I would have guessed that the successful shop owners would be presenting pretty viable palns to expand - but he might not want to be involved in restaurants, beauty, weddings and the like. But on the other hand he was pretty unlikely to ever go for Nick, Tom or Jade's proposal. that suggests he may have just run the show to see what he could egt and hoped for one good offering , or he kept one back to the end, or he decided early on that there was only one he wanted and got it.

Reasons why the fall in ratings (just my opinion, of course)....

New format of show - this series and the previous series - is inferior to old format.

Old format was based on ability throughout all of the tasks. Tom, last year's winner, proved winning or losing tasks was irrelevant. Sugar was hypnotized by Tom's job description - an inventor - and kept him on the show even though he was, based on the stats, *the all-time worst winner*:


The final episode is less exciting than the old format's final episode. We all know the interview task is just an easy way for the candidates to get humiliated. Sure, this was fun to watch series ago but it's become old hat. It's very pantomime.

The original 'final episode' format brought back several candidates to work with the final two and this made it feel like a joint effort. The task was to create a product and pitch it to 'industry experts'. They still do this task but I think it works better as a final episode when you bring back the other candidates.

Repetition - After seven previous series the show is not exactly reinventing itself. The tasks are the same as before. One suggestion could be a time limit. A task is split into two sections and if a candidate fails to achieve a certain goal by the end of the first half they're eliminated from the second. This automatically puts them up for being fired.

Another idea could be Alan Sugar participating in a task. All he does is turn up in the morning, explains the task, says "good luck" then off he goes to play golf or use Twitter. Why not use him on an actual task? Perhaps the team has a challenge such as this...

Sugar explains the task:

"I am going to be at this location (in London) at three pm. You have to get products X, Y and Z and deliver them to me at 3pm. The first team to do so wins the task, the other teams loses, and in that team one of you will get fired."

I'm sure that task would work and it's something new.

I really think its due to the bank holiday and the jubilee - people going down to London to watch the boat parade etc.

As far as I'm aware, the ratings for the other episodes this series are more or less in line with previous series so, I definitely don't think its had its day. The only issue I had with this series was several bewildering firings (Jane, Duane, Katie etc.) and the outcome in the final. Apart from that, I had no issue with this series and I'll continue to watch it next year.

Leaving aside the fact that you're comparing apples and oranges (those figures account for timeshift, whereas the ones we've heard for this year's final don't as yet) I was talking about the series as a whole. This year's first episode got 7.6m viewers, nearly the same as what Series 6's first episode got.


(emphasis mine)

This seems to be quite a common assumption, and one I don't agree with - that if Lord Sugar isn't basing his outcome solely on the task results, he can't basing it on the task results at all. In actual fact, aside from Helen the only time the person with the best track record in the tasks made it to the final two (to say nothing of winning) was with Michelle in Series 2. And the person she beat out in that final, Ruth Badger? Had a near-identical track record to Tom, the only difference being she managed a win as task manager (though lost her first try).

I really meant the best of the final 4 rather than best of the whole bunch of candidates

I for one really enjoyed this series too but im also a huge fan of the show.

Also in terms of the characters, it was unfortunate we lost some of the more seemingly entertaining characters early on - the likes of Maria/Biliyana. But i still think it was an enjoyable run

If we're just going on number of tasks won, then you'd have to include Stella along with Michelle. Both tied for the highest number of task wins with somebody else in their series (7 tasks).

Personally I'd go for a move overall look at records (including PMing and Boardroom appearances) rather than just counting task wins, but it comes out to the same number of people : Lee, Yasmina and Helen rather than Michelle, Stella and Helen.

I'm not surprised at all. My partner stopped watching halfway the series. The candidates were poor this year.

Main reason, the stupidity of scheduling the final for a Bank Holiday Weekend, with the Queens Jubilee to boot meant that the final would lose viewers, why this couldn't be scheduled for the normal Wednesday with an 8pm start rather than 9pm for the extra hour beggars belief?

I think the series has been poor, i'm getting fed up with the editing which looks like one team strolling to an easy win, only to end up losing.

Whilst we don't know the Business plans of the candidates, Lord Sugar will know of there Business plans, & i do think some candidates were fired because of that rather than what they done in the task.

If it's OK for the Junior Apprentice, why is the investment idea not OK for the main series? They can't go back to the job because that prize became a joke. The job had become meaningless and people were coming on the show just to get publicity for a media career.

A lot of people find the interview round really entertaining, the truth and lies exposed, etc. It certainly wasn't flat. It's a good way to finish the series, as it means it's not just Lord Sugar's opinion which determines the outcome, the interviewers have a big say. The old style final task between the top two candidates was no better, and often worse.

