The Apprentice (British TV series) series 2

The second series of British reality television series The Apprentice was broadcast in the UK on BBC Two, from 22 February to 10 May 2006. Following the success of the previous series, the BBC commissioned additional episodes of the programme, along with ordering the creation of a new companion discussion programme titled The Apprentice: You're Fired!, which aired on BBC Three alongside the main programme's broadcast schedule. A special titled "Tim in the Firing Line", focusing on Tim Campbell's life after winning the first series, aired on 19 February 2006 and preceded this series' premiere. Alongside the standard twelve episodes of the series, it is the only series to not feature any specials being aired during its broadcast run.
Fourteen candidates took part in the second series, with Michelle Dewberry winning the competition. Excluding the special, the series averaged around 4.43 million viewers during its broadcast. A year after it had concluded, a candidate later raised a complaint against the BBC for their portrayal in the second series, which was refuted due to contradicting evidence from the broadcaster and production staff.

Series overview

Following favourable ratings and viewing figures for the first series, the BBC commissioned additional episodes of The Apprentice, with Alan Sugar, Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford all returning in their original roles. One request made of production staff by the broadcaster was that a companion discussion show be created to air alongside it. This led to the creation of The Apprentice: You're Fired!, that would air on BBC Three and operate within a similar format to spin-off sister shows like Big Brother's Little Brother and Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. The search for a host for this programme led to Adrian Chiles being offered the role, which he accepted prior to the second series' premiere.
As with the first series, fourteen candidates were selected to participate, consisting of the same even mix of genders. Filming began in Autumn that year, with the men naming their team Invicta, while the women named their team Velocity. Although candidates faced a similar tasks to the first series, one notable difference was that Hewer and Mountford did not reprise their roles as interviewers alongside Paul Kemsley, Claude Littner, and Bordan Tkachuk. As with the previous series, the candidates faced a charity-based task, which this time featured a reward for that task's winners.
This series is the first in the show's history to feature the iconic sequence involving the winner departing in Sugar's personal Rolls-Royce, giving a brief interview on their success. Of those who took part, Michelle Dewberry would become the eventual winner of this series, and go on to briefly claim her prize of a coveted job at one of Sir Alan's companies; however, she left in September 2006 following a series of personal problems. Throughout its filming, Sugar voiced issues to the production staff about the programme's format: considering the number of candidates taking part and the number of episodes in the series, he was not allowed to fire more than one candidate in any task prior to the Interviews stage, despite the fact that two of the tasks featured outcomes where he felt more than one candidate deserved to be fired. Production staff eventually reviewed the format, which led to eventual changes when work began on the third series.
This is the only series of the programme in which every candidate had at least one opportunity to Project Manage a task. This occurred again on the first series of Junior Apprentice in 2010, but has never happened again on the main programme.

Performance chart

'''Key:'''

Episodes

Criticism

Mani Sandher portrayal claim
In 2007, a year after the second series had been aired, Mani Sandher filed a complaint against the BBC, criticising them for his portrayal on The Apprentice, on grounds that he been unfairly treated by the broadcaster. The BBC Trust investigated the complaint and later rejected the accusations. Their findings pointed out that Sandher was aware that the programme was subject to editing after filming, and that this had been done to an acceptable standard that was not misleading, per Ofcom's broadcasting codes. Although Sandher later attempted to appeal against the Trust's decision on his complaint, the Editorial Complaints Unit of the BBC dismissed this.

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers	BBC Two weekly ranking
1	22 February 2006	3.65	2
2	1 March 2006	3.51	2
3	8 March 2006	4.20	1
4	15 March 2006	4.11	1
5	22 March 2006	4.03	2
6	29 March 2006	4.45	1
7	5 April 2006	4.26	1
8	12 April 2006	4.58	1
9	19 April 2006	4.76	1
10	26 April 2006	4.68	1
11	3 May 2006	4.98	1
12	10 May 2006	5.95	1

Specials

Episode	Airdate	Viewers	BBC Two weekly ranking
Tim in the Firing Line	19 February 2006	2.26	25