The Apprentice UK 2023

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281728#Comment_120281728

I think there'll be a double. No idea how to do spoiler tags anymore, but this is only guesswork anyway.

They announced 12 episodes in the pre-publicity stuff, tonight was number 8 so 4 left, one of which is the final and one is interviews. So just two task episodes left and they usually have 5 contestants in the interviews. So I expect three firings over the next two weeks.

Exclamation Marc

Enjoyed that task. Might have been the best episode so far as it had a bit of everything.

Mark seemed like a big of arrogant prat at times through the series so I'm glad he's been fired. It was easily one of the worst PM performances in recent years from somehow starting at a loss to riling up Karren Brady to significant frustration to trying to blame the sub-team despite them making the experience what it was.

I hope Avi isn't too far off being fired as his arrogance is so grating.

mewso

Yeah the right team won and the right person was fired but very galling to see the biggest fool there win as project leader.

salmocab

Just haven’t got into this series, I was going to watch last nigh, saw the phone call to the house and then the girls doing makeup and just thought nope can’t watch these people again

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120281644#Comment_120281644

Thoroughly enjoyable for all the wrong reasons. So terribly cringe - which is why I basically watch it nowadays, that and to get a glimpse of the lovely Baroness Brady.

Mark came across as an unlikeable individual throughout the series. As PM, he was like a headless chicken. For an impromptu afternoon entertainment, unless they were in Chelsea or Kensington, no-one is going to pay 180 for 3-4 hours entertainment, not unless it was an immersive experience in a strip club.

As Sugar said, never before has a team started their away-day/profit making task with a minus figure. They came out with a profit of 110. They must have been begging for tips, because they gave away most of the photos for free.

Trampas

I would have left him pick who to bring back in and then say no. The others are coming back.

I think whoever lost the pm was going

Man Vs ManUre

This show has gone very stale. It’s time to end it.

AyeGer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120288998#Comment_120288998

Just stop watching it if you no longer like it. I'm happy for it to continue.

Mantis Toboggan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120288998#Comment_120288998

You do realise that you don't need to watch it, right?😉

sonofenoch

Thought that Bradley fella was a bit hard done by, I mean what can you do when those 2 others concoct what was basically an unsaleable skin dye 😁.....similar with the E-bikes, a good idea butchered by other members of the team

mewso

Avi quite likable on You're Fired. Didn't really come across while he was in there but thats standard for the editing on this show.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307521#Comment_120307521

To be honest I got his vision for the task, but the branding was horrible. I had a bubble bath bottle that looked liked that bottle, when I was about 8.

When the subteam realized it stained your skin, they should have skipped the dye. I think that was the main reason for the failure of the task. From a pitching point of view, its much easier to say you can redesign the branding of a product, rather than completely redesign the product itself.

sonofenoch

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307677#Comment_120307677

Green skin dye as a skin care product was 100% the reason for zero sales not a box and what not ...........and by zero sales I mean it's all a carry on really, '1' product was created nobody is fulfilling '10,000' orders 😁

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307696#Comment_120307696

Oh I know its not a real product. Its 10,000 hypothetical orders. Also, zero hypothetical order for the snake. Brad thought they would colour it with mint extract or something, not an actual dye.

My mother used to be a flavourist and would add the colours and flavours to various drinks. I once dropped a bottle of food colour and while cleaning it up got the colour on my hands. I had purple hands for a week. Some of those dyes are not diluted 1:1 with water but 1:100.

I kind of liked the idea of an exfoliating face scrub, but the exection of the main team and sub team was just diabolical.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120307521#Comment_120307521

Would have been interesting if Bradley had decided 'No, we're pulling the product, we just can't proceed to sell this as it stands, as it is dangerous'. They're the kind of real decisions that people have to make in business, even if it didn't suit the TV show.

everlast75

Even though I'm happy Ari is gone (an extremely arrogant but somehow nice bloke), the other the sub team leader's business was make up. How was she not more responsible than he? She even pressed to be team captain of the task on that basis.

I had to laugh at their excuse - well, we were told to present a green sirum, so....

Yeah, not a permanent one! Wouldn't that kind of be inferred?

What if it was acidic and burned people's skin? Would they give the same reply?

GAAcailin

i normally like the interview process but this crowd are so useless think it will be cringey.

megan is in the lead for me

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309155#Comment_120309155

Agree she was definitely more responsible but Ari has been useless for a while now. Not sure if she was much better mainly because I can't remember much of her input over the past few weeks. Plus, there is always the business they are looking to invest in. Maybe Sugar is more interested in hers than Ari's.

al87987

So who are people favouring then for the win? Obviously difficult to know without seeing business plans but I would say its between Victoria and Marney.

