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Lord Sugar has named his The Apprentice 2017 winner

Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

From Digital Spy

The time has come. After 12 weeks of competition, tonight (December 17) saw the final two Apprentice candidates battle it out in one final task to be named Lord Sugar's next business partner.

But, for the first time in the show's 13-year history, Lord Sugar had a twist in store as he named BOTH candidates as his winners.

Yep, that's right – both Sarah Lynn and James White will be going into business with Lord Sugar.

Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

Tonight's show saw the pair both have to pitch their business plans to Lord Sugar and his panel of industry experts with the help of this year's previous candidates, and the mogul decided that he couldn't choose between them, so both winners will receive the £250,000 business investment and 50/50 partnership.

Discussing the two candidates with his advisors Claude Littner and Karren Brady beforehand, Lord Sugar revealed his torn decisions.

"It is quite obvious that there are two fantastically skilled people there," he said. "Sarah is very eloquent, she knows her business inside out, although why she hasn't done the commercial website properly, I don't get.

"With James, a very, very crowded market, but he has proved that he can do it when he worked for someone."

Photo credit: BBC/Fremantle Media
Photo credit: BBC/Fremantle Media

Both Claude and Karren pointed out each candidate had different strengths and weaknesses, with Claude describing James as a go-getter and Karren hailing Sarah as an expert in her field, but in the end it was down to Lord Sugar to make the final decision.

"James – crowded market, but I've had some experience with a similar person of a similar age who is making a lot, a lot of money," he said in the final boardroom.

"Sarah – sweets. I don't have any experience of your business, ok. I'm going to say that I'm a gambler and I've always been a gambler in business.

"This particular year, I'm going to double my investment… I'm going to start a business with both of you!"

Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

This means that Lord Sugar will now help Sarah grow her already successful sweets business, and James can get stuck into developing his recruitment business too.

Speaking afterwards of the historic double win, Lord Sugar explained that it really just came down to the fact he couldn't decide between the pair.

"This is a historic moment I suppose, in the thirteen years we've been doing this," he said." And it's really because of what I said in the episode. I couldn't make a decision, it had to be both of them!

"They were two genuinely great experts in their field and I'm looking forward to going into business with them."

The Apprentice airs on BBC One, and applications for the next series of the show are open now.


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