We're three weeks in; who do you see making the Final Five?
As seen with last year and Helen, it is possible that not all the contenders have emerged yet, but by the same token, at this stage last year, Susan, Tom and Jim had all emerged as potential Final Five candidates.

My tip, at this stage is:

Duane Bryan
Jade Nash
Katie Wright
Nick Holzherr
Tom Gearing

With Jade winning

Who do you see as likely to make the Final Five on the basis of the first three weeks?

Its hard to say

I think Duane will be in the final 5, the other four is a toss up

I hope Jade and Tom are there, but they could be fired before then for a number of reasons

Some reason I can see Ricky, Stephen and Laura in the final 5 with Duane and Nick

Jade
Katie
Nick
Tom
Duane/Laura/Gabrielle

Duane
Katie
Ricky (entertainment value)
Tom
Jade

Last year, we had a fantastic final 4 ( Susan the Entrepreneur, Tom the Inventor, Helen the Organiser and Jim the Salesperson). Natasha was in the final 5 unexpectedly (Zoe should've had been there).

This year, I am not sure that we would have a good set of finalists. We are approaching episode 4 and yet I have not seen "who is the who" in these series at all. The worst will be Jenna as one of the finalist just like Natasha last year.

2 strongest candidates: Nick + Duane
2 token females: Katie (eye candy) + Jade
1 Stuart Baggs: Ricky
= 5 finalists

Duane
Nick
Tom
Jade
Laura


(if this would be my favourite final five then Katie would be among them, but I am pretty certain that she will be the token young female with abilities who gets shafted just before the finish line)

Duane
Ricky
Tom
Katie
Jade

Duane Ricky are a lock. Not sure about the others

I wouldn't be surprised to see Gabrielle winning. She is extremely creative and may have a very good business plan. Sugar's £250,000 investment may do well there, especially if he makes sure that she has a good financial manager to keep control of costs and pricing. I'd certainly expect her to be in the final five.

Tom
Nick
Jade
Katie
Stephen

With Ricky and Laura just missing out.

Tom, Katie, Duane, Jade, Gabrielle in that order

Hopefully...
Duane
Gabrielle
Jade
Nick
Tom

Nick
Ricky, he'll get crucified in the interviews
Azhar
Gabrielle
Dwayne

Up to yesterday I would have said Jane

Not in any particular order:

Tom
Katie
Duane
Gabrielle
Jade/Nick/Ricky

With Tom or Gabrielle to win. But I'll have to wait and see

This is an indecisive ranking, because it's all in the edit. Last year I doubt most people would have guessed the final 5 right. But, anyway...

Duane
Nick
Gabrielle
Jade
Katie
---
Stephen
Tom
Adam
Jenna
Azhar
Ricky
Laura

I think it's still pretty open and one edit can surely change things (before Laura's performance last ep, she'd generally had positive edits, and people were thinking Jane would go far like Melody but she didn't.)

Katie, Gabrielle, Stephen, Azhar and Nick.

IMO to predict you really need to research the candidates backgrounds and have a guess at what their business plan is..

LAS keeps firing people based on his "gut" and nothing to do with their competence in the task - he will knows who he wants in the final five already and is just firing the rest whenever he gets the chance to.

Based on this weeks firing it seems like LAS isn't keen on getting into food business (Jane had a strong background in that side of things) so that might make Adam, Tom, Azhar or even Duane likely next firings assuming their business plan relates to present occupations (food + drinks industry).

I think the strongest candidates from their CV's and ignoring task performance:

Nick - (Technology Entrepreneur), natural fit for LAS area of expertise
Jenna - (Beauty Salon Owner) - LAS obviously felt he missed an opportunity in Beauty last year with Susan as he invested in her after the show
Gabrielle (Architect) - LAS has property interests

I've got no idea what Ricky, Jade, Stephen or Katie might have as their proposals so they are a bit of an unknown quantity!

After the last task I'm thinking Duane, Nick, Gabrielle, Katie and Stephen.
All have had fairly consistent camera-time, although Gabrielle has gone under-the-radar on some tasks, on others all her qualities have been flaunted to the max.

After last year though, who knows.
Tom the winner wasn't exactly showered in glory, Helen the task-winning runner-up was basically ignored, and everyone else was made to look stupid or a complete arse.

Nearly all in this thread had Duane as a top 5 but he's out now.
Business plan was probably a deuce as I don't think his task performance warranted it.

think it should be

Nick
Jade
Tom
RIcky
Gabrielle

1. Tom
2. Nick
3. Katie
4. Ricky
5. Gabrielle

With Laura being a dark horse.

lol @ everyone in this thread pretty much putting duane... shows how no one is standing out this yr

I need to go to the nearest bakery and get a humble pie. I thought Duane's edit was pretty good up till tonight.

I agree with the Duane positive edit consensus. I was shocked.
My revised prediction is:

Nick Holzherr
Gabrielle Omar
Tom Gearing
Katie Wright
Jade Nash

With Ricky possibly getting in there.