It was very interesting watching AS tonight and also the behavior of some of the candidates in the boardroom.

Some things I picked up were his defence of Lorraine, slapping down Philip in a number of ways and also the respect he seems to have for Yasmina who handles herself very well and is my fav to win. He also seems to like James.
For the first time it appears AS is seeing through the gobshites!. Howard and Mona seem to be very in the background but I have a feeling Mona is next to go as she is dreadful under pressure and has serious communication issues during business negotiations.

Do you think he likes James? Why did he use that phrase "a village missing it's idiot"? Was that meant to be a put down for James or Ben?

I loved James' face when SurAlan said that. *lol*

Sir Alan can be quite canny, though. I doubt he thinks James is a village idiot, for example; he just thought Ben might be underestimating him. He sometimes most critical of the ones he likes the most, in order to put them under pressure. I felt he was very patient with the shouting this ep, and I suspect because a lot of it was from Nooral and he wanted to give Nooral a chance.

I suspect he makes his mind up about who he wants in the final from the start and then just spends the weeks picking off the ones he has decided he doesn't want.

You're right....we all knew that if Noorul was in the final three he would go.....shame siralan this series always seem to make a final insulting comment about the sacked candidate..

I think personally Sir Alan's more obvious signals are when he's discussing one person and suddenly mentionned another. I've predicted who he'd fire from the moment people were picked. Deborah was mouthy, but ultimately she did a lot of work in the task. She was never going to be fired over someone he perceives as not doing anything. And you are not in business to be liked. If the candidates perform well with the clients and deliver the goods; they are never going to be fired just because others are more "likeable". the quiet ones who don't stand up for themselves or contribute will not be hired. I thought he was trying to steer Ben to take James in the boardroom myself. I don't think he likes James that much. And as for Lorraine; I think he feels sorry at her being shot down but she'll meet other Phillips in business and I don't think she'll win it for that reason. The one's with the best shot are Yasmine, Kate and Howard. All big contributors,all professional with the client and all strong personalities. Ben - I think he liked his confidence, but he made some poor decisions in that last task. But Nick seems to like him. I actually agreed with Deborah. He feel apart at the end, took too many products and didn't have a clear strategy as to how to price/sell.

As long as he doesn't use "secret signals"...still the worst idea EVER to grace the Apprentice screen...

I think what he actually said was something like; "I'm not sure why you want to bring James into the boardroom, maybe you think that there's a village that's missing it's idiot?"

They said on "you're fired" that James looked quite shocked at that, and then realised what Sir Alan was saying. I think Sir Alan was sticking up for him and questionning Ben's idiotic decision.

I can't see Ben lasting too much longer. Sir Alan said he thought he was out of his depth, or about to go into meltdown, or something, and was worried because of his age. He also tried to do Sir Alan's job for him.

I felt he was either showing off, or felt insecure. It was like he was saying, "I'm PM so I'm going to sell the most and show Sir Alan that I can." The thing was, he couldn't.

Hmmm..... Which order did events happen in. Did the village idiot comment come before or after the selection of James, no, uh, Debra, for the boardroom? If so, it might have been a trap set for Ben, which he fell into.

BTW: Did you know that Ben was offered a scholarship to Sandhurst?

A scholarship to Sandhurst??????????

No!!!!!!

Did he go?

The comment was made during the James...uh...no...Debra bit, when Ben nominated James, both James and Siralan seemed noticibly shoked at the decision promting a short ourburst from James (for which he apologised) and then siralan's village idiot comment, which I thought demonstrated to Ben that there was no way Siralan was going to sack James so he'd be better off doing a u-turn and bringing in Debra.

Thanks.

Personally, I thought Siralan was hinting none-too subtly that Ben had got it wrong, then also eyebrowed at Debra being put in the firing line - it showed poor judgment from Ben that not only did he take in somebody who actually had a point, but then pulled in somebody who was unlikely to be a candidate for any reason other than being mouthy.

Nooral blew it for himself when his team won despite him being 'leader', BUT had he not tried to take the credit from Ben for closing bad deals, he may have stood a chance on that week alone.

