The twelfth series of British reality television series The Apprentice was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 6 October to 18 December 2016. Due to live coverage of the UK EU membership referendum in late spring of that year, alongside live coverage of Euro 2016 and the 2016 Rio Olympics during the summer, the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until the middle of autumn to avoid clashing with these events.
It is the first series to date to air on Thursdays, rather than on Wednesdays as had been the norm until then. It is so far the only series to feature a candidate quitting the programme while a task is in progress. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, the series was preceded by the online mini-episode "Meet the Candidates" on 27 September, with two specials aired alongside the series â "The Final Five" on 13 December, and "Why I Fired Them" on 16 December.
Eighteen candidates took part in the twelfth series, with Alana Spencer becoming the overall winner. Excluding the specials, the series averaged around 7.12 million viewers during its broadcast.
Towards the conclusion of the eleventh series' broadcast, applications for the twelfth series opened in December 2015, with production staff assessing applicants between January and February 2016. Work on filming the series took place from late spring to early summer, and eighteen candidate took part. Both the filming and broadcast schedule for this series had to take into account three major events receiving live TV coverage during 2016 â the UK government had announced in 2015 that they would be holding a major referendum pertaining to the future of the country's EU membership, which the major broadcasters would be covering, while the BBC's summer schedule oversaw live coverage of both Euro 2016 and the 2016 Rio Olympics. As such, the series premiere was postponed, and a majority of broadcasts took place on Thursdays.
Filming on the first task saw the men name their team Titan, while the women named their team Nebula. The series is notable for featuring a task where neither team won (for the second time in the programme's history), as well as setting the record for the highest number of candidates to be summoned back to the boardroom for the usual "bottom three" discussion. It is also the first time in the show's history that a candidate left the programme while a task was underway, while the result of the Interviews stage drew notable criticism over gender discrimination. However, in the aftermath of the episode, this was disputed by both candidates and Lord Sugar's aide, Karren Brady. Of those who took part, Alana Spencer would become the eventual winner, going on to use her prize to start up a bakery business, Ridiculously Rich.
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Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.