When the BBC first announced that hit show Who Do You Think You Are? was set to switch from BBC2 to BBC1, I did suggest it was only a matter of time before executives cottoned on to what a winner The Apprentice was.
Well it’s finally happened folk, Peter Fincham, dubbed the magpie controller, has snatched over the Alan Sugar business show. No doubt attracted by the glint of ratings safely around the 5 million mark and the lure of easy positive column inches - the show’s third run will be on the flagship channel.
Peter Fincham denied he was plundering output and said that the transfer of programming across channels was a long BBC tradition. He pointed to the migration of comedy shows over the year such as French and Saunders and Smith and Jones as an example. He added:
The Apprentice is a strikingly modern and highly compelling series which audiences love, and it’s made an unlikely but utterly watchable star out of Sir Alan Sugar.
