Alan Sugar has revealed the future of The Apprentice as he defended its relevance and insisted it is a hit with teenage fans ahead of its 20th series. 

The British businessman, 78, has fronted the BBC entrepreneurial show for over half a century – but he has now come out in defence of whether it’s still resonates today. 

As the BBC programme enters its 20th series, Lord Sugar said it is still inspiring a new generation of young viewers to consider starting their own businesses as he revealed it has been renewed for three more years.

Reflecting on two decades of the programme in an interview with Radio Times, Alan said: ‘Every single year I get a new generation of youngsters, 13- or 15-year-olds, tuning in. The 15-year-old of 20 years ago is now 35.

‘If you said to him, “Do you watch The Apprentice any more?” you’ll get, “No, it’s s***. He talks a lot of b*******. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about”.

‘But the new 15-year-olds are so in awe of it. And the show has created an awareness for business that’s done a great service for young people.’

Alan Sugar has revealed the future of The Apprentice as he defended its relevance and insisted it is a hit with teenage fans ahead of its 20th series

Alan said about its future: ‘It’s not down to me but we have agreed another three years.

‘I guess there’ll come a time when either I’m a bit knackered or viewers are phoning in and complaining that I’m like Joe Biden and losing the plot.

‘The BBC will spend a few grand on some market research people and ask, “Should we get rid of Lord Sugar or what?” But, at the moment, I love doing it because it’s really about starting a business from scratch with young people.’

Discussing attitudes to work and ambition, Alan said modern consumer culture risked distracting young people from building businesses.

He said: ‘All the kids are interested in now is the latest Nike shoes, the iPhone 15 and TikTok. I sometimes think the parents are to blame.

‘Get out and get a b***** job. Go and work in McDonald’s and scrape the hot plates and all that. But oh, no, “Not for me. I’m too busy on Saturday”.

‘When I was a millionaire I sent my kids out to work on Saturday morning. And they made their own children do the same thing.’

The show, which began in 2005, sees candidates compete through business tasks in pursuit of investment from Alan. With the BBC already agreeing to commission three more series, the programme is on course to approach its 25th anniversary.

The British businessman, 78, has fronted the BBC entrepreneurial show for over half a century – but he has now come out in defence of whether it’s still resonates today

It comes days after not one, but three candidates were fired from Thursday’s episode of The Apprentice.

The 20th series of the much-loved BBC show is in full swing and six budding entrepreneurs have already been given the boot by Lord Sugar. 

This week the teams were tasked with putting on a corporate away day for clients in Egypt. 

One team treated their customers to a dune buggy ride in the desert, while the other team went with a lagoon tour. 

After 50% of her clients asked for a refund because of raw food and eating in wet clothes, Megan Ruiter’s team had a loss of $290, making them this week’s losers.

So Megan had a huge decision to make, and she decided to bring back Carrington Saunders and Andrea Cooper to the boardroom. 

And in shock move, Lord Sugar made show history with a landmark triple sacking and sent ALL of them home. 

When asked if she thought that it was deserved, Carrington said: ‘No, I don’t, to be honest. I don’t think I deserved to be fired. I made a mistake. The show isn’t based on your cooking skills, it is based on your business skills. So, that’s upsetting and also because I actually can cook! 

‘However, I suppose that the refunds were so high, it does make sense to an extent, but I don’t think I really deserved it, no.’

It comes days after not one, but three candidates were fired from Thursday’s episode of The Apprentice 

And when Andrea was asked the same question, she answered: ‘I don’t think the reasoning for me being fired was accurate. I don’t think I were negative. I’m not a negative person. 

‘I’m a very positive person. I feel that a lot of inexperienced people in business see it as being negative when actually it’s just about being a business person. Really it’s about profit and loss, trying to save money, trying to do other things that are a lot cheaper or free.’ 

Meanwhile project manager Megan said: ‘I think it’s a tricky one. I think I deserved it in a sense, we did have a loss. I was the PM, there was a lot of fault on me, and I was a lot to blame. 

‘I was managing the task, so it’s not ideal. But then also, I feel like I wasn’t necessarily to blame for the refunds.

‘If it wasn’t for the refunds, we actually would have won the task and that amount of money that we secured from the client – that was down to myself, and for knowing the experience that I’ve got within the events industry.’