The Apprentice

The Apprentice is an American reality television program that judges the business skills of a group of contestants. It has run in various formats across fifteen seasons since January 2004 on NBC.

The Apprentice was created by British-born American television producer Mark Burnett. Billed as "The Ultimate Job Interview," the show features fourteen to eighteen business people who compete over the course of a season, with usually one contestant eliminated per episode. Contestants are split into two "corporations" (teams), with one member from each volunteering as a project manager on each new task. The corporations complete business-related tasks such as selling products, raising money for charity, or creating an advertising campaign, with one corporation selected as the winner based on objective measures and subjective opinions of the host and his advisors who monitor the teams' performance on tasks. The losing corporation attends a boardroom meeting with the show's host and their advisors to break down why they lost and determine who contributed the least to the team. Episodes ended with the host eliminating one contestant from the competition, with the words "You're fired!"

Seven of the show's seasons featured aspiring, but otherwise unknown, businesspersons who would vie for the show's prize, a one-year $250,000 starting contract to run one of Donald Trump's companies. There have also been eight seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice since 2008. In this format, several celebrities would participate to win money for their chosen charities, with the final prize being a large donation to the celebrity's charity and the title of "Apprentice". A rebook of this format, The New Celebrity Apprentice, aired in January 2017. The U.S. series originated a franchise of international television shows collectively known as The Apprentice, which has had over 20 local versions.

Real estate tycoon (and now U.S. President) Donald Trump was the show's host for the first fourteen seasons. After he declared his candidacy for the presidency, NBC announced that actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would become the new host of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Statistics by season
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of The Apprentice on NBC.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.