Lottie Lion has made more revelations about behind the scenes of The Apprentice

Ex-contestant Lottie Lion has revealed loads of juicy behind the scenes secrets about what it’s really like to appear on The Apprentice.

On TikTok, she was asked to share an Apprentice “story time” which she says will get her into “so much trouble”, but she doesn’t care so she reveals the juice anyway. From calling the show scripted, to answering whether the contestants really do have to get up at 4am to frantically get ready for the tasks, she really doesn’t hold back. And then in a further video she shared even more gossip, claiming the boardroom is just a warehouse in the outskirts of London, among other things.

Here are all The Apprentice “secrets” she revealed.

Lottie claims Lord Sugar doesn’t think of his own jokes

The first of Lottie’s many points says that Lord Sugar doesn’t even write his own jokes. Instead, she claims his boardroom puns are “scripted” and he has a piece of paper with them written on, which he marks off as he says them.

Karren and Claude only follow the contestants about 30 per cent of the time

In the show it looks like Karren Brady and Claude Littner are glued to the contestants, watching their every move on the tasks so they can report back to Lord Sugar. But, Lottie says otherwise. She claims they are only there around “30 per cent of the time” and it’s “always when you mess up because of the pressure of them being there puts you on edge.”

If the cameras don’t see you make a sale, I didn’t happen

One thing Lottie claims is particularly unfair about the whole The Apprentice process is that if the cameras didn’t see it, it didn’t happen. At the end of the tasks, the contestants go back to the boardroom and usually the team who made the most sales, and therefore the most profit are handed the title of winning. However, Lottie says this isn’t always calculated fairly, as sales which are made off camera or in the background during the day aren’t even counted towards total sales.

She says: “If it didn’t happen on camera, it didn’t happen at all. For example, if you make a sale and it’s off camera it will not be counted towards your team winnings or your personal effort. It just didn’t happen – even if it was like £80,000.”

The contestants really do only have 20 minutes to get ready in the morning

In the morning, we often see everyone in the house get woken up by a phone call in the early hours and told the cars will be outside in 20 minutes to take them off to the day’s task location. Then, somehow, the women in particular always manage to look like they’ve spent hours getting ready without a hair out of a place or an under-eye bag in sight.

The final of Lottie Lion’s The Apprentice secrets is that this really does happen. They really do get only a 20 minute warning in the morning and the calls do actually come through at around four or five am – every single day. Yikes.

The receptionist in the boardroom is apparently an actress

In Lottie’s second video she says that the “receptionist” we see in the boardroom is actually just an actress called Charlie. Lottie says that when she fainted in the first episode, which wasn’t aired, Charlie gave her a chocolate bar and was “lovely”. She says the boardroom isn’t even real and is actually just a “warehouse on the outskirts of London.”

Contestants aren’t allowed to leave the fancy house they are moved into

During the series, we see the candidates moved into a huge mansion, usually worth millions and somewhere like Notting Hill. Lottie says that once they move in they are “not allowed to leave” and there’s no phones or technology allowed. She says you’re only allowed one five minute call a week, and this is with someone who has signed an NDA.

During filming she says candidates are chaperoned everywhere, including their trips to the toilet, so they don’t speak to the public.

You’re not allowed to find out any world news whilst filming the show

Given that there’s no technology allowed, Lottie also says the contestants are not allowed to find out anything about the outside world or current affairs whilst on the show. She says she had no idea Theresa May had resigned, or that Meghan Markle had had a baby. She also claims letters sent into the house from family members were read by producers first, who “blacked out” any information they didn’t want contestants to know.

Lottie concluded the second video saying a part three is coming. 👀

BBC declined to comment when approached by the The Mirror. 

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