For what age: 3+
How many episodes in 13 season: 14 episodes
Alan Sugar begins another search for a business partner, challenging a new group of candidates to design and manufacture their own burgers to sell to the public in London. Chaos in the kitchen throws one team into disarray, while the other team wastes valuable time deciding how to label their product. Back in the boardroom, tensions rise as the candidates face Lord Sugar for the first time.
The candidates are summoned to Stoke Park, a five-star hotel in Buckinghamshire, where they learn that this week's challenge will see them working as interior designers. The contestants are tasked with transforming a bedroom at the hotel, before pitching their ideas to the hotel manager and a leading interior designer. However, both teams encounter troublesome DIY issues, and their concepts are picked apart during the daunting pitches. Back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar sends another contestant from the losing team home.
This week, Lord Sugar summons the contestants to London's new Design Museum, where the teams find out that they are to create, programme and sell a prototype robot. The boys team create a product targeting the over 60s market, but their patronising approach does not impress the retailers. Meanwhile, the girls opt for the children's market, but an appalling pitch sees their team in melt down.
As the competition continues, Lord Sugar instructs the candidates that this week's task is to set up and run a corporate box, and sell merchandise to the masses at the Women's FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London. The team members chosen to organise the boxes meet their match when they come face to face with the clients and their negative comments. The following day at the big game, guests in one of the corporate boxes are unhappy as supplies run dry, while those selling merchandise outside struggle with last minute pricing strategies.
As Lord Sugar celebrates his 70th birthday, the contestants are tasked to a shopping spree across London to purchase items that mark milestones in his life and career. The candidates have one day to find nine specific items at the best possible price, before meeting at the House of Lords. For one team, there is confusion over the mystery object, while poor planning leaves the other team lagging behind. In the boardroom, Lord Sugar gives out warnings, as well as hefty fines, before sending one contestant home.
Alan Sugar sends the candidates off to Bruges to create a high-quality tour of the beautiful Belgian city that passengers would be happy to pay good money for. The teams also try to flog souvenirs to guests to top up their profit margins, but as they sell the tickets, there's jostling between candidates for sales and overpromising on what the tour groups will get, which could lead to major disappointment. The next day on the tours, facts are forgotten, candidates get their groups lost and, with time tight, one of them keeps cracking the whip on what's supposed to be a relaxed tourist experience.
Candidates have to create advertising campaigns for a new car in Essex, splitting into two teams - one half producing a television advert and the other creating a digital billboard advert. For one of the groups, a confusing car name and a strange choice of advertisement location causes them difficulty, while the others are led off course by a lack of direction. The finished campaigns are pitched to industry experts, before Lord Sugar eliminates one candidate from the competition.
Alan Sugar tasks the candidates with running their own doggy service business. Based at an established pooch-pampering venue, the teams must try to tempt discerning dog owners to part with their cash for services aimed at their four-legged friends. One team sets up a luxury doggy spa service, while the other struggles to make their dog obedience class profitable due to a haphazard pricing strategy and, back in the boardroom, another candidate's journey reaches an end.
Lord Sugar tasks the candidates with cooking up a concept for a new recipe kit. Half-baked branding and kitchen nightmares result in sour pitches. Then in the boardroom, one candidate is toast.
This week, Lord Sugar tasks the remaining contestants to become fashion agents, and sell a range of garments from up and coming designers. The teams have to select a designer, then plan and organise a catwalk show, as well as put together a magazine cover to amplify their sales campaign. Bad negotiations leave one team exposed, while the other team's magazine pitch does not go down well.
Profiles of the remaining candidates, delving into their backgrounds, as well as looking back over their journeys in the process so far.
This time, the final five candidates are summoned to Lord Sugar's newly refurbished offices in the City of London. There they are joined by some of Lord Sugar's closest associates, ready to put the candidates through their paces in a series of tough interviews, with each candidate going head to head with a business heavyweight in an attempt to prove their worth. There are tears, tantrums and turmoil, as confidence crumbles, egos are eradicated and business plans are pulverised, before heading back to the boardroom to face Lord Sugar once more.
Ahead of the final, Lord Sugar looks back on the tasks from this year's series and assesses the candidates' performances. The business tycoon also looks back on the boardroom bust-ups and goes through the best decisions made by the contestants, as well as the worst - including five-star hotel rooms painted in shades of trifle, modern cars in medieval villages and getting lost while showing paying customers around Bruges.
The two finalists take on their last challenge to win a coveted investment from Alan Sugar, with hand-picked teams of contestants from the series returning to aid them in their endeavours. They face a three-day challenge to create brands and adverts to pitch to a room full of experts - but a poor commercial and an uninspiring brand name do neither candidate any favours.
