The Apprentice (British TV series) series 8

The eighth series of British reality television series The Apprentice was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 21 March to 3 June 2012. 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 opened while series seven was still on the air, with auditions, interviews and pre-production assessments taking place in July 2011, and production beginning in autumn of that year. Prior to the candidates starting their first task, there was a minor change in the format, whereby candidates were able to settle into their accommodation before beginning the process – up until this series, candidates were not permitted to settle in until after the first task and the resulting boardroom scenes. This series' team names were Phoenix and Sterling.
Of those who took part, Ricky Martin would become the eventual winner, and went 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 as an interviewer for the tenth series. Series runner-up, Nick Holzherr, would later go on to raise £1 million to invest in a new online business, "Whisk", crediting his success with what he learned while participating in the programme.

Candidates

Performance chart

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Episodes

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers	BBC One weekly ranking
1	21 March 2012	7.61	6
2	28 March 2012	7.51	7
3	4 April 2012	7.46	5
4	11 April 2012	8.05	6
5	18 April 2012	7.24	7
6	25 April 2012	7.62	7
7	2 May 2012	7.14	7
8	9 May 2012	6.96	2
9	16 May 2012	7.13	5
10	23 May 2012	7.23	3
11	30 May 2012	7.23	8
12	3 June 2012	6.99	9

Specials

Episode	Airdate	Viewers	BBC One weekly ranking
The Final Five	29 May 2012
Why I Fired Them	2 June 2012