Now that the current series of The Apprentice is well under way, we think it's the perfect time to start the third series of Digital Spy: Apprentice!

The basic format differs little from the TV show: 12+ candidates are split into two teams, each followed one of my two aides (Satanel and Gav 2.0). The teams are given a task in which they must work together to complete. One team will win and, of course, on the losing team, someone will be fired. The tasks can range from a scavenger hunt (always a favourite) to creating new, daring concepts possibly a TV show or movie. There will be roughly one task a week to allow for some flexibility due to candidate's schedules.

If you're interested in taking part, please post in this thread and PM me and we'll organise it with you! Please include a few sentences explaining why you think you'd be the perfect candidate for me!

If you're interested in learning more about the kinds of tasks you may be assigned, all tasks for series 2 are contained here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1646255

A standard boardroom can be found here: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1655013

We look forward to hearing from you!

How excitous!

The past two series' have been amaze.

Woop woop! DSA has always been my favourite DS game Always loads of fun! Can't wait for this!

I'm quite looking forward to this

Hang on, there is an issue with this: we have been planning this as well! Nick (who won Virtual Apprentice earlier this year) is planning another Digital Spy Apprentice, and myself and Eliza (as we came second and third) are going to be the advisors. We already have all the tasks designed.

Obviously I'm only an advisor so I'm not really the right person to discuss this with. I'll get Nick (winter99) over here ASAP to get this sorted out.

There have been separate DS Apprentices going on. This one last year was won by Strictly Irish. I don't see why the two couldn't run separately.

I suppose they could, I'm just a bit worried that it might get confusing for the viewers if there were two on at the same time. We are planning to start ours at the end of June, so pretty soon.

Anyway, I'm not the one that you should negotiate with on this; Nick is in charge of our group, I'm just making sure people are aware of the situation. I'd request that the original poster doesn't move forward with this until they have spoken to Nick and reached some kind of agreement. I have made him aware of what is going on, so hopefully he'll be down here to discuss it tomorrow. I'm sure we can all reach an agreement.

Haha, yeah neither am I. I was just trying to clear up any confusion.

Well, this has been planned from the conclusion of the previous series which ended about a year ago. So, if one of us to hold off (which would probably be best because it might be tricky to make up the numbers with two), I hope you all agree that it's only fair that it be you as we've been planning this a lot longer

Although, I hope this doesn't turn into some kind of turf-war lol. One can start up straight after the other, without any problem I don't think.

Plus, if they don't run simultaneously, that means you get to be a contestant again

Well it's obviously Nick's decision as to whether he wants to back down or try to push for us to go forth with our series straight away. Personally I think that one of us should go first, as if we both do it at the same time I don't think it will benefit either one of us. Plus, with the limited number of contestants available, it will be hard to get enough people if we're both doing it at once.

Just a question, do you actually have dates planned out for this? Nick and our group have already decided on the days that we want to have our tasks and boardroom.

Another point - I know that this won't affect anyone besides me, but I'm going to raise it regardless. In September I am going to University and I will have a lot less time than I currently do. At the moment, I have loads of free time, but if we wait, I can't guarantee that I will be able to commit to being an advisor for our series. I'd hate to let Nick down on that.

No, we don't have specific dates set for each task or boardroom because we're aware that the candidates schedules may cause some conflicts and we want to be flexible (as per the OP). From experience flexibility is necessary

Although we were planning on starting hopefully within the next two weeks.

We had planned ours to start on 24 June and end on 21 August, with tasks every Monday and the boardroom every Wednesday. We had also intended to have a You're Fired! show after each boardroom as well. We were literally just about to announce it.

Well, I can just reiterate that we've been planning this for about a year now. We've done it annually from 2011, with the previous winner taking over the role of Lord Sugar.

Messy thread is messy.

Sorry George, but our times simply are not flexible; regardless of your show, we are going ahead with our third series - starting within the next two weeks. It would be nothing but a shame if there were to be two Apprentice games running simultaneously as they are rather large and do require a fanbase of viewers and as I'm sure you know: the more the merrier.

Our game has been running since 2011 - as Tyjet said - and has been recurring annually ever since, therefore it's not necessarily a matter of who planned it before who - as to be quite honest, our show doesn't require much planning due to the prior series'.

We would be more than appreciative if you were to delay your show until ours is within closing distance as we would love for you to be viewers of ours and then we can soon return the favour straight after.

I'm sure we can sort something out.

Yes, that's what we're doing, and Nick is the previous winner. Slightly Irish won the series before last. Or does the most recent series that we took part in not count for some reason?

Obviously whichever of us goes first depends on what Nick says, and what agreement you guys come to. I personally would be very disappointed if Nick did back down, as I have really been looking forward to this, we have worked really hard on planning tasks and as I said, I may not get the opportunity to be an advisor if we wait as I may well have other commitments. Plus with respect, it does appear to me that we currently have more concrete plans in place than you do, as we actually have dates planned to hold our tasks and boardroom sessions, and you don't. I don't want this to turn into a slagging match as to who has been more prepared - if anything, probably you as you've been preparing it for longer than we have - but the fact remains that if you went first, we'd have to change what we've planned so far, we would have to completely change the schedule that we have very carefully planned, whereas if we went first you wouldn't because you apparently don't have a schedule yet. Obviously it's Nick's decision as to whether he wants to fight our corner or back down to you guys, but personally I'd be very upset if he took the latter decision. No hard feelings though.

