The Apprentice (British series 8)


The eighth series of The Apprentice , a British reality television series, was broadcast in the UK during 2012, from 21 March to 3 June on BBC One. While only one minor change was made to the format of the first task, the general format of the programme itself remained virtually unchanged for this series. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, two specials were aired alongside this series – "The Final Five" on 29 May, and "Why I Fired Them" on 2 June.
Sixteen candidates took part in the eighth series, with Ricky Martin becoming the overall winner. Excluding specials, the series averaged around 7.35 million viewers during its broadcast.

Series overview

Applications for the eighth series began towards the final episodes of the previous series, with auditions, interviews and assessments made in July 2011. Once the sixteen candidates for the final line-up were selected and notified, production began in Autumn of that year. Prior to the candidates starting their first task, the production staff and Alan Sugar opted for a minor change in the format of the first task, allowing candidates to view and use their accommodation before beginning the process – up until this series, candidates never used, let alone viewed their accommodations, until after the first task and the resulting boardroom scenes. In the first task, the men formed under the team name of Phoenix, while the women formed under the team name of Sterling.
Of those who took part, Ricky Martin would become the eventual winner, and go on to use Sugar's investment to set up a scientific recruitment company, Hyper Recruitment Solutions, on 23 October 2012. He would later be invited back to help as an interviewer for the tenth series. Nick Holzherr, who would lose out in the final, would later go on to raise £1 million to invest in a new online business, "Whisk", and become a success story with what he learned from their participation in the programme.

Candidates

Performance chart

Key:

Episodes

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.
Episode
no.		AirdateViewers
BBC One
weekly ranking
121 March 20127.616
228 March 20127.517
34 April 20127.465
411 April 20128.056
518 April 20127.247
625 April 20127.627
72 May 20127.147
89 May 20126.962
916 May 20127.135
1023 May 20127.233
1130 May 20127.238
123 June 20126.999

Specials
EpisodeAirdateViewers
BBC One
weekly ranking
The Final Five29 May 2012
Why I Fired Them2 June 2012