Melissa was applying her make-up whilst sat in the car-park of the superstore in Leamington Spa as he told her. It was immediately after Joanna told her very tersely not to mess up the amazing pitch she'd set up, so she was already on the defensive. I agree that Joanna deserved some recognition for picking up the lead, just that Melissa should have been told earlier. Or later if it came to it, so she can have her piss-fit somewhere on the M25.

I think he was reluctant to manage her from the off - he didn't tell her why he was swapping her pitching team, he still left her in nominal charge of pitching of the other team even though (as he said in the boardroom,) he thought she was appalling (correctly, cause she was). And his pussy-footing around, with a hefty ladle of attitude on top, made things worse, or at least had the potential to. Ironically I think he managed her more when she was PM than he did when he was.

I stand corrected. Just remembered the makeup brush and her getting pee'd off. It's possible that slightly before, Jamie's half of the team had had a discussion about passing leads to others. If they hadn't discussed it with the other car then yes that's not too good. However in the past, those phones have been kept by the production crew, so they choose when they can be used. It adds to the chance of messing up, even possibly royally. Adds stress for certain.
Joanna's remarks would have been better kept in that car only.

To be honest, would she have listened to any reason why he was making changes? With her attitude any discussion would be a waste of time. And I don't think looking at some of the faces in the meeting room, anyone disagreed with him and wanted a discussion or rushed to her defense. Quite pleased it went as quietly as it did if anything. I can see why she felt isolated, but the fault for that started and continued with Melissa. If someone is going to be a child you either close them down or pander and humour them like Kim did with Phillip. And that last course always works so well as we saw.

I agree. I just think that Jamie didn't close her down completely - he still left her in charge of the second biggest pitch of the day when she was inept, and left her as pissed off as if he'd taken her off everything completely. So...why not take her off everything completely? I'm not saying a reason would have made her better behaved, but it would have given him more latitude to demote her completely, rather than just down a rung. Judging from the feedback Karren gave from the Leamington Spa people, Melissa would have sunk the pitch regardless of Stubaggs air-bubble - she should have been taken off it. It seemed like he didn't sideline as he should have just because he was scared of how she'd react.

Looking at the managers thus far, I think Joanna and Chris could and would have done it, and I think for all her faults someone like Paloma probably could and would as well. Heck, even Alex got her to finally move her pitch last week with a hard enough shove. Jamie's approach left her the second-most important person on the task, nursing a grudge.

It seemed to me that he kept the strongest with him (Joanna) deciding that they would do the bulk of the task. Next a choice between Alex and Stella. Stella should be the more professional so maybe she can keep the sub team from doing anything too stupid again. Or perhaps he saw that Stella was a bit abscent. So I'll keep Alex, he's fairly solid. So like Lorraine, even if you think one's a ******** (Phillip/Melissa), one's variable (Ben/Stubaggs) and one's sensible (Kate/Stella) you'd still go with the one that says this is what I do for a living. Maybe they'll finally show they can. And maybe if it goes wrong, it'll one of them that get fired, not screw up my chances. It was too late to change anything when the big chance suddenly happenned, and so he'd just have to trust them. Trust that Mel would see this was a chance to show everyone by taking some feedback on board and improving.

Some people don't like to have big rows as they're a waste of time and rising to others' methods. Jamie seems to be like that. Makes a change on this show. Ok he's not as slick at is as Kate was, or as definate as 'I'm your PM' Yasmina.
More like Lee.

Good link, thanks
Do you know how their league table for the candidates works?

I think Jamie was pretty weak - he didn't have the bottle to tell her why her pitch was so crap (he wasn't much better)

If you have a loose cannon like that on your team you need to keep them with you - have a subteam of Christopher, Stubags and Stella, that way you can keep a lid on Melissa

if you have a spine of course - if you don't you just send her off on her own and hope she fails