Ah, okay I misunderstood your posts. I thought that people were saying Kate should be fired because of her looks, rather than that her looks are what is keeping her in.

I do agree that Kate doesn't like Lorraine (but neither does anyone else)! However, I think Phil saw himself off!

With the relationship card - Kate probably does not like Lorraine because of that, but I don't blame Lorraine for mentioning it, because that is what distracted at least Philip from performing on that particular task. Philip himself admitted that on YF. When SA asked why Lorraine thought that they had under performed on that task, she correctly said that it was because of the relationship between Philip and Kate. It was pretty clear that neither Kate or Philip was particularly bothered with the task that week (at least from the edit we saw it appeared that way). Don't get me wrong though - while I would defend Lorraine in mentioning the relationship, I still think she should have gone last night. Well actually I think she should have gone ages ago!

I was surprised that Kate picked two expensive products - I thought she would have gone for one expensive and one cheap. Those jackets were hideous, and I would seriously question SA's assertion that they are one of the top sellers.

I think you make some very good points. I imagine that the time slot very much affects the make up of the audience. At tea time, the likely buyers for the actifry would be too busy cooking to be watching. As far as the jacket is concerned, I'm sure that Kate would have showed it to better advantage than Lorraine, as she has more poise and elegance. However, the channel they were on prides itself on using models that are sized more like 'normal' women than Kate Moss. In fact, the model who worked with the other team for the poncho and the hair thingie is one of their regular models.

One thing that I thought about and that, from what we were shown, the contestants didn't ask about, is whether those two high-ticket items had already sold as many as they were going to. That is to say, we were told that they were top sellers, and I would imagine that there's a finite number of them that's going to sell to on a single channel. Surely they should have asked for how long/how many times to air the product had previously been sold, and if sales were still holding steady on a show-by-show basis, or if they had peaked and were tailing off.

the purrfect gift for kiddies; elf and safety would have a real party over that, and then the RSPCA when the spoglets stick pins in the real cat/dog/school hamster

I was not seriously saying that shopping channels use models like Kate Moss but trying to make the point that a 'fashion' item (especially an overpriced monstrosity like that jacket) is sold by the modeling rather than the pitch. You are quite right that the shopping channels use more 'normal' looking models (although they are still well below the sizes of the women they market to!) like the woman we saw modeling the scrunchie. However, by no stretch of the imagination would they expect someone who looks like Lorraine to shift an item which needs all the help it can get! Kate, who is WAG wannabe lookalike would be an excellent choice to market to the likely targets My point is that, despite what Alan Sugar said, and what other poster have latched onto is that this was a bad product choice if Kate knew that Lorraine would have to sell it. The same was true for different reasons of the fryer. Kate not only chose poor products to market by those people at that time but also presented poorly herself.

thought I'd have a look at Ideal World shopping channel, and RIGHT NOW, in the crafting with CDs slot, there's the stick-pins-in-your-cat's-head toy, "as seen on The Apprentice" - £16.63, + P&P. I don't think any of them mentioned the cost of sending, did they?

PS I wouldn't even put that ghastly "leather" jacket on to put the bins out

I think Howard's biggest problem is that he didn't stand up for himself enough in the boardroom. If he'd have explained his reasoning against the dinosaur to Sirallen like he had to Lorraine, at least he would have demonstrated that his thought process was more than '...too expensive... too risky...' Howard had made a good point about the Nintendo Wii to Lorraine, and there's the fact that we're in a recession as well. People aren't as keen to make impulse buys on items over £200.

James survived last week because he made an excellent point in the boardroom - that as a team leader, he had to trust his team or else Sirallen would have crucified him for it. Howard needed the same kind of argument - some kind of killer point that Sirallen couldn't argue with.

The killer point was that, of the people left, he took the greatest risk in volunteering to PM the first week. And that was a risk with his own reputation not money. The reality is, Sir Alan decides who he wants to fire and comes up with some non sensical reason for it whatever is said.

But the jacket did sell as that was what made up most of their sales from what I gather. I have seen some pretty horrendous clothes on these shows when in the past I have flicked channels. They don't have WAG wannabes to model everything Lorraine may not be gorgeous, but I do think people are a little harsh of her looks. S

urely if the above was the case then SAS would have mentioned this? His comments were based on what the channel had told him and the feedback they gave. If it was the wrong product for the slot; wouldn't the channel have said that and SAS. Where else would he have got the "best seller" info. And why mention it as a point? SAS certainly gave the opinion it was the pitch that lost them the sames and not the product and I would assume if he is assessing them he would have the relevant info. If it was viewer opinion I would say otherwise. And even Howard admits that he and Lorraine gave a poor pitch of the fryer.

They failed to mention the price and contact details sufficiently but that was equally down to Kate who failed to do the direction properly.

Howard was more concerned with getting a group win, than saving himself in the event that they lost. Obviously it makes sense to try and get a group win, but he didn't cover his back. If he had partnered with Kate, or got Lorraine to partner with kate, he could have covered himself in the boardroom. But he knew Lorraine was the weaker presenter, so he partnered with her. It's a shame he's gone - he was a really nice guy, and I would employ him over almost all of the remaining candidates (with the possible exception of James).

I still think that Kate should not have picked two expensive items (unless that was the brief she was given, and we did not see that). Would have been better to have decided that they would go for one higher priced item, and agree about who would choose that, then they could have had the fryer. But picking the fryer and those truly awful jackets seemed a bit too much of a risk to me.

Very true. I don't think Kate's selling technique was particularly good either.