I still think he's a strong contestant. He didn't push enough to get his ideas heard, but I have a feeling that Adam wouldn't have got it anyway.

Perhaps this more negative edit was to balance out the very positive one from the Final Five show, to try and keep people interested... who knows.

EDIT: That was also the deal with Tom last year... spotting the problems but not doing anything about it.

I agree. I'm flabbergasted by this Nick hatred all of a sudden. I'm still a fan of his and I think he's still well in contention to win, particularly as he has a business plan that will be presumably suited to LS's technology interests.

Its a DS thing as soon as someone becomes popular on the forum. People who aren't fans dislike them even more than before

He did come across as quite cr@p tonight. Whether that was because he actually was, whether the edit was designed to portray him that way or whether it was a bit of both I'm not too sure.

If it was a particularly bad edit this late in proceedings that doesn't seem a great indicator for the final. Why would they want to show their winner as a supreme @rse coverer and gameplayer (gunning for Jade as the bigger prize whilst not being totally truthful)? Having said that, his edit was very positive on the Final Five programme so it's possible to argue that (as indeed the OP did) that this was done to balance things out. If this was the case though, reaction indicates that production may have misjudged things. Far from merely adding interest in the form of balance, people seem to have turned on Nick in a big way. If he does win now, I can see the reaction being quite negative. I don't think he will win. I've said for a while that I don't think he'll make the final two. This episode has reinforced that for me. Still like him though. One cr@p week does not make a cr@p candidate.

To be fair, I was a bit disappointed with his behavior in the boardroom, which came as unexpected to me. Also, I agree with Adam's assessment that essentially, it felt like everyone was working for themselves (whereas thTom and Ricky made up what they lacked in creative flair with a very cohesive performance, and I have newfound respect for Ricky for the way he's managed that task)

But as has been said, one bad edit doesn't make one bad candidate - he's still my favorite to win because I believe he's the one more likely to have a business plan working well for Lordalan, although I've been intrigued by Jade's since she mentioned it in week 7 as well

He lost it with me when he supported Adam in the board room, despite it being totally clear that he has messed up the task. His integrity his zero.

I think the fact that lots of people are jumping off the Nick bandwagon is down, primarily, to a sheep mentality. I wonder if those same people also believed Adam when he said he was the 'strongest candidate' and stated that all the others were clambering to have him join their team.

Even this evening, arguably his weakest performance, he made a fair amount of valid observations particularly concerning the fact that the branding was too broad. Over the competition he has not only got the best record as the PM but also had a winning reputation; Adam quickly seemed to forget the fact that he was 'giddy' with joy when he selected Nick to join his team.

As I watch the apprentice year by year certain aspects of LS and his aides really start to grate. I now watch each episode with increased cynicism contemplating how a particular decision can either be torn apart (if it flops) or praised as a daring triumph (should it be a success!) within the boardroom. Tonight they argued that Nick should have more effectively bulldozed his ideas through irregardless of the fact that the PM was instantly dismissing them; is this how good business works? You bulldoze your ideas through, regardless of the adversity and frustration of other team members and the team lead?

I thought he was clear on that he said basing it on that task Adam was the weakest but overall he thought Jade was. I get the impression Jade has rubbed people up the wrong way and isnt well liked amongst the contestants

I'm less concerned about his integrity (I don't necessarily blame someone for trying to get rid of the tougher competition - which I think Nick was definitely trying to do - when the stakes are high) than I am that he thought it had a chance of working. If you're going to puncture a hole in your own reputation as a nice, honest posh boy at least let it be for something worthwhile and not a half-@rsed attempt to push the buffoon through whilst eliminating the more serious candidate when it stands less than a snowball's chance in hell of coming off .

You know, that's the kind of reactions that puzzle me every single time, and from what I understand, this is what puzzles the OP also. People sing someone's praise (I am not saying you have, I am talking about a large number of people in general) and how many people have posted to the effect Adam is a prick, Ricky is a (lesser) prick, Jade is annoying and backstabbing, Tom is too arrogant for his own good, but Nick is so nice, and adorable, and he's the only one of that bunch you would ever trust with their money, he's the only one who never puts a foot wrong, etc.

Then Nick puts one foot wrong in this task and vlam, plenty of posts emerge questionning how exactly he's made it this far already and how it was all a fluck - like everything else he's done over the course of the last ten episodes was all forgotten and counted for nothing. Sure, it wasn't a strong performance overall and again, I found his attitude in the BR a tad disappointing. But all the people who think now that Jade and/ or Ricky have become these amazing people of such wonderful integrity all of a sudden should do well and remember that they too have shifted blame and manoeuvred in the BR over the course of the process

Btw, I actually like Jade and I have little against Ricky, I think that this kind of attitude is simply dictated by the show's format. They're just doing what they feel they have to to try and win a great business opportunity - that's something I hope I wouldn't do, but I can see where they are coming from and my own reluctance at that stuff is probably one of the many reasons why I would probably not be successful as a business person: I just wouldn't want it enough. So all the more power to them I'd say

Fair point. I haven't actually ever rated Nick although I didn't dislike him either. However, I somehow had him down in my mind as being intelligent and a character with integrity, so it was a real surprise when he turned against Jade. I also thought it was commercially stupid.

