Do you think he has a say in it or is it all the producers job? He's often mentioned parts of his life with some of them with things like "I wouldn't give you anything I wasn't doing at your age" type thing. Anyone know?

No idea, but I would presume Alan would be setting the tasks (that's a guess).

I wouldn't think he invents the tasks. There's probably a load of researchers etc who do that.

I think some of the tasks he sets, particularly in the charity tasks in Series 1 and 2, where the idea of the tasks was to raise money for the Hackney Empire theatre and Great Ormond Street Hospital respectively. But I'm sure he has researchers to help him out.

I don't believe for a second Sugar does anything. Everything he says is more or less scripted, with a bit of ad-lib thrown in. The producers tell him who to fire and who to hire.

It's all entertainment. Even when the candidates are chosen, the producers are behind it all. Do you really think there'd be 12 real business-minded people selected? They're taken on for their personalities, not their knowledge of the world of work.

This answers a lot of questions and makes interesting reading.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016kgww/faq

I agree that the candidates are chosen for the show by the producers based on their entertainment value, but I honestly don't think Sugar takes note of who they tell him to fire. Why would he want to waste money on people just for entertainment?

I know why people think that, it's because the annoyingly loud people tend to stay in the show a long time - but generally, they have something to them that Sugar likes. If it was all entertainment-based, Matthew Palmer, Melissa Cohen and Bilyana Apostolova would have stayed for longer than they did, to name but a few. Besides, there have been loads of past contestants who left feeling quite bitter about Sugar and his decisions (like Karen Bremner, Shazia Wahab and Bilyana). If it was all decided by the producers, why has no one ever come forward and announced that fact? What would they lose if they did? I have no doubt that some elements of the show and its tasks are decided by the producers, but I doubt they tell Sugar who to hire and fire - or if they do, he takes no notice. We've seen in all the media that he doesn't care what they say, he's very outspoken when he's upset with them.