IT’S business as usual on three channels tonight with Lord Sugar, Mary Portas and Alex Polizzo all heading up programmes.

Lord Sugar returns with another batch of hopefuls in The Apprentice, which may be based on a US series but was the idea of ex-pat Londoner Mark Burnett, so we can count it as a British success story.

Alan Sugar puts wannabe workers through their paces in a series of challenges, overseen by Nick Hewer and Karren Brady. The winner gets the chance to become Sugar’s new business partner.

Ricky Martin (no, not that one) won last year’s competition. Before him Tim Campbell, Michelle Dewberry, Simon Ambrose, Lee McQueen, Yasmina Siadatan, Stella English and Thomas Pellereau all claimed The Apprentice title.

The first task, a boys versus girls challenge, finds each group confronted with a shipping container full of imported products. Their challenge is to work through the night to sort the products out and then sell everything before 4pm. As usual, nothing goes according to plan.

Equally entertaining is the BBC2 sister show The Apprentice: You’re Fired, in which Dara O Briain returns for another light-hearted autopsy with the first unlucky loser.