This show is no longer about employability - if you are good for the ratings you stay no matter how unpleasant and obnoxious you are. If you employed Ben or Debra you would lose most of your customers in a month - rudeness doesn't sell!

It's been apparent all series that characters are being kept in at the expense of potential talent.

I'd have liked to have seen more of Paula and Majeed (he didn't even get the opportunty to lead a task).

However, I do believe it was the right decision to fire Nooral tonight. He brought nothing to the table. He was a spare part.

I agree re-Nooral and liked Paula too

Noorul wasn't a strong candidate, but Ben was far more to blame for the team's failure. He should have gone.

its always been about the entertainment and not the talent though, the BBC pick the candidates which says it all

I dislike Ben and Debra..but at the same time they have at least shown some business acumen in amongst all the malicious backstabbing they do

whereas Nooral is a teacher by trade, and has no business skills what so ever, his 'deal' over the skeleton looked like it was the first bit of bartering he'd ever done!

Yes I agree. I knew Nooral was a goner as soon as Ben said he was bringing him in. Ben and Debra may have marginally more business acumen (Debra anyway - I'm not convinced Ben has) but at least you could trust Nooral to be polite to clients. Ben and Debra would lose all your clients for you by being rude.

And yes - it's definitely all about the ratings now. They may as well just rename it Big Boardroom, and be done with it.

Nooral should have gone weeks ago when his team won the task he was that rubbish!! It was the right decision to fire him but IMO any of the 3 could have gone. Ben was ultimately responsible for the failure of the task but at least he has been semi-effective (and I hate to say nice things about him argh) in the last few weeks.

I was just saying the exact same thing last night- it didnt matter how cocky rude or arragont or how much debra and ben were to blame for the failure of the task- they are picking off the quieter characters first to create good tv in the final few weeks hence them sacking Nooral.

Saying that I dont think too many of the sacked candidates would have stood a chance of winning but they have fired everyone besause they have kept in the backround not because they have caused the failure of the task.

Does it really matter anyway? The cocky arragont ones may still be in it but they arent going to win!

Noorul was no ratings draw - he looked like Nookie Bear rendered as a man - but he does fit an archetype nailed by Sir Alan when he proscribed that any future employer of Noorul's should "... ask for a receipt."
I can guess that Noorul, used to at least the suggestion of co-operation from children, expected silence and operation at his pace from other team members when he spoke and acted. The real world ain't like that sunshine - but there are turns of Nooruls out there, gliding about the public sector without having done a job of work. In this instance it was good TV as we now have a label for a bland, slightly preening, ultimately less-self-confident lead-swinger willing to piggy back on the successes of others, i.e "That Ben, what a "Noorul" he is!"

Last week Paula took the responsibility for others being crp and was fired so why not Ben yesterday. He's failed a few times and been in the for the final 3 and facing the chop more than anyone else. Face it he's as obnoxious as the worst on there and If this wasn't a game show then he'd be on his way by now.

The one thing I would say about Debra is she really stands her ground and deep down Sugar might admire that. She's no wall flower type candidate, she has balls (to speak) and I'm convinced Sir Alan likes that quality in an apprentice candidate.

Remember last year when he kept giving Michael another chance? Sugar thought Michael had potential and that's the one thing he didn't see in Noorul. He had zero potential.

If you don't impress Sugar early on the show he's marked your card. Noorul didn't show any potential business skills, Ben and Debra did. I don't think Ben or Debra will win the show - Ben did come across very weak in this task and Debra might be too much of a loudmouth to ever get hired. Kate or Yasmina would be safer choices.

I think Ben was very good on last week's task and I think Ben and Debra are both being given a break because they are both young.
There's irony in that this week was the first week Noorul played a bigger part in the task but made the biggest mistakes.

Kimberley. Paula was fired two weeks ago.

Noorul has done a job; he's a teacher. It requires a very different set of skills from those tested on The Apprentice and I think he was a fish out of water on the show. But I think it's a little arrogant to dismiss all work done in the public sector, whether teaching or anything else, as not a real job.

Nooral was dead wood from the word 'go'.

Sorry - Noorul is a science teacher in a secondary school. This country needs scientists, chemists, engineers etc etc.

His job is a million times more important to society than selling the kind of rubbish tat and pointless gadgets Sir Alan Sugar and his company sells!

PS Who makes these gadgets - scientists and if there were no science teachers there would be no scientists to make SAS rich. So good on you Noorul - you are doing a way more important job than any of the Apprentice winners to date.

I do think that there is an undercurrent of "keep the characters in for ratings" and that it is getting stronger as the series progress but Noorul contributed little if anything. His performance as team leader showed him as ineffectual and somewhat clueless in this environment. I'm sure he's an intelligent man who has his own strengths but in the business world he's like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

I agree that both Paula and (to a lesser extent) Kimberley could possibly count themselves unlucky. However, I can understand why they were both fired. If Paula had officially delegated costing to Yasmina and/or Ben, she might still be here now. Unfortunately, she just made an airy fairy comment about relying on them both to help her (without properly transferring responsibilty) and continued to try and have some control in an area that she had confessed to being rubbish in. This was her ultimate downfall. Kimberley made the mistake of thinking that bringing the most turbulent and problematic characters back to the boardroom was the way to go. If she'd brought Noorul back last week he'd probably have gone then. Mona might also have been in danger had she been brought back - her pitch was dire.

The thing is, Ben, Yasmina and Lorraine had all shown more spark/potential than Noorul. It might have been the edit (although I have my doubts) but he really did come across as a chocolate fireman.

Noorual sounds like Null.

How fitting.

Nooral is a teacher - do you not consider teaching to be a proper job? Educating people is one of the most important jobs that someone can do. Okay - maybe he wasn't right for TA (and as the Beeb pick the candidates, I would not be at all surprised if it turned out that they had picked him purely as someone to poke fun at), but what he does is a lot more important than what some of the arrogant, loud mouthed contestants who are left in there do.

Although I wish Lorraine hadn't gone, what other outcome could there have been? Herself, Yasmina and Ben were the only people culpable for Scandalwood - which was what cost them the task. Yasmina is clearly a more promising candidate than Lorraine was and Ben was able to successfully disown himself from the fiasco.

Lorraine is still in the competition (Cassandra!).

I'm not being bitchy but

Have you only just worked this one out?
Every reality programme is just that - A PROGRAMME!
made to entertain or infuriate etc

If job interviews were this good we would all be going to them, being put up in posh apartments, given treats for getting through a round, given matching luggage

When was the last time you had an interview that got you making pantie pops adverts?

Are you suggesting that teaching is an easy job, and that children sit there quietly listening to everything their teacher says?

Which begs the question what would suralan be like in a classroom.

saying that the boardroom these days is becoming more like a playground with all the squabbles and shouting.

PS if Debra painted her face green she would be a dead ringer for the Wicked Witch of the West.

I do feel Nooral was completely wrong as a candidate for The Apprentice. He was too much of a gentleman and didn't have the cut and thrust which Sir Alan seems to require of the participants.