It doesn't matter who betters who in the final task, Sugar will just review the whole series anyway and make the best performer the winner.

Sugar didnt even really name a 'winner' in the task, and thats because James' game was vastly superior to Zara's - who he had earmarked to win.

It makes for some nice telly, I guess

But you're right - there never was a clear winner of the task.

I've always thought the same of the main show as well. It's doubly pointless there in that the reactions are all prefilmed and the outcome decided later, so you don't even get to see their proper reaction.

There was no point, as James CLEARLY WON IT.

In short, wrong winner. James' idea was by far the best. Zara's game was for under fives.

Pathetic result, and not even a thank you to James at the end.

People say James was untidy, that's why he lost. Combs and hair are totally irrelevant. Zara was a windbag who FAILED on the last task.

I was hoping to see it released and see how much they made. it was obvious who was going to win regardless of this last task as all James wanted to do was spend it on education fees and sounds like he has no ambition to start his own business where as Zara already has and her money will go on developing that.

That's what Sugar didn't want to show you, I bet.

I would lay a fiver on James having the most interest from companies, and he would have made the most money on it. His games idea was brilliant.

Zara's game was just Peppa Pig goes on the Run. Zzzzzz....

Boring and uninspired.

That dosent make any sense.

Cause Sugar didnt start off the process saying that the money will go only to the best business enterprise or developing an already existing business...
If that was the case James and 90% of the candidates dont stand a chance even before the process started..

It's simply that Sugar will invest in the winner's future. That could be education or business or whatever. Why bother with the entire process if at the end you're making you decisions based on how the money will be spent...
You start the process by choosing the best candidates who future is worth investing in. And then you choose your winner based on the task. In this instance the Final task or an accumulated view of all the tasks.
Otherwise you're just making a mockery of the entire process and of all the tasks. they are simply not needed...

It did seem somewhat pointless to have all the industry bigwigs present when the games and viral ads were presented. We did not get to hear their feedback.

Lord Sugar clearly made his own decision based on past performance. Zara was the standout candidate from the start so even though she was out performed in the final task, the £25K was hers.

I'm not totally sure if your post makes any sense either!?

The Apprentice is a process, not a competition with a capital C. Sugar will use the whole process to judge with whom he would like to invest his money - not just on a one-off final task - only a fool would do that.

I actually felt embarrassed for James in the Boardroom when asked what he would do with the money - he essentially had no idea, I really don't know what he was doing entering tbh.
Alan Sugar's a business man, not a scholarship provider. He even admitted he'd never had a job of any description - your not exactly going to get investors falling over themselves to back you with hard cash with that CV let me tell you.

Zara's idea however seems very logical and will clearly be able to attempt to grow her business with the cash injection she has won - and that's what Sugar's interested in.

There were parallels with senior Apprentice this year in fact - Helen was an excellent 'candidate' during the process but her business idea was terrible.

Hi. First post here - so be gentle on me!

There is no point to the final task. It is there merely to give viewers a sense of closure and the illusion of competition, rather than Sugar essentially making a decision and announcing it, which wouldn't be particularly satisfactory.

It's the same with the interviews in the grown-up series, which until this year were always the last step before the final. This has always been the fail-safe which allows the big characters who actually aren't that good to be weeded out before the final - Stuart Baggs, for instance.

In reality, I suspect Sugar knows who he wants to win before the final even takes place, as he has had ample opportunity to judge the finalists through the process. If you think about it, people are normally hired for jobs after just one or two interviews. Sugar has weeks to look at the candidates in this process.

The final task has a point, it is something of a test. Had either James or Zara screwed up in the final then the winner would be clear. They both performed extremely well, so the result was then decided on previous performances and what they planned to use the money for.

We did hear some of the professionals and they said both were good. Its subjective who you think they were most enthusiastic for. I think Zara might well win if you polled them as their adjectives about her product and the market for it were marginally more enthusiastic. Lord Sugar thought that Zara's advert supported her game, but that the message in James's advert wasn't related enough to the game. He deals with politicians, and he didn't seem any more impressed watching the advert than I was - it was childish and the casting was unconvincing and the script was entirely naive - all of which matters when you are targettting an older audience with something more new and complex. Being new and novel, as someone else posted, doesn't mean its a good or saleable idea or well executed. Zara also offered more potential in the way of obvious merchandising on top of going for a bigger market. Her advert was edited early in the show to suggest something ineffective, but the Apprentice traditionally builds stories to point to the wrong conclusion and you have to actually wait till the end to check what really happened. The final Zara product actually for me had enough funny chase footage, better composition and much better casting, to make it better than James's two unconvincing MPs talking gibberish. Its not novel, and the advert could be funnier at the end , but Zara's product wins for me.

There's also a bit of a mystery with the teams. James was given the stronger, less difficult, team with Harry H, Lizzie, Hannah and Hayley while Zara got Harry M, Haya Gbemi and Mahammed. There was an inbuilt test there for Zara leading a weaker more difficult tream and she managed it while also being wise enough to pull in the ideas she needed from Haya, Harry M and Gbemi.If that was a final test, she passed it.

Pretty good for a first post That is spot on.

They clearly get given a choice of pre-designed game templates and have just a bit of leeway in choosing characterisation and themes. The stuff about in-game adverts, cross marketing is all obviously fed to them.

There's not much they can do to foul up, and it doesn't take much editing room brilliance to make either candidate look good or to make something out of a minor flaw to 'confirm' Suggs' decision.

The only difference this time is that Suggs is going by the last few weeks plus probably reports from teachers, rather than from the 6 months work experience the adult finalists do.