by Jonathan Greengrass

Created on: July 24, 2011   Last Updated: July 25, 2011

Hugely popular all over the world, The Apprentice is a reality TV show which pits contestants against each other in an elimination style competition where the winner takes home a job working with a business tycoon. Although there have been many incarnations of the show worldwide, the most popular versions are the original US show with Donald Trump as the business tycoon the contestants are trying to impress and the UK version with

Lord Alan Sugar in Trump's role.

The format of the show has been the same between the two versions throughout their combined 18 series with the exception of the latest UK series, where instead of competing for a job within Lord Sugar's company, the contestants competed for an opportunity to go into a 50-50 partnership with Lord Sugar and an investment of £250,000. Aside from the aforementioned series, the format goes as follows. 15-18 candidates are pitted against each other in a series of tasks meant to mimic real life business situations. The candidates are divided into two teams, and within the losing team in each task, at least one candidate is eliminated with the catchphrase "You're Fired!". Week by week the candidates are whittled down until the final where the winner is crowned with the phrase "You're Hired!". In both series the candidates live together during the series in accommodation provided by Trump/Sugar.

Trump and Sugar behave similarly as the overall boss of the show. Both act as the hard to please taskmasters, rarely offering substantial praise to the winners and often harshly criticising the losers. Both hand out rewards to the winning teams, the only exception to which in the UK version occurred in series 7 where Lord Sugar was so displeased with the winners that he took away their reward. The differences between the bosses occurs in their behaviour outside the show. Trump has often been outspoken in his criticism of the current Democrat government and in particular alleging Barrack Obama's birth was not in Hawaii as stated. It is alleged that Trump's outspoken nature has affected the show's ratings. In contrast, Lord Sugar keeps himself out of the limelight when not filming the Apprentice, although he did work with the last Labour government as a entrepreneurship advisor.

In both shows, the bosses are supported by advisers who follow each team and report back to the boss at the end of each task. For the UK version Nick Hewer, a former PR director, has fulfilled the role for the entirety of the series, with Margaret Mountford  supporting Lord Sugar for the first five series and Karen Brady thereafter. For Trump, George H. Ross has acted as and adviser for all 11 series with firstly Carolyn Kepcher, then a range of other advisors filling in the other slot.

Some differences between the two series occur in the boardroom. In the UK version, after the initial boardroom grilling the project manager has to select two of his or her team-mates to return to the boardroom with them. After the second boardroom face-off at least one of the candidates is fired. For the US version, Trump has had more flexibility with how the boardroom sessions pan out. Trump may fire someone without resorting to the second boardroom session and the project manager may select one, two or three people to return to the boardroom for the final meeting. 

Finally, since the beginning of the franchise, the UK show has been located and filmed in London with a number of tasks in Europe. The US show has been filmed in New York, with the exception of series six which was filmed in Los Angeles.

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