Maybe four at an absolute max I think it really is thin on the ground this year.

Jim and Melody although he is wary of mouthy birds from past years.

If it was the old style Apprentice job, I would say Leon would be a stronger contender Sugar seems to like him, Karen seems to really like him

My dark horse is Natasha she handled herself well in the boardroom and seems quite hard, if she has a good week as pm soon she will vault into contention.

I really cant see anyone beyond them either too young, too stupid or not much business sense at all

Edna, Helen and one other haven't lost a challenge yet.
So, they could be well on there way. But I would probably say Melody and Jim.

Helen is she the ones that looks like a Cluedo character

Susie, Melody and Jim are the top 3 right now I think.
Edna and Tom have had a pretty decent showing of themselves, plus Leon seems to be improving all the time.
Glenn and Natasha are potential dark horses.

Vincent and Ellie are interesting characters but I don't think they have much of a chance to win. Zoe has been far too negative to be seen as a potential winner I think.
Helen is far too bland.

Edna and Jim seem to be the two strongest and Melody as well. I would say Susie and Glenn are on the same level, I would have said Susie was a frontrunner until she shot herself in the foot by being rubbish last night.

Natasha's starting to look like a contender. In the boardroom she's very impressive - seems to lie dormant for a while then when she opens her mouth she does really well. Thought it was interesting Nick advising LAS that it doesn't particularly give a true picture of her performance in the tasks themselves so far, but if she has a 'breakthrough' week in a task then you get the impression she could be flying. The thing about ringing a hotel's main rival to try and get their list of supplier was naive, but it didn't actually harm the task, it was just a ridiculously long shot.

Karren has sussed Natasha out. She is not substantive at all. Negative and hides. Mind you I have a natural loathing of recruitment consultants so that may colour my view.

My take on the rest.

Ellie - Chunky lass, big boobs, nice voice. What's not to like. Not a contender though. A passenger.

Leon - A definate contender at the moment. Has improved week on week and impressed me with the way he got stuck in and did well in a task he had no inclination towards.

Edna - Currently hiding after two horrible weeks. Not a contender in the slightest. Her presentation on the App task was as poor as that other self-professed presentation expert, Mani, in season 2.

Melody - Bleh. Style over substance for me. All talk so far. Thinks she is a contender.

Susan - Until this week the stand out performer. Cocked up royally on the task and then failed to take accountability for her mistake. Zoe, rightly, put her in her place. Hero to zero.

Helen - I am getting more and more impressed with Helen. Very definately growing as the show develops. Could easily become a contender. What she says is always pertinent plus I would rather like to be disciplined by her.

Vincent - There for the comedy value. I reckon they cast him as this years Syed/Tre/Baggs character.

Jim - A bit of a blagger, I think Nick has him nailed. Can talk the talk but can he run a business ?

Tom - I think he is a possible contender too. Made some very good points in the last task. Felicity ignored him. Needs to influence people more (obviously) but I think he deffo has potential.

Glenn - This guy is smart. Not afraid to roll his sleeves up and get stuck in. Has done well and very definately a dark horse.

Zoe - Really impressed me with her smart, decisive, project management in this task. Before I thought she was just a bit, well, blah, but she has really shown alot of talent in the last task and if she builds on it who knows.

As for those who are gone.

Felicity - Useless.

Gavin - This years Simon Shaw.

Alex - Very definately a passenger.

Edward - Like a rabbit in the headlights

~Contenders~
Jim - So far he has shown that he's a very strong candidate. However, I can't help but feel he'll be the ~shock~ elimination this year, e.g: Liz.

Leon - He started off badly, but Sir Alan obviously likes him a lot and he has picked up a lot of speed since the first two episodes.

Thats about it for the boys. Glenn/Tom are a bit fodderish for me, and Vincent is awful

For the girls:
Melody - Although she hasn't really done much in recent episodes, she was easily the strongest at the strat. Furthermore she's never really made a mistake, other than you could say waiting around for ages in last nights episode.

Susan - When she's good, she's great. When she's bad, she's awful. I don't know if she'll be able to win, but as Nick said, she is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Edna - She started off horrendously and very aggressive. However, I can't help but feel she is going to be this years Debra and when she gets more screentime she's going to be focused as a potential winner. Doubt she'll win though.

Helen - I don't think she got shown once in the first two episodes, however in last nights show we saw a bit more of her and I do think she is very understated. A bit like Yasmina, you could say, who at the start wasn't really considered to be the strongest of candidates until she won as PM. She's a grower, thats for sure!!

Ellie & Natasha are very much fodder. Natasha has a bit more potential to get stronger, but past mistakes will pull her back if she gets too far. Zoe is a tricky one, she's not been awful, but not good either. She'll be the Laura of this year, I feel.

So far only two, Jim and Melody.

