I took Jade out after tonight's episode. I put Jenna in, as much as I don't like her accent, she appears to be the strongest girl remaining, apart from Gabrielle.


Tom and Gab's edits are the best atm.

Episode 7

Phoenix
Adam: CPP5
Azhar: OTTN3
Jade: OTTN5
Laura: UTR2
Tom: MORP3

Sterling
Gabrielle: UTR2
Jenna: MORP2
Nick: MORM3
Ricky: CPM3
Stephen: CPM3

Surprising P edit for Adam, shown in his element and showed more depth to his character rather than just being over-bearing.
Azhar, definitely OTT 'strategy' man. N because he didn't offer anything else to it.
Jade was shown to be a complete mess, was tempted to give her a CP due to her boardroom performance, but there was far too much focus on her making constant mistakes and her team getting frustrated, like she was out of control and a complete nutter.

Gabrielle and Jenna were shown getting on with selling. Gabrielle trying to sell the beard trimmers as bikini-line trimmers had shades of CP, but not enough. Whereas Jenna moved into MORP territory for being in her element and noticeably doing well.
Ricky and Stephen were the two entertaining characters of the episode, shades of N for being their usual over-confident selves, but balanced out to a M for embracing the market selling and showing a humorous side.

Contenders:
Tom - 'here comes Super Tom to save the day, he's perfect in every way' and 'HOW DARE YOU BRING HIM BACK TO THE BOARDROOM' even though it was totally unclear who else it could really be. :yawn: Bored of his desperate but incredibly bland edit.
Nick - another solid job and win as PM. Some N was placed in the boardroom, but I think it was because one team clearly outshined the other so there was no footage to pull off the usual double-bluff as to who wins. So just for drama, they had Sugar do it in the boardroom, to keep us on our toes.
Jenna - really coming on strong, think Sugar is warming to her.
Gabrielle - clearly an interesting character, and no doubt has an interesting business plan because I feel she's being kept for a reason.
Jade - Sugar clearly sees her as a contender still, because she made a complete catastrophe of things and still survived. But skating on thin ice with him.

My edgic ratings for this week:

Phoenix:
Adam- MORP3
Azhar- OTTN3
Jade- OTTN4
Laura- UTR1
Tom- MORP3

Sterling:
Gabrielle- UTR2
Jenna- MORP2
Nick- CPP4
Ricky- MORM3
Stephen- MORM3

Contenders:
Tom- Still number one after continued positive feedback from Nick and Sugar showing distain at him being brought back into the boardroom, one potential flaw is a lack of personification, which is what hurt Helen last year,

Nick- A second PM win helps Nick stay in touch with Tom

Jenna- A second episode of positivity for Jenna, who is beginning to build up steam in the late stages. She's still an outside bet to win however, and her PM win last week being called out negatively harms her as well.

Everyone else: Eliminated.

Adam - MORP3 : sold well, made Kaen moist
Azhar - OTTN4 : STRATEGEH
Jade - CPN5 : was given space to coherently justify her pricing strategy which just about squeaks a CP from me on the task. If that's not enough, that little "these people are not my friends, they are resources who I will use to get ahead" at the beginning of the ep. is VERY CPN.
Laura - UTR2 : contributed well to the task but the great big honking (IMO unjustified) "HOW WAS SHE NOT IN THE BOARDROOM!" edit is a bad sign. Not quite enough for an N though.
Tom - CPP3 : show is now firmly ensconsed on his dick

Gabrielle - UTRP2 : her clever beard-trimmer plan was included for no reason
Jenna - UTRP1 : lots of people saying she's great, but she barely speaks herself in the episode. She was a resource the team used (to borrow Jade-speak), not a person
Nick - CPM4 : his mistake's too big to give him solely a P, but he was shown in direct contrast to Jade as a good organiser, and this is probably a good episode moving forwards
Ricky - MORM3 : has Lordalan's ear as a voice of reason - still kind of a whiner, and Nick singles him out as difficult to manage before the task even starts
Stephen - UTR2 : buffoon edit, positive edition, all but edited out of his sub-team in favour of Ricky

