Return:

Smell what sells. Encourages smart buying and investing like a real business and engaging with the public.

Recycling for cash. Only seen in S7 as the metal junk challenge which was great. It’s about finding value/cash vs time spent which is great.

Retired:

Any video game task. Sick of them, true they result in some funny disasters but they’re just another design task and there’s already too many of them per series.

Only one catering task per series. You know you’ve run out of ideas when the candidates have to cook multiple times per series. This isn’t masterchef.

Season 7 is frequently celebrated as a fan favourite, thanks to its vibrant elements and exciting moments that make this segment of reality TV truly entertaining. However, when it comes to ranking our choices and preferences, does season 7 occupy an undeserved spot in the league tables?

Here is my case: while the vibrant, dynamic, and contentious characters of season 7 did align with the essential traits that comprise reality TV, it’s fair to say that the overall competency of the cast significantly detracts from the season's appeal.

Now, here is a breakdown of each character (in order):

Edward, Alex and Gavin: While one could argue that Edward is a memorable first boot, all three characters lacked depth. They were essentially hopeless cases, with Alex and Gavin being particularly dull and uninspired.

Felicity, Ellie and Edna: Felicity is notoriously known for incurring a substantial loss due to her misunderstanding of the task's purpose. She delivered an iconic line in week 3 and spearheaded a concept that, to put it bluntly, wasn’t very good. In contrast, Ellie and Edna failed to add much value to the show, remaining mostly in the background and fortunate enough to make it halfway through the competition without contributing anything meaningful.

Leon and Glenn: Leon and Glenn were quite lacklustre in the first two weeks. While they showed some improvement afterward, nothing they did stood out as spectacular. Ultimately, they stumbled during the task that led to their elimination.

Zoe and Melody: Zoe, Melody, and Natasha each have their own distinct stories. Zoe spent the first three weeks playing hide and seek, then emerged as a decent project manager in week 4. However, she crashed and burned in week 6 and continued to slip until her eventual elimination. Melody started strong as a project manager but was partly responsible for significant mistakes in week 3, where she and Gavin roamed around London like deer in headlights, and in week 4, where she and Ellie wasted hours in the treatment rooms. Although she showed some improvement afterward, it wasn’t enough to match her week 1 performance, and she ultimately deteriorated after week 7.

The mediocre final five:

Natasha: Natasha may be the luckiest candidate to reach the final five. Her sole highlight was in week 5, when she produced a decent television advert. In week 7, she won with a poor concept and subpar management, and her invention of 'ampi apps' left much to be desired. Beyond that, she often faded into the background or made significant errors: in week 1, she was barely noticeable; in week 3, her negotiation was terrible and she called a rival supplier; in week 4, she failed to make any sales; in week 6, she simply argued with Melody; in week 8, she struggled to make a good sale and was dubbed for narrowly avoided elimination; in week 9, Helen did the heavy lifting; in week 10, she missed the task's main point, leading to the first time a winning team didn’t receive a treat; and in week 11, she failed to leverage her degree-level skills to her advantage.

Jim: Jedi Jim certainly had his moments of brilliance, especially with the 'disarm with charm technique.' It sounds like he had a mixed bag of performances, though. Weeks 1, 3, 9, and 10 showcased his strengths, particularly in selling and negotiating. But the long-winded summary of the app in week 2 was on his shoulders. in week 4 even Natasha outsold him, and week 6 with the megaphone incident sounds like a major blunder. Then there was Week 7, where he wasn’t a good project manager, showed he was lucky not to go. In week 11, he once again massively underperformed in comparison to Helen.

Susan: Now, Susan's performances were... bad. In week 1, she was right about the need to buy more stock, but she got her point across in a disruptive manner. Although she was shut down in week 2, her idea came across as incoherent and lackluster. In week 3, she employed the wrong strategy to negotiate for high-end items and was carried by her sub team. In week 4, despite being in skincare, she forecasted too optimistically, which could have jeopardized the task. Week 5 was somewhat better, as she did okay. However, in week 6, she proved to be disruptive and was unclear about the task, though she did ultimately have the right idea. In week 7, she didn't contribute much, simply stating her opposition to an idea without offering a solution. Week 8 was an improvement, but in week 9, she created poor branding alongside Zoe. Week 10 saw her struggling to sell, and in week 11, she missed the point of the task entirely.

Helen: Helen unfortunately spent the first five weeks largely in the background, contributing little to the team. In week 1, she was part of a subteam that only sold £37 worth of products. In weeks 2, 3, and 4, she remained completely silent, and in week 5, we only saw her laughing at Glenn. However, I must commend her for her record-breaking performances in weeks 8 and 9, as well as her contributions in week 7 and her organization and leadership in weeks 6 and 10. That said, week 10 highlighted her shortcomings as a business partner. While she was intelligent, she lacked the necessary business acumen, and it was naive of her to attempt selling to the trade with the wrong strategy.

Tom: Tom was somewhat of a Cassandra, but that doesn’t excuse his awful track record, especially for a winner of the process. In weeks 1 and 2, he contributed nothing. In week 3, he was on the same subteam as Gavin and shared responsibility for their cluelessness. In week 4, I believe he was more responsible than Ellie for the loss, as he had the opportunity to save the task but got lost selling beauty products. I’m not sure what he did in week 5. However, in weeks 6 and 7, he performed well. In week 8, he was a horrendous project manager, and in week 9, he drove a bad concept. Despite excelling in weeks 10 and 11, his overall track record remains unimpressive for someone who won the process.

You may not agree, and that is fine :)

But do let me know your thoughts.

