ITV

Tag: The Apprentice

  • BBC Studios takes 25% minority stake in unscripted indie Mothership Productions

    BBC Studios takes 25% minority stake in unscripted indie Mothership Productions

    Mumbai: BBC Studios has taken a minority stake of 25 per cent in unscripted indie Mothership Productions set up by former Channel 4 deputy director of programmes, Kelly Webb-Lamb.

    The strategic partnership will see BBC Studios invest in Mothership’s slate of global formats and ideas of scale across the unscripted genres, which will complement the output of BBC Studios’ existing portfolio of in-house and indie labels. Under the terms of the deal, BBC Studios will have first look global distribution and format rights.

    On announcing the partnership, Mothership Productions’ founder Kelly Webb-Lamb said, “The whole Mothership team is delighted to be partnering with BBC Studios and to be joining a brilliant stable of invested indies. We’ve been so impressed with the Studios team and are really looking forward to working with them. And for some of us, this feels rather like coming home… you can take the girl out of the BBC, but she never forgets her staff number, and although this is a totally different kind of arrangement, I am super glad that this is where Mothership has ended up in terms of partnership.”

    BBC Studios Productions CEO Ralph Lee said, “Kelly is a highly sought-after creative leader who has assembled a team around her that has a formidable pedigree in hit shows and formats in a highly competitive field. It is a true testament to their talent and potential that within only a short period of time, Mothership has developed a slate that is brimming with ideas that we believe will appeal to both UK and international broadcasters and platforms. We can’t wait to have Kelly and the Mothership team join the BBC Studios family and look forward to a productive partnership.”

    Webb-Lamm launched Mothership earlier this month with the intention of making “some properly great, entertaining, warm and witty programmes.” She has assembled a senior team of female executives to support the business comprising Charlotte Desai (creative director), Gilly Greenslade (director of programmes), and Gudren Claire (head of production).

    Across Webb-Lamb’s career, she has been involved in creating, selling, producing and commissioning a multitude of unscripted shows on UK television, including The Apprentice, Great British Bake Off, Hunted, The Island with Bear Grylls, Mary Queen of Charity Shops and The Circle. In her final year at Channel 4, Webb-Lamb drove and landed the Black to Front Project – the most radical diversity programme in the channel’s history.

    BBC Studios’ deal with Mothership builds on its existing indie investments, which includes full ownership of five scripted labels: Lookout Point (Gentleman Jack & Happy Valley 3), Baby Cow Productions (Chivalry & The Witchfinder), House Productions (Sherwood & Life After Life), Clerkenwell Films (The Birth of Daniel F Harris) and Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve & Ragdoll) as well as minority investments in a further six: Moonage, Various Artists Limited, Expectation Entertainment, Curve Media, Firebird Pictures and Boffola Pictures (a Lookout Point investment). The company also represents hundreds of other independent production companies through first-look and distribution deals and returned more than £180 million to the UK independent production sector in 2021/2022 in development funding, rights investment and royalties.

  • Bulldog to bring ‘The Apprentice’ & ‘Space Race’ to India in 2016

    Bulldog to bring ‘The Apprentice’ & ‘Space Race’ to India in 2016

    MUMBAI: After India’s Next Top Model, Bulldog Media and Entertainment is gearing up to bring two more international formats to India.

     

    Even as Donald Trump is standing for the next US Presidential elections in 2016, the television show synonymous with him – The Apprentice – will make its India debut as Bulldog Media and Entertainment will be bringing the Indian adaptation of the game show. Additionally, the company has also acquired the format rights of NBC’s ambitious series – Space Race.

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Bulldog Media and Entertainment co-founder and executive producer Akash Sharma said, “We are very excited about the new reality shows that we will launch soon. The Apprentice is an American reality game show that has also been launched in several countries; it’s a very successful show in America.”

     

    Sharma further added, “Our plan is to expand ourselves in different genres. For the next 18 months we will work on bringing quality content and international formats to India. We are also looking at bringing back People’s Choice Award.”

     

    The Apprentice is an American reality game show hosted by Trump, which has been created by American television producer Mark Burnett. The format has been licensed across the world in Africa, Australia, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Russia amongst others. 

     

    On the other hand, Space Race is an unscripted series produced by NBC along with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Burnett. It is an elimination competition series where everyday people compete for the ultimate prize – a trip for the winner into space on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo for a life-changing experience few people have ever enjoyed, all captured on camera. However, NBC was said to have been seriously assessing the probability of launching the show in the light of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo spacecraft crash in October 2014, which killed one pilot and seriously injured the other.