Niall_76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120309155#Comment_120309155

I think Sugar mentioned how he was thinking of how people performed in the whole process before that firing. First time he had said that I think. He knew firing her was the right decision based on that task alone.

Mantis Toboggan

They just get more useless week on week.

With all of these tasks keeping it simple usually is the right strategy. Bradley wanted the green cream as no one else in the market had it, eh that's for good reason Bradley, nobody wants to buy your green stain paint. Especially targeting over 40`s,what the hell where they thinking.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120312001#Comment_120312001

I heard him say that alright, but Ari had the correct answer - he said he won twice as team leader and once when sub team.

Strictly speaking, if "past performance" counted for anything, surely he was more successful than the other lady?

I think what Sugar meant was he thought

A) she was the better candidate

B) her business plan is better.

GAAcailin

Marnie had some cheek telling Lord Sugar that she shouldn't be fired as one of her subteam had been fired. You could tell Sugar wasn't impressed.

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120312092#Comment_120312092

The Incredible Hulk and Frankenstein monster would probably buy it. And if they expand to women’s products I reckon the wicked witch of the west would buy it.

Galwayguy35

Can't think of her name but the one with the big red lips seems to be getting by under the radar even though she never seems to do much.

yerwanthere123

Well that was annoying. Not sure how Simba could, in any way, be held responsible for the team's loss. Easy to make it look like he wasn't contributing enough when Dani just continually shouted him down. Think the production team just saw the opportunity to have an all female final 5 and took it.

technocrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338045#Comment_120338045

Bingo!

BBC going full on woke.

2yrs in a row no men left in the final 5.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338179#Comment_120338179

Going woke?

Please!!!

There's plenty of reasons to criticize firings and at this stage, as said last week, it's now probably all about business plans.

Woke is just a lazy pejorative term at this stage.

4am phone call in the pitch black of night...cars will pick you up in 20 minutes.

Candidates walk out of the house into broad daylight, and the 5 women wearing several pounds of makeup. Some 20 minutes that was.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338236#Comment_120338236

That's been explained.

The cars are outside in 20 mins. They don't say the cars will be leaving in 20 mins.

AyeGer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338179#Comment_120338179

Its getting to the stage that men will stop applying and the quality of men entering will fall. We will end up seeing less and less men getting to the final stages of the show.

I'll watch the interviews as they are always entertaining but I'm not too bothered about who wins the show this year. None of the final 5 are that great.

technocrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338210#Comment_120338210

Yes plenty of criticisms equally for everyone in the losing team tonight.

If the tables were turned and it was 4 guys and 1 woman left I doubt she would have been fired.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338287#Comment_120338287

What male candidate do you think should still be there?

AyeGer

The rot has already started, none of them were great but i think Sugar was a little quick to fire some of them.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338354#Comment_120338354

Kevin - Irish guy in Week 2, Bao Buns. Seemed an illogical firing. All male team so I guess a guy had to go regardless.

Gregory - Week 3. Most seemed to think it harsh as he had done so well in Week 1.

Reece - Week 6. Disappeared between Heathrow and Dubai. Possibly still in Duty Free.

Joe - Week 6. Dubai task. Waterwatergate. Terrible firing imo.

Sohail - Week 7. No-brainer firing after terrible childrens lunchbox task.

Mark - Week 8. Badly mismanaged prison task, deserved firing.

Bradley - Week 9. Insta-firing without being brought back. Couldn't argue with the firing, method seemed unduly harsh.

Avi - Second firing of Week 9. Weak candidate who shouldn't have got that far.

Simba - Week 10. Didn't seem the most responsible for the team loss.

*************

I'd say Kevin, Joe and Simba could probably all feel hard done by, but nature of the game. Gregory also maybe, but he was probably a nothing candidate.

(Note I had to check wiki, just in case people think I know this stuff off by heart)

Exclamation Marc

How Resting Bitch Face has made it to the final is beyond me. Useless from start to finish and the typical complainer who does nothing but ensures she's either nowhere near the binfire or when she does get near, piles on others.

Long gone are the years where teams genuinely competed to be the better team. The last two or three years have been teams competing to be the less worse team. I mean how many times this year have there been zero sales by a team or literally one measly order. Its a bit embarassing.