This is just my subjective opinion based on how much I liked them on the show

S1: Boy - Paul (HM to James and Tim)

Girl - Miriam

S2: Boy - Syed (HM to Ansel)

Girl - Ruth (HM to Michelle)

S3: Boy - Tre

Girl - Naomi (HM to Katie)

S4: Boy - Lee (HM to Raef and Simon)

Girl - Lucinda (HM to Claire)

S5: Boy - James

Girl - Kate (HM to Yasmina)

S6: Boy - Jamie (HM to Chris and Stuart)

Girl - Liz (HM to Laura and Joanna)

S7: Boy - Jim (HM to Tom)

Girl - Zoe (HM to Helen and Susan)

S8: Boy - Adam (HM to Nick and Ricky)

Girl - Gabrielle

S9: Boy - Jason (HM to Neil and Alex and Myles)

Girl - Leah

S10: Boy - Solomon (HM to Filipe and Mark and Daniel)

Girl - Roisin (HM to Katie)

S11: Boy - Brett (HM to Gary)

Girl - Vana (HM to Charleine)

S12: Boy - Dillon (HM to JD)

Girl - Jessica (HM to Alana and Frances)

S13: Boy - Harrison

Girl - Michaela (HM to Elizabeth and Sarah)

S14: Boy - Daniel

Girl - Sabrina (HM to Jasmine)

S15: Boy - Thomas BOSH (HM to Lewis)

Girl - Carina (HM to Pamela)

S16: Boy - Akshay (HM to Nick)

Girl - Harpreet (HM to Brittany)

S17: Boy - Joe (HM to Simba)

Girl - Megan

S18: Boy - Steve (HM to Tre and Paul M and Phil)

Girl - Flo (HM to Rachel)

https://www.reddit.com/r/apprenticeuk/comments/1ay5th2/the_show_is_staged_confirmed_by_nick_hewer/

Why did Marnie win the competition? Was it mainly due to the strength of her business plan? I remember Alan Michael Sugar has often been critical of candidates with legal backgrounds. Is this just a past phobia? For example, Lauren, who seemed like a strong contender, was frequently criticized, treated poorly and eventually fired because she was a lawyer, despite being one of the favorites to win. In contrast, Sarah Ann Magson from Season 14, also a solicitor, didn’t face the same level of scrutiny. While she didn’t win, her legal profession wasn’t as much of an issue, and she managed to avoid criticism even when she contributed less.

With S16 Task MVPs now a thing, thought it would be a good time to post this S16 review I've been sitting on.

Eliminations: Not that bad at all other than Francesca’s for obvious reasons, and possibly the Week 10 firings but only due to the circumstances. Nearly every candidate this series got a fair firing. Now obviously Francesca getting binned for a goddamn spelling mistake was complete horseshit, especially over Sophie who was already on the HEAVY decline, and Stephanie being let off scot-free for First Time Dies despite being just as culpable as Akeem and Aaron’s errors not really being business related was a tad questionable, but otherwise, I can't really think of a firing here that doesn’t make sense, and that’s definitely a positive.

Talent: Uh… look, this season lacks talent, plain and simple. Only two of the interviewees were really that consistent in quality, those being Harpreet and Brittany, with Kathryn and Francesca also having their moments. Harry did nothing but moan, Navid was hopeless, Amy was fucking Amy, Sophie was complete garbage, Nick’s overrated, Akshay did very little of value even though several of his boardroom appearances were bullshit, and Aaron, Stephanie and especially Akeem got lucky.

Personalities: None this season are too much of a drag besides Amy and Sophie, but not many stand out for the right reasons either. Conor, Shama and Alex were all just kind of there, while Harry and Navid were complete pains in the ass. Akeem and Aaron were alright personality wise, but the former suffered from extreme indecisiveness and I can see why other people might find the latter a bit too blokey. Stephanie never rubbed me the right way with her constant elimination dodges for no real reason either. The really good ones this series are basically limited to Nick and Akshay’s mere existence, and Harpreet’s domination throughout the entire 12 weeks.

The Final 4: Stephanie didn’t deserve to get to the interviews, plain and simple. Each of her Week 8, 9 and 10 performances were send-home worthy. Also, hot take, Kathryn isn’t that good. Her performances were really inconsistent, her PM win never stuck out as anything spectacular, and she’s generally overrated for some reason I’ve never quite been able to figure out. Her personality was okay, but I never really found her endearing either. Then there’s Brittany. Her generally very good performances and cute personality meant I had her down as a finalist going into the interviews, but she regrettably put up the worst business plan of the four, which just leaves us with…

The Winner: Harpreet is really dope as a winner, it was never really in doubt despite a pretty bad turn as PM in Week 10 and some questions around her sister being an additional partner in the interviews. Was so head and shoulders above everyone else on the tasks it wasn’t even funny, with such a force of personality she even managed to get a tune out of Akeem of all people on a few tasks. Also, I can personally vouch that her brownies slap and her relationship with Akshay will always be part of Apprentice lore.

The Rest: This season was filmed when Covid restrictions were still a thing, which sadly had a knock-on effect on the quality of the tasks. No discount buying is a big minus I’m afraid.

