In previous series', Suralan has almost always made the right choice as to who should be fired. However,every week in this series, it seems that the person who fired is saved over someone who is less entertaining to the audience. Have you noticed it's mostly the quiet ones that are fired this series i.e. Rocky, Anita and now Paula. I personally feel this is because the producers feel that the quiet ones don't add much to the show, therefore they are fired even though there are other people more worthy of being fired. Are the producer's having a major influence on the show in order to maintain high ratings? Has Suralan finally bowed down to the producers as he also fears ratings may drop considering this is the 5th series (most reality TV shows become stale after the 4th/5th series)?

Potentially very good candidates are being overlooked for the sake of characters and entertainment value.

I doubt Debra, Ben or James would have survived in earlier series of The Apprentice.

I'm not keen on the direction the show is taking. If I was applying next year, I'd make sure I was as outrageous and loathesome as possible because that seems to be the way to progress on the programme these days.

At the time of filming he probably already had a good idea of who he wants so everyone else are dispensable so he can afford to choose entertainment over substance

No, he hasn't. Last year I thought nearly half his decisions were wrong.

It's been entertainment over substance since at least Series 2, I'm afraid. He's been no worse this series than usual; so far, I think 2 of his firings were right (Rocky and Paula) and one of the others (Anita) was hardly a travesty.

I think the original poster has a good point. Previous series of The Apprentice have been ratings winners for the BBC so it makes ratings sense to keep the more argumentative candidates in the show. I do think this year's Apprentice isn't quite as confrontational as some of the other series but Ben and Debra are doing their best to be bitchy and horrible!

Look at it this way, would you rather have an entertaining show that gets you talking about the decisions, or a boring show where you agree with him week in week out? I know which I'd pick.