"FURIOUS TV fans have branded The Apprentice a sham after last week’s winning orders turned out to be fake.

Viewers saw what they thought was show history when Liz Locke, 24, sold a “record” £99,000-worth of *baby grows to online giant Kiddicare.

But we can reveal the company that makes the heat-sensitive sleepsuits says it was only a “pretend order” and the real deal was done behind closed doors........."

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view...-YOU-RE-FIXED/

Wow... what a story out of nothing. We've always known that the orders aren't real, but it doesn't make Liz's success any less impressive - she still sold more hypothetical orders than any other candidate.

The Apprentice? A sham? Never!!!

Of course they are not real - do you think the people who have been developing these products for years would let the last part of the deal be done by idiots!

...and think back to the bread one.... when Shibbys lot messed up the bread order...its hardly likely that the hotel was relying on them to actually come up with the goods

Wonder where all these "fans" of the Apprentice are, that dont have the foggiest idea that orders are fake?.....

And as to "furious"?. I'll suspend my fury for now...

If I was the manufacturer I'd want the Apprentice deals to be legally binding, they are better than anything they can get when the cameras are off.
Apprentice 'sell' 10,000 baby grows, real world company sales people get much smaller order.
Apprentice shower heads - B&Q and local hardware shop take large orders, afterwards both retailers have no interest in stocking the product from ecocamel.

It is a bit disappointing to learn that these orders aren't real. There goes the magic of the show! Plus it really annoys me when I want to read on the beach and I've got nothing to hold the book!

and in other new...Biffa Tweedy can't sing or judge a singing contest..hold da front page...

The annoying thing about that this is supposed to be a reality show but the shows producers hide the real reality and show their own made up fake reality because it looks better on the telly, in exactly the same way the x factor producers do. We all know they do it, but it's still annoying to hear about it happening.

"slightly annoyed fan"

Maybe the right team did win, but the producers 'upped' the number of items sold ?

So not really fake I'd say.

I have lost some respect for the show and Lord Sugar because I thought he put his own money into the show in order find genuine business men and women and stood to loose and/or make money based on how well they did but this this isn't the case.

Anyone can place a fake order to get the candidates happy. Not really fair and im thinking Liz isnt as good as she was made out to be coz no one spent 99 grand on a product picthed by her.

Even I could say I want 20,000 product and then decide I just did it for the cameras and lord sugar, in reality I dont want or can afford to place that many orders.

I'd say they were fake in the sense that they were only provisional orders that didn't have to be honoured, which wasn't mentioned at all in the programme.

In other news: water is sort of dampish. Investigations into the millinery delectations of the Pope are still under investigation.

i suppose the only real way of making sure everything is true and above board, is to sell to the public. I suppose there will be still a task of selling a high priced article to the public like cars or houses.

Does this mean the producers of the show go running around to people who have just bought a pack of sausages going 'Here's your three quid back!'?

I thought this was common knowledge? I mean, it is isn't it? I have only been watching the Apprentice since the last series but I just sort of assumed the orders weren't real. And this is shocking news??

This is somewhat different from the US apprentice. Where campaign ads, and brochures produced by the teams, have been used by the companies in the 'real world'.

Ok, its not the same as orders for products..but at least something produced by the apprentices was used in the real world. Not sure if any ad campaign designed by the UK apprentice has been used in the 'real world'.

What I don't get is who decides whether the companies choose to order and the value.

With the Ecocamel shower heads there are a couple of interviews on the net with the manager of the local hardware stores, he seems to talk about the show as a bit of fun putting in his 'make believe' order of 1,000 shower heads and how he jokes with customers who come in 'ribbing' him about their need to buy shower heads. http://www.diyweek.net/news/news.asp...+Home+Hardware

Someone must have decided B&Q should put in a large fictional order that they don't want and Wolseley plumbing division should give the apprentices a hard time and order none.

The 10,000 babygrows order surprised the manufacturer when they saw it on TV.

When the buyers ask for exclusivity is that all set up? It always puts the cat amongst the pigeons.
It was a surprise the other week, after the shock on the faces of the Boots buyers when presented with the Book-eeze that that wanted exclusivity on it.

I never thought for a minute that the orders were real.

I never thought the orders were real either.

I'm sure they make the orders objectively, as if they were really purchasing, so it doesn't matter that they're not real. There's no producers fixing the result, is there?

The US one is very much geared to product placement. Massive companies getting some prime time. The UK one on the BBC has to have different rules. I don't remember any ads being made for 3rd party companies in the same way. The nearest were ones for Amsair or Amstrad way back in S1 & 2. Don't think that's ever been repeated since.
There is a boost to small companies/inventors that can only help, but then they have to have some real world things to do the tasks with.

As for things designed by the candidates, the rights are held by the production company, Talkback Thames. They have trademarked and even patented a few things. Last year's BodyRocka for one.

Thats one of its biggest criticisms.

Maybe they meant "curious"...?

Can't you get into a position of comfortability then?

Well yeah, in fairness, on the Irish show they made products and they WERE on sale in the shops (I saw 'em!), plus I saw one of their ad campaigns being used on a bus stop, so ya boo Lord S! We're more of a reality show than you! (We suck at it incredibly, however...)