Grade: D

1. Kathryn. She was a calm, composed and decisive team leader, and despite the name “Bouji Cruises” being a bit iffy, targeting the friends market was a good call on her behalf. Honourable mentions to Harpreet and Brittany, who were basically backseat directors as well as actors, and Francesca, for putting forward creative and sensible ideas even if they weren't taken on board.
2. Francesca. She was a strong and assertive team leader and orchestrated well-organized pitches to the retailers. Honourable mentions to Amy, Kathryn, Brittany and Sophie, who decided to channel their creative instincts rather than stick to the brief of a bland orange toothbrush. Also, Harpreet and Stephanie handled the pitches by speaking with conviction and answering questions well.
3. Harpreet, who was a strong sub-team leader and couldn't have done any better to replace a vodka lime soda. Honourable mention to Francesca, for coming up with the name “Vodify”, and Nick for making decisive decisions and being instrumental when it came to the branding. He was a bit dictatorial though. Shoutout on the losing team to Kathryn, who was responsible for 2,400 orders to one of the retailers.
4. Harpreet. This was a task suited to her area of expertise and it really showed. She was a strong team leader (yet again) and selected the right product. Honourable mention to Francesca, who caught a lot of fish and smashed the sales at the market stall. Shoutout on the losing team to Stephanie, who was Infinity’s top seller, and despite some differences of opinion with another team member, Sophie did well selling at the market too.
5. Kathryn. For coining the name “Amelia Stone”, being the face of the game, and doing the pitch well. Honourable mention to Harpreet, who backseat drove the elements of the game when Akeem proved indecisive, and Aaron, who came up with the concept and the name "Time". Shoutout on the losing team to Stephanie, who was seen answering questions in the pitch with detail and professionalism, and Sophie, who put forward a lot of ideas even if they weren't listened to.
6. Stephanie. Perhaps one of the best project managers in the season behind Harpreet. She made decisions carefully and quickly and put on a well-organized tour. Honourable mention to Sophie, who led the sub-team and sold the majority of the tickets solo. Shoutout on the losing team to Kathryn, who made some mistakes but still had the guts to put herself forward and was otherwise ok as far as a team leader goes.
7. Harpreet. Once again Akeem was indecisive, which meant Harpreet had to handle questions with the corporate client and be the backseat driver when it came to designing the interior of the vehicle. She also made the majority of the sales. Honourable mentions to Aaron and Brittany, who came up with the branding and design of the vehicle. Shoutout on the losing team to Stephanie, who was seen interacting and selling to clients on her team.
8. Harpreet. Her "quality over quantity" technique proved successful, even if her little military operation in the kitchen left a lot to be desired. Honourable mentions to Brittany and Aaron, who provided an excellent experience for the Silverstone tourists.
9. Brittany. Her passion and enthusiasm coupled with her lifelong aptitude to sell on live television really paid off. She secured the most expensive item, acted in the video, and managed her manpower to the best of her ability. Honourable mention to Aaron, who was the director of the video (I don't condone his comment on live television though!)
10. Harpreet. Probably the only reason anything went right in this absolute train wreck of a task!

All credits go to u/dasBiest08 :)

Anyone know who’s dating? She’s constantly on first class trips to Dubai.

S7 is my personal favourite series with iconic characters like Jedi Jim and Susan Ma. It’s also notable as the first season to do away with the prize of working for Sugar in favour of a £250,000 investment into the winner’s business. Let’s see how fair or unfair the firings were this series. Names in bold are who I would have fired:

Week 1: Leon, Edward and Gavin

I mean you knew this task was going to end up in total chaos when Edward refused to tell anyone his strategy for the task, didn’t want to do the numbers despite being a trained accountant and spent nearly all of the team’s budget on oranges which backfired massively when the juicers broke in the kitchen. Leon was also dreadful in the back room but Edward made far too many mistakes here and couple that with his bizarre boardroom conduct meant he deserved to go. Also Gavin didn’t deserve to be taken back although I struggle to think who should have taken his place.

Week 2: Glenn, Leon and Alex

Alex just didn’t really do anything at all on either task and his spirited defence in the boardroom was too little, too late.

Week 3: Vincent, Gavin and Zoe

Zoe may not have bought anything but to be fair, Vincent was being a control freak on the sub team and I can see why she struggled to make her opinion heard during the task. Gavin, on the other hand, just had no control of anything despite being PM and was only able to locate six of the ten items.

Week 4: Ellie, Felicity and Natasha

This is probably the most divisive firing of the season as there is plenty of people who think Ellie should have gone home here instead. Now I agree Ellie was very poor on this task as she stayed upstairs waiting for people to come up to have their treatments done and when it wasn’t happening, she failed to be proactive and instead just sat around and did nothing about it for four hours! However Felicity completely misunderstood the point of the task. The treatments were the way to win this task as they had the highest margins per sale while the cosmetics products came at high costs and therefore the margin was never going to be as good in comparison yet Felicity focused way more on the products instead of the treatments resulting in a massive overspend. She also didn’t listen to Tom when he pointed out that one of the other shopping malls was more advantageous due to the treatment area being a lot closer to the team’s stand. Also I think people forget Ellie had done well in Weeks 2 and 3 so this was really her first poor task. I did want to see more of Felicity but her firing was justified.

Week 5: Ellie, Vincent and Natasha

Ellie did nothing on the task and Vincent failed to bring Jim back into the boardroom, possibly because he was scared he’d get thrashed by him in a debate. If Vincent brought Jim back in then I would have just fired Ellie here solo.

Week 6: Edna, Zoe and Susan

Zoe was a disaster on the first day but was able to pull it back around on the second. Edna really hadn’t contributed anything significant in the six weeks she was in (she had a PM win but that win was definitely not down to her regardless) and she also kept taking credit for things that she didn’t do so her going here was fair.

Week 7: Glenn, Jim and Susan

I agree with Glenn going home here but not for Sugar’s reasoning which was ridiculous as there have been plenty of engineers that have went on to form successful businesses. The real reason I would have stated is that Glenn hadn’t made as much of an impact in the competition compared to the other two in the boardroom and while he did do a good job at pitching, I don’t think it makes up for the fact that he was one of the weakest candidates left at this point.

Week 8: Melody, Tom and Leon

All three candidates have arguments to be fired here. Melody for deliberately lying about the market research and costing the team the best product, Leon for doing nothing and letting Melody do all the work for him and Tom for not sticking to what he thought was the best product and also for failing to sell at all. In this case, I do think Leon was right to go as at least Tom’s initial instinct about the car seat was correct and Melody was the one who made him doubt his gut feeling.

Week 9: Melody, Zoe and Tom

Put herself in the wrong team (I know Sugar always says that the PM is on the wrong side but Zoe literally works in manufacturing so it was justified here) and the branding itself didn’t really work either. Also Zoe was getting very personal with Melody in the boardroom which was great TV but admittedly unprofessional as well.

Week 10: Helen, Melody and Tom

Helen was surprisingly terrible on this task but there was no way she could have been fired after how fantastic she was throughout the process. Melody had been on a downward spiral and she also lost control as project manager so it wasn’t a surprise to see her go here. Tom was the best of the three here as he was the only one who understood the point of the task which puts him out of contention

Week 11: Natasha, Jim and Susan

Spent the whole task complaining that she had no interest in either the restaurant industry or customer service in general and was the clear weakest of the final five.

