The Apprentice returns to our screens this week, but Claude Littner will not be back in a full-time capacity.
The businessman formerly served as one of Lord Alan Sugar’s advisors from 2015 to 2019, but the 74-year-old has been giving aspirants a tough time in the job interview challenge since the BBC series’ premiere.
Claude is well-known for not pulling punches and tearing apart company strategies. His brutal takedown of Solomon Akhtar in Series 10 still makes us shiver. Simply saying ‘You’re a bloody disgrace’ or ‘That’s not the way out’ causes our Fitbit to alert us that our heart rate has climbed.
While Claude remains a fan favourite in the yearly feature, he no longer maintains a close eye on the entrepreneurs during chores or sits on Lord Sugar’s left side in the boardroom when firings occur.
He stood aside from his more demanding position when the show returned after a brief hiatus in 2022 due to a terrifying vehicle accident.
What happened to Claude Littner?
Claude, the former CEO of Tottenham Hotspur, suffered serious injuries after crashing his electric bike.
After the accident, he had to go through nine operations and learn how to walk again.
Speaking about the incident on Good Morning Britain earlier this month, he said: ‘It was a freak accident. I think someone was looking out for me but if someone was looking out for me better, I wouldn’t have had the accident. I was lucky to have the ambulance driving behind me.’
‘I was just pottering along, I must have been doing no more than 10 kilometres an hour on this sort of two-track road,’ he previously explained to PA.
‘The next thing I knew, I was on the left-hand side of the street, my bike was in the middle of the road and I didn’t know what happened.
‘I suspect I hit a pothole or something like that, but I must have blanked out at the moment of impact, because the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground.’
Will he appear on The Apprentice 2024?
Claude was replaced by Tim Campbell MBE, the first-ever winner, in 2022.
He returned for the seventeenth season the following year, but after one episode, he was unable to continue, and Tim took up the part.
Tim will once again be Lord Sugar’s aide, alongside Karren Brady, who has been in the position since 2010.
We’ll see Claude in the interview stage again, which is terrific for the audience but horrible for the applicants.
When does The Apprentice start?
The Apprentice returns tomorrow, February 1. Fans can watch the episode live at 9 p.m. on BBC One or catch up on BBC iPlayer after it airs.
Prepare for one of the show’s ‘worst’ debuts, so grab your popcorn.
Source My Celebrity Life.