Kate - 3/1
Yasmina - 5/1
James - 8/1
Debra - 8/1
Howard - 10/1
Lorraine - 16/1
Ben - 16/1
Mona - 20/1 - Gone now

Will The Apprentice Be Won By A Male Or Female?: 1/2 Female, 6/4 Male.

Could this be a giveaway of the top 4? I can really see the top 4 on that list being the top for as Lorraine and Ben will be the next two to go I'm sure of it

Link

No one?

Interesting. If I were a betting man, I'd put £15 (or a multiple thereof) on Kate and £10 (or the same multiple) on Yasmina. That would effectively create odds of 7/5 against one of those two winning, which looks much better value than the 1/2 for a female.

I suspect Howard will do better than these odds suggest.

Yeah, those odds look like I'd expect, although I'd swap Howard and James around. James is actually my favourite, but I think he's a bit too silly for the job, and Howard has demonstrated a lot of sense and logic in the previous tasks. And he hasn't messed up drastically yet.

Surely, in any sane world, there's no way anyone would employ Debra over Howard?

NNo. But we don't know what happens in the task. SAS has fired 3 people for saying they have stayed too much in the background. Mona had one good week, so did Howard. But if he performs badly and doesn't sell SAS may argue that he doesn't have all the attributes. And Howard,for SAS, is not as good telly as Debra. Plus, what if Debra does sell and he doesn't?

I think howard has potential but he really has kept himself too quiet and in the background, so he really does have a lot of ground to make up.

As for Debra; well she may stay over James or Howard. But the moment it comes Debra or Kate OR Debra or Yasmina, she would be gone unless both of them reall screw up.

I'd agree that from a TV POV it would make sense to keep Debra over Howard if you know that you're not going to hire Howard.

But I said 'hire'.

I can't think of any real business position where she'd perform better than Howard unless it's some sort specialised selling like a Tupperware party - where she could use her drive, energy and bossiness to really keep things moving.

In a few years when she's matured a bit and if she can do some work on the people skills I suspect she will become a considerable asset but for now, no.

I think she could do well in terms of negotiation in the board room with senior executives, but she isn't as quick thinking regarding creativity and certainly doesn't listen. I think that Howard may just be a little late in the game to do enough to get himself through to the final. Kate has managed to stay placid and neutral, like him,but get noticed in the process.

I really can't see Howard, James, Debra or Lorraine doing enough to get through to the final two. Ben I could see, only because he gets himself involved in every task, but would he win? He's certainly not liked by the public that is for sure and SAS hasn't looked impressed with his arrogance.

But I hate to say this, but Debra's bossiness, chat and general pushiness could actually put her in good stead for the next task. It's a sales task and you need to be out there, convincing and in this type of task, a little pushy. Howard might be a little too mild and not proactive enough in this task in comparison. And this late in the game, you cannot step back from the task and let the "louder" and "more dominant" members take over.

I think you may well be right.

It's exactly the type of sales that Debra would be good at. Geeing the customers up to make purchases of things they are definitely in the market for.

Should be a good task. (Plenty of room for comedy value at well).

If we go on past tasks and experience; the people who should do well are possibly Debra, Kate and Ben (mainly due to their strong negotiating skills). Kate seems to think quick on her feet, knows how to use the charm and has good comeback skills. Debra is good at kind of convincing people to do what she says even if they don't want to. And Ben does do well at getting leads/negotiating. But then saying that maybe I should remove him from that list as he did do poorly in the selling antiques task and didn't get any sales the other week. The people who maybe wouldn't necessarily do so well as well are Lorraine and James. Lorraine doesn't emanuate warmth to attract people to talk to her or listen. I don't think she has strong negotiations skills and instinct means nothing in a task like this except for when they choose the products. And her instinct last time told her a cathouse which was obviously, imo, always going to be difficult to sell.

This time her team seems to be picking better items. But Birthing pools James? High profit margins but not something that will have a large number of buyers given the fact it relates to home births and they can be expensive.

Howard - I'm undecided as to how he would do as he really hasn't featured much in the editing of sales tasks. As Yasmina seems to do okay, but again, in the editing I have never seen her as one of the strongest sellers.

But saying that we have still seen some of the above sell even if they may not come across as "strong". The only people I could instinctively say had good negotiation skills are Kate and Debra.

I don't understand the logic of this - surely there's way too much insider information ex-post...

Take it back. Appears that you can't actually bet it - it's just for interest.

Yeh just for interest.

Funny how Ben seems most likley to go in tonight's episode and he is now last on the list!

If we were going to compare Debra vs Kate or Debra vs Yasmina then I'd agree.

But if we are talking hiring Debra over Howard; I would. What has he done exactly that has made him shine. I've been watching some of the old shows back and Debra does make some good points about things in tasks. She's also proactive and good at arguing her points (on most occasions). Howard, for me, based on history, isn't proactive and sits far to much in the background. a few common sense points does not equal to me an apprentice. He has no strong selling skills, no leadership skills and doesn't seem to possess a large amount of creative flair. I don't think Debra is the best in there and certainly rate Kate and Yasmina above her; but I still don't think we've really seen Howard do much.

It's interesting to watch a bunch of shows together. I cannot stand Ben and literally want to tear my hair out when he is on TV. But he has been heavily involved in tasks and does show creative flair and selling/pitching skills. Ironically, his main poor weeks for me was when he was PM and the selling up north task (but he did seem to do more than Kate and Phil there). But aside from that he has performed well.

The outcome, at least the 2 finalists, was determined 6 months ago. William Hill cannot possibly be taking bets on it. What's to stop the large number of people in the know taking Mr Hill to the cleaners?

Having looked back, Lorraine did seem to be quite outgoing on the soap task and Kate's sales were commended by Nick and Jame's said to do alright. Debra has also performed well on these sort of tasks. Therefore, with that in mind; you would expect Yasmina, Howard and Ben to maybe not shine as much as the others. But then saying that doesn't Margaret make some comment about Kate's demo of the pushchair being great and like a stewardess, with Lorraine breaking the prototype. I still think Lorraine's team will win probably on choice of product. Be interested if they do separate the sales individually, but give a combined win on profits. See who really cuts the mustard as this time they are more on even playing fields. No pre-organised pitches and guaranteed minimum sales. I'd sale this one will really show the top sellers.

And now Lorraine is last...

Lol well she didnt go