Hi, I'm George. I'm new to Digital Spy, but I've been an avid reader of the forums for a long time. One of my favourite TV shows is The Apprentice, so I thought I'd start by looking back on each series, and writing my thoughts on who I think should have won in each case.

Series 1: Miriam Staley (fired in Week 10)
Miriam strikes me as one of the most ordinary candidates The Apprentice has ever had. She wasn't an amazing salesperson like Ruth in Series 2, or endlessly efficient like Helen in Series 7, she was just an ordinary girl who happened to be extremely competent. She only really made one mistake, which was when she spent too much money on cheese in Week 8, but stayed due to past performances. She was fired very unfairly on a shopping channel task, that she had actually done really well on and been praised by everyone for her presenting skills. She is one of only two candidates that Lord Sugar has openly regretted firing later (the other being Liz in Series 6.)

Series 2: Ruth Badger (finished as runner-up)
Ruth certainly deserved to win Series 2. While she was on the losing team many times, she excelled in most of the tasks, and most of all was an amazing saleswoman. We'd already seen one fantastic salesperson in Saira in Series 1, but I think Ruth was even better, and she didn't wind people up like Saira did anyway. I still find it hard to believe Lord Sugar chose Michelle over Ruth...

Series 3: Tre Azam (fired in Week 11)
Series 3 was a difficult one to choose, because I didn't think there were that many really good people in it. I suppose a lot of people think it should have been Kristina, but she never really grew on me, for some reason. I chose Tre though because he was on a lot of winning teams and generally performed very well on the tasks. I've seen Tre compared to Syed in Series 2, but I would much rather work with Tre than Syed. Tre was streetwise, but had a surprising amount of integrity - like in Week 9 when he told Lord Sugar that Jadine hadn't performed because she was feeling unwell, instead of telling him the real reason. He didn't get on with everyone, but I always look at competence over personality. I actually think Katie would have been a worthy winner because she was strong on the tasks - both times she was Project Manager she led her team to a strong win - but Tre has the edge over Katie because despite him being fiery and wearing his heart on his sleeve, he wasn't deliberately spiteful or malicious to anyone.

Series 4: Lee McQueen (went on to win)
Okay, so this is the first time I have thought Lord Sugar made the right decision. Lee was a strong performer, did very well on all the tasks, and is one of only three people from all the series never to have been in the final boardroom after a task (the others are Paul Tulip from Series 2 and Raleigh from Series 6 - and Raleigh doesn't really count, as he left after the first task.) I would have been happy to see Claire win, as there was very little between them, but as I think one of the interviewers said, Lee needed the job more than Claire did.

Series 5: Yasmina Siadatan (went on to win)
Critics of the series said that the wrong person won, and that Kate should have got the job. I disagree entirely, I never really liked Kate. As people have said, she seemed like a robot, and too good to be true. Yasmina, on the other hand, I really liked right the way through (and Series 5 was the first series I watched, so I wasn't at all influenced by the past). Yasmina had an honesty and integrity to her that is quite rare on The Apprentice, and I was delighted to see her win. Even knowing that she gave the job up quite quickly to have children doesn't sour my opinion of her; it might not have been good for Lord Sugar, but in my mind, credit to Yasmina for knowing what would make her happy. Very bright, very cool woman. I hope things are going well for her.

Junior Apprentice, Series 1: Arjun Rajyagor (went on to win)
While there were some other pretty good people in this series, it was obvious to me (and I imagine to most people) that it was between Arjun and Zoe right the way through. Zoe was charming and a very good saleswoman, but she was difficult to work with and didn't seem to have all the talents needed. Arjun, on the other hand, was the complete package. He is one of the few candidates who was both very calculating and very creative at the same time. A deserving winner.

Series 6: Laura Moore (fired in Week 9)
Now this is an interesting one! I'll actually be surprised if anyone agrees with me here, as Laura really didn't stand out as a contender in this series. At no point did I think she was actually going to win, but I would have loved to see her win. I think she was quite underrated really - she was constantly making good points and being ignored (like in Week 6 where she pointed out over and over that the advert had a child using the product, when the product said 'keep out of reach of children'. She was criticised for complaining too much, but she was absolutely right, and if the team had listened, they might have won that task.) Unfortunately for Laura, she was doomed from Week 2, when she was Project Manager and got no orders for the product - and admittedly that was her fault, as she refused exclusivity with Boots. However, people forget that this was an apprentice job - it's not for people who already have it all, it's for people who have good instincts, can learn and have the potential to do really well, and I think that was Laura through and through. She reminded me of a female Tim Campbell. I'm sure had she won, she would have fitted into Lord Sugar's company better than Stella, who ended up suing Lord Sugar for constructive dismissal.