I don't think Sugar's 'village idiot' comment was an insult at James.

I think he was accusing Ben of thinking James was an idiot and therefore the easy option to take into the boardroom.

If anything, Sugar was supporting James and I think he quite likes the bloke (he certainly does have an amiable quality about him).

I think he can't stand Ben, but wants to make the rest of his time there an uncomfortable as possible.

From what I've seen so far, the candidates are in 4 groups:

1. The silent ones (Mona, possibly Howard)
2. The comedy (James)
3. The obnoxious (Ben, Phil, Debra)
4. The potential winners (Kate, Lorraine, Yasmina, possibly Howard again)


Prediction alert: Expect Mona and 1 from groups 3 and 4 to be the next 3 to be fired.

why do you all think he is the only person choosing who goes?

There is a whole production team especially the producers who are paying suralan and co, so he does what they say!
I'm not saying he is not part of the process but at this stage the choice of who goes and who stays is more the producers with the last three or four being already chosen and given less airtime really. I bet Kate, Howard and Yasmina are in the last three.

I think it's a combination of all that. AS will have a good idea at this stage who he wants as his apprentice - likely to be a choice of maybe 3? So as long as those people are kept on the show, the progamme makers can do as they like with the non-contenders - ie. keep the entertaining ones in for as long as possible to keep the rest of us - ie. the viewers - happy while getting shot of the duller ones who have no chance of winning and have little entertainment value.

And I agree re Kate and Yasmina being in the last three. I'd add Lorraine or James tho', rather than Howard who seems very dull.

I'd be surprised if that were the case.

The whole programme is sold on the aim of finding an apprentice for Sir Alan, with a wage of £100,000. So the winner must be someone whom Sir Alan could see working for him - he wouldn't want his name or company to be brought into disrepute by someone who will be out of the public gaze after the series is finished. And with all the scandal and accusations of programmes fixing votes, viewers being cheated etc, I shouldn't think the BBC would try to interfere or fix the result.

I reckon they'd have to pay Sir Alan at least £500,000 if they wanted him to employ someone that he knew was rubbish simply because they had argued a lot in the boardroom and it had made for good tv. Because anyone employed just for that reason would likey be quickly fired and would try to sue for compensation.

They wouldn't be able to afford either the fee, nor the bad publicity.

He gives his fee to charity, and doesn't give a monkey's what the producers say. He's not a puppet.

(Within reason - eg he can't have too many multiple firings because that would cut the show short. )

I think Sirallan often gives away who he likes, but often fires the people he likes as people in favour of people like Debra, who he can see more of a role for in his business. I agree her approach is not necessarily good for all areas of business, but I also think that her approach my have a place in certain negotiations and project management. More so than Noorul, who would be much harder to find a role for.

I think he does like James. I also think he finds James to be a bit of a fool, which he is. Not stupid, just a bit of a lumbering idiot.

But didn't he say that about Simon? And he won!

I was under the impression that the BBC pay the £100,000 salary to the hired apprentice.

I think Sir Alan probably does choose who stays and who goes, but that his decision is based in large part on ratings. I mean, he's a canny bloke - he is aware that this is a tv show first and foremost and a search for a genuine apprentice, second. (Let's face it, if his only interest was in fact finding a new apprentice, he could do that perfectly well without making a tv show out of it). Bottom line - they want ratings. They want viewers. Conflict and annoying contestants make for good ratings and more viewers - a lot of nice people sitting around discussing things reasonably, unfortunately does not. I'm actually quite surprised that anyone would think that he chooses his apprentice based solely on their business acumen. If that were the case, surely he would be picking the 16 contestants, not the BBC?

I came to the same conclusion last year....For all his apparent faults Sir A is`t stupid.....I`am sure Nick,Margaret and Sir A know who the real contenders are after a week or two.....and as you say he just picks off the others as and when he chooses.....ensuring of course the provocative and entertaining characters stay for as long as possible.....Still think he made a mistake getting rid of Paula at such an early stage though.

I think the final 3 will be Kate, Jasmina and James