Interviews and Final: Final two was correct and so was the winner. It sucks to see Helen lose after her dominant performance but her business plan was just so flawed to the point where it wasn’t a realistic investment opportunity.

First season where I’ve disagreed with none of the firings! Might play a part in why it’s my favourite season. Now only S12 remains!

This is the idea of u/dasBiest08 and they deserve full credit for it. I’ve had permission from them to make my own interpretations on another account that was since deleted. 

This series is actually pretty hard to rank as there are plenty of tasks where no one really stands out. However, there are also two candidates who I already know were dominating pretty much the entire season, so don’t be shocked to see them a lot here.

1. Scarlett. Bravely stepped forward as PM in week one and delivered by keeping on top of the ticket pricing while taking the initiative to drop those prices to sell out and be eligible for the 30% discount negotiated prior. Honourable mention to Jemelin for negotiating that discount in the first place. I suppose Lottie gets one too as, while she was volatile with her team, she still successfully conducted the wine-tasting event and was able to sell bottles to the customers. Out of the losers, shout out to Riyonn for making efforts to make up for the sales team’s overpromising by finding the elephants, which I agree was more important than getting some gift shop sales. 
2. Going off the lack of footage from girls' team’s public sales, and off how much of their product melted or broke, Scarlett as I believe the girls won from their corporate lollies. She had the most control selling to the main retailer and was shown again selling the excess lollies to the trade afterwards. Carina should get an honourable mention for facilitating the task well as PM and making the right call on spending more on ingredients, even if she used too many plants. For the losers, shout out to Thomas for appearing to be the best public seller. 
3. Iasha. Single-handedly saved the pitch with the first retailer by illustrating the core concept behind her team’s product, something I don’t think anyone else on the team actually understood themselves. Honourable mention to Jemelin for suggesting going into the slime market in the first place and directing the advertisement, along with Ryan-Mark for his bizarre performance as the villain in the ad. 
4. Iasha. Had a clear understanding of her target consumer with “Sophisticated Sarah”, and while her bike’s design might not look appealing to the average person, I can understand why someone in her target market might like it. Honourable mention to Carina and Dean who both managed to make large sales in Aphrodite bikes, contributing to their team breaking the show’s sales record at the time.
5. Lottie. Was able to identify the majority of the requested items in the first briefing and also discouraged Marianne from repeating a paper skeleton situation with the crests on the university plate. Honourable mention to Thomas for his coin flip negotiation, which I actually disagree was a gamble as I didn’t see the seller going much below £50 otherwise.
6. Carina. Showed a lot of passion for the task and knew to stick to one USP of the backwards drop instead of overcomplicating her ride, while also choosing the nightmare theme. Honourable mention to Scarlett on the losing team who genuinely made a good effort facilitating all the strong characters on her side as PM, even if it was in vain. 
7. Carina. Acted more like the PM than Dean did, and came up with the USP of 24 hours of sun while making sure the branding reflected Finland. Honourable mention to Lewis for producing the team’s advert and choosing to target backpackers. Out of the losers, Thomas gets one for coming up with most of the ideas for his team’s logo (which I think looked better than the other team’s) and Marianne for managing Thomas’s high energy and being the only one who seemed to focus more on Finland than LGBTQ+.
8. Unfortunately, I have to give it to Lottie by default as Carina undermined her authority by overspending on entertainment despite being told the client didn’t want it, while Scarlett and Dean both had an invisible edit so, if they did any better, we didn’t see it. Lottie led pretty poorly but she generally made all the right calls as PM (other than offering the clients bottomless drinks), and while I disagree with how she went about doing so, I think switching sub team leader was justified. I also have to give Thomas an honourable mention on the losing team for having the integrity to take Pamela’s place in the boardroom. 
9. Surprisingly, Dean wasn’t actually a bad PM this time round, clearly being in his element working in the talent industry. His charm offensive got his team who they wanted and he knew better than to bring up some crazy revenue split like Thomas did. Lewis and Pamela should get honourable mentions on the losing team for making decent sales despite not believing in their song choice.
10. Scarlett. Absolutely obliterated Lewis with her bottle and packaging, producing one of the best looking products I’ve seen from the show in a long time. Honourable mention to Carina for having the initiative to bin Lottie’s horrible advertisement board for their last pitch.

Final (excluding finalists). Thomas. He came up with most of the ideas for Carina’s advert and was an incredibly passionate and supportive team member to the point he shed tears watching the ad. Honourable mentions to Pamela for coming up with the ‘Too Good To Share’ strap line and Ryan-Mark for acting in the advertisement. 

Yeah, this one’s the worst.

Firings (note: this section is going to be extremely negative, so scroll ahead if you don’t want a bit of S17 heat and some f-bombs): I’m taking a different approach to this, since I feel the need to thoroughly explain every bullshit elimination this season. I will preface this by saying I don't have an issue with Emma's firing, she had an obnoxious attitude and had Marnie gone that week, as most people think she should’ve, we'd have ended up with Rochelle as a winner. What joy that would've been. Without further ado, who’s ready for a bullet point list?

Kevin: What the fuck? I get you want to start the season with a shocker, but Kevin? I understand his pricing wasn’t great, but why fire him when the team lost by £150, and Bradley got over £200 less than the women for his portion of the task?

Gregory: EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK? Okay, admittedly, Gregory was pretty lazy in Week 3 and didn’t contribute much of anything, but Reece was the absolute worst that task. He should’ve been fired, full stop. Not one of the strongest forces in both of the other two tasks prior.

Joe: YOU WHAT? Dani had the idea to restrict the water, the decision to tell the guests was joint between Joe and Simba, and Rochelle was overseeing the whole thing as PM. Why eliminate Joe when he’s been pretty consistent throughout and was at most 25% responsible for the water issue?

Avi: Okay, fair enough, Avi was absolute dogshit throughout. However, so was Rochelle, and given that they jointly created their dysfunctional product, Rochelle was the one with industry experience, and Avi was coming in off a surprisingly decent PM win, it should’ve been logical to fire Rochelle instead here.

