I watched this weeks show half-heartedly, ie. missed most of it. Since last weeks firing, I find myself realising just how downhil the show has gone since it changed its premise (the ultimate prize).

The firing of Jane was meaningless, and based on something so removed from the actual task's failures as to make the show (which used to be my favorite show on tv), pretty much unwatchable. Laura's decisions and loss of control over the task, ie. allowing Gab to spend what she wanted...buying too much furniture without much worth, and her whole idea of 'upscaling' products, all were the decision of the PM, and yet she wasn't fired. Who was fired? A contestant who was not in charge, not responsible for all the wrong decisions, and someone who had shown a lot of gusto in previous tasks. Why was she fired? Because she sold only £10 on a task when ultimately, the winner of the show is supposed to be a winning businessperson with a talent for bringing an idea to market, not a great salesperson who's bringing in punters off the street.

Oh and of course, because Karren opened her stupid mouth about how jane has shown no promise in the previous weeks. Thanks Karren, for being so wrong on that point and not sticking to judging who should be fired based on that weeks task...ie. Laura.

In conclusion, these firings seems utterly arbitrary and totally unrelated to the result of the task...
So, there is literally no point to these tasks....the end game/prize seems to bear no relation to the tasks. Why are we watching this farce? God knows, but all I know is that my passion for the show has totally evaporated. Such a shame....Maybe it was just a case of too much of a good thing.

This might be slightly naive but i believe earlier series were a bit more open - i think lordsugar did take into account the tasks, as well as personal favourites and who would fit in most with his company etc.

My main issue with the show was last nights ep. They would bankrupt themselves on equipment if the winning contract was not renewed. the win should have been voided, as has happened in previous years.

I was waiting for him to say BUT...

Agreed.

Absolutely agreed with you all and the points you've made. I think last week was the last YBF I will ever watch, and this series will be the last I bother with full-stop.

At its peak it was extremely entertaining and essential viewing. Now it's just an embarrassing conceit and a meaningless 'process'.

Surely everyone knows by now that the first 9 weeks are all about removing the filler in as entertaining a way as possible, leaving the 4 preselected possibles for the final showdown?

Who cares which team was 'better' or who 'lost' the task? If you ain't one of the chosen ones you're in the taxi soon enough. It's just a nice bonus to get kicked out for being the worst, rather than because you were up against two likely lads/lasses.

It's never had any credibility anyway - the problem with this series is it isn't even very entertaining.

I can't be the only one who thought Jane was gorgeous. Love the way she bites her lower lip.

Looks like she lost enthusiasm though + Karren Brady didn't like her because she is cleverer and prettier.

It isn't as good as it was and we are on the verge of giving up with it.

I am beginning to think there are indeed 'chosen ones' and the trick is to get rid of the others. So, if you're not a 'chosen one' and you end up on the losing team, even if you did well on the task Lord Sugar can just reach for your CV, point selectively at a phrase or two, say he hasn't seen much evidence of xxx and you're out.

Your assessment is spot on. I thought last night's show was one of the dullest and silliest ever.

Come again?

You're talking about a series that includes this?

I said to the mrs last night at the very least they should have deducted the cost of the equipment out of the contract, what was it £17:50 per club for 3 months, well that is £52:50 per club, and using the teams own figures that they plugged out of thin air, they would have needed to provide 30 x hoppers @ £2 each(£60), 30 x hula hoops @ £1 each(£30), and 30 x skipping ropes @ £0.50 each(£15), so to kit each club out would have cost £95, meaning each club before it started would be running at a loss of £42,50, great buisness model that was Sir Alan, but you just knew what the outcome was going to be by the editing last night, it was even more biased to one team than it normally was, and the clincher was when they read out the results from fitness first, first, as normally they read out the results on tasks like this with the biggest chain being read out last, was just a farce from beginning to end

good maths skills! completely ridiculous. siralan should have told them it didn't count. My partner joked that he would go in and tell them that if they buy a few months worth of the contract they get a gold bullion each, since apparently you can make up wild financial promises and win a task :sleep:

Why didn't you make this comment last week when things were more fresh in the memory? As you didn't really watch this weeks show, how do you know if the firing was in the same manner (it wasn't).


Last week's firing was indeed based on reported previous performance (as well as upsetting the punters during the task with her desperate selling), but this weeks firing was based entirely on the task and still many people are complaining about it. Duayne hadn't put a foot wrong previously. Basically you can't please everybody.

Jane got fired despite having a good personal business track record. If the problem was the new prize format she'd have been kept in as she'd be bound to have a good investable plan.

I think some people take the show a bit too seriously and get upset when a favourite is fired, or someone they don't like stays in. And of course it's always easy to blame Karren because of the way she looks when she says things.

There's definitely not something quite as right with this series.

Last night seemed a bit of a damp squib to say the least. I still don't know how Ricky's Team lost. The video from the other team that won was quite over-rated it looked a bit like a cross between Disco 2000 from Jarvis Cocker and a spoof video of how to keep fit.