Lack of interest is not to do with the prize change, but with what has not changed. The editing each week has become predictable, there's not a lot new to show either. People need to accept that it's never going to be as exciting as when it first came on. It's gone a bit stale, but tinkering around to try and freshen it up could ruin the whole thing. It might be losing some viewers, but it still seems to work well enough. Imagine how bad it would be if they brought in Big Brother style "twists."

I agree. Changing it is not the answer. If it's not working, don't try to fix it in this case - you'll probably just smash it to bits - scrap it and move on. Or keep it the same and accept it's going to have lost some of its original sparkle (and fizz?!) but still has the potential to entertain. Mind you, I speak as a rarity - someone who actually enjoyed this series more than the last.

As regards the original question, there are a lot of factors to take into account; the jubilee weekend being just one of them. Looking at twitter though, there do seem to be a hell of a lot of individuals who've been "catching up" on The Apprentice Final over the last couple of days.

I don't understand this argument. The function of the editing is to impose a narrative structure so that the events of a day (or longer) can be easily reduced to around 30 minutes. It's not like Match of the Day where the viewer can has to know the score at any point in the game, it's about telling a story and then finding out the result afterwards.

The whole theory around editing seems misguided to me; unless the winner is genuinely decided before the series begins, how can the edit be biased? It may show one team or one candidate in a better or worse light during a particular task, but at the time the edit's done the editor doesn't know who's going to win the final, do they? Or are people saying they do?

I gave up on the series half way through and know others who switched off too. The programme's tired and predictable and should really bow out before it becomes even worse if that's actually possible.:sleep:

The edit will certainly not be done until a significant part of the series has been filmed, maybe not even until the final. By that time, the producers will know what the "narratives" for each contestant are (including whatever flaws lead to them being fired), and foreshadow them accordingly...

I think the key problem with the editing this year (though it's been happening for a while now), is that the results are being "reverse-telegraphed", i.e. the team that looks like it's losing during the task always ends up winning, also emphasised in the boardroom, when the team whose results are announced last almost always wins...

I agree they shouldn't telegraph the outcome, but then surely "reverse-telegraphy" is a way of avoiding that by making it less obvious who's won?

I think a show like The Apprentice needs to evolve or sooner or later it will be decommissioned. I think it's worth the producers or whoever is responsible for coming up with tasks thinking up some new ideas. As mentioned, Sugar being involved in a task could work. Just try some new approach.

I think the finale needs a bigger oomph factor. It's a reality tv show so make the end a bit more, I dunno, exciting.

The same here, the tasks are getting to be very similar.

Design an product task:check
Food task:check
Advertsing/marteking etc: check
Buying task:check

I miss the shopping telly tasks and the big final task too. Also, the prizes for the winning teams were dire this year, yes, yes, times are hard, but I was fully expecting the prize one week to be not having to clean up the studio at the end of the day.

That and casting was bad this year.

Roll on Junior Apprentice.

I found to many of the candidates to be very similar. That made it boring as far as I was concerned.
Usually, there is one really annoying person that drives me nuts but makes it entertaining.

They should just get rid of the prizes for the winning team because they are usually rubbish.

I liked the look of that Segway riding session.

The thing that always annoys me is how they are chauffeured everywhere. They should spend the hire car budget on prizes and require the candidates to use public transport unless the task takes them outside London.

I did miss that there wasn't the buying 10 items task[Marrakesh anyone] as well as the Shopping Channel task. I do think there's a place for the Interviews but that should be the round before the final, & not the final. Imo the final for me is been a bit of an anticlimax anyway considering the task is a bit meaningless & LS would have made his mind up who to hire before then.

The other thing i have missed, there was no The Apprentice Lego on Youtube for series 8.

I agree with a lot of the comments here. I also don't think it helps that none of the winners has stayed with Alan Sugar very long and some of them, such as Stella, have even fallen out with him. Rather than going for the "characters", they should actually try and get some capable people, not wannabe reality TV stars. As people have already said, the tasks are getting samey, the deceptive editing is becoming predictable, and the prizes for the winning team were underwhelming. And most of the time it seems to be both teams doing badly, but one doing less badly. It would be nice for it to be a real competition for a change.

Paul Tulip


(same amount of losses, but better PM record)

The elephant in the room was the Thames pageant and related jubilee celebrations on Sunday which must've effected viewing numbers, and of course the next day was a bank hol. so many people would've been out on town.

Personally I've always liked the interview episodes but the apprentice is dated and I don't think the actual prize is substantial. Has any former winner done anything with SAS worth talking about? Then there were the stories of winners leaving him. I'd like to see a fixed prIze offered like a guarentted £250k investment without any involvement from SAS.