The Apprentice 2025: BBC show has finally fixed its biggest problem after more than a decade

• The Apprentice has had one glaring issue for years.
• I first spotted it more than a decade ago and it has been driving me up the wall.
• However, a change to the early weeks of the competition has finally solved it.

For as long as I’ve tuned into The Apprentice, I’ve always had the same complaint. It has been bugging me for more than a decade - but for 2025 the producers might have just fixed it.

It drove me up the wall so much that I found myself writing to the BBC to complain a few years’ back. But what could possibly be so infuriating and such a big problem?

Well, for the early weeks of the show, the introduction segment has contained spoilers. You may not have clocked it before - others I’ve mentioned it to hadn’t noticed it until I brought it up.

But ahead of The Apprentice series 19 starting tonight (January 30), the BBC has announced a major change that finally solves my biggest issue with the show. Here’s all you need to know:

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My decade-long gripe with The Apprentice

After 19 series - and 20 years on the air - there are probably plenty of complaints you could have about the BBC show (or any such long-running programme). You might find the format stale, the challenges repetitive - or miss the old aides.

But my issue with the show runs much deeper and has been winding me up for over a decade. I started to pay attention to the show around series four or five - because Margaret was still one of the aides.

And I quickly clocked that in the early weeks of each season that the introduction segment contained spoilers. You might now be scratching your head, wondering what I mean.

In the first couple of weeks, the teams are traditionally split along gender lines - which is the root cause of my gripe. I know the teams will be either all-male or all-female, at least for a couple of weeks, so when the introduction shows contestants in mixed teams taking on challengers it was basically massive spoilers.

Because now I knew at least some of the faces who would make it past the early weeks of the competition. So if they are in the boardroom in week one or two, I knew they would be safe - thus removing the tension.

It meant I often resorted to extreme lengths like closing my eyes and putting my fingers in my ears to avoid spoilers. Which would also backfire because it is quite hard to time perfectly.

But for the 2025 series, this problem will be no more. As Lord Sugar has announced a major change in how the teams are split at the start of the competition.

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The Apprentice fixes the spoiler issue in series 19

One of the pre-show titbits that has been revealed by Lord Sugar is that for the first time the teams will be mixed from the off. It brings an end to the tyranny of the spoilery intro segment.

Explaining the reason for the change, Lord Sugar said: “We’ve split them into sexes in the past purely to help the audience get to know the candidates quickly, it just felt like an easy thing to do. But this year we decided to mix it up from the outset. I think it's quite a refreshing addition to the first episode and it’s interesting to see how they handle being a mixed team because it’s not what they necessarily expected from the start.”

Meet all of the candidates taking part in The Apprentice in Series 19 - and find out what their business plans are. The BBC show has also confirmed the identities of Lord Sugar’s aides for the 2025 season.