Series 7: Helen Milligan (finished as runner-up)
Out of all the candidates in all the series, Helen deserved to win more than any of them. On the tasks, she was seemingly unstoppable, winning ten tasks out of eleven and usually being a key contributor in the win. I doubt whether anyone will ever again do as well as Helen on the programme. Lord Sugar decided not to go with her because her business plan wasn't very good - but Helen did show that she is flexible enough to change by swapping her business plan for another one. Some people may say that this was desperate, and maybe it was, but in the end, Lord Sugar didn't actually go with Tom's business plan, they changed it afterwards. If Lord Sugar could go with a different business plan with Tom, why couldn't he with Helen?

Young Apprentice Series 2: Zara Brownless (went on to win)
Zara is another one I thought was a very deserving winner. I was bowled over by how calm, articulate, focussed and in control she was. She made a couple of mistakes, but that was inevitable. A lot of people thought that Harry H should have won this series, and while I think that the set-up to Week 7 was very unfair, I don't think it made that much difference to the overall result. Maybe Zara should have faced Harry H in the final instead of James, but I still think Zara was the right person to win. Her plan with what to do with the money was better than Tom's, Helen's and Jim's business plans in Series 7.

Series 8: Nick Holzherr (finished in third place)
Nick was another one who was very strong on the tasks - he was only on the losing team three times across the course of the series, and many of the candidates appeared to see him as a threat. He took a huge risk by being Project Manager in Week 1 - as the Week 1 male project manager is often the first person to be fired - but it paid off, as he led the team to a strong win. However, it's not so much his performance on the tasks that made me think he was such a deserving winner, but his business plan. I thought his business plan was excellent - he'd spotted a fantastic gap in the market, he had a very good idea, and I didn't understand the criticism to it. I would have used his service, and lots of people I know would have done as well. I believe that he's set up this service himself since The Apprentice - I have no idea how Ricky's business is going, I wonder if Lord Sugar wishes he'd gone with Nick?

Well, that's my thoughts. Let me know what you think!

A good case to be made there, though Tim did not steal the win (could have gone either way, probably with Miriam taking Saira's place in the final).



A popular choice, but I have always disagreed with this (having watched it live at the time). Ruth was basically a saleswoman and not much else. Think that a lot support for her was due to the fact that she was a ''normal" woman that one could relate to, unlike Michelle who was a bit too perfect.



Disagree, as Tre was basically a sleazy scammer (with him trying to pimp his company name as team name ). Mind you, he would be preferable to the actual winner that series.




This was a lost series (and probably the worst overall if you were to poll it), as the good candidates (Simon,Sara Raef) were long gone when the final arrived. Then it becomes like picking your favourite turd



Agreed, probably the best winner in all the series, though some critics were likely cross that the hot blond didn't win.



Agreed, though the quality of candidates was low.





LOL Must have missed all those moments when Tim got stroppy and threw a tantrum

I'm sorry, but Laura Moore could have been fired in week 2 and we would not have missed her (she was easily misled by the likes of Baggs and Stella). Do agree with you about Stella, but I think that the job on offer had something to do with that.



Didn't much care for this series, to be honest (missed the last few episodes).




The set-up in the semi-final ruined one of the better (recent) series. My personal favourite was Lizzie.





I can see your point, though some strong candidates had already left the series early (so, not the strongest line-up in the final).

I know... since they changed the format of the series to be a business partner, it's hard to speak for people who didn't get to the final, because we don't know what their plans would have been... if Duane, Katie, Jenna or Gabrielle had got to the final, I might have thought very differently.

Oh, and if you want to see a time when Tim got stroppy and threw a tantrum? Series 1, Episode 9, just after they're told that they can't advertise on the website, Jumbotron, tannoy or pitch... though he had very good reason.

Thanks for your thoughts

Hi George!

Welcome to Digital Spy! Unfortunately, this forum is a bit dead at the moment, but it'll start to flare up soon when Young Apprentice Series 3 starts.
I also love The Apprentice and I'll give you my individual opinion on each of the series.


I agree that Miriam was a very good candidate and certainly she did not deserve to be fired when she was. Sir Alan was looking for a reason to keep Paul that week and I believe that Miriam would have gone no matter what. However, I believe that she would have failed at interviews, as the other 3 candidates were very good.

My personal winner choice would be Saira Khan. She brought so many skills to the role and put so much into the tasks. Not only that, but there was several occasions when she single-handedly won the tasks (Week 3, Week 10 and especially Week 8 spring to mind) She was extremely unlucky to lose both PMships and I still feel as though she was stitched up by the Spurs staff on the second one.


No disagreements from me. Ruth was the obvious winner from start to finish. Brilliant manager, fantastic salesperson, tended to be the strongest performer on task even if they lost. How Michelle won following one of the biggest UTR performances ever is beyond my comprehension.


Sorry, I have to severely disagree on this one. Even if Tre had a degree of integrity, this doesn't highlight his suitability for the job. He definitely wound people up and he was very lucky he was on so many winning teams as he would have ended up in the boardroom more often than not. Winning tasks doesn't mean the candidate is good (Just ask Michelle Dewberry). Tre had some skills, but he was aggressive, naive, indecisive and far, far too arrogant. The best example was the PM loss in Week 9, where he made so many mistakes on task and was saved because he had simply had more airtime. Sorry, but in my view, he was a novelty candidate.

