The Apprentice: Final five to battle it out after double elimination

Lord Alan Sugar has selected the five final Apprentice candidates in with a chance of becoming his next business partner.

The 78-year-old magnate fired workwear brand owner Liam Snellin and competitive bodybuilder and entrepreneur Mia Collins during Thursday night’s installment of the BBC One reality show.

After 10 weeks’ worth of challenges, store owner Amber-Rose Badrudin, pizza company owner Anisa Khan, virtual assistant company owner Chisola Chitambala, animation entrepreneur Jordan Dargan and air conditioning company owner Dean Franklin have all made it through to the penultimate episode.

The budding entrepreneurs will have their business plans picked apart during the gruelling interviews stage next week.

The candidates secured their places after they were tasked with launching an environmentally conscious and sustainable fashion brand during Thursday’s episode.

Reflecting on making it to the final five, Badrudin said: “It’s one of the proudest moments of my life, to be honest.

“I had kind of set a goal going into the process that I really wanted to make the interview stage, and I was laser-focused on getting there.”

Khan said she was not confident she would make it to the final five due to the losses she had faced.

“I thought he was going to fire me because obviously at that point that was my eighth loss and compared to everyone else, I had the most losses”, she said.

“So even though I felt confident, like for example, in task 10, I actually thought I did well as an individual because I had the highest sales, and I kept level-headed and I contributed.

“But then he was talking about the overall performance within the series and then I was scared that my losses would be the reason why I don’t get any further.

“So, when he finally said that I’d got to the final five a tear did come out! I remember Amber-Rose and Chisola burst out crying. I was really happy with them.”

Chitambala said she felt “grateful” and “blessed”, while Franklin called it “the best thing”.

Dargan expressed his confidence and said: “Going in I wasn’t going in there to even get to the final five, I’m going in to win.

“So I expected this from the minute I applied to be on the show, to be honest.”

He added: “As the process went on, I became more confident, I became more aware of what Lord Sugar was looking for in a candidate. I knew I’d make the final five, without a doubt.”

Last week’s episode saw Max England fired, with Lord Sugar saying he had “made quite a lot of mistakes” after the candidates faced a high-pressure TV shopping task.

Lord Sugar will select the two finalists in with the chance of securing the business tycoon’s £250,000 investment in next week’s episode.

Last year, fitness studio owner Rachel Woolford, who launched her boutique gym business North Studio during Covid, won the series.

The Apprentice airs Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.