Here are the names and pictures of the Apprentice Candidates for the upcoming series!



Boys

Stephen Brady
Tom Gearing
Adam Corbally
Duane Bryan
Ricky Martin
Michael Copp
Nick Holzherr
Azhar Siddique

Girls

Jade Nash
Laura Hogg
Maria O'Conner
Gabrielle Omar
Bilyana Apostolova
Jane McEvoy
Katie Wright
Jenna Whittingham

There you go! I can't wait for it to begin now!

Ricky Martin?

Hahaha, Ricky Martin! Classic! How many episodes will it be before Sugar makes a Living La Vida Loca reference?

I won't lie, that was my first reaction to seeing the names!

Think that I am in love (though I don´t know with which girl yet ).

Have already taken against Brady (shiny suit) and Gearing (bum-fluff moustache).

Who want to take an early guess on a winner just from the way they look. I say Jenna Whittingham is going to win.

She seems like a typical early casualty, doesn't come across as having a strong personality (then again neither did Stella really).

First guess would be Laura or Katie. Jade is probably going to entertain us on the bitchy side (probably getting into trouble with the foreign elements within the girls group).

Hey everyone, an update!

There are now clips of everyone's auditions from the BBC website - enjoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071b63/clips

Maria O'Connor here: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonli...pprentice.aspx

Not a single minger or chubster among them either. Looks like their casting for looks above entertainment value to me - Not convinced this is going to be a classic series

Ricky Martin's audition is brilliant. 'Reflection of perfection'... erm NO!

very very excited! love TA

Maybe, but Maria ".....is headstrong and cunning when it comes to business - and said her persuasive charm helps her always get what she wants".

Guaranteed, I guess, to get up SOMEBODY'S nose.

Hopefully another "headstong and cunning" female

Katie sounds ruthless, perhaps another Katie Hopkins/Jenny Celerier in the making?

Oh and was it Ricky who said "The only person who I'm afraid of is myself"?
Haha, I hope he says that in the interview for the actual show!

Hasn't Ricky competed on Total Wipeout? lol
I so recognise him from somewhere. He won the 3rd show of series 2 and competed in the champion of champions episode.

My first impressions, which are always fun to read back when the show is on to see how right/wrong you were:
I don't think Tom will be as good as he says he is, don't think there's much underneath the surface.
So far I like Jane the best, seems quite switched on.
Yeeks Jenna's voice is rather annoying.
With that attitude I can't see Katie being very popular.
Maria reminds me of a hairdresser who constantly blabbers on and you just wish they would shut up for a couple of minutes to get some peace.
Gabrielle's thinking 'Okay so I've got to come across as interesting or else they'll find out I'm not.'
Azhar doesn't look 33, seems rather a slippery character.
Laura's words make her seem tougher than she comes across.
I felt like I was having an argument with Jade during her clip. lol
Bilyana, hmm thinking she'll be stand-offish and feeling like she doesn't need to prove how good she is.
"Roofless" Ricky, total wannabe.
Duane seems a typical salesman/bullsh*tter.
Michael looked like a pipsqueak in his pic, but he's much rougher than I thought he would be.
Stephen needs to quit staring it's rather scary.
Adam's also got a bit of the spooky eyes going on.
Nick = computer geek with politician-like characteristics *shudder*

Thats not Adam Corbally, thats Iain Dowie!!!!

No, that's Maria Connor from Corrie, you're thinking of......

Tom Gearing is a bit of a beaut.

The promotional shots are much better than last year's which REALLY made even the good-looking candidates ugly.

The videos do disappoint though, some seem to have come to the interview first thing out of bed (yes, Gabrielle, that is directed at you!).

The only one to impress me from the audition vids is actually Katie (to a lesser extent the Bulgarian girl, except for the cheerleader vibe).

It amazes me that so few of the men can string along a complete sentence without hesitation, deviation etc. and the fact that so many of the girls have such a strong accent.

Oh, and surely Gabrielle thought she was signing up for a totally different show Shame, as she seemed competent (and hot) from the promotional shots.

It's all about Bilyana, she's my winner by a long way, the rest talked utter drivel in their auditions. I can't really place any of the other candidates to 2nd, 3rd etc.