My choice actually would have been Jadine Johnson, who only won one less task than Tre, won twice as PM and was generally underestimated by many simply because she was loud and could be brash. She was emotional, but it didn't interfere with work as much as was quoted (Take the episode where she left. Eclipse got only one appointment as a result of her emotional issues, but Stealth didn't make any either and still won, so it was overplayed) This was highlighted in the final where she was awesome. Her reason for leaving was total rubbish and contradicted his decision to hire Simon. /Rant Over.


Not for me. Forgetting his dislikeable personality, he was competent and did have a lot of skills, but he fell off after Week 9, imo and deserved to be fired at the interviews for lying on his CV and not interviewing very well. Don't forget, despite his good record, he fluffed the Atishoo! pitch in Week 9 and his management of Lucinda in Week 10 was absolutely horrific. However, he did have a lot of skills, especially sales and I wouldn’t have begrudged him a Top 3 finish.

Although Lucinda is my all-time favourite candidate, I would agree with Sir Alan at the time that she wasn’t suited for his organisation. I think on the basis of the series, Claire Young should have won. Many people never forgave her for her appalling treatment of Simon in Week 4, but she did genuinely learn from it, highlighted by how well she managed him in the final. From Week 5 onwards, she ran the show with a good PM win, followed by only one real mistake in Week 7 (the Alex boyfriend incident) and being the only one with any direction in the Week 9 advertising task. However, to be honest, by the final, I wasn’t bothered who won as long as it wasn’t the vile Alex or Helene.


Another one in which I wholeheartedly agree with you on. To say Kate was robbed is doing Yasmina a great disservice. Kate was robotic and I found there was a nasty side to her that seemed to come out when she received criticism. This was particularly evident in her Karren interview during Week 11. Yasmina, on the other hand, had everything: Management, salesmanship, business acumen, creativity, and entrepreneurial flair. She was a frontrunner all the way through and rightly so, even if I did think at the time that Debra Barr’s redemption arc would prevent Yasmina from making the final.

He shouldn’t have won, but I would like to mention James McQuillan, who had far more to offer than just being a funny guy. From Week 3 onwards, he was in the best three performers and that is where he should have finished in my opinion.


Definitely agree with you here. In my opinion, only the Final Four were ever in contention to win. Out of them, Kirsty was the obvious outsider and had really only shown skills in Weeks 3 and 5. Zoe started strongly, but massively tailed off after her PM win. In the art task; she was extremely arrogant and performed badly. Tim was the opposite. He started very poorly, but his PMship for the art task was very good and it propelled him to 2nd. That left Arjun who I felt was articulate, a good manager, creative, good at figures and a good salesman. The right man to win, 100%.


I will be staggered if anyone agrees with this one. Laura was possibly the worst candidate in that series, in my opinion. She was exceptionally lucky to, not only have one boardroom appearance in 8 weeks, but also to even survive that boardroom. Yes, the reason Apollo lost was the horrendous decision not to accept exclusivity from Boots. However, Laura completely failed at any attempt of management in the task and let 7 women walk all over her. Don’t forget, Joanna’s management of the same women the previous week was terrific. From Week 3 onwards, in my opinion, all Laura cared about was covering her own arse for the boardroom. Examples include the battle of Old Compton Street in Week 4, where she whined about individual sales before ranting though Week 6 about the Advertising campaign, just so she could say she disagreed in the boardroom. The incident in Week 8, where Stella was asking for her opinion on crisps was utterly ridiculous as she simply refused to give her opinion for a fear of Stella scapegoating her for it if they lost. The week she got fired she tried to use Lord Sugar’s words about Stella being corporate and even made comments about how Stella had received too much praise for Week 1. Sorry, but in my opinion, she was far too young and out of her depth. She only got as far as she did due to her arse-covering tactics. Anyway, that’s just my opinion.

I would personally have hired Stella. She was the obvious choice all the way through and, though she did have a few off weeks, she was clearly the best there. She had two PM wins, a consistent track record, was able to sell and had more business acumen than the rest of them put together. Chris was the correct choice of finalist, imo, as he did have lots of creativity, managed well both times, could sell, had charisma and was really good in the boardroom (The Week 6 boardroom where he kills Alex is great to watch. I feel that Stella was steadier, though. Joanna did well, but showed too much of her old self in the closing weeks for me to warm to her (particularly Week 10 and her “Scared Woman” act). Liz was horrendously overrated imo. So on the basis of the tasks, the right person won (ignoring what happened later of course).


If it was the old format, I can see where you’re coming from. Helen was extremely competent, good saleswoman, fantastic manager and really only had one particularly bad week (Week 10, the one she lost) and I really did see how good she was. However, she was a bit too much UTR in the first five weeks and tbh, her path was a tad Dewberry-esque (minus the getting pissed PMship!). I think she would have been successful in Lord Sugar’s organisation had she got the job. However, Helen wasn’t an entrepreneur. Yes, she excelled in the tasks, but the tasks didn’t really test the entrepreneurial spark of the candidates. This was highlighted by her business plan at the end. She didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.