I'm a little confused here. The two are entirely different games - both are clearly based upon the same premise of 'a Digital Spy version of The Apprentice', yes, but wholly independent of each other. I guess it would be akin to comparing The X-Factor and The Voice: both singing competitions with mentors, but definitely not the same show! DSA has a clear structure that it's been following since 2011, and while I haven't read through the whole of the Virtual Apprentice, from looking at a few threads I don't think I could confuse the two.

Also, just as a point of fact, it's Strictly Irish.


As Zak (Satanel) has stated, DSA 3 is going ahead within the next two weeks, no matter what. It would be a huge shame if hard feelings did develop over this (after all, it's just a forum game). However, speaking purely as an outsider (albeit one who was involved in previous series of DSA) I think it's a little presumptuous to suggest that the DSA team wouldn't have to change anything if they were to wait. I'm sure it took a lot of time to figure out your schedule, but the DSA crew are already fielding possible candidates and figuring out tasks, and this can be just as limiting as having a set calendar in place.

But in any case, it looks like, barring a sudden change of heart, DSA 3 will be going ahead as scheduled. I guess what you decide to do with that info is really up to you and your friends; whatever happens, good luck, as I know from experience that running these things can be tough!

And, to get back to the original purpose of this thread: SO EXCITED CAN'T WAIT THIS IS THE BEST THING.

^Sorry that I said Slightly Irish instead of Strictly Irish, just a typo.

Okay, well I'm going to bed now. I've said all I can about this and it's really up to how you and Nick reach a decision now, but I'd just like to reiterate the reasons why I think that we should go first:

a) While you have been planning it longer than us, we actually have created times and dates for our tasks and you haven't, so we would have to change our plans more than you would if postponed.
b) On a personal level, I am going to Uni in September, so if we were postponed, we may not get to do ours at all, as I - a prominent member of our team - may not be able to commit by that point. (Of course, that may also be the case for you guys as well - I wouldn't know.)
c) Nick did actually win the series more recently than Strictly Irish did. I completely take Anactoria's point about how they are apparently different games, but I don't really get what is so different about them. Apart from the fact that they have different names, they appear to have exactly the same format. It's like saying that Young Apprentice was a different series to Junior Apprentice. They are the same show. And we have actually planned it to be called Digital Apprentice, not Virtual Apprentice.

These are the reasons for my viewpoint, it's up to Strictly Irish and Nick now to come to an agreement.

One more thing though: I apologise if I have come across as unreasonable or cold in this thread, because that is really not my intention. I do think that we should go first for the reasons that I have identified above, and also for me personally, I may not get the opportunity to be an advisor because of my other commitments, so I do think it's important for our group to fight our corner. But I have no hard feelings towards you about this, and whether I get my way or not, I will definitely follow and support your game - possibly even apply to be a candidate, we'll have to see. I just felt it important to put my reasons across as to why I thought we should go first. Nick was planning to put up a thread advertising it on Wednesday during the programme, so if you had waited another few days, he would have put the thread up first - and if he had, I imagine the circumstances would have been different. As I said, whatever the outcome of this, no hard feelings between us. It's up to Nick and Strictly Irish now.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the applications so far, it's shaping up to be a great series. I'm currently talking to Winter about the situation and hopefully we can sort something out. In the mean time, keep the applications coming in.

Thanks for the interest.

Really excited for this!

Also George, the first series of your Apprentice was only earlier this year, could you not just do it like this Apprentice does and run it annually?

Well, that's Nick's decision to make, not mine.

Ah super excited for this!

I would like to partake in this please!
I would be a good contestant as I am a well rounded team leader/player and am confident that I could apply a wide range of creative skills to go far in this process!

Excited for this

And in regards to the other game, I don't see why there's any reason that this game should have to be postponed because of it. There's at least 5 games going on at the XF forum right now, so I don't see why there can't be two on this forum. I guess what you're saying in terms of sign ups, but the two games seem to attract different people as I don't think there was anyone in Stuart's Apprentice who had been in DSA before? So therefore I don't think it will be too much of a problem. And if one of the games has to be postponed I don't see why it should be this one? As other posters have said, this series has been in planning right since the end of the last series, which was over a year ago now - so therefore this game has been in planning before Stuart's Apprentice was even created. Lots of people have been anticipating this game for ages and it probably would have started earlier but their were big reasons that prevented this from happening. And I haven't see any sign up thread or anything for the other game, so there's the simple fact that this game got here before yours so therefore there's no reason why this game should be postponed - even if you planned it more than this or whatever which I don't think you have. Having said that, I don't think there's a need for either of the games to be postponed

Well you have good reasons, and that may be the route that Nick goes for. I wouldn't do it myself, but it's his decision. And yes there was someone in Stuart's Apprentice who had taken part before - Naruto has taken part in past series, but in the most recent series he barely contributed. He was PM on the first task and led the team to a strong win, but after that he never contributed to the tasks, was lucky enough to be on the winning team in the following few weeks and was the first casualty in a double firing in Week 4. Stuart's game had a disappointingly low turn-out though - there were only seven people; six originally, because Eliza joined from the second task onwards. Jordan and Naruto hardly contributed, so there were really only five people who could be said to be contenders. Nick, Eliza and I have been discussing strategies to get more people for this game, and personally I think that that may be more difficult for us if there is another game going on at the same time. That's one of the main reasons why personally I don't think it's a good idea for us both to run our games at the same time, but it's obviously Nick's decision and if he wants to go down that route I'll support him.

I think we should just stop spamming this thread on the issue of this clash and just let Nick and Louise deal with it privately It's caused a ridiculous level of derailment when it shouldn't have been posted here in the first place.