Young Apprentice

In March 2008, Alan Sugar made an announcement that he intended to propose to the BBC of creating a junior version of The Apprentice owing to its success, with the intention that it would feature children aged between 12–15 and be aired during an early evening timeslot.

Official confirmation that the idea had been green-lighted and production was underway on the spin-off, came in the form of announcement made during an episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired!

A few months later, Sugar's appointment to be the Labour Party's Enterprise Tsar on 5 June 2009, accompanied by a peerage, led to concerns by the BBC over a conflict of interest in regards to the corporation's political impartiality; while it was decreed that he would continue to appear on The Apprentice and related programming, following discussions on the matter,[8] it was decided to push back the premiere of the spin-off show, dubbed Junior Apprentice, along with the sixth series of the main show, until after the 2010 general election on 6 May 2010.

[9] In addition to this, Margaret Mountford's departure from the role of an adviser in The Apprentice, led to Sugar appointing Karren Brady as her replacement,[10] with the decision that she would make her debut in the spin-off.

In February 2013, Lord Sugar posted on his Twitter account that the BBC was cancelling the show, after having debated on its future and decided not to renew it for another series.

Writing for The Guardian, Tim Lusher was complimentary of the programme's tone by claiming that "for once, even the losers look as if they could be winners one day" and Alex Fletcher of Digital Spy said that from the opening minutes of the first episode it was clear that "this spinoff series isn't going to be any softer or less entertaining than the original".

[13] The Daily Telegraph's Benji Wilson also praised the series and argued that it "had all of the staggering self-regard and dim-witted hilarity we have come to expect from the contestants on the grown-up Apprentice".

[37] The online version of Heat magazine, heatworld.com, praised the series and said that it was "amazing...might just be the best show we’ve seen all year", while The Guardian's Johnny Dee claimed that the programme was of better quality than its adult counterpart and proved that reality television "doesn't have to be nasty to be entertaining".