Lord Alan Sugar says ‘The Apprentice’ does more for its winners than other reality shows.
The 72-year-old businessman has fronted the business challenge show for almost two decades, and he has taken aim at other TV programmes for not providing the same level of opportunities and support once the cameras stop rolling.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: "Unlike some TV reality shows where the winners get their 15 minutes of fame and then fade into obscurity, #TheApprentice winners build multi-million pound businesses, creating wealth and jobs."
He shared a link to a brief clip of the winners’ stories from previous series, including 2014 champion Mark Wright.
He said: "It’s been like somebody injected my business with stories… I encourage anyone to try out for the process. It is life changing."
The upcoming 15th series of ‘The Apprentice’ – which first launched in the UK in 2005 – starts on October 2 on BBC One, and Lord Sugar has suggested the show is still underappreciated by BBC bosses.
Speaking at the launch of the new series which was attended by BANG Showbiz, he said: "One of the reasons I do this programme is to encourage young people.
"The amount of youngsters that I speak to every day of the week, stopping me in the street, love the programme, are inspired by it, it’s quite amazing.
"Oxford Union, Cambridge Union – those people are inspired by it. The BBC do not understand, they do not understand, what they have there. They really don’t."
And the former Tottenham Hotspur chairman also thinks BBC bosses are making a mistake by not airing programmes which focus on the exploits of ‘The Apprentice’ winners and their successes.
He added: "They don’t do it, they won’t do it. I suppose there’s some other policy there they’ve got that would be deemed to be promoting one of Lord Sugar’s businesses, which of course you can’t do on the BBC."
Series 15 of ‘The Apprentice’ will air on BBC One from October 2.
Lord Sugar; The Apprentice does more for winners than other reality shows
