I can't accept the idea that Nick's blown his chances in one episode!
I'd be amazed if he was fired first. Atm, anyone could win it, imo.

Yep, Ricky's definitely getting Pellereaued a tad. Constantly failing, but always by other people's errors.

That said - Tom Pellereau was a massively unconventional winner. In the boardroom three times on the trot, absolutely shambolic as PM (albeit through no fault of his own), he's pretty much the opposite of every other Apprentice winner. Every single series beforehand, the winner was the one who happened to have the strongest task record of the final two. Tom's a hell of an anomaly - so I don't know if the Pellereau edit's necessarily much of a blessing.

That said, I'm starting to think Nick and Tom are a little too... obvious? I like them, but Nick stays squeaky clean as he swoops fairly calmly under the radar, and the edit keeps showing us ways in which Tom's quite boring. He's an art bore, a wine bore, he did nothing on the website task, he helped design a boring product... neither of them are scrappy, not like Ricky and Jade.

It's just all a bit too Stepford, I think. Two obvious potential winners, both portrayed as very capable and very obvious finalists, but they've not edited them as particularly interesting.


PHOENIX
Adam - MOR-M-4
Jade - OTT-P-3
Nick - UTR-4

STERLING
Ricky - CP-M-4
Tom - MOR-4

I've given Jade a positive. Lord Sugar quite rightly flagged up that everything good on Adam's task came from her, she did the pitch well, she was basically fine. Nick... completely neutral. It's not like there was good and bad, there just wasn't much of anything. They cut to him being right, but they also cut to him not doing much about it, which between this and the Final Five show is the message they're really ramming home. Eleven weeks in and he's not really learnt anything. Adam finishes his redemption arc by walking out with his head held high, but still too much of a disaster to be anything but mixed.

Tom and Ricky... did well! Good product, broadly came across as sensible businesspeople, but a little dull. Not entirely sure what Countdown Nick's talking-head about Tom being left with the product had to do with anything. Product was fine, didn't impact on the task at all, I think it was just emphasising that Tom's the slightly boring one. Didn't veer one way or another hard enough to be mixed. Almost gave Ricky a toneless, too, but I felt like I was being too non-commital. He's somewhere between mixed and toneless. Not bad at all, and both perfectly sensible, but didn't pass with enough colours to quite muster a positive.

Finishing positions:

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

...but if it's anything like series 7, all bets are off, because on the strength of the edit Jim and Tom would probably have been going out first.

Or, honestly, anything like Young Apprentice. I have to seriously rack my brains to remind myself who won that - first instinct's James McCullagh, then Harry Hitchens, then Lizzie Magee... Zara doesn't turn up until four or five teenagers down the line. The editing painted her as pretty middle-of-the-road throughout, so it's fair to say the edit's been leading us astray for the last couple of series. We've not had an obvious winner since Stella.

Instinct's still Nick Holzherr, mind. If you gave me half a second to answer, I'd blurt out "Nick!" He's a technology entrepreneur, he's right up Lord Sugar's street. But then again, Lord Sugar's made pretty much no comment whatsoever on him throughout the whole series. The more I think about it, the less of a foregone conclusion it seems. Who knows! I'm tending to agree with TXF - anyone could win it. After this ep I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if he gave it to Jade. Ricky would be the least likely if this were series 1-6... but in a post-Pellereau world, who knows?! I hope he aces it.

Excellent manager, though. Managed creativity, put the right people in the right jobs, motivated everyone, produced a slick product - he was the conductor. Orchestrated what, I reckon, should've been a pretty solid win. The flaws in their branding were nowhere near as bad as "Cat Size: See Their Light. Like, they are light. Because they've been eating Cat Size, and it's healthy, so they've lost weight. But also light. Like Cat's Eyes. Which sounds like Cat Size." EveryDog wasn't perfect, but it's about as close as an Apprentice team's got on an advertising task. You could've driven monster trucks through the holes in Glenn's brand.

Helen probably did a better job on MyPi - best in the series might've been a little off the mark. Seem to remember a lot of the wins were despite the PM's best efforts that series, though. Ampi-Apps, in particular, comes to mind. Vincent was friendly, motivated, had a clear vision, created a quality product - better performance than most PMs that series. Certainly the best of the ten that had already been. Then Zoe and Helen were no great shakes the following week, nor Natasha and Jim the week after... Vincent's got a fair claim!


Ah! I think I remember Howard's spot of bitching, yeah. I would say that taking pot shots at Lorraine was pretty much the done thing that series, though. James might've been the only one of the final six who didn't have a pop. Occasional bursts of Lorraine-hate were just one of their society's customs. Probably the closest to a P firee I can think of, though - Young Apprentice aside, again.