Great post. I've been someone who has supported (and still supports Nick and Jade) and the focus on how great Adam is recently has been nauseating. I think people are too easily led by the edit.

A bad week for Nick - especially his boardroom shenanigans - but he's still a strong contender. I still think it's between him and Tom.

I am put off a little as I felt he was telling a porky when he said the Spa deal last week was more down to himself rather than Jade. It was quite clearly Jade from what we saw.

I still like him though, none of them are perfect.

Yeah, from what we saw - but I did wonder how much that might have been edited to give Jade some credit or likeability.


This, too - only the Final 5 show and the Radio Times article, Nick and Karren and everybody else sung his praises about how he was a nice person, and how Jade said she loved working with him, and how one of his best skills is his peace-making/non-confrontational attitude, grasping that it's a team game, and if your team works well together, then you win.

Now, if he HAD marched up to Adam, shouted at him (because I genuinely think this would have been the only way to get his point across to Adam, who bless him, does seem a bit thick), made a scene, and therefore pissed off his PM, not only would this have caused an unwanted rift within the team but would have been a bad thing to have on your record if he DID end up in the boardroom. "Nick was an unhelpful disruption, Lord Shugah, he didn't like anything I had to say."

I do find it interesting as well that the RT article said one of his only weaknesses was that he had never been in the boardroom. Well, now he has, but he came out alive. They also questioned whether or not he had any cunning, and I also think he showed that last night.

Very true. I recall Tom Pellereau wasn't such a nice guy/sitting duck in the BR either in the later episodes.

The BR scenes are also heavily edited. Laura said that it takes a full day to film the BR and they can be in there for a good 4 hours at a time. Since so little is finally shown in each episode, the editor can easily find clips to show a candidate in a positive or negative light, depending on his brief.

I'm not so sure about that one now..... Last week we saw only Jade talking at the spa - and they were saying no to giving ANY discount at all..... Yet in the next minute they were agreeing to a MASSIVE discount....... We didn't see who said what to change their mind..... And from what was said last night, it appears that Nick DID do something to sway the deal - however it was an edit designed to show Jade in a good light and get her to the final as a credible candidate after her serious cock ups in her previous attempt at being PM.

FrOm the way Ricky and Tom were talking before the others got back - it was clear that they'd have preferred to see Nick go as he was the biggest threat... Buts it's also clear he's popular with them as they were pleased to see him back - more so than Jade.......

I still think that the final will be between Nick and Tom, but it does depend on who has the business plan that
Lord Sugar likes best!

I suppose he needed an episode to come along where he comes across human. So far he's seemed far too competent for his own good.

I think Sugar clearly has a high opinion of him though, having escaped the boardroom because he's good rather than just lucky.

They weren't offering no discount at all - they said they offered discounts at the spa, but not at the level that Jade was suggesting. There then followed an hour long negotiation, after which they agree to go with the rate she initially suggested, clearly talking to her a good 90% of the time at the point the deal is closed. In fact we see the spa woman ask a question that Nick decides he wants to answer, at which point he stumbles over his words until Jade takes over.

He couldn't even hold onto his point in this boardroom. He says he was more responsible, then Jade presses him a tiny bit, and it suddenly becomes "we both did it, it was a joint pitch, it's just my opinion". It's incredibly shifty. He's scrabbling for first-hand examples that Jade alienates people, and he can't do it.

To be fair I've never really liked him, in the first few weeks he was the favourite on here and I didn't even know who he was I thought he'd made that little impact.

I think you're being a bit melodramatic there as I think you'd be hard pushed to find many people who hate him.

Not rating him that highly is an entirely different thing from hating him.

I agree. His turning on Jade really took me by surprise, but then I realised that for him, it was all about removing stronger barriers in his way. Adam was obviously the weakest so it was rather low of Nick to go after Jade.

You're probably right. I was just annoyed at the time at how easily led people are by the edit. One week he's great; he has a bad week and apparently now all the skills he had last week have evaporated. It just annoys me when people can only think as far back as the last episode.

Oh, yeah. No one in the house seems to like Jade. At the start of this episode, one of them said they hoped Ricky would end up with Jade.

But it still doesn't change the fact that it wasn't really necessary for Nick to use that tactic so late in the game. Fair enough if it was done earlier in the series, but at this stage? No. It's their business plans next round, so there was no need for it. Adam, particularly as the PM, was the weakest in this task and he should recognise that, but he refused to.

That's unless he believed Jade's business plan was better than his own. In that case, I understand his tactic but even so, I found his move rather disappointing.

I'll stick with him.