The Apprentice 2025: ‘real reason’ Dr Jana Denzel quit in boardroom bombshell - what’s been said?

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The Apprentice star felt ‘set up to fail’ before he quit the show 😬
  • Dr Jana Denzel quit the show in dramatic fashion last week.
  • He announced his departure before the result was even confirmed in the boardroom.
  • Sources say that he was being “set up to fail” and that sparked his desire to walk away.

The Apprentice was rocked by Dr Jana Denzel’s surprising decision to quit the show in the boardroom last week. A favourite with the bookies, he walked away from the process after the fifth task.

Lord Alan Sugar and his advisors were left reeling by the decision and it threw a spanner into the usual order of things. Instead of firing a candidate, the only departure was Dr Jana’s with the losing team ultimately being sent back to the house.

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Now the ‘real reason’ that sparked the candidate’s decision to quit has emerged. Here’s all you need to know:

Lord Alan Sugar in The ApprenticeLord Alan Sugar in The Apprentice
Lord Alan Sugar in The Apprentice | BBC/Naked/Ray Burmiston/Rufina Breskin

Dr Jana reason for quitting ‘revealed’

The Sun reports that sources close to the candidate say he felt like he was being “set up to fail” by production staff. They allege: “Jana felt that he was being tripped up in tasks designed to make him look bad. He understands reality TV has to be about entertainment, but was unhappy about how unfair and staged it felt.

“He raised concerns to the production staff, expecting some support, but felt that he was shrugged off and instead warned about being disruptive to the integrity of the show.

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“It was this that first sparked Jana’s interest in walking away from the competition. He felt he had been labelled as troublesome and misbehaving for speaking out to production against the way filming was taking place, and that this all weighed heavily on him.”

Dr Jana also explained to Yahoo that being called “very quiet” by Lord Alan Sugar during the process got to him. He said: “That one line is really what hit me.

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“A business partnership is like a marriage - you have to be a good fit. If Lord Sugar can’t see my contributions when all my candidates can, then maybe we’re not a great fit.”

See which candidates have been fired so far in the 2025 series of The Apprentice. The Apprentice airs at 9pm on Thursday nights on BBC One.

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