Shazia - yep, fair play, sounds about right. Do accept that I'm clutching at straws a little, here!

It's not that he's blown his chances as such, just that his doubt ep has come a bit too late in the process for me to see him as a winner. Looking at last series:

Tom's doubt ep was the Paris task (task 8 I think) where he PMed

Susan had doubts throughout (ended up in the boardroom a few times)

Jim's doubt came just after Tom's I think.

Helen's doubt didn't come until the final with the business plan.


Also, if we are to take it as truth that Tom G is in the final 2, then I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't be Nick with him. I reckon Nick will get undone at the interviews. I don't think Jade will be final 2 either (looks like she has a bad interview round as well) so that leaves Ricky (who looks as though he has a decent interview round).

Out of Nick and Jade to be fired first, I think it could well be Nick - not sure why, but I think Adam's comment about Nick fluking it to the final may come into play.

Anything short of a Tom win would be shocker. I think they've force-fed the idea that Tom is the perfect winner. T_T

Week 11

Pheonix
Adam: OTTN4
Jade: CPP3
Nick: MORM2

Sterling
Ricky: CP3
Tom: MORM3

Adam started off on the wrong foot expressing his dislike for Jade and sending her off by herself. From then on he got into his old habits of indulgence with the chocolates and forcing the idea of jellies (a major flaw in the task). Jade was noted for coming up with most of the ideas and created the 'delicious' chocolates, which were the positives of the task. Nick had a fairly sloppy edit, he was shown fumbling around with his ideas and with the figures, but there was a couple of strong positive aspects aswell (his ideas could have saved the task and was identified as the biggest competition).
This was Ricky's redemption episode, however it seemed a bit toneless to me. Tom had quite an interesting one, while he was on the winning team who thought through their task well, he also came up with the arse-achingly boring packaging (that Sugar hated). But perhaps a more interesting moment was when Ricky and Tom were doing the painting, Ricky said that Tom wasn't used to getting his hands dirty. Leading us to think that he's a bit of a toff, and I don't think we're really supposed to root for him.

Finishing order:
1st Nick - to be honest it's all about what Sugar thinks of them, and he wasn't too harsh on him. He actually made it clear that had Nick taken more control they'd have probably won, quite a strong statement. Also Ricky and Tom said he was the biggest competition, could have been the last chance for Nick to be disposed of before storming the final?
2nd Ricky - has really come on strong the past couple of weeks, apart from a couple of mistakes. His edit in the Final Five show was probably the most negative though.
3rd/4th Tom/Jade - not sure which way to put these. Jade has only really had one terrible episode, but I don't think she's high on Sugar's radar, she's just getting the strong-willed 'bulldog' businesswoman edit that loads of other finalists have had. Tom has been built-up as the golden boy, but it could be setting him up for a fall. Like I said before, it's almost like we're not supposed to be rooting for him - as he's the one to beat, but also comes across as a bit privileged and self-satisfied.

But as others have said, the business plans always come along to jumble everything up again.

Pheonix
Adam: OTTN4 - very negative edit showing his pre-existing dislike for Jade; mocking her idea on the the phone then picking it because he couldn't think of anything better; little understanding of the concept of quality; no idea or concept of the idea of having a clear strategy. Plus his YF appearance made him out to be an egotistical tool so...
Jade: CPP3 - all the good things about the task - the product, the name, the bar, they came from her. Another increase in her positivity after a difficult middle suggest she'll do better then you might have thought.
Nick: MORM3 - as above, sloppy editing but as with last week this was most likely to boost Jade's edit.Called out for not speaking up but I don't think this is negative as he tried and there was little he could do with Adam taking total control (or lack of). Highlighted to be the strongest competition.

Sterling
Ricky: CPP3 - another strong episode emphasising his transformation this series. Showed good leadership skills but then he did leave Tom to design the branding. Good pitch and strategy. Still not convinced he's a winner.
Tom: MORM3 - almost a negative edit had it not been for Ricky's determination to have the pitch go well. Designed a boring product, seemed rather flat and tired when pitching to customers.

Had Jade and Nick done the task as a team, or had either of them been PM, I think they would have won. It seems clear that what went wrong was Adam's lack of direction and the refusal to let others try and correct him. Again, Ricky could have won without Tom.

1st Nick/Jade
2nd Jade/Nick
3rd Ricky
4th Tom

Last edgic chart before the finale:
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/7591/edgic.jpg

Nick should go out as the edgic favourite since he has never left the top 4 contenders all season, I'm thinking though that Tom is out of it with this run of N and M ratings, not a good run to be on going into the finale.

Ricky is really beginning to build up steam as a potential Tom Pellereau I feel, he's never had a N rating all season and is on a great run of CPP episodes.