In my view, the real winner should have been Susan Ma. She was really talented, a fantastic manager, she could sell, she could stand tall against older candidates and, crucially, she did have an entrepreneurial spark which was all the more valuable given her age. She was naive, but that was rooted in her age and as she gets older, she will learn more and more. The edit was very unkind to her in several instances. The most obvious one was in Week 4 where she got no credit for pretty well making all of Zoe’s decisions for her, whilst in the same week, she got lambasted for “not selling”. However, looking closely at the episode, Zoe bought around £600 worth of merchandise and she only had £100 left, so she must have sold the majority. She was criticised in Week 8 as well for her “Do the French like their children?” which was blown so much out of proportion it was ridiculous. She explained her reasons well in the boardroom, but nobody listened. It is evident Lord Sugar realised this as he later went into business with her and I think she’ll make more than Tom will. One of my all-time favourite candidates.


Zara deserved her place in the final, but she had significant ups and downs along the way. She owned the flowers and deodorant task, but messed up in Week 4, selling nothing at the Over-50s show and then in Week 6, driving to Croydon to purchase an 8-carot gold pocket watch. She displayed much confidence and a lot of boardroom fight, so there were good times, particularly the floristry task. However, she was too inconsistent for me to feel as though she should have won.

Harry H was great on the other hand. Though he lost both tasks as PM, he was the stand-out candidate from start to finish. He led well, sold well, was generally competent and often the person behind task wins. Examples include persuading Lizzie to hike up flower prices, selling a huge amount of Maxivacs to win the Over-50s task and delivering a great pitch to advertising experts for the deodorant task. The ridiculous nature of the Week 7 task meant that yes, I do feel he was robbed. I really don’t understand why they didn’t have an extra week so there was a Final Four in the final. Anyway, I’m going off-topic. Harry H was my winner and I’m really looking forward to the next series of the Young Apprentice.


Another one which I agree with you on. I always thought Lord Sugar didn’t like Nick and in the final, he was looking for an excuse not to invest with him. I agree; it was a good gap in the market that he found and exploited and he received far too much criticism. I wasn’t overly unhappy that Ricky won as he was very good for the later weeks and, from the sounds of it, his business plan was very, very good. Nick and Tom were the stand-outs for me and Tom fell off the radar in the weeks after his PM loss. Altogether, I felt Nick was a model of consistency. As I’m sure Sherlock Holmes is aware, I also liked Jade, but I felt as though she couldn’t win after losing as PM in Week 7. She never really recovered, in my view.

So that’s my view. My winners would be:

1. Saira Khan
2. Ruth Badger
3. Jadine Johnson
4. Claire Young
5. Yasmina Siadatan
6. Stella English
7. Susan Ma
8. Nick Holzherr
JA. Arjun Rajyagor
YA. Harry Hitchens

Sorry for the long post!

Well, that and the fact that until then her most memorable point was drawing a penguin





Think that most people liked both Saira and Ruth because they were brash and made themselves heard loud and clear. (it's no surprise they ended up in the media afterwards just like Kate Walsh). However, I stick with the statement that the correct people won the BBC2 show (the resentment that Michelle gets has me baffled until this very day).

Most of the other choices seem ok, except obviously Jadine with her Eclipse obsession Wasn't it Tara in the American version who picked up her bags and just left the show without saying goodbye (those 2 exits always look very alike to me, and not just because both are black women).



My choices would be:

1. Tim Campbell
2. Michelle Dewberry
3. Kristina Grimes
4. Raef Bjayou
5. Yasmina Siadatan
6. Liz Locke
7. nobody
8. Ricky Martin

It was Verna I believe. I watched US Apprentice Season 3 recently and Tara got fired as PM in Week 6.

Jadine never resigned - she was desperate to stay in and she was very committed. I don't feel the Eclipse obsession was an overly bad thing, it showed her desire to build up a brand, which can surely only be a good thing?

But me and you have never seemed to agree on female candidates!


I liked Tim, but I can't think of anything he did overly brilliantly. Kristina was certainly great and was a close second for me in Series 3. Raef was a good candidate, but seemed to lose his skills whenever he was around Michael! 100% agree on Yasmina, Liz got a bit overhyped following the Mothercare pitch imo and even if she had survived the Baggs fiasco, I really don't think she'd have outlasted any of Joanna, Chris or Stella. Ricky, again I can't overly disagree with, I certainly didn't begrudge him the win anyway.

If you had to pick a Series 7 winner, who would you pick?

