As the host of The Apprentice, Lord Alan Sugar is known for his no-nonsense style and brutal one-liners.
His memorable put-downs are legendary but new figures show the 79-year-old billionaire prefers investing in female founders than their male counterparts.
This Thursday’s final between favourite Karishma Vijay and Pascha Myhill is the fifth all-female final in the last seven years and the eighth since the show first started in 2005.
In the same period, there has only been one all-male final, which came in series 8 when Ricky Martin beat Nick Holzherr.
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The statistics also show that female candidates are more than twice as likely to reach the final as their male candidates.
Of the 40 candidates to make the last two in the show’s history a total of 27 (or 67 per cent) have been female and only 13 have been male.
Dean Franklin won The Apprentice in 2025
When Dean Franklin was hired in 2025 it was first time a man had won the show since 2017.
That was in series 13 when the show had joint winners for the only time when James White and Sarah Lynn walked away with the top prize.
The statistics are even more stark since the format changed in series 7 on 2011, when the winner received £250,000 from Lord Sugar rather than a £100,000 job.
The winners of the first six series were evenly split between men and women.
However, since series 7 there have been nine female winners and six male winners.
There’s an even bigger gender disparity in the runners-up.
Of the 19 runners-up in the history of The Apprentice there have only been four males – or 21 per cent – compared to 15 females.
The figures don’t include Tropic Skincare founder, Susie Ma, who finished third in 2011 but impressed Lord Sugar sufficiently enough that he decided to invest in her anyway.
Although the figures show Lord Sugar is more likely to invest in female founders, he had a spectacular falling out with the 2010 winner Stella English.
She won series 6 but claimed she had no real role at his IT firm, Viglen, and lost her high-profile claim for constructive dismissal.
Full breakdown below:
- Series 1 (2005) Winner Tim Campbell / Runner-up Saira Khan
- Series 2 (2006) Winner Michelle Dewberry / Runner-up Ruth Badger
- Series 3 (2007) Winner Simon Ambrose / Runner-up: Kristina Grimes
- Series 4 (2008) Winner Lee McQueen / Runner-up Claire Young
- Series 5 (2009) Winner Yasmina Siadatan / Runner-up Kate Walsh
- Series 6 (2010) Winner Stella English / Runner-up Chris Bates
- Series 7 (2011) Winner Tom Pellereau / Runner-up Helen Mulligan
- Series 8 (2012) Winner Ricky Martin / Runner-up Nick Holzherr
- Series 9 (2013) Winner Leah Totton / Runner-up Luisa Zissman
- Series 10 (2014) Winner Mark Wright / Runner-up Bianca Miller
- Series 11 (2015) Winner Joseph Valente / Runner-up Vana Koutsomitis
- Series 12 (2016) Winner Alana Spencer / Runner-up Courtney Wood
- Series 13 (2017) Joint winners James White and Sarah Lynn
- Series 14 (2018) Winner Sian Gabbidon / Runner-up Camilla Ainsworth
- Series 15 (2019) Winner Carina Lepore / Runner-up Scarlett Lily Allen-Horton
- Series 16 (2022) Winner Harpreet Kaur / Runner-up Kathryn Louise Burn
- Series 17 (2023) Winner Marnie Swindells / Runner-up Rochelle Raye Anthony
- Series 18 (2024) Winner Rachel Woolford / Runner-up Phil Turner
- Series 19 (2025) Winner Dean Franklin / Runner-up Anisa Khan
- Series 20 (2026) Pascha Myhill or Karishma Vijay?