Adam is brilliant. Look at his biography - ROCKETS AND CHRISTMAS. That is spectacularly mad. And Azhar owns two pet sharks! If they are casting for looks as whoever-it-was accused, they're doing a spectacular job of still managing to find people who are sufficiently interesting.

Last year, everyone seemed very competent. Even when people got fired, you rarely got a sense that they weren't intelligent, successful businesspeople in their own right. Even Alex Britez Cabral seemed to have his head screwed on straight. Or Vincent - wasn't to everyone's tastes, but he seemed pretty competent, did the best job as a male team leader across the whole series, and was eventually fired on a task he should, frankly, have won - 'cos I'm still not buying that "different formulae for different dogs" nonsense, only thing size dictates is portion size. Better advert, better slogan, better product, better brand... but let's not get started on that again.

Melody, Leon, Ed and Edna were the only candidates who looked like they were bordering on being liabilities, but if you compare them to such high-octane liabilities as Alexa, Jo Cameron, Captain Mainwaring, Jadine, Melissa Cohen, Michael Sophocles, Jenny Celerier - the series 7 bunch was, I'd argue, entirely composed of overachievers.

A lot of the candidates here seem like overachievers in the same way - they're people who've already done it all, rather than zealots having a go - but they seem to be slightly more... barmy? It's the flavour text that does it. Duane loves going to nightclubs, chased and caught a hit and run driver, and pretended to be Tinie Tempah on a holiday, once. Gabrielle learnt to ride a bike last year. Jane loves animals and wants to start a cat and dog sanctuary. This stuff's brilliant.

So! First impressions:

THE EXCELLENT
Duane - Seems like a genuinely affable bloke, head screwed on straight, good man.
Stephen - Likewise.
Laura - Competent, highly skilled, clever, but seems friendly. And, Scottish! Which always gains points with me. Very calm, very confident, would be surprised if she didn't reach the final.
Adam - Will probably be fired first, probably belongs in "The awful," but again - rockets and christmas!!

THE AWFUL
Ricky - Pants Man. Raps his interview.
Katie - I can't tell whether she wants people to think she's a Batman villain, or she's actually a Batman villain. Possibly pure evil, possibly just mental. Will last at least as long as Jenny Celerier, probably longer.
Tom - Seems arrogant, devoid of character. Will probably last frustratingly long, be insufferable in the boardroom... the usual.

THE UNKNOWN
Nick - Seems a little arrogant, but so did Raef at first.
Jenna - Seems nice, but can't see her lasting. But she could surprise me.
Jane - Same as Jenna, but she's got a touch of the Lorraines about her. Or the Lucindas. Could just as easily make it to the end as only last a few weeks.

All opinions subject to (and likely to) change; I'm finding the girls a lot harder to pin down than the blokes. It's a very fuzzy overview so far; we've only got a minute of clichés and a biog. But it's fun to speculate! And see how wrong I was. (My guess? Very. And I've probably not even noticed my favourite-candidate-to-be yet.)

Incidentally - I think Jenna's most likely to be fired first if the girls lose the first task, Adam if it's the boys.

Must be another Leon then the one who appeared on the show (and got trumpled by both Jim and Melody).

Speaking of liabilities, think that Zoe and Natasha were the worst of the girls last year on that front.




Way too nice to survive amongst this lot, then again that didn't stop Susan (this is SO not fair!) from reaching the final. Not convinced yet that she has much of a personality.



To me she comes across as rather honest (she admits that she is irritating and willing to stab people in the back). Offcourse it becomes a different matter when she pulls a Katie Hopkins on the show (badmouthing other people behind their backs, to other people and to the camera).

Though I can understand that she comes across as blunt, especially for the more gentle British folk (people in my country only wish for this to happen in their reality/game shows; no coincedence that we created Big Brother).

Leon's a clever bloke - million-pound business, he's clearly a clever bloke and a savvy businessman - but I didn't really see him do anything. He seemed like dead weight, to me. But he does have his fans, and I'm sure he's skilled!



The thing I really didn't like was that she said that she lets people underestimate her and then surprises them. Bit too close to taking pride in being treacherous, for me - but yeah, it's all kneejerk nonsense! Take all my evaluations with a pinch of salt. q:

Well, I didn't rate him at all, just that to me a liability would be someone who could cause your team trouble (and since Leon never did anything, that didn't factor into it; though you could say that doing nothing is a liability in itself).