Hard to say with Edna as she has been (or edited as being) quiet on the previous two episodes (abit like Natash, Zoe and Helen had been for a couple or so of the first tasks). Will need to see Edna at the forefront again in order to re-access where she is.

Not sure about Susan now, she might be yoyo-ing to much to be seen as a real solid contender. This Apprentice business opportunity has probably come a couple of years to early for her.

Leon and Glen I'm not sure about either. Leon had his wibble wobble moment in the boardroom but reedeemed himself with selling yesterday in the beauty task (even though the part of not wanting to spay tan the other man seemed so pathetic of him -what was all that about). I remember Leon at the begining saying he was "quietly confident" and it does look like he is getting back into that mode.

The other girls and boys have yet to impress to any point I would think they had a good chance of winning.

Strong Contenders : Jim, Glenn

Outside Chance : Susan, Tom

Not A Cat In Hell's Chance : Everyone else.

I thought it was interesting when Lord Sugar said to Jim 'Welcome to Team Titanic' or something when their team had lost. Clearly Sugar sees Jim as a seperate entity to the shambolic team. I suppose he had just joined it, but then again so had Felicity.

Shows me that Sugar does see Jim as a standout.

Jim or Leon


Not my personal choices, but it is obvious a male candidate will win and I can´t see any of the other males coming close (he already dismissed Glenn a few weeks ago, as he couldn´t imagine what he would do with a techie as business partner).

I think if Leon were a contender they probably would have made more of the signage deal last week. He got it for half the price the other team did - I think if he was going right to the very end they would have spelled this out, rather than racing through it as a tiny part of a montage and not even highlighting it in voiceover like they did every other time one team out-negotiated the other. They also probably would have found a more flattering way to represent him flapping like an idiot over who to bring back to the Boardroom in Week 2.

I sense it's going to be a boy who wins this year with Jim and Leon battling it out in the final.

My top two are Jim and Melody (just).

Ellie - Chunky lass, big boobs, nice voice. What's not to like. Not a contender though. A passenger.

I don't think Ellie is chunky at all!

Tom, Jim possibly Melody in that order - Wait and see. IMHO Tom has a stonking business idea, surely ? ?? plus he is a sweety. Plus Tom is comming in bit by bit but in generally a v good way (with the odd throw backs)

Jim and Leon for the boys - Melody and Susan for the girls.

Tom for an outside chance

None of the rest are any good at all - they all spend too much time hidng or "doing what they are told". Not desired qualities for someone with a business partner who won't be doing much in the day to day running of the business. In your own business - there is nowhere to hide, and no one telling you what to do - everything is down to you alone.

As I said in another thread - I'm sure that they had to submit a detailed business plan for what they want the £250k for as part of the application process - and I am also sure that LS has got a shortlist of those which interest him the most and is watching how those candidates perform in the tasks. The ones he is interested in will be safe in any boardroom unless they royally cock up the task.

I'm sure this is right. Some of the candidates this year are blatant fodder. As for being the elite - do me a favour

This will all come down to whether Sugar thinks their business idea/plan is any good whilst he observes their performances. I wondered why he moved Jim to team Titanic. This seemed to be a telling label.

I'm not sure I'd rule out Helen yet as an outsider. I like Tom a lot but he's not Lord Sugg's type is he?

Oi!

No way can you compare Tre Azam with Vincent or Baggs!

Tre still holds the record for being in the winning team for the most times. He may have been a bit of a maverick, but he had very good business sense as well as comic value.

All in all I think he was my all time favourite candidate.

Unforgettable how he wiped his bum with Sandhurst Rory (" I AM your leader") Tre: "You are nothing to me".

If only we still had candidates like him

Tre oversold himself at the final hurdle. Pity cause he was easily the solid apprentice (if reigned in) that would have actually still been with Sugar for a fair bit (like Tim and Simon) and would have moved on in a productive manner when ready with Suge's blessing. Oh forgot "titties and fish" - yup that's the art world for you!!!!!!

The only thing that makes me pause over Helen is that whoever's writing the website updates seems really keen to present everything she does in the most positive upbeat light possible. Every week there's a little paean to how upbeat and positive she is, where some of the other background characters who the website staff are having to force themselves to write about get derided, often over very little.

I still think she's not made enough of an impact to be a winner. She got a nice edit this week in terms of being visible and selling decently, but otherwise she's only really been shown being over-ruled or ignored or when Jim swooped in to save that negotiation for her last week. They've never shown a winner as being this powerless or weak.

I don't think either Tom or Susan really would appeal to Lordalan personality wise usually, but they probably fit the change of prize gimmick the best, so if things are mixed up, they're in prime position.

Lord Sugar is very negative about her on his tweets (so I am told, as I do not have twitter).

This is interesting considering Lord Sugar's comment about the beauty trade, and the great profits that can be made. It might mean that he sees Susan as one of the favourites.

Contenders for me are: Jim, Susan, Helen, Leon and Tom