I doubt they expected the women to perform as poorly as they did : Jane was much stronger on paper and in terms of her personal presentation than the utter trainwreck she turned out to be; Laura got overtaken by events outside of her control to a certain extent; Katie could have done better if she'd paced herself more sensibly, not started too slowly than gone hell-for-leather in order to course correct. Maria and Jenna were both out of their depths, but I would guess they were expected to be. Gabrielle outperformed most of her "type" except arguably Lucinda, but not by much and she got lucky to make it as far as she did, likability aside. Bilyana didn't register much for me - she was abrasive and didn't back it up with strong sales like other mouthy Apprentice Sales-Bitches.

Jade is...fine. She's nothing inspirational, and only tends to register any screentime as a Project Manager, but she's no worse than Lohit or Ansell or James or some of the other vaguely pointless males to make Final Five.

As ever, I'm left marvelling at the difference in perceptions of beauty, as to me Laura was more attractive than Katie.

Technically, you are probably right, But Laura's face was strangely immobile and bland whereas Katie had expressions and seemed alive.

Sorry, my mistake. I meant Kate (Walsh) not Katie (Hopkins) although I agree with Penelope Simpson - Laura was sort of "blandly pretty" if that makes sense. In common with a lot of the contestants she had an uninteresting personality (at least on the show).

I was referring to this years Katie - the blonde assassin. Kate Walsh was more attractive than any of this years.

And again personal perception plays a part. I know I'm female but to me, Katie from series 8 is more attractive than either Kate Walsh or Katie Hopkins (who I'd say (while not being unattractive) is rather an acquired taste) and Laura is possibly more attractive than all three and definitely more attractive than either of the latter two.

If you notice, I said that I thought Katie from series 8 was very attractive - she's just not my personal cup of tea. I've said elsewhere that she was one the two who had obviously been cast as the series' eye-candy in order to attract interest. I agree Laura is attractive, but in a kind of boring and not a striking way IMO.

I'd say the gender of the beholder also plays a part in perceptions of attractiveness. In my experience women often have a different idea than most men about the relative attractiveness of other women. The reverse is true with men of course. Many of my male friends are often baffled by some men in the public eye who are perceived as attractive by women - the character with the senile wife in Coronation Street is one example that springs to mind. IIRC he played a character in Hollyoaks and female reviewers and female FMs here were forever banging on about how "dreamy" he was, which I and other guys I know found completely bizarre.

At the end Gabrielle seemed tired and worn down, for which I am inclined to blame Stephen. Her only mistake on the task seemed to be not knowing fish pedicures had become passée. The rest was down to Stephen marginalising her.