He may not be Lord Coffee, sorry, Sugar, but Bill Cullen has his own charm and wit, and in many ways the Irish version of the Apprentice can be just as good as the UK (though nothing touches MISTER Trump!), plus his aides are as good as any. The candidates could probably vastly improve though...

So who's looking forward to this? Not only do we get the show and the after-show, but there's a sort of "at home with the candidates" show also on 3e right after that, so all in all looks like about three hours or thereabouts per week! Can't be bad!

Come on Bill, say the words: you know you want to!

Hi Trollheart. Am watching it now. Will get back to ya after the show

Oh God, they are a disaster. This is going to be funny. Major egos, loads of cringy cliches, inarticulate and bitchy - this is going to be great!!

Tara to useless girl in red jacket: 'you should learn how to use the phone and I don't mean that in a bitchy way'.....haha.

Had to laugh at Niamh (I think that's her name, the one in the red jacket). She said at the beginning of the task that she was great at cold calling and had led a team. Then all they do is sit in a car for three hours and she wouldn't even make the first call Cathal has to go. Poor project manager and he didn't make a single sale.

I think Niamh will go.....Cathal is too full of stupid cliches,,,loads of comedy value....they will keep him

3 hours in a car doing **** all......pathetic.....but they are ganging up on Tara.......Niamh should have been much better. she is full of bluster and no substance.

They really tried to blame Tara. Niamh was full of shite. She blatantly ignored Cathal when he told them to come back.

Where is Brendan Not liking this Anton guy. Who is he? He seems very wooden and not funny at all.

Brendan was awful, I'm glad to see a new face.

Holy sainted Jesus on a unicycle! THIS is the best we can muster???
A "sub-team" who sit on thier arses in a car OUTSIDE the industrial estate, one of whom can't use a modern mobile phone? A PM who is so unfocussed and all at sea that he says "I'm just going to go..." doesn't finish his sentence and then wanders off, kicking over something breakable (was it a bottle of wine?) in the process! Cue the Laurel and Hardy theme, please!
Another one who says "I sort of STRIVE on that!" It's THRIVE, you overeducated idiot! How can you not know that?
And a bunch of clowns who think it would be a good idea to sell to the boss!!! I'm surprised he didn't fire the lot of them!

To be fair, some sold well but there were no "bright stars", and anyway it was a simple job, very straightforward. God help them when they have to do something hard, like manage a supermarket or put together an ad campaign!

I also didn't like the way Tara and Niamh were both bitchy, one to the other, and then tried to pretend they weren't. "We have to be quicker --- I don't mean that in a bad way..." YES YOU DO!
"Then you should learn to use the phone --- I don't mean to be bad but..." YES YOU DO!

Who could possibly pick out a winner at this stage? They all look like losers! Thought it was hilarious when the guys walked into the Renault garage and the life-size cutout of Bill was there! I mean, a hint, or what?

Entertaining but disappointing in the very low quality of the candidates. Also, yer man from the Carlton kept calling them all apprentices: they're not. They're candidates. There can only be one.....

Even so, fair play to TV3 for scooting in ahead of BBC --- nya nya nya! We got there first!

Don't think much of the "Apprentices at home" slot: too much like Big Brother, ie boring footage of people cooking, playing snooker (how bad was the guy who kep miscuing and mishitting the snooker ball??) and just basically talking rubbish. Don't think I'll watch that again. YF wasn't bad: good to see Geraldine on it. Like her comment about the double-barrelled shotgun!

Ah, yes, nice to be back in the boardroom!

Is there anyway to see this on UK tv? Or download?

You can watch the episodes on the show's homepage:
http://apprentice.tv3.ie/

but you have to be in Ireland to do so. Use an Irish proxy, like
79.125.28.242, Port 3128
and then download the video with RealPlayer

Thanks I don't use realplayer, but I'll find a way with that info.

Second task really sorted them out, huh? David O'Byrne's (how dare he have the same surname as me?? ) radio ad was painful, not in the least funny, and it was crystal clear from the beginning (once they got moving!) that the girls were going to win easily. I think the blinkeredness of DoB, trying to get the radio slots changed to that he could shoehorn in their 40-minute plus ad, was indicative of his failure to accept that he was wrong, and from there on in it was going to be a disaster.

That said, the girls' menu was pathetic --- something a monkey could knock up with Word --- but was I think the only real flaw in their set. The presentation left a whole lot to be desired (who wants to hear someone constantly say "excuse me"? --- and she was supposed to do this for a living?), but in general the guys just handed the task to the girls on a plate (sorry!) --- the ladies would have won if they have just sat in the house all day and done nothing, the guys' effort was just that bad.

Not a good start for the guys: two losses and no wins. They'd need to get themselves in gear now if they're going to stand any sort of a chance of surviving this and not making it an all-girls final!

I enjoyed last week, the big egos are really coming out. I would have much rathered Niamh to stay and Ciara to go, I want the big personalities to stay as long as possible to make the show more entertaining.

Yep, it's another world-beater!
First a guy who doesn't want the job of PM --- and makes it abundantly clear that he doesn't --- gets nominated, then the team try to fool the public by a) not giving away the prize they announced on national TV and b) rigging the contest. As if that's not enough, they then try to blag Bill into believing this rigging was "a mistake", and finally the PM calls in their highest seller to the boardroom and lets the one who sold nothing go back to the house!

Not forgetting that the other team embarrass the organisation by apparently forgetting to pay Woodies for the balloons, and then it transpires that Dave had the money in his pocket all the time, but didn't bother checking, EVEN WHEN ASKED by a member of his team, resulting in Brian having to fork over the money personally!

Oh guys! The UK Apprentice has nothing on these eejits!

huge apprentice fan and glad to have it back

i was glad ciaran went tonight, wasn't pleased with tara helping the kid either. don't really like anton for you're fired but havent really given him a proper chance yet i guess

just watched the repeat of the english one, think i'm going to enjoy following them both

I can't watch the irish one cos of Bill Cullen- he's a right old woman and drives me insane. Not a patch on AS or DT imo

Some of my university friends are probably watching this, being business students and all that

I love the way Monday nights are irish Apprentice Nights and wednesdays are uk apprentice nights

the english one is more enjoyable imo- so much more agression and backstabbing galore and the house is just unbelievable

I prefer Lord Sugar to Bill I have to say

but 9 times out of 10 Bill will fire the PM - with Lord Alan you really don't know who he is going to fire.

Plus there's no nepotism with Alan and Karren never wears horrific shades of eyeshadow

I'm convinced that Dave knew all along where that €20 was! There's no way he would have forgotten when specifically reminded of it by Barry, or that he wouldn't have checked his pockets, just in case.

Same here. You could tell by his facial expressions when Barry confronted him that he knew more than he let on

Absolutely. Note that he kept his hands AWAY from his pockets, no doubt in case he "accidentally discovered" the money. And when it emerged that the candidates aren't allowed their own money, well, what else would he think it was, nestling there in his pocket? Tosser. Made Michelle cry. What a man.

I also agree about Bill. He's like a robot, certainly when introducing the task. The pacing he uses, it's almost like someone's prompting him:

"And the next time .... I see all of youse ... will be in my (line!) Boardroom ... where someone ... will be fired."

Very real, Bill!

Still, he goes into overdrive in the boardroom, so I guess you have to give him that. I'm a Trump man, meself!