Above all else though why would you need to know how to attract people to watch a keep fit video in order to know how to get on in business or have an idea for a business venture?

I wonder how much input Lord Sugar had into this week's task he looked quite unenthused and seemed to run out of anything to say in the boardroom with both teams and when he fired Duane. The concept was strange there are numerous keep fit dvds and promotional offerings already in existence many of which have been produced by people who actually know something about keep fit. I've never heard of self defence moves being related to keep fit.

The whole thing was a huge anti-climax.Neither video was particularly appealing and the level of involvement by team members in both tasks was negligible in terms of the eventual outcome. The companies they visited to pitch their videos to seemed as equally turned off by the whole thing.

There is no real market or space for people to produce something different to LA Fitness or other fitness gyms or companies involved in this kind of thing. It's one thing to get the contestants to cook sausages or produce sauces etc. but what would any of them really know about fitness etc.?

Will a future task also involve teaching a new kind of training to under 16 aspiring footballers in the hope that it might lead to England winning the world cup? How about a task involving writing some pop songs for music industry bosses?

In order to keep hold of the viewers with different tasks the Apprentice appears to be veering into areas that are irrelevant to the actual objective of the show and which no contestant is likely to succeed in.

This was a badly thought out task and consequently I'm not really sure that anyone including Duane should have been fired this week.

Not enjoying this series at all. I used to look forward to it but it now seems very stale with people getting the chop just because he does not think they would make a good business partner.

The biggest laugh I had was the series where they went to MACRO bought a big block of cheese then took it to FRANCE to try and sell it

Bring back the good old days ..

I thought it was just me. Not enjoying it and it seems to be really dumbing down with the naff excercise video and everything.

I blame Stuart Baggs.

It was a strange task... Can you really license a fitness class concept to a gym chain? Why would they pay you for an idea you came up with in half a day with no background or expertise. Wouldn't gyms just innovate their own classes?

generally to sell a license you have to have some sort of IP protection, or equipment or personnel, none of which was apparent.

Whole thing just seemed like a badly thought out excuse to get the apprentices to dress up and some free advertising for the big gyms... Virgin Active certainly managed to shoehorn in the message they are family friendly even though it had nothing to do with the candidates pitch.

The entire format is completely undermined by the prize. Basically what they're saying is the tasks don't mean anything, Sugar has already picked his favourites, so we're just jumping through hoops as a way of delaying the inevitable.

Now I know strictly speaking it's always been an 'entertainment show' but at least under the old format the tasks had a point and his decisions had some bearing on what had actually happened. If the winner is decided solely on the business plans it makes a mockery of the whole process.

After the end of last series, in which possibly one of the most incompetent finalists ever was able to win with a business plan that ultimately wasn't even used I just don't think I can watch this show anymore without thinking that there is huge bias involved. After this series I might be able to go as far as to say it is what will kill of the show for good.

I do think there are some other problems as well though that have nothing to do with the change in prize. Firstly, I really just don't think Lord Sugar is that interested anymore. If you watch some of the boardrooms up to Series 5 and compare them to now, you can tell Alan's lost his bite. There are other smaller issues such as the fan favourite Margaret being replaced by the seemingly unpopular Karren, but I don't think it's done that much damage.

Part of me really thinks they could do with giving the show a complete overhaul. Get a new business juggernaut in with new aides, a new boardroom and revert back to the job format. Maybe that would be too risky...

Its far to early to tell if this will rerun the last series. There's no one quite as incompetent as Tom. and most of the types who usually get to interviews are there, alongside more people with design experience and their own businesses than usual. Its not so clear who he is interested in and he may well have a lot more people in mind as possibles - so failing in tasks will play a role selecting. i don't think he's sent anyone who looked like a winner home yet, and a couple of people have traditional apprentice stories where they learn and get better already.

Do they intentionally set out find 16 of the biggest morons in the UK?

Wayne Rooney would probably win this show if he entered it such is the intelligence levels of some of the candidates

:d:d:d

It was credible? Come on, everything on tv is fabricated. Do you think Sugar needs a tv show to find good staff? Do you think he'd ever really want to work with half the goons that have won this show? Not only are the tasks set up for entertainment value but so are the candidates that are chosen. If they get anything out of it from Sugar, that is really secondary to the real premise and just to make it seem genuine.

They should make a 'Carry On Apprentice'.

If only they could get someone to play Sid James ....

I think this change in format is ruining it for me too. We don't know the candidates business plans so we don't know who the strong ones are. We can only go by who Alan doesn't fire in the boardroom.

Then this makes a mockery of the actual tasks because we know that the business plan is playing a large part - but we don't know anything about it!

I can understand why we can't know their business plans because other people can't steal their ideas but perhaps we could be provided with a rating of how keen Alan is in a business plan from the beginning of the series?

Or go back to the old format and just award the winner with a lump sum of money?