The Celebrity Apprentice Christmas Specials celebs confirmed.
This holiday season, some well-known faces are trading the boardroom for festive fun as The Apprentice returns with two celebrity Christmas specials in support of BBC Children in Need.
The star-studded lineup includes AJ Odudu, Angela Scanlon, Charlie Hedges, Eddie Kadi, Jake Wood, JB Gill, Kadeena Cox, Matt Morsia, Rob Rinder, Sarah Hadland, Shazia Mirza, and Tom Skinner.
For these special episodes, Lord Sugar calls in a very seasonal assistant—Santa Claus himself—to put the celebrities through their paces for a good cause. In this two-part Christmas extravaganza, the celebrities are split into two teams and whisked away to Lapland, the official home of Santa, to design their own gingerbread biscuits. The challenge doesn’t stop at baking: each team must also market their creation by producing an advert and a jingle, with a sprinkle of festive magic to help along the way. Ultimately, the teams must pitch their products to retailers, battling to secure the crucial sales—will they rise to the occasion or crumble under pressure?
Team one—featuring AJ Odudu, Charlie Hedges, Eddie Kadi, Jake Woods, Kadeena Cox, and Rob Rinder—crafted the biscuit Jolly McTrouble. This gingerbread treat is topped with butter toffee, vanilla, and Christmas pudding-flavored icing. With the tagline “Be Naughty, Get Nice,” the biscuit imagines Santa’s mischievous sibling, Jolly McTrouble. But the question remains: will it leave taste buds merry, or in McTrouble?
Their rivals—Angela Scanlon, JB Gill, Matt Morsia, Sarah Hadland, Shazia Mirza, and Tom Skinner—created Gary the Penguin, a gingerbread biscuit with a surprising mix of lemon, bubble-gum, and white pepper. Sporting the tagline “A Cheeky Treat for Your Little Rebel,” Gary the Penguin is a festive creation as daring as its celebrity creators.
Overseeing the teams in Lapland are Baroness Karren Brady and Mike Soutar, keeping a watchful eye on progress.
From Friday 14 November, fans can bring the festive fun home, as both celebrity-designed biscuits will be available for purchase nationwide, with all proceeds supporting children and young people across the UK.
Shoppers can find the biscuits in a wide range of retailers, including Asda, Tesco, Boots, Debenhams, One Stop, Ocado Retail, Amazon Online, Amazon Fresh (London), Lola’s Cupcakes, Knoops, Haven Holidays, Wenzel's The Bakers, and Greenhalgh’s bakeries.
By purchasing these limited-edition biscuits, the public can enjoy a unique celebrity creation while contributing to BBC Children in Need—perfect for pairing with the excitement of watching The Celebrity Apprentice: Christmas Specials, airing later this year on BBC One and iPlayer.
As part of the specials, the celebrities visited the BBC Children in Need-funded Chickenshed Theatre Trust to share their adverts and offer the children a taste of their biscuits, receiving some honest feedback. Chickenshed is supported by BBC Children in Need, providing disabled children and those with additional needs opportunities to engage in positive activities that build confidence and skills.
Reflecting on the experience, Lord Sugar said: “It’s the first ever time on The Celebrity Apprentice that the public can buy products that were created by the celebrity candidates. It’s added some real pressure to the process. I think the celebs thought they were in for an easy ride, but they were wrong! Raising money for BBC Children in Need is serious business, so the candidates really need to deliver if they want to avoid ending up on my naughty list.”
Kalpna Patel-Knight, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC, added: “The celebrity candidates will be giving viewers a tasty treat or two this Christmas that viewers can literally sink their teeth into, all while supporting the incredible work of BBC Children in Need. Are viewers going to be Team Gary the Penguin or Team Jolly McTrouble? Let the festive boardroom battle begin!”
Paul Broadbent, Director of Programmes at Naked, commented: “We have taken The Apprentice out of the boardroom and straight onto the shelves. These special episodes bridge the gap between entertainment and real-world impact. It is a rare opportunity for audiences to buy, taste and enjoy something they’ve watched being created on screen and it has been great fun seeing the celebs’ ideas come to life, all in aid of a fantastic charity.”
The Celebrity Apprentice: Christmas Specials (2 x 60’) have been commissioned by Kalpna Patel-Knight and are a co-production with Naked (a Fremantle label) and MGM Alternative UK for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Executive producers include Paul Broadbent and Naomi Banat, with Francesca Maudslay as Consultant Executive Producer and Rachael Hankinson as Production Executive. Dom Bird serves as Executive Producer for MGM Alternative UK, with Sarah Clay as BBC Commissioning Editor. Production and distribution are licensed through Amazon MGM Studios Distribution.
The Celebrity Apprentice: Christmas Specials will air later this year on BBC One and iPlayer, with the festive biscuits available to purchase nationwide from Friday 14 November.