Winner Picks

1. Tom (but he needs a Doubt Episode soon - can't think of any other winner who hasn't had one)
2. Nick

My ratings after that shocker of an episode for Jade:

Phoenix

Adam - CPP3 - The first positive episode for him and his improved attitude towards Jade (highlighted on YF) + the bizarrely happy reaction when she returned was nice to watch. Has been long since dead as far as Edgic is concerned, though.
Azhar - CPN4 - STRATAGEH! I think he was trying to respond to LS's criticism that he didn't speak up much, but he wasn't portrayed that way. Made it seem like he was slagging off Jade at every turn + the unnecessary comment about Jade before the task had even begun was a bit uncalled for. Unlike last week, I wasn't too unhappy that he got fired.
Jade - OTTN5 - Ouch. Nearly gave her an NN, but relatively good defense in the boardroom and relatively narrow margin of defeat just stopped me. Wouldn't completely write her off, after some previously UTR positive edits, but she'll need a Big PM win in the future and an improved performance in areas outside of creativity to stand any chance.
Laura - INV2 - Apart from comments on the insects and nearly being brought into the boardroom, she barely featured. The "You should have been in the boardroom comment" from LS never bodes well, though and I think, because of that, she'll be gone next time her team loses.
Tom - MORPP3 - He's starting to gain momentum, with Nick Holzherr seemingly his only competition atm. I'm starting to think Nick Hewer is in love with him. His first trip to the boardroom was a good one for Tom, who stayed calm and well-reasoned throughout. A definite contender at this stage. I do think he needs to lighten up a bit, though.

Sterling

Gabrielle - UTRP3 - Came across really well in this episode and she's turning into one of my favourites. Proved she can sell, which adds to her creativity (which, for now puts her ahead of Jade) I do get the feeling she needs the PM win, though to prove that she can lead...
Jenna - MORP3 - I have to say, after Week 2, I'd thought she'd be out of the competition faster than anyone else, but she's completely turned it around after a few weeks of gaining momentum, in which she proved she most definitely can sell. Did well this week, though it has to be noted that this was her area of expertise. For now, she's the best female left in the competition.
Nick - MORP4 - I know he made a bad call by sending Ricky and Stephen to replenish before they dropped off stock, but the contrast from Jade was so stark. He was calm made decisions, smelt what sold and completed the objective of the task, by narrowing down their palette to the items that sold. All of this, combined with Lord Sugar's praise of his team led me to give him a comfortable P. A 2-0 record as PM doesn't look bad either.
Ricky - UTRP3 - He was seen to be quite charismatic, but because he spent most of the episode in traffic, it was difficult to see how he did. I think it was interesting how he was shown more than Stephen on the sub-team and how Nick emphasised before the task had even begun that he would be difficult to manage. My feeling is that he will make the final.
Stephen - UTR2 - Not shown much at all. He won't make it to the final, in spite of having the joint best record, because he isn't as charismatic as Ricky.

Contender Picks

1. Tom
2. Nick
3. Jenna
4. Ricky

Tom moves into 1st, following a very positive episode. Nick stays strong, way ahead of everyone else in second. Jenna's recent positive edits have seen her break the top 4, whilst Ricky maintains his position from last week. Gabrielle and possibly Jade could break back in there with more positive edits in the future. For now, its very difficult to see beyond a Nick-Tom final 2.

The group's edgic ratings as of episode 7:
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/7591/edgic.jpg

It's amazing to see how Nick has been a top contender for the entirity of the series. Ricky breaks into the DS's top 4 picks for the first time this series at the expense of Jade, whilst the top 3 remains stable.

If possible could somebody get around to creating edgic charts for some of the other series as well?

I created one for Series 6 on Excel. Do you want me to take screenshot and upload it?

Oh yes, certainly.

Even though series 6 would be one of the least exciting in terms of winner picks, as for nearly all of the season it was Stella, Liz, Joanna.

Here you go:

http://postimage.org/image/ljzenizvf/

For most of the season, I thought the Top 4 would be Stella, Chris, Liz and Joanna.

Blue highlight = PM Victory
Black highlight = PM Defeat

Everything else should be pretty obvious.

