The Apprentice 2014

[edgascoigne]

I would want to work alongside Mark, Solomon and Roisin, in no particular order. That makes them viable candidates for me.

Think Solomon has been understated thus far, he strikes me as being bright, if a little young and scatty. If I needed a partner for several years it would be Solomon, for a year it would be Mark, for a day/night it would be Roisin.

Regards,

EG

[redsimon]

surprising choice of final two?
So Soloman had no business plan, why wasn't that weeded out in the application process?

regards

rs

[pleno1]

I was convinced they were going to square off Daniel and mark in the final. Would have been very fun viewing.

[rfgqqabc]

surprising choice of final two?
So Soloman had no business plan, why wasn't that weeded out in the application process?

regards

rs

Couldn't decide on whether I liked this episode or not. The interviewers largely seemed to ask questions they knew the answer to in order to try and trip candidates up further, presumably purely for TV. I don't think there were many interesting questions at all. I found the moment with Bianca absolutely fascinating, it really was brutal television because of how she took the question, or at least how the question made her think she was perceived. The whole show is largely bollocks though, whats the point of weeding out 15 people before looking at the end goal of starting up a business? We then get moments of ridiculousness where Lord Sugar expresses alarm at how Bianca wants to go into manufacturing or that Roison wanted to move into the food industry. If the program really was about showing people they can make a startup with £250,000 I'd tell them they were fired. And as for bringing up sales figures, do people really not understand variance? Including an extreme outlier in Mark's figures is just mind boggling, it should be obvious to everyone involved in the show. If Lord Sugar really was as no nonsense as he tries to come across he shouldn't be spouting bollocks like this or letting the bbc get away with it. I guess that is what happens when you become a caricature of yourself, believing your own hype.

Not sure how anyone with money to chuck about could pick any other business plan than Bianca's who seems largely clued up as well as fashion industry experts backing her up and its just a massive market to potentially take a big wedge of. 250k to help setup a party planning company? Sounds mental to me.

I thought the Mark vs Daniel moment was coming too Pads, did you notice how he sat back down after he shook their hands? I wonder why?

[david3103]

Worst episode of a poor series. The whole thing has become a parody of itself and descended into X-Factor territory. Roisin obviously survived this far because she's fundamentally smart (and easy on the eye) but her joint venture was a fantasy project. Frankly, the only halfway viable proposition in the bunch is Bianca's but I can hear Big Dunc Bannatyne and the rest of the dragons saying "what's to stop the companies that already make tights just leaping in with this and using their already established sales channels to sink you before you even start?"

Nice touch to have Ricky as one of the interviewers though.

[BigAdz]

It has descended into being just a very well paid gameshow with the prize being two fiddy thou, and a bit of Sugars time.

I imagine BBC pay this and more to Shug, but I really don't see how more than two of the twenty would be considered realistic candidates if if were not for TV.

Would potential employers really be so keen to enter into the process with 20 such egotistical fantasists?

Don't get me wrong, I love the programme, and I'm sure it started out ten years ago with an Apprentice in mind. These days, it's all about the ratings and entertainment.

For all that, I didn't like Bianca until last night, and I think we saw her unravel, as she realized she was, herself, a bit of a robot.

Think the right two people made it, and will be interested to see how Daniel reacts when Mark, either does or doesn't win, now he is a 'changed' man!

[Chompy]

Very good series imo. Yes it's formulaic but reality shows suffer when they mess around with the format, like Big Brother. Leave them as they are.

First several weeks now completely irrelevant though. Roisin crushed but had a ridic business idea and was gone.

Regards

Ch

[TightEnd]

Click to see full-size image.

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there were only two business plans even vaguely investable in, clearly, so the final two picked itself

Click to see full-size image.

regards

T

[AndrewT]

I always used to love this episode but it's now such a gear change from the rest of the series. Everything that happens up to this episode is just prologue. Roisin was amazing all the way through but oh your business goes bust in month 2 so byebye.

At least next year we'll know who makes the final early on - it'll be the people whose business idea we know nothing about, seeing as I'm sure last night was the first I heard that Bianca wanted to make tights.

Also a rough week to go out as it means that you get about 15 seconds on I'm Fired - I WANTED MORE ROISIN DAMMIT.

Regards

A

[bobby1]

Was a bit like watching 30 minutes of bullying for TV pleasure IMO. That Claude guy seems a full weight **** of the highest order.

[baldock92]

Really thought Daniel should have stayed, despite thinking he's an arse for the majority of the programme.

I might be reading into this too much but in the preview of the next episode they happen to show mark doing his strange cough thing when pitching to the end audience, perhaps he bottles it on the big stage again?

Overall, really enjoyed this series

[Cf]

Also a rough week to go out as it means that you get about 15 seconds on I'm Fired - I WANTED MORE ROISIN DAMMIT.

Regards

A

I noted they managed to sneak the bikini shot in.

Regards

C

[BigAdz]

Would love to see a "Whatever happened to" edition.

I suspect there are some real legends of the show, flipping burgers and cleaning toilets(all very worthwhile jobs, I hasten to add).

[Kmac84]

Would love to see a "Whatever happened to" edition.

I suspect there are some real legends of the show, flipping burgers and cleaning toilets(all very worthwhile jobs, I hasten to add).

This, but the winners and the losers.  Seen them do it with Dragons Den but thought there was more potential in what they showed.  Would like to see the "what happens next" showing the trials and tribulations of getting to market, the money coming and going etc. 

[kinboshi]

Got really annoyed with Mark's claims and business plan - as he works in an industry I've been in for ten years.  He's been in it for two years, in sales, so will know very little about the industry other than what he's learned in the company he's worked at (where he's probably good at what he does).

Also, how does that give him the right to slate the others' business plans and ideas when he doesn't know their market and hasn't read their plans?  He was slating Sanjay's business plan the other week, and telling him that he couldn't make enough revenue through PPC advertising on the site that Sanjay was proposing.  However, he kept on ignoring Sanjay saying that it was only one revenue stream out of half-a-dozen, which seems like a sensible idea.  Sugar and his associates didn't pick-up or mention this though at the time.

Thought Mark was a strong candidate early on in the series, but he's just a salesman.  It's like someone who sells Mercedes for a living claiming to be a world-class racing driver. But he couldn't even do a telephone pitch to Ricky Martin, other than talk fluff with no substance. 

The series is fun, and we know it's not a sensible process.  But they could at least ensure they all have provided sensible business plans before they get to the interview stage.  But even last night was a bit of a caricature of what we've seen in previous series.

Anyway, Bianca FTW.

Regards,

k