The right two are contesting the final.

The interviews exposed shortcomings in the others, including Joanna, who would be out of her depth working for Sir Alan.

I'm rooting for Stella now. I think she has handled herself impeccably throughout.

I adore Stella, think she's brilliant. She is the obvious winner, but as we've seen previously, the obvious winner doesn't always win. Chris may just snatch it. Chris is also good in his own way but I don't think he is at Stella's level.

I don't understand why Chris is in the final...I thought the final would be Liz and Stella...with Stella winning...or perhaps even Joanna and Stella...with Stella winning

Stella? He made it clear two episodes ago that he doesn't want her.

Stella will win this so easily there's almost no point in staging the final task. The thought of bland Chris pitching to an audience of hundreds is making me cringe already.

Sugar will pull out Chris's six losing tasks and that will be that.

Stella does have an air of smugness about her - but she is certainly the best professional out of these two by some distance.

Stella deserves it.

There is no point in this process if the Lord Sugar simply hires a journeyman corporate professional like Stella or a droaner like Chris.

He said at the start that he wanted someone exceptional.These two are not.

Stuart was the maverick, but Lord Sugar has put all his money into safe property. SUGAR is the Steady Eddy, not Baggs 'The Brand'.

Yes, that is the bit that I don´t really understand

Especially since he has been going on about it in this series.


For me, I would rate the final 2 as follows:

S5
S2
S1
S3
S6
S4


The biggest problem for Lord Sugar this series was the fact that he already had too many female finalists in the past and having an all-female final was almost never going to be an option.

Yet, the 3 strongest candidates this series were all female and any combination would have made for a stronger final. The best that I can do is that at least don´t hate both finalists (like in S4, yes even counting all 4 of them).

I like Stella. I don't think she's as good as Kristina or both girls in the S2 and S5 finals at least in terms of all-round business acumen, she's about on a level with Claire although they have completely different strengths of course. What she has got is shrewdness, bordering on ruthlessness and is very ambitious as well but at the same time manages to stay very professional. Chris... well lets just say I think he's the worst finalist we've ever had (if you don't count Alex and Helene... which I don't).

Neither of them are the 'exceptional' person Lord Sugar was apparently looking for.

I agree with Sherlock_Holmes that any combination of Stella/Jo/Liz would have been a better final but there you go.

I thought the most recent spoilers had Jo vs Chris.

I would have preferred a Jamie vs Stella final actually - Chris's monotone voice is very annoying whereas Jamie is Mr Perky.

I think Stella should win - based on her skills and experience.

Stella should win, but I really think Chris is going to take it.

I've thought that Stella was the best contender since week 2 when she lead the team of chaps to victory and was roundly praised by all of them.

I like Chris as well but Stella should really go on to win this.

That said, Sugar has a track record of completely mucking up his final choice.

And what's with the little smiles they give each other? Sugar looks really creepy when he does it.

I actually think Stella is in a far better position than other losing front-runners from yesteryear - Kristina for example.

Sir Alan obviously rates her, and when you think about it, criticism of Stella has pretty much always been not about her performance, but more about who she is and how she conducts herself. (Truffles aside of course)

Considering the finalists have both been working for Sir Alan for however long since filming ended, I think he's pretty much made his mind up that she's the one, on the condition that she impressed him during the trial. I got the impression that Chris was merely the back-up in case Stella did turn out to be wooden, or didn't slot into his organisation like Al would have wanted.

I think at the end of filming, it was really Stella's to lose. I don't think Chris was in a position of any real power - he just had to hope Stella messed up and that he didn't mess up worse.

Stella was the best in the interviews. She gave them what for. They could find nothing wrong with her. I said from the start, that she was the dark horse. Nick also said she was honest and trustworthy. I think she is very reliable.In the buying task she didnt resort to lying or begging. But I dont think she will get on with LS. Karen should offer her a job.

I would swap either of them in a heartbeat, TBH.

Chris is so monotone that I fear business men and women all around the country may fall asleep during his pitches. In fact, that could be his plan, so that the person will feel guilty/ embarrased and buy millions of his product

As for Stella, she seems cold-hearted and mean. Even LS looked like they had a heart when dealing with Stuart. Also, I don't think she is as good as everyone makes out to be, and the ones who were with her for the longest looked like they really disliked her.

I haven't really warmed to either Chris or Stella throughout the series until the background info on the final five show. That's when I really warmed to Stella and could see the reason for her drive and ambition.

Whereas Chris still left me cold. The guy is like a monotonous robot.

So for me, I would really like to see Stella realise her ambition and to break free from the 'corporate' stigma that's been tagged on her. It seems to me that she's desperately looking for an opportunity to be more creative and fun, but hasn't yet had the chance to develop that side of her.

So Stella to win.

Yes, I also had Stella picked from the beginning as well. I dont like Chris at all, he is just so full of himself and thinks that he is better than all the others. Stella is way out in front of any of them and considering her background she has done so well for herself. I so hope that she wins, she so deserves it! She has been so dignified and behaved impeccably when Liz and Laura tried to nobble her in the boardroom because they knew that she was their biggest threat from the beginning! I think that Liz let herself down badly when she tried to belittle Stella in front of the others two weeks ago back at the house. Liz came over as a right bitch!

But the only reason that Liz and Co disliked her so much was because they all knew that she was their biggest threat for the job!

Totally agree that the 3 strongest were the females, Stella, Liz and Jo! But Jo fell at the final hurdle with the interviews and Liz come over as a right bitch to Stella. But without a doubt the girls were definitely the stronger candidates this year!

Stella is the best finalist the Apprentice has had since Ruth Badger. She comes across as very calculating and sharp but in a subtle way. One obvious sign was that she knew from the start when to open her mouth in the boardroom and when to keep quiet, something many of the other candidates had little clue about She was also careful not to blame her fellow team members too much when she occasionally was in the losing team. I liked Liz until I learned she was a WAG..

Not if he wants to hire one of Stella or Chris. Liz is better at most things than both of those two, but either of those two has enough weaknesses to hire the other. Add to that his Michelle issue with the best looking females and he's safer with the two he has.

It may turn out that the job is like Simon's and he thinks it needs another Simon with a suitable accent - or its as dull as Yasmina's and is more suitable for someone starting out in his type of business.

Totally agree with you. Stella handled herself impecably. Liz also let herself down when she was a total bitch to Stella back at the house after Stella, herself and Laura were in the boardroom. Liz was really underhand and tried to turn all the others against Stella because she knew that Stella was her biggest rival for the job! That smug look on Lizs face when she told Stella that Laura would be greatly missed said it all about her really! I think that Liz came over as being a nasty piece of work and I am sure that Sir Alan would have been shown that clip!

I dont agree, I think that Stella is the strongest candidate this year! As for Yasmina being dull, I dont agree with that either. I think that she was definitely the best person for the job!

All of which are boardroom skills that others shared. Even on those grounds though she's been lacking on attack and may get challenged more on determination. Stella's record otherwise isn't that stellar. She's made big mistakes, failed to get the essential business point and been weaker at team leading, selling and presenting than several people this series, several winners, more runners up and a lot of people who didn't make it to the final.

She's the strongest left with no Liz or, on raw skills, Joanna there now. Thats partly because of who they cast, partly because the show doesn't often let good people shine and partly because his Lordship habitually sacks some of the best people. At best we have a contest between Stella and weaker opposition than she should be facing.