Should the BBC tell Sugar “You’re fired from The Apprentice”?
Is it compatible with his peerage and new position?
A nice little problem for BBC bosses over Gord’s biggest re-shuffle gimmick – making the former Amstrad boss turned TV star, Sir Alan Sugar the government “Enterprise Czar” and giving him a peerage. He’ll sit on the Labour benches.
Does his new political position mean that he should give up the show – something that BBC bosses will desperately try to avoid because “The Apprentice” is a ratings winner?
A BBC official said that they were “in discussions” with him about the job’s “precise nature” but he said rules applying to news and current affairs programmes were not the same as those for entertainment shows. A big of wiggle room there but we’ll see.
In many ways the BBC and Sugar are being put under pressure because of all the hype from Number 10 about his appointment. That makes it political and there’s little doubt that Sugar’s arrival on Friday helped the beleaguered Brown through a difficult day.