After weeks of the teams competing against each other, the winner of the Apprentice 2022 has finally been crowned. As series 16 of the show comes to a close, fans have been waiting with bated breath for the final showdown in the all-female final.
Over the last 12 weeks, 16 budding entrepreneurs have been put through their paces by Lord Sugar to land a £250,000 investment and the accolade of becoming his new business partner – but the hunt is now over. The candidates have taken on some tough tasks, taking on cruise ship marketing, fishing in Cornwall, video game concepts, tourism in Wales, hosting a corporate away day at Silverstone, selling steamers on a shopping channel and creating a brand-new baby food during the last few months.
The two finalists, Harpreet Kaur, 30, and Kathryn Burn, 29, were summoned to the British Museum in London by Lord Sugar to receive one last task - the chance to launch their own business over three days, with the help of the fired candidates. To read all the latest TV news sign up to our newsletter.
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They were tasked with creating a new brand for their business, as well as producing a digital billboard and television advert before pitching to Lord Sugar and industry experts at Pennington Street Warehouse in London. After tossing a coin to decide who gets to pick their first team member, Harpreet picked Brittany, also choosing Akshay, Nick, and Navid, while Kathryn's team consisted of Stephanie, Akeem, Amy and Harry.
But the final wasn't without its tense moments, with Amy and Harry clashing during the filming of adverts for Kathryn's pyjama business, Pyjamily. With Harry taking on a director role and Amy and Akeem starring in the advert as a couple, Amy said Harry was "more of a hindrance," as they wrestled for creative control.
Harry also made a dig at Amy's acting career, saying: "Amy and Akeem's acting skills are very lacklustre. I was trying to direct them, but I thought Amy had experience as an actress in her previous roles." But as they later debated the best way to film the television advert, Amy says: "Harry is just more of a hindrance than being helpful, everything I've told him to do so far he's either made a mess of it or it just didn't get done. I could pretty much do it all myself, I don't really need him."
Meanwhile, dessert parlour boss Harpreet hoped to wow her customers with dessert company, Oh So Yum. With Harpreet and Brittany off to focus on branding, Nick, Akshay, and Navid were tasked with coming up with a digital billboard concept.
But there was some tension between Navid and Akshay during the filming of the advert for the digital billboard. Navid was cast as a cake tester, with Akshay directing him to pick up a cake, show it to the camera and eat it. Akshay later said to the camera: "All Navid had to do was show an expression, eat the cake, show it to the camera. I genuinely didn't think it was a hard thing to do."
The pressure was on for Harpreet and Kathryn as they later presented their businesses to Lord Sugar and industry experts at the Pennington Street Warehouse, including their branding, TV, and digital billboard adverts. But with tough questions from the experts about five year plans and scalability, who would impress Lord Sugar the most?
In the final boardroom, Karen and Tim gave their thoughts about the finalists’ performance before Lord Sugar made his decision. About Harpreet, Tim said: “She’s been a really good candidate. Lots of the other people in the process really respect her, they followed her and she’s delivered several times.”
Talking about Kathryn, Karen said: “She thinks she’s an expert when she’s really just beginning to build her business – when you questioned the jungle trend, she wasn’t having it – the whole part of being your business partner is to take on board your advice.”
After a final impassioned pitch from each finalist for why they should become his business partner, Lord Sugar made his final decision. He said: “It is a very, very difficult situation for me…Harpreet I’m not sure whether this business is scalable or whether you are trying to do too much and that’s what I’m worried about at the moment. Kathryn, I’m concerned on the longevity of it, and the popularity of it, it’s very hard, this is difficult for me. A lot of the companies that I invest in are a start from scratch situation, basically what Kathryn is proposing, so ladies, I think that I’ve decided now."
Warning: Spoilers!
So, who would come out of the latest series at the champion? And with that, Lord Sugar announced Harpreet as his new business partner. After learning of her win, Harpreet said: “I cannot believe Lord Sugar has chosen me to be his business partner! I have dreamed of this moment, and it just completely proves that if you work hard and you believe in yourself, dreams do come true.”
