[thegeek]

Long-time viewer here - I think one thing that's notable about The Apprentice is how unchanging it is between series.

Most unscripted reality gets a format tweak from series to series, but it feels jarring how much has stayed the same for over a decade. I think the boardroom set has only had one refurb since series 1 - though the stock photos in the waiting room got a bit of an update a year or two ago, and the receptionist (is she still called Frances?) lost her Amstrad Emailer quite some time ago. We still see the contestants leaving the former Viglen HQ, which is nowhere near Canary Wharf (where we're led to believe the boardroom is) or the actual studio location. And the participants all dress as if they were working in the City in the early 2000s, whereas power suits were well on their way out before Covid and it's really just estate agents who go to work like that these days.

I think it's just all quite jarring because the likes of Masterchef has shown that you can have a long-running format and subtly bring the look and feel up to date, whereas The Apprentice is going to be pretending smartphones don't exist until it's eventually decommissioned.