     

    Talking about this unique show, Sharma says, “Space Race will be the most aspirational show ever on Indian television. It basically takes contestants from different walk of life to space. Putting them into physical and mental challenges will give them chance to go in space in the Virgin Galactic spaceship. The show will be produced by Mark Burnett and Virgin Galactic. We are waiting for the official clearance from Virgin Galactic.”

     

    “We will have very intense challenges in store for contestants and the winner will get a chance to board space port America in Virgin Galactic space port. In the finale they will have a chance to represent India in space,” he adds.    

     

    Bulldog Media’s bid to bring Space Race to India will indeed be worthy to watch.

  • Jack Dee to host BBC Two’s ‘You’re Fired’ & ‘You’re Hired’

    Jack Dee to host BBC Two’s ‘You’re Fired’ & ‘You’re Hired’

    MUMBAI: Comedian Jack Dee has been roped in as the new host of BBC Two’s You’re Fired and You’re Hired – the companion show to The Apprentice – with fellow comic Romesh Ranganathan taking a regular place on the panel alongside the business experts and celebrities who appear each week to discuss the outgoing candidates’ performance.

     

    Dee enjoys a special empathy with the candidates as he has been through the process himself, taking part in 2009’sComic Relief Does The Apprentice. Dee made it into the final boardroom only to be beaten by Michelle Mone of the women’s team.

     

    Dee said, “I’m very much looking forward to hosting You’re Fired and hope that the luckless candidates will see me as the friendly face at the end of a difficult time in their lives.”

     

    Ranganathan added, “As a massive fan of The Apprentice, this is very exciting for me. I love You’re Fired and am looking forward to putting all the questions to the candidates that people at home want to see asked. I also have a number of business proposals of my own that I think Lord Sugar will be pretty interested in…”

     

    Entertainment Commissioning controller Mark Linsey said, “It’s great news that we have someone of Jack’s comedy calibre as host of You’re Fired, and I’m really excited that he will be aided and abetted by the hugely talented Romesh. Jack will be brilliant at guiding us through the highlights of The Apprentice and as a super fan of the series, Romesh will provide us with his own uniquely funny perspective.”

     

    BBC Two and BBC Four controller Kim Shillinglaw added, “BBC Two should always be fantastic company and who better than Jack Dee and Romesh Ranganathan to share the candidates’ highs and lows with us and bring their wonderfully funny take on the week’s events – I’m delighted to welcome them both to You’re Fired.”

     

    You’re Fired and You’re Hired was commissioned for BBC Two by Sohail Shah and will be made by Boundless. The 11 x 30’ (You’re Fired) and 1 x 60’ (You’re Hired) shows will be series produced by Kate Staples and executive produced by Cal Turner.

     

    The Apprentice and You’re Fired return to BBC later this year.

  • ‘The Apprentice’ returns for a new season in January

    ‘The Apprentice’ returns for a new season in January

    MUMBAI: There will be twists and turns when the new season of the business based reality show The Apprentice kicks off on 7 January 2007 on US broadcaster NBC. In India the show will air on Star World.

    The show moves to Los Angeles and 18 contestants vie for the right to be real estate moghul Donald Trump’s apprentice.

    In a social experiment of haves and have nots, contestants this season will have to earn the right to live like Trump. Each week, the contestants on the winning team will get to live in a luxurious mansion.

    But contestants on the losing team will have to sleep outside in tents in the back yard of the mansion with outdoor showers and port-a-potties, giving contestants more incentive than ever to win their tasks each week.

    In another new twist, the winning project manager each week will remain project manager until they lose, plus they will also sit in the boardroom and help advise Trump on who he should fire each week from their opposing team. Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. will return for several episodes, along with previous Apprentice winners, as boardroom advisors to their father.

    The new Apprentice cast ranges in age from 24-37 and includes an Olympic Gold medalist, an internet entrepreneur, a construction firm owner and the vice president of business and legal affairs for a movie studio. All will have to navigate the new twists and turns while vying for the coveted title of “The Apprentice” and the career opportunity of a lifetime working for the legendary business tycoon.

  • Michelle Dewberry triumphs on BBC’s version of ‘the Apprentice’

    Michelle Dewberry triumphs on BBC’s version of ‘the Apprentice’

    MUMBAI: After 12 gruelling weeks battling it out against Britain’s brightest business hopefuls, Michelle Dewberry, a 26-year-old telecoms consultant from Hull, has been named as Sir Alan Sugar’s Apprentice and walks away with the prize of a six-figure salaried job with the self-made multi-millionaire. In the UK, the show airs on BBC Two.