With the exception of Stella, I would have been happy to see any of these people win - particularly Susan, who I agree was very underrated and was my second favourite after Helen. I didn't actually think Helen was under the radar - lots of people say they didn't notice her until Week 6, but I did. I noticed her before the series even started - her image really stood out in the press photo of the candidates, because she had a bright red dress and a confrontational expression, so I thought, 'Aha! She'll be this year's alpha-b*tch!' So I made an effort to look out for her, she didn't appear to be like that at all, and by the second episode, I wanted her to win. So to me, it was very exciting that she seemed to be unstoppable in later tasks, and I was very disappointed that she didn't win.

I totally get what people have said about Tre as well - Series 3 was the hardest to choose because there wasn't really anyone I really liked in it, and to me Tre was just the best of a bad lot. I would choose any of my favourites from other series over Tre.

Go with Miriam. I think Lord Sugar has said he sees firing her as a mistake - which is about as near as can get to saying anything more.

Riuth was primarily a sales woman with a particular manner and not many team wins on the show despite her own efforts. The manner might not have translated to all markets or overseas. Michelle has wider talents . The job that series required someone with those wider talents, an ability to work up contracts overseas and experience setting up a business working in a high technology field. Michelle had experience of doing all that succesfully and demonstrated much of it on the show.

Certainly not Tre - Del Boy minus. Not a great choice. Kristina has the better show record. Simon has an accent that may fit the job more in Sugar's view.

Lee was terrible right down to the terrible interviews and the imaginative CV at the end which claimed intellect he didn't possess. Its another one where the job (selling to male London underground types) shapes his winner and he avoids the risk of someone who is probably more capable but might be even more dangerous. I would have taken the risk and gone with ability given both had lots of drive.

Yasmina over Kate didn't make much sense, Yasmina had some of the biggest mistakes in apprentice history to her name. His argument about wanting someone who had started their own business was koed by the point made at the interviews about the businesses success, and that it wasn't her money at risk, and his argument about not wanting corporate people looked like not wanting a high flyer as the job was naff.

On Junior Apprentice, Arjun didn't do much for the win. The last two both never even won as PM and got there from a pretty arbitary semi final. The winner on ability probably should have been one of Kirsty, Zoe, Emma or even Hannah who all had better records.

Series six was just silly. Chris got credit for a lucky guess and was still unconvincing even after a late run of wins. . Stuart was kept in over Liz for talking complete nonsense - a week before Lord Sugar realised it was complete nonsense Thats acknowledged as his silliest decsion ever - probably by Lord Sugar himself. Stella had the best record and life journey story, but arguably other people went for her errors. Laura probably should have stayed the week she went because she did spot what they were doing wrong , and Liz probably should have won. The problem again though was the prize which was a non job and not one you could give to a really strong winner who would get better offers.

Series 7 also ended in sillyness. Tom was the weakest candidate seen in ages. useless at almost everything. But he had a nail file - which in the kingdom of the idealess made him king. Helen should have won on any normal series - but had no winning plan. The best winning plans may have come from someone who went earlier because of Tom's incompetence - most notably Zoe who had a small business already running. Of those left later on, Susan probably should have won this series. All the problems supposed to exist with her proposal vanished when Lord sugar decided to back her later, she had a record of success, and did much better on task than Tom. A case of taking the safe option, not having many on offer, and lacking the courage he found later to back the gem on offer.

The Young Apprentice had a more realistic prize and criteria and produced a strong winner. James spoke in hyperbole and his computer game design and final interview performance were horribly naive. Harry H was steady and competent - but had a terrible winning record. Lizzie had merit and might have got further. Zara has a credible business ongoing and her ability to do what she says she can had been tested specifically in several tasks. She's also remarkably articulate. You end up with an interview where James rambles on about his best O level in Northern Ireland (completely, pompously, oblivious to the fact that Zara is a straight As student too) and then says he wants to use Lord Sugar's money for academic study - worse still studying economics. You then get the best, quickest, assassination in apprentice history. Before the red mist has even formed in Sugar's eyes , Zara pops up and points out that theory is fine, but she has actually done something and is proposing to do something more with the money. Right argument, right target audience - win.

Series 8 and we are back to the flawed prize dictating a flawed winner - with little choice left by the end. Ricky was safe but unexciting. Tom should have gone weeks before and offered a politically toxic hedge fund that Sugar couldn't sensibly or politically support- and which was akin to giving Tom money to go to a casino. Nick had an idea which Lord Sugar, probably rightly, thinks has no purpose. Again I think the realistic ideas were probably with people who went earlier - Gabrielle or Laura might well have had something tangible and viable. Katie's idea would have been interesting, amd Bilyanna and Maria both might have been interesting if he hadn't got rid of them much too early for dubious reasons.

Yasmina only made one mistake, the Sandalwood one. The bit at the interviews was put away by both Karren (as one of Claude's colleagues as interviewer, not as Lord Sugar's righthand woman) and Lord Sugar as nonsense (her mother knew what she went in for).

Yasmina would probably easily top the poll as most deserving Apprentice winner (with Stella as second), even most Kate fans at the time were satisfied with the end result.