The quality of that is so much better then mine, the perils of not using Excel.

What was Stuart's OTTNN5 in episode 7? I can't remember that one.

It was the Shopping Centre DVDs task, where he spent the entire first day pooting around in a race-car rather than donig any work, and Joanna/Stella saved the task by finding a toy race-car for the kids to sit in. It spawned the semi-infamous Nick "WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS???????!!!!!!" quote.

Interesting that in S6, according to the chart (I didn't actually see that series) most eliminations were preceded by a negative high visibility episode, in this series the chart suggests eliminations are usually preceded by UTR/invisible episodes.

My attention was a little diverted, but here are the primary impressions I got this week:

Phoenix:
Tom (PM) - CPM5
Laura - UTRN2
Adam - MORP3
Jade - MORM3

Sterling:
Gabrielle (PM) - OTTP3
Stephen - OTTN3
Ricky - UTR2
Jenna - INV1
Nick - UTR2

Comments:
Laura was rightly fired for not doing very much again. Tom gets a 'doubt episode' but I have a feeling this will swing back next week. Adam gets another positive episode in terms of good sales and 'endearing' nature from Karren. Jade gets a plus for selling decently but her lack of pushing the right piece gives her doubt. Gabrielle gets plus for her enthusiasm and energy, but minus for her lack of getting appropriate prices; but overall I feel a plus considering that pricing thing was nonspecifically directed and probably to make it look like team may lose. Stephen gets minus for being rude to the prospective buyers. Ricky and Nick, I saw them doing 'something' but I don't remember what. Jenna I'm not even sure I saw all episode except to say Gabrielle PMed okay.

Top 4:
Nick
Tom
Gabrielle
Ricky
(Adam's positive episodes are a little concerning I admit)

You'll have nothing to worry about in regards to Adam, he has too much early negativity to be seen as a threat to win. Tonight's episode in my view eliminated Jenna as a contender, she was borderline before today but tonight's weak episode has been the deathknell for her chances.

I haven't done my Edgic yet, but Tom and Nick are my only contenders remaining, I'd probably agree though with you Malik that Gabrielle and Ricky are probably the other two finalists.

Episode 8

Phoenix
Adam: CPP3
Jade: MOR2
Laura: UTRN2
Tom: CPM4

Sterling
Gabrielle: MORM3
Jenna: UTR2
Nick: UTR2
Ricky: MORM3
Stephen: OTTN3

Stephen was back to being the over-the-top buffoon, while Adam ends up looking like the strongest individual candidate for the second week in a row but unless he becomes the next messiah how on earth can he overcome the over-bearing monster he was depicted as earlier on. He was CP because he was always talking about his own approach to the art and his take on the meanings. lol

Contenders:
Nick - always a fairly stable edit, concerningly under-the-radar though.
Tom - had a bit of a faltering episode, would have kept top position if it wasn't for being 'The One That Got Away' and Sugar suddenly questioning his reasons for being there.
Gabrielle - another admirable job of letting her creativity take charge of a task. Would be a better bet if her business brain wasn't always being called into question, she was given a bit of a knock-down in the boardroom (hence the M tone)
Ricky - for the first time moves into the contender list (especially due to Jade and Jenna receiving a fairly mundane edit again), was touch and go at the start when he was being his usual critical self over the choice of art. But particular attention was given to him closing that deal with the customer buying the 3 pieces, and it was identified as a good move.

Phoenix

Adam - CPP4 : continuing his Redemption Arc in style. Even I was buying it. I'm guessing this it at its peak though. I think I heard the dread word "choreographer" in one of the preview clips.
Jade - MOR2
Laura - UTRN2 : Jane boot-episode edit redux, but even flatter
Tom - CPM4 : one VERY interesting bit of editing in the Results Boardroom. Lordalan asks Tom why he thinks he lost Pure Evil, and a completely different Final Boardroom Tom (facing the wrong direction) answers "I think it might be because I took the wrong tack", then we cut back to Nick telling Tom that it was because of his lack of enthusiasm. I hesitate to think what was edited out, but it's a REAL hack job in editing terms, and personally I think designed to make him look better than whatever actually came out of his mouth.

