THERE'S no business like showing business on TV at the moment. Property programmes may be losing their value and Big Brother threatens to become like an unwanted relative at a wedding, but a new breed of reality show is doing the business in the ratings.

The second series of The Apprentice on BBC2 pulled in 5.7m viewers for the final showdown between The Blonde and The Badger for a job with Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad company.

That and another BBC2 series Dragon's Den, in which would-be entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of millionaires to get investment money, are at the forefront on business dealings on the box.

Even children's television is joining in. BBC publicity describes CBBC's new reality TV series Beat The Boss as Dragon's Den meets The Apprentice. To ensure you get the link it's being presented by Saira Khan, mouthy runner-up in the first British series of The Apprentice last year.

The new show has two teams - one of children, the other of adult business people - attempting to come up with a prototype for a new product for the children's market.

The team present their product idea at a leading company, whose experts help them to improve their designs before they turn them into real products. The winning team is chosen by a panel of 25 children in a secret ballot. Having delivered the brief at the start of the programme, Khan is on hand to offer advice and constructive criticism along the way.

"We know that kids have been interested and intrigued by formats like The Apprentice and Dragon's Den, so we wanted to provide something tailor-made for them which explores the same territory but with a unique child-focused perspective," explains Reem Nouss, Head of News, Factual and Learning BBC Children's. The show responsible for the current boom in business programmes is the original US series of The Apprentice, presented by millionaire Donald Trump. The BBC version substituted Sir Alan Sugar for Trump and found itself the perfect grumpy boss. The format for the show - which bills itself as "the ultimate job interview" - marries reality TV, in which a group of people are put together in an unfamiliar situation, with a game show, in which the prize is a job with a six-figure salary. They might as well have called it Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Businessman?

A US spin-off with Martha Stewart wasn't a success and was cancelled after just one season, perhaps because viewers felt someone who'd just completed a term in prison wasn't the right person to judge their business acumen.

TRUMP, who co-owns the show, doesn't need the money but the show raises his profile and gets his name - the Trump brand - to a wide audience. Sugar too hasn't done himself any harm by fronting the British version, if only because it means his company gets a 60-minute free commercial every week.

The five millionaires who act as the jury on Dragon's Den - Pop Idol for entrepreneurs, someone called it - are notoriously difficult to part from their money, the investment cash on the table that those pitching ideas want a share of. They're a hard bunch to please, including the North-East's very own multi-millionaire Duncan Bannatyne.

He'll be back for the third series later this year, along with Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis. They'll be joined by new dragons Richard Farleigh and Deborah Meaden as regulars Doug Richard and Rachel Elnaugh have left to concentrate on new business ventures. The pitches are the equivalent of auditioning for Pop Idol and often just as embarrassing as would-be entrepreneurs are grilled, often to a crisp, by the five sharp money men.

But there have been results. Peter Jones, whose career as an entrepreneur began at 16 when he founded a tennis academy, bought into a new glossy magazine, Wonderland, that's since started publication.

He's also had the bright idea of developing his own ideas for TV, noticing that business series are all the rage. He's signed an exclusive deal with ITV to star in and produce at least two new shows for the network.

One is likely to be a British version of his own creation, American Inventor. This follows a search for the country's best new invention, offering 12 finalists seed development money. The overall winner goes home with a manufacturing and distribution deal.

Another of his TV ideas is a business reality format with a twist, involving school-leavers. Five has already screened a series in which people underwent job interviews in front of a panel of experts. With the success of BBC2's The Apprentice and Jones helping fill ITV's business portfolio, the TV channels will be in business for some time to come.

Beat The Boss is on BBC1 Monday to Friday at 4.30pm. Dragon's Den is being repeated on BBC2, Thursday, 11.50pm.