[The Human Santapede]

A new line-up of famous faces take on weekly business challenges, hoping to be crowned The Celebrity Apprentice winner.

The first ever full-length series of The Celebrity Apprentice is coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in 2026

Produced by Naked (a Fremantle label), the six-part series will see a new line-up of famous faces take on weekly business challenges set by Lord Sugar, competing to avoid the words “you’re fired” and ultimately be crowned The Celebrity Apprentice winner.

Lord Sugar says: “We’ve had some great celebrity names walk into my boardroom over the years, but they’ve only ever had a small taster of what it’s like to be a candidate. It’ll be interesting to see how our future celebrities fare across a full series, removing their PAs, PRs, agents and all the other assistance they have in their day-to-day lives to fully immerse themselves into The Apprentice world.”

Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC says: “The Apprentice is a much-loved part of the BBC’s entertainment offering and we can’t wait to see how the celebrity candidates rise to the challenge when the series launches later in 2026.”

Paul Broadbent, Director of Programmes at Naked (a Fremantle label), adds: “It’s a joy to be bringing The Celebrity Apprentice to our screens for a full series. Viewers have our two fantastic Christmas specials to come, which will give them a taste of what to expect from the next series. The celebrities will need to leave their ego at the boardroom door and prepare to roll their sleeves up for some very challenging – and hugely entertaining – tasks.”

The first full-length six-part series of The Celebrity Apprentice will be broadcast later in 2026, with more details announced in due course. Meanwhile Apprentice fans can look forward to two special Christmas themed episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice which will air on 29 and 30 December on BBC One and iPlayer and the latest series of The Apprentice will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in early 2026.

The Celebrity Apprentice (6 x 60’) has been commissioned by Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment at the BBC. The series is a co-production with Naked (a Fremantle label) and MGM Alternative UK for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Paul Broadbent is the Executive Producer; Francesca Maudslay is Consultant Executive Producer and Rachael Hankinson is Production Executive. For MGM Alternative UK, Dom Bird is Executive Producer; Sarah Clay and Jo Wallace are Commissioning Editors for the BBC. It is produced and distributed pursuant to a licence from Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2025...th-series-2026