Sterling

Gabrielle : MORM3 : didn't really learn anything about her that we didn't know before
Jenna : INV
Nick : UTR1 : great that that Radio Times article saying that Nick is growing after spending half a series doing nothing appears just after the one episode where he...does nothing other than pull faces at the art.
Ricky : MORP3 : sold well, identified that Nathan was a bad lead
Stephen : OTTN3 : oh hi Natasha Scribbins

I'd say both Tom and Nick continued in their respective Winners Edit about as you'd expect, depending on which one wins. Tom got his Doubt Episode (and even there it's nowhere near a Topshop or a Truffles Debacle) - Nick continues to be a solid performer with flecks of Yasmina-ish doubt and UTR periods throughout.

Winner Picks
1. Tom
2. Nick

Thanks guys.

This is a really interesting thread to follow.

Episode 8 Edgic Ratings:

Phoenix:
Adam: CPP4
Jade: UTR2
Laura: UTR2
Tom: CPM4

Sterling:
Gabrielle: MORM3
Jenna: UTR1
Nick: UTR2
Ricky: MORP3
Stephen: OTTN3

Very similar to everyone elses choices of edgic (aside from some visibility differences). Laura's boot screamed of being oppertunist on Sugar's part and getting rid of a candidate that just was simply weak. I just wish he did this earlier and kept around bigger characters like Jane instead. As someone mentioned earlier the trend this year has been for fired contestants to receive a low vis episode prior to their elimination. If this continues then Jade, Nick and Jenna are in trouble next week, and I'm probably favouring Jenna as of this moment.

Winner Picks:
Tom- He's finally had his doubt episode, and personally I don't feel that the negativity was as hammered home as it would have been for a loser. Tom is still in pole position, but another poor performance and he could become the Liz Locke of the season.

Nick- Nick's been largely forgotten about recently, Good early season positivity has kept him up as a contender but he needs another big episode fast.

Eliminated: Everyone else.

Hang on - I'm not a real pupil of this "edgic" stuff but surely Nick had a fairly high profile PM week last week. He made the decisions and stood or fell by them (stood thank heavens - yes, I'm a bit of a fan). I know he's had low profile weeks but one UTR week after a pretty high profile one shouldn't damage him too much surely when he's not doing anything wrong?

I noticed they did something similar with Laura after she was fired. They cut in a clip of her rolling her eyes which I suspect was actually her reaction to losing the task (maybe even an earlier task).

OK, I'll be the first to admit I'm biased towards Jade. In fact, I possibly support her more than is reasonable. However, she chose the successful artist, pushed for another one which would have won them the task, sold £1,500, the second most on her team. Also, she was brought in the boardroom and spent part of the episode defending herself well. I wouldn't exactly say that's UTR2?



I agree. I understand it's your perception of events, though.

I think it's that she's more or less irrelevant to the story of the episode. She's not the focus on her sub-team (that's Adam), she ends up in the Boardroom by default, and is an afterthought there, because the focus is mostly on Tom vs Laura. But she doesn't get a positive spin like Tom last week, because Lordalan says she deserved to be there, and he doesn't push on her opinion as a voice of reason. I went for MOR because I do think she impacted on the episode as a character via her decisions, but I can see UTR, and I certainly don't think there was any tone to her edit. I mean, I think she was right in quite a lot that she did, but the editors don't push any buttons either way.

Which makes me even more convinced that Tom is the editor's stalking horse (for Nick).

My feeling exactly, especially if the rumors about the next ep turn out to be true

This week's group edgic chart is up:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7591/edgic.jpg

Looking back now it's incredible how visible those early boots were, Jane never managed lower then a 3 in her 4 episodes, and Katie was only below a 3 for one epsode (BTW what was up with her bizarre UTRN4 rating?!) I think based on a brief look Adam's been the most visible contestant, with Jane second and Katie third.

Gabrielle's random spikes of visibility continue, which means I fully expect her to go UTR next week.

Nick and Tom's edit are actually very similar in terms of looks, an early INV, followed by generally an MORP tone throughout. Whilst Nick has been arguably more positive based on the chart Tom has been the more complex character of the two.