Adam - OTTN4 - out of his depth, bumbling, on Mission : Screw Jade Over from minute 1, no intelligence operation whatsoever
Jade - MORP3 - Kaen was trying to get us to love her so much she might as well have been wearing her face on a t-shirt
Nick - MOR4 - failings all over the place but things like that little interview in the wooden egg I think are supposed to keep us seeing things from his perspective a degree. Given his reputation for being backwards in coming forwards, either needs to have a Tom Pellereau "I ram-raided Wal-Marts" anecdote, or a timely reminder that he stepped up in Week 1, in order to win.

Ricky - CPP3 - pushed the idea of practicing the pitch to perfection, which is a big part of why they won. Actually...didn't do all that much for a Project Manager on a team of 2, a fact that Nick picked up on.
Tom - MORM3 - did the research and developed the business plan, which is another big part of why they won. Also did the packaging, which was a big failing. Not sure if most of the "boring" crits should attach themselves to him on merit, or just because of his face

Winner Pick

1. Nick - I think he can counter his "hurdle" via argument if he can become articulate for the first time in the process.
2. Tom - got the crucial business plan where Nick didn't. Back in the running I think.

Still say everyone else is a distraction.

I'm not sure how influential the 'Why I Fired Them' show has been in past series, but it pretty much concentrated on Tom and Ricky (sometimes unnecessarily) and yet ignored Jade and Nick as much as it could, never even mentioning anything positive they've done. None of their wins as PM, or even when they were PM. Yet it told us all the time when Ricky and Tom were PM and other things they were doing.
But then again, it also showed alot of Adam too.

Apart from Lord Sugar's little sum-up at the end. It scarcely said anything negative about Tom, and even if it did it was followed with a 'but'. Ricky had further of that redemption angle. Meanwhile Jade's only mention was the botched task and nothing else, and Nick got pretty much zilch.

^ So yeah, the Why I Fired Them show couldn't have made it more obvious who were the final 2.

I was pretty much right, just had Nick and Jade the wrong way round lol.

Well I have to say based on our winner predictions that Edgic somewhat failed this year, never at any point was Ricky the top pick to win and he only made our top four contenders in episode 7, at the same time however we can give ourselves credt for identifying Nick and Tom as finalists from a very early stage of the show.

With hindsight it's arguable that Ricky's win wasn't as out of the blue as some people believe, he had the highest visability over the course of the series of the 4 finalists, and had at no point received a N rating in any episode. What Ricky's win can teach us in the future is to put a lot of emphasis on Positivity, particularly in episodes where a candidate is on the losing team, this was something identifiable with Ricky, but also with Tom P last year, and with the new format should be something to focus on. The other factor which is of note is late season positivity, Ricky has been P every episode since week 8, with a 3 week run of CPP's.

I think also we should be more open minded in our assessments of candidates when doing edgic, I think a lot of people (myself included) were unwilling to consider Ricky as a contender because of his name and his background and dismissed him as a joke character very early on.

Once I get the final edgics done I'll get the final chart completed.

I think we were all thrown off due to his whole redemption arc story. They made a meal of the fact that he was a bit of a tit near the start so they could emphasize what a change he's made towards the end.
The winners in the past have tended to be about consistency, rather than a journey. Oh well, we've learnt our lesson now.

At the start I was surprised how under-the-radar Ricky was as the antagonistic character of the series, but clearly it was because he wasn't going to be kept in that bracket the whole time. I bet if he wasn't going to win we'd have got more OTTN edits from him, like with Adam.

Collected for my own self-flagellation.

But yeah, I dismissed Ricky Martin in episode 1 and didn't really consider him as a potential winner, just because the episode 1 opening talking heads are nigh-on always mid to end-game characters who are supposedly to be memorably "eccentric". The content of his actual in-game edit was great, especially in the second half.

For me, I think I let others influence me a little too much when I was on the fence. I had put Nick as UTR quite a lot, but few people agreed much of the time, so I left it, even though I didn't think any winner would be so UTR for so many episodes. Similarly, I'd mentally put Tom in 2nd place after hearing the spoiler of him getting to the final, and after the ep where Sugar criticised his business background. It seemed quite damning, and the late stream of negative episodes added to it. (I guess I wasn't entirely wrong on that)

I agree that I discarded Ricky on record/initial credibility (until after ep 11, then the final 5 and 'why I fired them' made it increasingly obvious) and probably didn't look at him unbiasedly. If I had participated in this last year, I'm sure I would have done the same for Tom - I wasn't really a fan of Tom or Ricky as winners. But yeah, I think the clues were there to a point, nobody could have called it after the first couple of eps but after that... possibly. I think the changed format will continue to bring me winners I'm not a fan of, but I'll try and ignore that and watch the tasks for the light entertainment they generally are.