Simba: NO. NO. NO. JUST. FUCKING. NO. DANI AND MEGAN COMPLETELY WRECKED THE TASK, AND SIMBA GOT TALKED OVER BY DANI THE ENTIRE TIME AND THAT GETS HIM FIRED? Simba was EASILY the strongest candidate of this ENTIRE series up until his firing, in MEASLY 6TH PLACE? EXCUSE ME? Why the fuck are you so hell bent on RUINING the season, Sugar? “It’s not your day”? Yeah, fuck off.

Megan: Credit where credit is due, Megan’s business plan was horrendous, just the absolute worst. However, to fire her over Rochelle, who also had no grasp on her financials and had been vastly outshone by Megan every task? I don’t think so.

Talent: This season actually had a fair bit of talent, too bad much of it got fucked off way too early, with Kevin in 16th place, Gregory in 15th place, Joe in 11th place and Simba in 6th place, all of whom deserved much higher placements. Sugar wondered why the final five sucked so much this year? Maybe because you got rid of half the decent candidates, JACKASS. Otherwise, Shazia, Reece and Avi were trainwrecks, Sohail, Mark, Bradley and Rochelle did nothing right, Dani deflated, and Marnie was inconsistent as all hell. On a more positive note, Megan was consistently a top two candidate all series and Victoria’s record on the tasks was surprisingly not at all bad.

Personalities: Avi was Avi, Reece and Rochelle grated on my nerves and Shazia was one of the worst team players to ever appear on the show, while most of the good personalities (Simba, Megan, Marnie, Joe, Gregory, to a lesser extent Victoria and Bradley) either got too little screen time or got the boot too early for no real reason, not making for a great series personality wise.

The Final 5: This whole final five, I just… ugh. Okay, so Dani found her stride early in the competition, but after her good performances in Weeks 2, 3 and 4, she made mistake after mistake after mistake, and was given multiple chances for no real reason. This was all made even worse when we remember she was sent into the interviews at Simba’s expense, who was miles ahead of her no matter what Karen says on You’re Fired. Marnie and Victoria were another story. They sucked in the first week, but both found their stride in the second half of the series. Despite this, Victoria put up one of the least appealing business plans in the entire show, and while Marnie deserved to be in the final under the circumstances, you just spent the whole time wishing Megan and Simba were there instead of her and Rochelle. Megan was easily the best on tasks out of the five but unfortunately did a Neil Clough, while there were plenty of candidates leagues ahead of Rochelle performance wise and she in particular made the final pairing weak as shit.

The Winner: Marnie was the right winner based on the final two, nuff said. I’ve already said my piece as far as Rochelle is concerned.

The Rest: The one thing I’ll give this series is that it marked the return of 18 candidates, which is vastly superior to 16. But that’s about it.

Grade: F

S11 is mostly known now as the season Joseph Valente won who has gone on to be quite the umm… controversial character. Other than that it has a rare triple firing and some fun characters in Elle, Mergim and Charleine. Names in bold are who I would have fired:

Week 1: Dan, April and Brett

April’s performance as PM was abysmal and I considered a first week double firing but Dan was just completely out of his depth. Sold zero salads (to be fair the price was insane), messed up in the kitchen when it came to ordering the ingredients and failed to defend himself in the boardroom properly. April barely survives here for having just a tiny bit more potential moving forward.

Week 2: Natalie, Aisha and Vana

Honestly Aisha is not talked about enough when it comes to the worst project managers we’ve seen on the show. I struggle to think of anything she actually did right on the task, brought the wrong two people into the boardroom (there’s a case for Natalie being taken back but I’d argue others were worse on the task) and just seemed to speak down to people the whole time.

Week 3: Elle, Vana and Jenny

Despite Elle’s back and forth with the boat and Vana’s surprisingly weak leadership, Jenny was the only one not to buy an item and hadn’t contributed much in the three weeks she was in.

Week 4: Selina, Scott and Ruth

Ruth may not have sold anything but the two sales Selina did make were not solely down to her as she got a lot of help from Scott that I’d argue was the one who contributed more to why those sales went through. Also Selina’s constant negative attitude was clearly draining to be around while Ruth was always upbeat and positive. Ruth had also contributed positively in all three of the tasks before this one while Selina did have a PM win to her name but had been on a downward spiral on the next two tasks after that and even her PM win had more to do with her other team members instead of her. Combining all that results in me saying that Selina should have went home here and even Claude seemed to agree that Ruth deserved a second chance but was shut down by Karren in the actual episode who I think was the main influence for Sugar to fire Ruth instead of Selina.

Week 5: Natalie, Sam and Brett

Sam was incredibly indecisive but the book he did make was actually pretty decent while I struggle to think of anything positive Natalie had contributed in the five weeks she was in.

Week 6: Elle, Mergim, April and David

The triple firing just felt forced here. I admit that April messed up badly with the pricing strategy but she had been making a steady improvement every week after her disastrous performance Week 1 up until now and I felt she defended herself very well in this boardroom. Elle and Mergim were both clearly out of their depth so I think it should have just been both of them going this episode. April definitely had more potential than them in the process moving forward.

Week 7: Brett, Scott and Sam

Struggled with selling and basic mathematics and just generally being a weak link among teams. Scott was unnecessarily harsh to him here though.

Week 8: Gary, Joseph, David and Charleine

David was most responsible for the T-Shirts disaster which was the main reason why the task failed so him going here was fair. I will say that the other three here clearly agreed before the boardroom to gang up on him though and scapegoat David for all the major problems. It was very evident.

Week 9: Selina, Joseph and Gary + Scott quits

Scott quitting made sense since Sugar and Karren were actively demeaning him in the boardroom and it was obvious that he had no chance to win at that moment so he might as well quit instead of being subjected to their nasty comments any further. Selina, as usual, was a constant negative hinderance and it was her time to go.

Week 10: Gary, Charleine, Brett and Richard

Since both teams lost, I think at least one person should be fired from each team and therefore I chose Gary and Brett as I felt they were the two weakest candidates left in the process.

