The Apprentice: You're Fired!

The Apprentice: You're Fired!
Also known as	'You're Fired!'
Genre	Reality game show
Created by	Mark Burnett
Presented by	Adrian Chiles 2006-2009 Dara Ó Briain 2010-2014 Jack Dee 2015-present
Starring	Romesh Ranganathan
Theme music composer	Dru Masters
Opening theme	"Dance of the Knights" by Prokofiev
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	9
No. of episodes	110
Production
Running time	30–60 minutes
Production company(s)	Talkback Thames and Mark Burnett Productions (2006–11) Boundless and Mark Burnett Productions (2012–13) Boundless and United Artists Media Group (2014–)
Distributor	FremantleMedia
Release
Original network	BBC Two (2007–) BBC Three (2006) BBC One (2008–: You're Hired)
Picture format	16:9 (1080i HDTV)
Original release	22 February 2006 (2006-02-22) – present
Chronology
Related shows	The Apprentice
External links
Website

The Apprentice: You're Fired!, sometimes named You're Fired!, is a spin-off show from the reality TV hit The Apprentice, and was first shown on BBC Three before moving to BBC Two in 2007, with a few episodes having been shown on BBC One. Since 2015, Jack Dee has fronted the programme, with Romesh Ranganathan as a regular panellist. It was previously hosted by Adrian Chiles from 2005 to 2009, and Dara Ó Briain from 2010 until 2014, with no fixed regular panellist. The programme airs in a 30 minute slot after each episode of The Apprentice finishes.

Its format is similar to that of Big Brother's Little Brother and Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, in that candidates fired following a task are interviewed over their performance in The Apprentice. When the final episode of each series is broadcast, it is renamed as The Apprentice: You're Hired! and involves interviews with both the winner and the runner-up of the show, along with Lord Sugar himself, and a reunion with all of the former candidates.

History

Following the first series of The Apprentice, plans were made to create a spin-off to this show, leading to the initial announcement for the sister show, You're Fired!, being made on 10 December 2005. Presented by Adrian Chiles (who hosted the show's first four series), its first run accompanied the second series of The Apprentice, when it began on 22 February 2006, and upon its conclusion, it was announced that You're Fired! would move from BBC Three to BBC Two, alongside the decision to move The Apprentice from BBC Two to BBC One, prior to the latter's third series, whereupon its second run began on the same evening for the beginning episode of the third series, on 28 March 2007.

The fifth series (accompanying the sixth series of the main program) was the first to be presented by Dara Ó Briain. Ó Briain was brought in to replace Adrian Chiles, after the latter left the BBC following a deal they made with ITV. Ó Briain hosted five series of the show, where during his tenure, each series finale was broadcast on BBC One, linking right after the end of the final episode of The Apprentice. He eventually decided to depart after the 2014 series, in order to focus upon a comedy he was creating. On 11 September 2015, it was announced that Jack Dee was to replace Ó Briain for the upcoming 2015 series, along with the news that guest panellist Romesh Ranganathan would become a regular panellist throughout the series, with the tenth series beginning on 14 October 2015. In addition to Jack Dee hosting the show, the tenth series also saw the set given a facelift, including the audience circling around the host, candidate and panellists, and the host and interviewed candidate having a desk between them; before the tenth series, they and the panellist shared a large table, and only the backdrop received a minor change in appearance.

Format

Each episode begins with the host entering the set and addressing the camera. The initial host of the show, Adrian Chiles, would often address the camera from the audience at the beginning, but this was dispensed with early into O'Briain's tenure, who would instead address whilst sat at a table, only on rare occasions doing so from the audience. With current host Jack Dee, the camera is addressed whilst he stands in the centre of the set before sitting at a desk. When addressing the camera, the host explains about the content of the upcoming programme, shows a video clip of one of the humorous highlights from the recent episode of The Apprentice, before eventually introducing the guest panellists. Although there is some variation, the panel is typically composed of a journalist, a businessperson, and a comedian, and on some occasions, one of Lord Sugar's aides (either Nick Hewer (until his departure after the tenth series), Karren Brady, or Margaret Mountford (Until her departure after the fifth series)) are present.

Before the interview of an evicted (or winning/runner up) candidate is made, the host often links to a video of the moment that the candidate was fired/hired, before they are introduced onto the stage and sat down next to the host. At this point, both the host and the panellists interview the candidates; in the case of a multiple firing, each candidate from that firing (or if one is runner-up and one is winner) are interviewed separately. During these interviews, candidates air their views on their performance and any issues they had in the task they failed in, whilst a mixture of "never before seen" footage from the task and footage that was aired in the episode are seen, and a filmed interview of Lord Sugar provides the candidate and viewers his reasons for why that person had to leave, which often also includes views by other candidates about the recently fired member; the latter segment isn't used when the runner-up and winner are being interviewed. Often, the family of the fired candidate are also interviewed during this time. The interviewed candidate, host and the celebrity guests also discuss about their favourite moments from the night's show, as well as any other notable ones from the contestant's time on the programme, and also who impressed them and why.

At the end, the guests are asked whether they agree with Lord Sugar's decision, before the studio audience are asked to vote on whether the candidate should have been fired, by holding up the appropriate card (a red "FIRED!" card or a green "HIRED" card); this is not used in the final episode. The evicted candidate is then shown their "best bits" — montages of video clips that reflects their time in the competition. This is usually accompanied by a popular music track, in the style of Big Brother Live Eviction, with the contestant's reaction to the clips shown in an inset. The host often presents the fired/hired candidate with a parting gift at the end of this, which is something appropriate to one of the candidate's memorable moments on the show. Except for the series finale, a preview of the next episode is then shown before the end credits, often with additional material the main show didn't show in its preview.

The show has had a few notable parts to it:

• In the final episode of each series, Lord Sugar appears alongside the winning candidate, usually after the winner has been introduced, and both he and his advisers are shown highlights from the process (serious and humorous). In addition, candidates who were fired during the process, appear amongst the audience.
• In the fourth, fifth, eighth, tenth and eleventh series, a regular feature was introduced called "The One That Got Away", recapping the contribution of a candidate who appeared to be a likely prospect for firing that week, but who survived into the next round.
• In the fifth series, a feature called "Quote of The Week" was introduced, which recapped the best quote from that week's show.
• In the eleventh series, Dee usually makes a pun about the weeks' task before apologising giving a humorous excuse related to the task that week.

During the 2009 and 2010 series, a longer edit of the show was used for the late-night repeat, though unlike other programmes with extended versions (such as QI and Have I Got News for You) the longer versions were not explicitly promoted as such and did not appear on iPlayer. As of 2011, late-night repeats of the show have been discontinued. In addition, no episodes of The Apprentice: You're Fired! were made to accompany Young (formerly Junior) Apprentice.

Transmissions

You're Fired!

Series	Start date	End date	Episodes
1	22 February 2006	3 May 2006	11
2	28 March 2007	6 June 2007	11
3	26 March 2008	11 June 2008	12
4	25 March 2009	3 June 2009	11
5	6 October 2010	15 December 2010	11
6	10 May 2011	13 July 2011	11
7	21 March 2012	30 May 2012	11
8	7 May 2013	10 July 2013	11
9	14 October 2014	17 December 2014	11
10	14 October 2015	16 December 2015	11

You're Hired!

Date
4 May 2005
10 May 2006
13 June 2007
11 June 2008
7 June 2009
19 December 2010
17 July 2011
3 June 2012
17 July 2013
21 December 2014
20 December 2015

External links

• The Apprentice: You're Fired! at BBC Programmes
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! at IMDb
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! at TV.com