Liz really dodged a bullet that series (think that Stella has gotten a worse name after the show then even Michelle). Chris's biggest win was on Liz's credit :yawn: and Stella was really poor in the second half of the series (from wrongly branding DVD's to being a lousy tour guide to trufflegate).



In hindsight it was a very weak series, can't even root for a win from the fearsome threesome of ladies (who were at eachother's throat in the beauty care task).

Helen was Liz mark II (without doing much for the first half of the series and not having her persistence), Zoe was constantly nagging someone and Susan was too busy playing the victim.

What was the whole DVD branding thing?

Why did you dislike Series 7 so much? It was one of my favourite series, I found the characters a lot more credible than on most series, and it didn't have so many idiots. Out of the final four, three of them (Susan, Helen and Tom) were people I really liked, and even Jim had his moments. Even the people who went early had done some okay things in the series... Alex, Gavin, Felicity, Ellie and Edna all had their heads screwed on right.

Oof, really? I'd have contended that, not only was the reaction of the Spurs staff kind of justified, but it stitched up their opposition a lot harder than it stitched up Saira. She lost that task purely through force of will. She sold at people - which I'd say was a flaw throughout all her tasks. She talks at people, not with them. Sometimes works, sometimes it's right the place, and it did her proud on some very exceptional wins... but! Nobody but nobody looks at the woman with the loudhailer and goes "Yes, I think I'd like what she's selling." Strategy flawed from the start. I wasn't impressed by Saira at all that week.


Jadine... I didn't like from week one, I'm afraid. The branding nonsense was exactly that. There is no earthly reason to get that antsy about branding when you're not going to get repeat service anyway. Your business won't exist tomorrow - yelling at her teammates because they didn't sprinkle a nice shape onto their foam really, profoundly soured her for me. This is probably more my problem than Jadine's, though - I was irritated from the bat, probably never gave her a fair evaluation when she, presumably, went on to do a lot of things that I might've praised candidates I liked for. I'll have to take your word for it, though.


Here, however - agreed, completely! Even in the task that lost them the Young Apprenticeship, I think Lizzie, Harry H... and, hell, kind of Harry M came out very well. And I wasn't particularly convinced by Zara in the deodorant task, either. For a creative, the ad seemed fairly... bland, insubstantial. Vanity at least took a few risks, many of which, I'd have argued, paid off.

Quite liked the novelty of firing someone from a winning team, but even Lord Sugar was quite vocally disappointed with the week seven result. I'd wanted any combination of Lizzie, Harry H and James in the final. At least one of them made it!

--

My calls would've been along the lines of...

1. Miriam Staley
(Though Tim was fine too!)

2. Ruth Badger
(With Ansell Henry a close second.)

3. Naomi Lay
(What is it with week ten?!)

4. Lee McQueen

5. Yasmina Siadatan

J1. Arjun Rajyagor
(But I supported Tim at the time.)

6. You know? I'm having a lot of trouble deciding. In a sea of slightly average candidates, I might have even gone "hell with it!" and given the win to Stuart. Lots of cock-ups, lots of bluster... but he tried hard, showed glimmers of exceptional ability, and I think Bordan's "fully licenced" shtick was actually kind of forced. Stuart was very up-front about what his company provided, and yet the interrogation went, "Are you licenced to provide this service?" "Of course not, I don't sell it." "THAT MAKES YOU A LYING LIAR."

7. Tom Pellereau.
(But everyone in the final four could've won with no real complaints from me. I'd have been a little grumpy about Helen just because she was kind of boring and I think as lucky as talented, but she was still talented, and they were all great. I am not at all surprised that Lord Sugar joined Susan's business.)

Y1. Lizzie Magee.
(By a single red hair over Harry Hitchens and James McCullagh.)

8. Ricky Martin.
(Though I'd have loved Gabrielle Omar to have won, too.)

--

Also! Week and a bit to go, see if anyone can pick a winner from this lot..!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woHdx-aSLbM

You wanted Naomi to win? Why was that? She certainly shouldn't have been fired in the week that she was, but I didn't think she was a winner.

Still, I'll listen to your opinion, even if I don't agree with it. I'm just curious as to why you liked her... but I'm used to having opinions that no one else agrees with. I've never met anyone who agrees with my opinion about Laura Moore, for example.

But she was intelligent and had a lot of business acumen. Yes, so was Tim, but he never demonstrated much selling prowess and make fundamental mistakes (Nearly sinking the task for Impact in the Ian Wright pitch in Week 7 for example). Week 9 was undoubtedly Saira's low point (though I'll admit she didn't cover herself in glory with the Macman), but Matt House acted superior and arrogant from Day 1 and behaved in, as far as I could see, a very unprofessional manner (Not unlike bloody Marigay McKee, but thats another story ). When Spurs pulled the plug, at least Saira tried bloody hard to get the task to work, unlike Raj who was standing around handing fliers out, not really trying.
It was, for me, the way she single-handedly won Week 8 for me that was impressive. Raj was really, really lucky he had her on his team that well and she sold in a really nice way as well.