Interviews and Final: Same final two and I probably would have given the win to Vana instead.

Overall pretty fair season with Ruth being the one I deem as the most unfair and even then it wasn’t an unjustified firing by any means.

Good day, fellow unqualified-to-critique-businesspeople-but-we-do-it-anyway people. Going to be posting one season review every day for the next week, and maybe some more after that if I can remember other seasons well enough. Going to be working backwards, so starting with S18, let's go.

Firings: Two firings stand out as pretty bad this season, those being Ollie and Steve. Despite Steve not really having a bad task up until Week 10 and doing the least bad out of him, Rachel and Foluso that week, he was let go over a plateauing Rachel on her second loss as PM because he was boring… I guess? Ollie was fired over Virdi, who completely failed at leading the away day with his cringey behaviour and lousy timekeeping. While Ollie’s kitchen performance wasn’t a great look, it was certainly less damaging than Virdi’s showing.

Talent: There was a good bit here. The bottom half was pretty rough with little exception, however Paul M, Flo and Tre were obviously the best candidates of the series despite their poor business plans. Flo's Week 2 negotiation and Tre’s Week 5 pitch in particular will always be the first things I think of when it comes to this series, and Rachel and Steve also had consistently good showings besides their abysmal Week 10. Otherwise, Foluso had a great first six weeks before just crashing, Raj was alright and will go down in history for her insane win streak, Phil eventually came into his own in the last three weeks, Sam is probably the best 12th placer in the show, and while Maura was painful to watch, she started to hold her own after Week 6 before just doing badly at the wrong time in Week 9.

Personalities: Some good ones here as well. Paul B may have been bad but he was hilarious in equal measure, and while Virdi started out as horrible to watch, he eventually grew into a rootable guy who just had an unfortunate inability to do ANYTHING right. Sam started out great until her character assassination of Phil out of nowhere, it was a jarring sight for sure. Raj just turned into a piece of work in her final boardroom as well for some reason having been perfectly fine up until then, and it put a dampener on someone I already believed to be a relatively overrated candidate. Steve, Paul M and Rachel were all chill af despite some horrendous puns from the former, and while Flo was full of herself early on even for Apprentice standards, she became a lot more down to earth later on and I was definitely a fan by the end. As for her early drama with Noor, was she sidelining her in Week 3 a bit? Probably. However, Noor usually deserved it, and given that the entire USP of Flo's business was diversity hires, I highly doubt she's anything close to a goddamn racist ffs. I’m an unapologetic Phil fan because, despite his abysmal record and bumbling nature at times, you could tell he had a big fucking heart and never lost his cool despite taking more shit than possibly every other candidate this series combined. Tre is my favourite of the season though, great speaker and motivator, took all the criticism he got in the interviews to heart, and you knew he always just wanted the best for his team. The only real bad personalities were Noor with her general delusion, even though her descent into madness as PM was hilarious, while Asif was just a piece of shit who gave me red flags even before I found out about what he was like off-screen.

The Final 5: Really interesting group here outside of Rachel who… we’ll get to later. Paul M was amazing, he killed it basically the whole way through, he was a good leader, he was great at talking to clients and negotiating, and he was the only candidate this series who really grew every week. Flo and Tre basically fall into the same boat - while they both had a couple of off-weeks towards the end as well as flawed business plans, when they were on their A-game, they were on Harpreet levels of domination, particularly in the first several weeks. Phil gets W A Y too much hate, I feel. Did he have the worst track record in the show’s history? Yes. Did he get lucky twice? Yes. Was he a bad candidate? Nah. While his performance was inconsistent, he only had two majorly awful tasks (6 and 9), while having three where he clearly outperformed his peers (1, 7 and 10), as well as having the best business plan of the series, a pretty decent final and generally good leadership. Also, can confirm his pies are the best I've ever eaten by a very wide margin.

The Winner: Rachel was the clear better candidate out of her and Phil, let’s not get it twisted. Fantastic negotiator, great team player, always composed, deserved her 7-3 win ratio. However, I just can’t rate her higher than any of the three interview boots based on Week 10, and it would’ve been great to have had at least one of them in the final. But she deserved the win under the circumstances, no doubt.

The rest: It was entertaining as hell seeing everyone complain about Phil being kept on every week, and there was a big improvement in candidate quality this series after the criticism S17 got as well imo. Easily the best post-pandemic series, even if the bar is on the floor.

Grade: B

In the eighth task, her criticisms for Noor B were not significantly different and seemed even lighter compared to the critiques directed at another candidate. Actually, she criticized the sub-team couplet of Falusaah and Phillip, suggesting that Noor's brief was clear and perfect, which seemed to downplay the issues at hand. Also notice how Karen's facial expressions showed less disapproval than usual.

When Noor exited the process, Karen gave a nod as a silent gesture of good luck, but she refrained from voicing her support out of concern for judgment from Sugar and the viewers for appearing to sympathize with a naive girl.

In the task prior, while I understand why Noor swapped teams, it was surprising that Karen quickly jumped in to suggest it. Additionally, she greeted Noor with a "good morning" at the start of the task, which made me realize she interacted with candidates (or should I say one specific candidate) on a more personal level than I had previously thought.

Noor is infamous for her mix-up between breadcrumbs and crumble, yet Karen was unusually lenient about it.

Additionally, I don’t believe Noor's ideas in week 3 were particularly constructive, but Karen framed them as innovative concepts that were unfairly overlooked. The reality is that under extreme time pressure, it’s difficult to work with vague ideas or suggestions.

To be clear, I'm talking about the intro music that plays during the first episode of each series. Obviously, the intro for the rest of the episodes in each series is Dance of the Knights by Sergei Prokofiev, but I'm not asking about that.

View Poll

One of the most notable Cassandras is Tom season 7 for me.

I feel like as viewers we have a pretty warped perception of how hard the show actually is, and while I don’t hold it against anyone critiquing the candidates for entertainment purposes, it is worth keeping in mind that sometimes the show intentionally brings out the worst in people.