    In the final episode, Michelle beat off stiff competition from 28-year-old sales manager Ruth Badger by project managing a team of fired apprentices and staging a lavish party on London’s Tower Bridge. The series finale is the first all-female final in the show’s history, which had more than 10,000 applicants this year.

    These applications were whittled down to the final 14 who all bravely quit their jobs to face the biggest challenge of their lives, a 12-week job interview with the self-confessed “most belligerent person you’ll ever come across” – Amstrad boss Sir Alan Sugar.

    Each week ambition, business flair and wit were tested to the full as the wannabe tycoons competed in tasks set by Sir Alan. These weekly challenges included working on the sales floor at Top Shop, selling new innovations to the trade, letting flats and designing a charity calendar for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

    This series saw some of the most explosive boardroom scenes, when each week an apprentice was singled out for the sack with Sir Alan’s terminal catchphrase – “You’re Fired”.

    Michelle’s cool, calm and collected approach to each task earned her the nickname ‘The Silent Assassin’. She proved to be one of the best project managers and found herself on the winning team seven times during the series. She narrowly escaped getting the chop in week seven after making a critical mistake during the selling task in Top Shop.

    “For someone like Sir Alan to recognise my ability is unbelievable. It wasn’t until right at the very end when he said I’d won that I believed it. It shows you don’t need to be cocky and bolshie, just work as hard as you can and hopefully you will get on in life.”

    Michelle will head up Sir Alan’s Xenon Green company – a new business that will environmentally dispose of companies’ unwanted computer equipment. Michelle will mastermind the whole business from launch through to its marketing.

    Sir Alan said, “All she has done in her life is work hard and she has become a great achiever. I found her very focussed, very determined, very organised, and this particular job I have in mind requires all of those skills. She’s young and willing to learn. I think I’ve got the right girl.”

  • CCTV to air its version of “The Apprentice” in May

    CCTV to air its version of “The Apprentice” in May

    MUMBAI: China is offering another version of the reality show The Apprentice – minus Donald Trump. The show Win in China is being produced by China Central Television (CCTV). It is a show where would-be entrepreneurs compete to win positions as CEOs of new businesses.

    The executive producer of the new version, Wang Lifen, said the show shares some similarities with the popular US series, but there are essential differences as well. Win in China will debut in May, and viewers will take on the New York businessman’s role of deciding who gets fired by voting electronically for their favourite, according to producers.

    Lifen said, “I think The Apprentice show is driven by money, which is hard to accept in Chinese culture. What we’re looking for is the talent of self-management and entrepreneurship.The program matches very well with the country’s current situation.”

    The American show has contestants vying for a job as apprentice to millionaire businessman Trump. Contestants are given tasks that test their skills in sales, marketing, advertising and finance. They compete against each other, often to see who can make the most money. At the end of each show, Trump whittles down the applicant pool by declaring “You’re fired!”

    Win in China will be a much more dramatic and interactive program since the audience will participate. Chinese participants will also endure rigorous business tasks that test their tenacity to withstand hardship. Viewers will vote for the winner, and some will even become shareholders in the new company, according to CCTV.

    In the Chinese version, the top winner is given the reins of a new business with a registered capital of no less than 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million), while the other four winners will get to run smaller firms. The startups are being funded by Asian and international venture capital firms.

  • ‘The Apprentice’ fans in the US to receive text messages

    ‘The Apprentice’ fans in the US to receive text messages

    MUMBAI: US broadcaster NBC has announced that fans of its business based reality show The Apprentice will be able to sign up for exclusive text message alerts to be sent directly to their cell phones from the candidates themselves during the show.

    This initiative kicks off from today 20 March. NBC.com will offer weekly Apprentice alerts to subscribers, giving viewers the inside track to the unfolding onscreen action. Subscribers will receive up to five text messages from different candidates synchronised with the broadcast itself.

    As the drama intensifies on screen – and boardroom battles rage – candidates will send out messages detailing their thoughts, strategies and decisions as the episode develops.

    In India the show airs on Star World. Viewers can register at www.NBC.com/apprentice or text the word “APP” to the shortcode “62288” (NBCTV). On this week’s episode teams are given their fourth task – to design billboards launching the new face of Post Grape Nuts Trail Mix Crunch Cereal.

    The winning team – determined by Post executives who judge the teams based on originality, brand image and overall campaigns – cooks alongside world-renowned chef Jean-George at his signature restaurant in the Trump International.