Or to eliminate three at the interview stage and then have two go head to head against each other in the final, which they did in S3.

I thought all the series except S4 had had five at the interview stage and eliminated three, but it seems I'm misremembering S1 and S2; did they only have four for the interviews?

Who decides the teams though.

Bearing in mind I'm assuming Yasmina vs Kate. If I was SAS, I could choose people I know my candidates would struggle with. Maybe that is why Phil was papped with Kate. Bringing Phil back and proving him not a distraction would prove it a one off if she could feel assured he'd keep his eye on the ball. Or SAS could bring back all the balshy/argumentative people to manage aka Ben, debra, Phil, Lorraine - its funny when you look and see most of them still there lol

In S1, Miriam was fired in the Shopping Channel Task in the episode before interviews leaving four interviewees: Tim, Saira, James and Paul. Paul and James then being fired at interview.

In S2, it was Syed who faced the chop before interview. He was in a two-person team with Ruth. Paul, Ansell and Michelle won that task (cruise task) and went straight to interview, again leaving four with two fired.

I would expect, if five at interview, to see a repeat of S3 with just two left. Or at least that's what I would hope for.

IIrc the candidates choose their own teams.

Well you did an absolutely useless job of that!

You said: "Have just read this thread and the only thing I don't understand is your problem with 'top 4' Tern. You keep banging on about it - why?"

I can't see any pointing there. You just posted to be rude and then got surprised when you were called on it.

Still, no point in banging on about it, is there?

I don't think I've seen a thread Tern has posted in a while without him/her entering a heated debate about something more often than not esoteric...

Have you applied for series 6?

Lol

If you think these are esoteric you should see the ones on the quantum mechanics and general relativity forums.

No time to go on series 6 - too busy having esoteric arguments here.

Ah...quantum mechanics, the epitome of the esoteric that may one day bring us much, much more.

Actually that's probably rubbish, there's a lot of interesting stuff on it and if you ask me, it does the same job as religion for many scientists...

What's the thread about again?

Wave particle duality of selling tasks IIRC.

I think they have some flexibility. Last year, for example, we had a double-firing after task 7. The previous year we lost two candidates after task 2, when Ifti effectively quit. What happened this year was effectively the Ifti situation only a few days earlier. I expect they wait until half-way through, then look at how many candidates they have and decide whether to have 4 in the final, a task double-firing, or to lose 1, 2 or 3 in the interviews.

The producers and/or Sir Alan decide which ex-candidates to invite back. The ex-candidates can refuse. That produces a pool of candidates. The finalists take turns to pick from that.

In the first year, most of the ex-candidates were available, and the finalists could only pick 3 of them. In later years only 6 were available so all ended up on one team or another.


Quite so.

Maybe that was why Phil was papped in London with Kate?

I actually wonder if Kate would choose him if she was in the top 2. Or if Yasmine chose him ' would actually make me laugh if a situation occurred with him helping the competition. because presumably youàd pick candidates to help you win and make you look good? The only real ones I'd even slightly want in the pool if I were choosing would be Paula, Kimberly, Phil, Ben, James, and maybe Mona, if sales based. Mind you, it would depend on the task.

I feel they should actually have all the ex-candidates who are willing to come back available for the final task.

Haha.

The next two to go were both men.

Not looking likley now