I guess, but I just can't take someone thinking commercially and trying to create a brand as a negative. She was a great manager, imo, considering she had to manage Tre twice and did a fantastic job on the advertising task. Tre would have been a nightmare to manage in Week 1, just look at how he acted in the first episode. I think she was thrown as she was going to manage the women, but was thrown over to manage 7 men with huge egos (not an easy task for anyone!)


I agree! Though I hated him at the time, I even think Harry M displayed a lot of very good skills in hindsight. He deserved to finish in the Top 3. Lizzie was good, but Harry H was more consistent for me, but I'm sure that's just down to personal preference.


Miriam was my favourite candidate in terms of personality, but I maintain she wouldn't have got beyond the interviews.


Completely agree. At least Ruth managed well both times she PMed. Michelle spent half her first PMship getting pissed in the VIP room!


Noooo! Sorry, I appreciate its your opinion, but honestly one of the most overrated candidates of all time for me. The opinion of her was over-inflated because she didn't deserve to go the week that she did and even that was no Miriam. She was absolutely abysmal when she was PM and then she tried to heap every single task fault, including Gerri's terrible locations on Jadine. She had some presentation skills, but horribly overrated for me.


Still think Claire Young should have won, simply because she was more competent, but don't begrudge Lee his spot in the Final 2 (if only because the alternative, Alex/Helene, was so bad!)


Agree, possibly my favorite candidate of all time!


He was the obvious winner, but Tim did grow into the process from Week 4 onwards.


Hahahaha, I still don't understand what was so wrong with Stella though, if you forget what happened later, she was head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the Series 6 candidates.


Didn't have a big issue with Tom winning like everyone else, just thought Susan was better and was justified considering they are currently in business together as well.


Can't disagree, but see above.


To be fair, I think he was a deserving winner (and I did like Gabrielle), but just liked Nick and Jade (so sue me) better.


OMG Thank you! Didn't realize a trailer was already out!

LOL! Ansell Together with Lohit I always forget these kind of candidates (who somehow reach the interview stage and you just think who the f*ck are you :yawn.



She was a hottie, but think that her business assets weren't in her brain (if you know what I mean ). LOL at Kristina convincing her to go with the kiss-o-gram idea

Series 1 - James Max, I think he was by some way the most competent.

Series 2 - Ruth Badger although I dislike that since she was essentially just a more competent Ansell and a winner should have some sort of pizazz rather than just incremental; superiority.

Series 3 - Naomi Lay; Tre was the most competent but couldn't work for someone, Simon was urggh, Katrina was a one trick pony & Katie wanted to tell people about Jay. Naomi had the most general inteligence and best judgement.

Series 4 - Shaza Wahab

Series 5 - Yasmina, Best project manager by results on the show I think?

Series 6 - Stella other than Jamie, who fizzled out, the only one with any competence plus a willingness to go out of her comfort level. That said, I wanted Stuart to win first time I watched it, which shows what a bad bunch they were.

Series 7 - Susan Ma, the whole package and though flawed they were flaws that one can grow out of us and that experience can cover up.

Series 8 - Ricky Martin, though one of the three generalists in the Final Four, he was probably the most skilled and the way that he played The Apprentice in order to get onto the show shows a cunning that neither Tom or Nick could match.

J1 - Arjen
J2 - Hayley Forrester, I think she showed the most maturity as a candidate.

How can you know this?

We didn't see enough of her to see whether she would of won or not.

Aha - Naomi not popular!

I think the reason I'm more fond of her than the rest of you, perhaps, could be that by the time I started to really notice her, I'd completely forgotten about her first few weeks. Because within the context of the final six... Lohit did nothing, Tre was kind of a loose cannon, Katie Hopkins was too much of a Katie Hopkins, so they were completely out for the count.

Kristina had never made much of an impact on me either way, Simon seemed decent but quiet and perhaps a little arrogant, whereas Naomi seemed constantly cool, composed, and certainly deserved to carry on at least to interviews.

Naomi had spent the past few weeks not shining, but certainly shining amongst her competitors. Again, though - I only watched it once, and going by the responses I wonder if I might've been, er, not quite impartial enough.


Nothing wrong with her at all - just never felt anything was particularly right with her, either!

I think I might've been set against her from the second task, where everyone cooed over how well she was able to whip her team into shape and sell... 100 units. She only did marginally better than Laura, and had a far more co-operative team behind her. I think that was a victory by default, honestly. She was a fine candidate, often good, and deserved to get as far as she did, but I don't really think she was any more or less outstanding than many of the other candidates. I'm not entirely sure what she had that Chris or Jamie or Liz hadn't.


Agreed on the first bit, I think Tom did himself proud throughout the process - and most of his losses were down to people not listening to him. He could have averted most if not all of his losses if only the team would've listened to him - which, sadly, includes his loss as project manager.

