoria owns an online sweet business and lives in Merseyside. She started her business in lockdown and it has since become a social media success.

Megan Hornby

Megan owns a sweet shop and cafe in East Yorkshire. Winning The Apprentice would allow Megan to kickstart a “massive national brand”.

Shazia Hussain

Shazia is a technology recruiter who lives in London. Being neurodiverse, he wants to show aspiring business owners that it’s “okay to think differently”.

Bradley Johnson

Bradley is a director of a construction company and lives in North Yorkshire. After being made redundant, he built a company that now turns over half a million pounds.

Shannon Martin

Shannon owns a bridal boutique in West Yorkshire. She is looking to bring Lord Sugar into the bridal industry to expand her “million-pound” business.

Mark Mosely

Mark is the owner of a pest control company, which he believes is a lucrative industry for Lord Sugar to invest in.

Joe Phillips

Joe is a safari guide in South Africa and a devoted conservationist. He describes himself as the “James Bond of the business world”.

Simba Rwambiwa

Simba is a senior sales representative who lives in Birmingham. He describes himself as a perfectionist and says: “If people can’t buy into you, they’ll never buy anything from you.”

Avi Sharma

Avi is a City banker who lives in London. He describes himself as an optimistic entrepreneur, and he believes that winning The Apprentice would get him out of the rat race of City banking.

Marnie Swindells

Marnie is a court advocate who lives in London. The gold medal-winning boxer says she’s headstrong and fought tooth and nail to reach where she is in business.