I imagine that Susan's and Helen's French sales were genuine, as were last night's caravans, whereas the biscuits were amongst the far-too-common hypothetical orders that litter the series.

Drifting off-topic but looking at those numbers, I'm wondering if Jedi Jim, Tom, Susan and Helen were the strongest ever final four.

I agree, they were representing real people to open a new market, so I imagine the sales stood. The biscuits, I still laugh, but I went to my local shop t'other day and saw popcorn biscuits. I kid you not.

Still the biccies did give us the infamous Harry Potter tie in, which IMO is the greatest blag in apprentice history.

On the side note, Tom was lucky to survive the French week, he was PM of the other team, and let his team talk him out of car seat in favour of postcards and china teapots. He was also on the losing team for the biccies, the half and half, can't make up our minds, let's do a improv skit, oh gawd it was painful to watch.

2011 had two very strong groups of candidates. You can't say the final four on that series of Young Apprentice because three people came joint fourth, but I think that Zara, James, Haya, Lizzie and the two Harrys were the best ever final six.

LOL...only this years.

As a rule of thumb, it's probably safe to assume that all sales to consumers are genuine and all sales to trade are hypothetical. Given how hurried and amateurish the team's pitches usually are, no retail/wholesale buyer worth their salt would actually make a real purchase based on their presentations!

Year-for-year given their age, I'd say the 2011 YA crop was the best final six we have seen on any version of the show.

The exception to that is the calendar task in Series 2. That was specifically stated to be genuine sales, because they were raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.


I agree. I preferred Young Apprentice to the adult version. I thought that the young candidates were more interesting to watch. Also I liked it that there were less candidates, so you could become more focussed on certain people than you can on the adult show. Shame it was axed, but maybe if the adult show starts to get popular again the BBC might see fit to give it another shot some time.

Yes, you're right. But the general rule still holds, no?


I didn't enjoy the last series of YA anywhere near as much, as I thought too many of the candidates had traded in their youthful innocence and behaved more like Mini-Me versions of their adult counterparts, but I certainly enjoyed the first two very much. (I interviewed Harry Maxwell before the series two final and he came across much better than the pantomime villain he was portrayed as on the show, and he was surprisingly relaxed about it all - he understood that's just the way reality TV works.)

I doubt the BBC will bring it back, sadly. (Whadaya think this is, Doctor Who?!?) With the main show's ratings steadily declining, I think its days are numbered. I suppose we could take a year or two off and bring back YA as the 'main' format, though - but in my opinion (usually wrong!) that seems unlikely. We'll all be hooked on a different show by then.

Yes, the general rule does still hold.


I didn't enjoy it as much either, but I still enjoyed it generally more than the adult series. I can't agree with you that they behaved like their adult counterparts - I think quite a lot of them seemed genuinely mature, even in Series 3. With the final four, Ashleigh and Lucy were fantastic, Patrick was severely underrated and Maria, even though I didn't like her, has something to be said for her. Across the whole series the one that came across as arrogant was David (and that was what I thought at the time) but watching it back, he actually seems like a nice guy. By the fifth task, he was able to work well with the others and had done okay.


I don't think the BBC will choose to bring it back either, but a boy can dream! To be fair, The Apprentice gets more ratings than Big Brother has got since moving to Channel Five, and that is still being recommissioned. I think Lord Sugar is happy to go on for a good while, so maybe when the contract ends with the BBC, he and Mark Burnett will approach another channel. It worked out for BB as I said, even though that's not getting the ratings it once did. And if it moved to another channel, who's to say that the bosses won't give YA another chance?

Oh absolutely - that was my favourite year and the Final Four that year were definitely the best ever!

That was my favourite year, but I think that the final four in Series 1 and 2 are also very strong contenders for that record.

I'd like to see a final three - with NONE of the past (crap) fired previous candidates.

They don't bring the fired candidates back anymore, they dropped that a couple of years ago.