Aaaaand agreed on the second bit, to an extent! I think Tom proved he was the man to start a new business with, though, which is what that series was about. He was the right man to invest in. I believe Lord Sugar joined Susan's existing business, rather than starting a new venture with her, which she absolutely deserved, but it's just slightly to the left of what that series was aiming to achieve.

That was a fantastic final four, though. All the candidates had huge, massive strengths. Of the other two, Jim was a whirlwind of charisma - I've never seen a better or more impressive salesman in all my life - and Helen had the best-organised mind I've ever seen on the Apprentice. Any of them could've won for different reasons, but Tom proved himself as the right person to start a new business with, I think.

I see Kyle's point actually... Shazia may have been fired early on, but I think she came across as being a very strong candidate. I think if she hadn't been fired that week, she would have gone quite far in the series... whether or not she would have won can't be said, but apparently there weren't many candidates in that series that were liked by people on here, so I can see why someone would choose Shazia. My personal favourite was Sara, I think she could have done much better on the tasks if she wasn't being bullied by the others. The first couple of tasks she seemed a lot stronger than in the rest of it.

I sent Shazia an email telling her that I didn't think she should be fired, and she replied and was really nice about it.

LOL! Even though that sentiment was present at the time of airing of the show (on the forum), she seemed like one of the weaker candidates and would have been fired soon anyway (certainly in this vulture group).

I do agree with you on Sara, who got praise from Nick in the infamous Marakesh episode and got fired a week later (over the incompetent Michael and PM Helene)

Series 1: Tim Campbell (went on to win)
Series 2: Ruth Badger (runner-up)
Series 3: Tre Azam (fired week 11)
Series 4: Lucinda Ledgerwood (fired week 11)
Series 5: Yasmina Siadatan (went on to win)
Series 6: Chris Bates (runner-up) OR Liz Locke (fired week 10)
Series 7: Susan Ma (3rd place/fired week 12)
Series 8: Tom Gearing (runner-up)

Junior 1: Kirsty Cleaver (3rd/4th place/fired week 6)
Junior 2: Harry Hitchens (fired week 7) OR Lizzie Magee (fired week 7)

The semi final 'twist' really ruined Junior Apprentice 2 for me. Zara and the two above were my favourites so to see Harry who was, in my opinion, the most competent as well as Lizzie go; despite having the better product, based on ONE companies decision... Was a bit unfair, to be honest... I could've lived with a double elimination and Lizzie going but Harry really deserved to win. He was head and shoulders above everybody else.

I agree that the semi-final was really unfair and disappointing, and I hope they don't have the same format this year. Having said that, I think that if he had just chosen four people to fire based on all the tasks, the result would have been very similar. I think Harry M, Lizzie and Haya would all still have been fired. Harry H might have got into the final in place of James, to have a Harry H/Zara finale - but I still think Zara would have won, I supported her from early on.

Series 1 - Tim was probably the right choice, though James would also have been worthy.

Series 2 - I'm actually going to go against the grain here and say that Paul would probably have been the best choice for Sugar. Michelle was clearly the wrong choice, and to be honest I think Ruth would have gotten bored and walked out fairly quickly. Aside from those two, Paul was the most consistently solid candidate from that year.

Series 3 - Based purely on the series, Kristina was clearly the person who should have won. However, since Simon worked quite productively for Sugar for three years, it's hard to argue that hiring him was the wrong choice.

Series 4 - Either Lee or Claire would have been worthy winners, though considering Lee kept the job for two years while Claire quit her job with Karren Brady after only a couple of weeks, Lee was probably the right choice.

Series 5 - Yasmina was absolutely the right winner - though Kate would definitely have also been a worthy winner, and arguably even Debra or Howard. A pretty strong bunch from this year, even with the likes of Noorul and Pantsman.

Junior Apprentice 1 - Arjun was probably the most deserving since he was the one most on the same page with Sugar, but Zoe was a very close second IMO. Had her team won the final task, she would easily have been a deserving winner.

Series 6 - Again, I'm going to go against the grain and say that Joanna should have been hired, as she was a very strong candidate overall and could probably have benefited enormously from working with Sugar if she kept her attitude in check. Stella was completely overqualified in retrospect, and Chris would have been a solid but unexceptional choice.

Series 7 - Susan should probably have won based on her overall performance and having the best business plan, but her performance in the interviews proved that she wasn't ready for prime-time. In retrospect it was probably for the best that Tom got to go into business with Sugar right away, and Susan got some more experience under her belt.

Young Apprentice 2 - No contest; Zara so completely blew away everyone else it wasn't funny. Disregarding her it would be a toss-up between James and Haya, and I would give the former the edge based on him being a better project manager.

Series 8 - Honestly, any of the final three guys would have been deserving winners, though I would just give the edge to Ricky given that he was the most experienced and apparently had the best plan.

Honestly, a very unique opinion to say the least (there is a reason why there was such an uproar at the semi-final result; not because your three favourite candidates won the task).

Something cannot be very unique, there aren't degrees as to how unique something is. Something is either unique, or it's not.