And whilst I certainly wouldn't say the BBC are trying to be woke, there is no way that two of them should be anywhere near the final. Joe and Simba (and maybe Kevin) are way way stronger than Rochelle and Dani.

Exclamation Marc

Saw this on Twitter and it's fairly damning. Of the last 29 interviews, there have been 3 men.

Interview stage

S12

Men: 0

Women: 5

S13

Men: 1

Women : 4

S14

Men: 1

Women: 4

S15

Men: 1

Women: 4

S16

Men: 0

Women: 4 (fires last male early to have less interviews)

S17

Men: 0

Women: 5

SteM

Doesn't matter whether you are a man or woman in this show imo.

Sugar obviously sees all of the business proposals ahead of time and plans his firings to get rid of the worst ones before the final. That's why there are so many odd firings, doesn't matter how you perform in a task anymore if your business plan is pants. Just keep the 5 'least bad' business plans in until the interviews, make sure there are a couple of car crash CVs amongst them so the interviewers can do their big reveal, put through the 2 you have been considering since the start and bobs yer uncle - you have The Apprentice 2023.

Mantis Toboggan

I simply don't believe that, most firings make sense, also every year the business plans are awful, there's no way they were the best business plans of all the contestants.

Looking forward to the interviews, nice to see Claude back, also Karen doing interviews? Has that always been the case?

SteM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120360806#Comment_120360806

The business plans are awful because most of the contestants are awful. As far as I can see the business plans are generally extensions of the candidates current job or business. 'I work on recruitment so I'll use the £250k to start my own recruitment business' or 'I bake and sell cakes so I'll use the £250k to expand my current business and bake more cakes', that type of thing. None of them seem to be original in any way.

I much preferred the show when the prize was a job at the end.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120360969#Comment_120360969

This is it. The proposals have been woefully unimaginative in the last few years. Its quite clear that he'll read the business plan and pick the best one of the bunch. And sure why would he pick a great candidate if their plan is awful. Really makes the outcome a bit of a misdirect.

ArmaniJeanss

£250K for a 50% share severely limits what the business can be though. Like it's not going to enable a contestant to buy new helicopters for their fledgling luxury executive commuting business, or purchase a 25-bed hotel in a region about to become the next big holiday location.

Almost by definition, the amount limits it to expanding a bakery, some niche online clothes retailing or a mild expansion of a recruitment business.

Make it £5M for a 50% share and you'd get a different class of contestant/plan.

Banzai600

i just seen this thread pop up, so said id comment....

i find it pretty appauling how inept the ideas and concepts are on this show, let alone the level of "intelligence" from all parties taking part.

ppl siging off on what they clearly think are gamechanging ideas, are merely pre primary school ideas and concepts at best , and they think its great !

im no Einstein, but i come on......

social media is running ppl's ability to think outside the box imo, if you catch my drift.

salmocab

I think the prize part is nearly an anchor on the formats neck. The assumption is that the business plan is the big driver may not be quite true but it has to play a part, I do think the show needs a proper shake up. Whether that’s changing the prize, Sugar, the tasks themselves or the process for picking the candidates I don’t know, maybe all 4 things but I just can’t get into it, I’ll watch this week for the interviews as that’s always top notch car crash stuff.

Trigger Happy

The quality of the candidates piss all right. But the quality of the weekly challenges is poor too. Nothing new ...same tired old format.

Design a real or digital product in a few hours, come up with a logo and packaging and pitch it for some pretendy sales...yawn.

I like the item finding task and the interviews. But apart from that the producers could do with getting creative.

Exclamation Marc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120361582#Comment_120361582

Those crappy tasks are made worse by the fact that the contestants who are largely useless as is, have zero experience in the product (e.g. apps for kids) and then get barrelled out of it when it's not the next Peppa Pig.

I love the interviews because it feels like the only time contestants are realistically treated.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120361701#Comment_120361701

If you can't make a brand new dog food in 4 hours, you cannot be my next business partner.,.

Man Vs ManUre

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120361755#Comment_120361755

Naturo, natural pet food. Head, shoulders, knees and nose, Naturo. Paws and ears and tails and toes, it’s Naturo. Fire a chicken leg and thigh, chopped carrots and spuds, and a few peas in a fish and mix it all up. Bish bash bosh I give u Naturo. Task won.

Said it before but it's like a singing competition where the first rounds are singing covers and then for the final you sing something you wrote yourself. Makes the previous rounds largely irrelevant.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120338287#Comment_120338287

I probably say this every year, but this years were definitelythe worst lot ever.