What I’d like to know is if anyone on this sub made the effort to graduate from viewer to candidate. I know I never would because I’m currently way too lazy to progress outside the comfort of my current job. What was you’re business plan, how far in the selection process did you get, and what did you think would make you stand out?

Episode 1 - Sarah, Lindsay and Roisin. FIRED Sarah. I think Sarah counts as one of the worst projects managers in the history of the apprentice and the only thing that could save her here is a killer business plan.

Episode 2 - Nurun, Sarah and Ella-Jade. FIRED Sarah. I know it's early to judge but Sarah had the worst track record in terms of individual performance and ability so again it would need a miracle to save her.

Episode 3 - Katie, Steven and Sarah. FIRED Sarah. Steven was a constant hindracne on this task but I can't see Sarah getting out of this one as she was clearly one of the weakest sellers.

Episode 4 - Solomon, James and Mark. FIRED Solomon. I think James would be bought back in for being unserious about the whole task but ultimately Solomon put forward most of the ideas and led from the front.

Episode 5 - Daniel, Pamela and Mark. FIRED Daniel. If Daniel lost this task he would absolutely be dead in the water. Nobody respected him as PM and unfortunately his leadership left a lot to be desired.

Episode 6 - James, Bianca and Rosin. FIRED Bianca. To the surprise of nobody, James was not a good project manager but Bianca had already been in danger in the previous week and this week was unforgivable.

Episode 7 - Bianca, James and Sanjay. FIRED Bianca. She'd been floundering for a couple of weeks now and she would get in trouble for the advert (which was the bad part of the task)

Episode 8 - Felipe, Daniel and Katie. FIRED Felipe. I can see Daniel surviving another week as I feel sugar would sympathize him for not being given the opportunity to sell the hottubs. So ultimately Felipe would go here.

Episode 9 - Sanjay, Bianca and Solomon. FIRED Sanjay. Sanjay was a very indecisive and unorganized project leader and didn't even manage to secure all the items.

Episode 10 - Roisin, Bianca and Daniel. FIRED Daniel. Daniel had about 5 chances up until now so he was definitely being fired. And he was a big disruption on this task.

Episode 1 - Sarah, Joanna and Siobhan. FIRED Joanna. Sarah really wasn't a bad PM here and I can't see Joanna being let off for the deal she negotiated with the shopkeeper.

Episode 2 - Bushra, Sarah Jane and Elizabeth. FIRED Bushra. Sarah Jane had a difficult team to manage whilst Elizabeth was crazy all task, but the whole concept was Bushras in the end.

Episode 3 - Jade, Siobhan and Elizabeth. FIRED Siobhan. After learning more about her behavior Sugar would not be able to see the partnership working and would just dismiss her.

Episode 4 - Andrew, Harrison and Charles. FIRED Andrew. Andrew was a poor project manager who was not keen on delivering customer satisfaction and had the wrong startergy throughout. He should be fortunate he had generous clients.

Episode 5 - Joanna, Bushra and Elizabeth. FIRED Joanna. Joanna was basically on her last warning. There was no way she would survive this week after Sugar tore into her horrendously the previous week.

Episode 6 - Elizabeth, James and Bushra. FIRED James. James was responsible for misselling the experience as a Segway tour and even though Elizabeth made a few mistakes James would not be spared for this big error.

Episode 7 - Michaela, Andrew and Anisa. FIRED Anisa. Andrew was not really helping in any respect but Anisa's pitch and branding left a lot to be desired so I think she would go here.

Episode 8 - James, Bushra and Elizabeth. FIRED James. This would have been James' second loss as PM so there's absolutely no way he would survive unless Sugar was absolutely keen on keeping him in.

Episode 9 - Harrison, Joanna and Jade. FIRED Harrison. There was a lot of tension within the sub team but by this point the 2 girls were much stronger than Harrison and Harrison was reprimanded by Claude for poor management.

Episode 10 - Joanna, Elizabeth and Michaela. FIRED Elizabeth. Elizabeth had several warnings up until this point and this wasn't her best task as she kept taking over and wasting time. However the firing might have also depended on sales figures.

The title says it all. Also this list does not account for when candidates lost or were in the boardroom, making some of these decisions technically impossible.

S1: Miriam should've gotten in over Paul for sure.

S2: The final four was correct, unfortunately Syed had too many disasterclasses for me to justify switching someone out for him.

S3: The final five was correct, unless Jadine actually kept trying, then she should've got in over Katie and maybe been a finalist.

S4: Raef over either Alex or Helene, although he probably would've gotten 5th.

S5: The final five was correct.

S6: Liz over Stuart, how she got fired over him is beyond me, and she likely would've been a finalist as well.

S7: The final four was correct.

S8: The final four was correct.

S9: Replace Jordan and Luisa with Alex and Myles, Jordan should've been out the door as soon as it came out he was breaking the rules in Week 10, and Luisa should've gone with Jason in Week 8.

S10: The final five was fine (arguably Katie over Daniel though).

S11: The final five was correct.

S12: Trishna over Grainne,

S13: Jade over either James or Joanna.

S14: Maybe have Jasmine instead of Camilla.

S15: Probably Marianne over Lottie.

S16: Should've only been a final three imo, Stephanie sucked way too hard by the end of the tasks and Aaron/Akeem were also not good enough.

S17: Simba over Rochelle, absolute no brainer.

