Who won The Apprentice 2025? Lord Sugar's next business partner crowned

But one-by-one, the numbers dwindled until just two remained.

Tonight's episode saw the remaining two candidates pitch one last time, and after much deliberation, Dean Franklin was crowned the winner of this year's The Apprentice.

He and Anisa Khan had to create a new brand and advertising campaigns before delivering the pitch of their lives to industry experts and, of course, Lord Sugar.

They then returned to the boardroom one last time, as Lord Sugar, Karren Brady and Tim Campbell all deliberated and offered their thoughts on the finalists and their pitches before the hiring finger was pointed.

After one last pitch from each finalist as to why they should become his business partner, Lord Sugar made his final decision, saying: "This is the way I see it. Dean, through the process you've been quite good. There've been a few rocky moments where you remained in it by the skin of your teeth, but do I have the confidence in the residential market? As opposed to food, where everyone’s got to eat, and a £10, £12 pizza is affordable to most people. That's where I am at the moment.

"Given deep consideration, I’m going to say that, Dean, you’re going to be my business partner."

In the end, it was Dean's air conditioning company, ADL Conditioning, that won over Lord Sugar and was awarded the quarter of a million pounds.

In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, Dean explained that he was initially "confident" he was going to win the show when he applied, but he was soon in for a rude awakening.

"So, going into it, I knew I could do it. I believed in myself. But then the first week came, and I was dropped into reality and it hit me like a ton of bricks," Dean explained.

"And I did struggle, I didn't make any sales. I think it took me a while to sort of find my feet and find my voice.

"You're dealing with 18 candidates, you don't know these people, these are all strangers at the start. They've all got big personalities [and] everyone's trying to take on too much, because no one wants to be seen as doing nothing, so everyone's trying to do something.

"And it was so intense, so much to take in that I didn't get off to the best start."

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However, it was from that moment Dean knew he "had to do better".

He told RadioTimes.com: "After that moment of going to the boardroom [in the] first episode and coming back to the house, I think that was the moment where it switched for me, because I'd had such a big, massive eruption when I walked back through them doors.

"Everyone was so happy that I came back, I think then it was just like, 'Right, I've got to change that. I've got to do something different, because this ain't working. Let's go for it.'

"And I think that broke a lot of barriers of mine. And then I was off to a good start."

The Apprentice season 19 is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.

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