S18: Probably Steve over Phil.

episode 1 - Scarlett, Lubna and Lottie. FIRED Lubna. Lottie was very disruptive throughout but her knowledge on wine saves her here. Lubna would go for not being able to find the cellar.

episode 2 - Carina, Lubna and Lottie. FIRED Lubna. Lottie, once again, just wanted to take over despite ducking out of being sub-team leader. But there was no way she was going this early so Lubna would have gone for the poor packaging and lack of contribution.

episode 3 - Pamela, Lewis and Jemelin. FIRED Pamela. I think Pamela would try to scapegoat Lewis despite sidelining him for the whole task, and Jemelin seemed like the main person behind the advert. but i cant see Pamela getting out of this one

episode 4 - Iasha, Carina and Lewis. FIRED Iasha. Lewis was responsible for the product selection on the accessories team and Carina would be bought in for not sticking to the pricing stratergy at the beginning. But Iasha would go here for being an indecisive leader.

episode 5 - Marianna, Iasha and Lottie. FIRED Marianne. Iasha would be bought back for being quiet, and Lottie was the sub-team leader, but the whole frenzy regarding the Alice in Wonderland book would have landed her in the deep end.

episode 6 - Carina, Ryan-mark and Lewis. FIRED Ryan-Mark. Ryan and Lewis were responsible for the poor poster, but on balance Ryan would have gone for not contributing anything positive in the 6 weeks he was there.

episode 7 - Dean, Lewis and Lottie. FIRED Dean. The ad team didn't do a great job but it was crystal clear that Dean was incapable of making any decisions and left Carina to do all the work for him.

episode 8 - Lottie, Dean and Carina. FIRED Dean. I can't see Dean getting out of this one given how much he had underperfomed for the past 8 weeks and how he didn't add much value to this task.

episode 9 - Dean, Lottie and Carina. FIRED Dean. Dean had, had several warnings up until this point and I don't think a strong boardroom defence could have saved him. Lottie was disruptive as usual, and Carina would be brought back for agreeing on £500 instead of £525, but Dean goes here.

episode 10 - Carina, Lottie and Scarlett. FIRED Lottie. Scarlett did well the branding and packaging, Carina would be in trouble for making the perfume too strong, but the poster was Lottie's idea and by this point there was no way she would outlast 2 of the strongest candidates.

credits to u/rachelf1990

S15 is mostly known for the trinity of Thomas, Ryan-Mark and Lottie and its overall one of my more preferred recent seasons of the show. Let’s go over the firings and see how fair or unfair they were. Names in bold are who I would have fired:

Week 1: Dean, Lewis and Shahin

Sold zero tickets and interrupted Thomas’ negotiation. One of the few first boots which showed pretty much zero potential moving forward.

Week 2: Dean, Kenna and Ryan-Mark

Dean did choose cheap ingredients but I refuse to believe that what Kenna came up with was the best his team could do in terms of designing a “premium” looking ice lolly. It looked like a 10p cheap lolly you’d find in any old shop. Combine that with the fact that Kenna wanted to operate an ice cream business and it’s a very easy firing here. Ryan-Mark was annoying but I question if he even deserved a spot in the boardroom here since I have no idea if Souleyman opened his mouth once on this task apart from when he wanted to move a table around for psychology reasons.

Week 3: Souleyman, Riyonn and Lottie

Clear double firing for me. Both Souleyman and Riyonn had not contributed anything positive in the three weeks they were there along with the added fact of Souleyman complaining all task and Riyonn being an awful PM who directed the video that had nothing to do with advertising the toy they came up with. Not to mention him letting Thomas take over the whole task and still didn’t bring him back into the boardroom either. Lottie was also terrible as she told the clients negative feedback (this got David fired in S14) but at least she had done well on the first task and wasn’t as bad as the other two.

Week 4: Lubna, Thomas and Marianne

Lubna never really did anything and I don’t think she even wanted to be there anymore anyway. I don’t blame her considering she had to live with Lottie 24/7.

Week 5: Ryan-Mark, Jemelin and Riyonn

All three were dreadful on this task but Jemelin and Ryan-Mark had done well on the third task with the advertisement video while Riyonn had lost all five tasks and I fail to remember anything positive he brought to the table on any of them. I felt Riyonn going here was fair even with the other two’s failings on this task.

Week 6: Dean, Scarlett, Iasha and Lottie

I admit that Iasha didn’t defend herself well in this boardroom but even so, Dean was the clear weakest of this four and should have gone. Iasha had pulled in a fantastic PM win on the bike task and saved her team’s pitch on the toy task so she had some very positive contributions to her name. Dean however had been in the boardroom three times already and hadn’t brought really anything positive to the six weeks he had been there. Most of the time he was in the background, including this task where Marianne and Scarlett took more of a lead in terms of the coaster design. Dean was very lucky to stay here.

Week 7: Jemelin, Marianne and Ryan-Mark

This firing could really go to any of them and it would be justified but Ryan-Mark was the weakest of the three to me as all he did was act in the advert and argue unnecessarily with Jemelin the whole time. This was also his third time in the final boardroom. I actually think Pamela should have been in the boardroom here as I can’t tell you a single thing she contributed on this task. I also think Dean, despite being the winning PM, would have been a worthy firing here as well as he literally let Carina and Lewis take over and do all the work for him.

Week 8: Marianne, Ryan-Mark and Thomas

I actually don’t think Ryan-Mark was that bad of a PM on this task surprisingly enough but it was clearly his time to go anyway so I have no qualms about him going. The failure to provide a vegetarian alternative for the meals really hurt this team in the long run.

Week 9: Pamela, Lewis, Marianne and Thomas

I think both these firings were fair. I love Thomas but the offering of the 50% commission to the musicians killed this team’s chances of victory from the beginning and Marianne had consistently been making mistakes for several weeks in a row at this point and failed to improve her performance on this task. I’m not too high on Pamela as I never thought she did all that much but the right two went here.

Week 10: Dean, Pamela and Lewis

Pamela and Lewis should thank their lucky stars that they had the perfect human shield in Dean this week to protect them as they had both done such a bad job on the task. Dean never did anything and the fact that he made it this far astounds me.

Interviews and Final: Correct Final Two and both of them got the investment in the end so whoever wins doesn’t really matter anyway. I will say Carina’s team did a much better job in the final task than Scarlett’s did although Scarlett’s idea for the advert was very questionable to begin with.

Overall a mostly fair season when it comes to the firings with Iasha being the only one I heavily disagreed with. Surprisingly I never would have fired Lottie but that’s because the two times she was in the boardroom she was up against much worse candidates performance wise and then she went on a winning streak in the second half of the competition with Scarlett and Carina.