Yeah, I know we had different views on the last series of YA at the time. For me there was too much of a focus on arse-covering going on and I never saw in Ashleigh what you (and Sugar himself) did, but that was my take on it and dammit, I'm sticking to it.

TA on Five? It's not beyond the realms of posiblity, but good God! I have this vision now of 16 Luisa lookalikes striding across the Millennium Bridge - it would be in keeping with the way Five have taken BB. The task for week 1 could be about opening their own beauty salon, the task for week 2 could be about putting on an event for Z-list celebs, week 3 could be to produce a rival to Heat magazine ...

I'm joking. I think.

You may be right. I was drawing a distinction between real, pre-existing products and Apprentice-designed prototypes.

LOL

Actually I think that this series of BB may be a little more realistic than normal; they apparently have to grow their own vegetables and things. We'll have to wait and see tonight!

If The Apprentice did move to a different channel, I hope that the main show would be a bit longer - at least 90 minutes. It would presumably have ad breaks, and we see little enough of the tasks as it is.

I'm not sure those tasks do not sound slightly more interesting than some of those we've seen. Selling is vital for a business but marketing, design and so on should get an occasional look-in too.

I disagree with you here. I'm sure you know better than me if you've actually met him, but reading interviews, he comes across as a real snob to me, just like he did on the programme. I don't like his style at all; I don't find it endearing.

Also, he has been romantically linked with Caroline Wharram, and she said that he told downright lies to the press about their connection - she is a ghastly woman, so I have no idea which of them is lying, but one of them must be - if not both.

Based her performance on BB I'd be more confident that Caroline would lie than Harry M who had poor communication skills but wasn't a liar or actively malicious.

Hmm yes well I would say that as well, but who knows?

As I said, I didn't think much of Harry M at all. He had some good ideas and he didn't deserve not to have a loss, but I also think he was someone who was impossible to work with and didn't deserve to get as far as Week 7. Also, I think there is a perception that he was picked on more than he actually was. People say that he was repeatedly brought into the boardroom tactically, but if you actually look at the whole series, the only Project Manager to do that was Hannah. He was only in the boardroom three times (not counting Week 7); in Week 2, Lewis was a weak PM, it was understandable that he felt intimidated by Harry, and he didn't have a reason to bring in Harry H or James, so I don't dispute that boardroom decision. The other time, Harry M himself was PM, so would have been in the boardroom regardless of anyone else.

When he was reviewing Series 3, one thing that he said that made me laugh was that he thought the treats were awful this season! It made me think, 'Which was your favourite treat, Harry?'

People like you anger me.

Why do I anger you?

Agreed. I've always advocated that tasks should show more of a range of skills than selling, which is an important skill in business but not the only skill. (Does anyone seriously think Apple is so successful because their salespeople are so good? Of course not. It's all about incredible design and marketing with them.)

That's why I've always enjoyed the more creative tasks - product design, advertising etc - because they allow the less natural salespeople to come to the fore and show what they're capable of too.

You've probably not seen it, but I wrote a piece a few months back about what they could do if they wanted to seriously revamp the show. My big idea - which would need a LOT of work to make it practical, I admit - would be to turn the series into one big task to develop an entrepreneurial business and see it through from the idea to launch. That would test overall business skills, not just selling, and would (to my mind at least) be much more satisfying than all these fly-by-night tasks where nobody cares about what state their 'business' finishes in with respect to customer satisfaction and building ongoing loyalty.

Here's the link:
http://slouchingtowardstv.com/2013/0...ped-the-shark/

I didn't meet him in person but we did exchange a long series of emails while I was interviewing him. There's no denying Harry is a bit of a posh toff, but he came across as quite well-balanced to me. Maybe I'm misreading him based on what was only a short conversation, but I do rather suspect that many of the interviews which were written about him were slanted towards a particular agenda to paint him in a specific light. Who knows for real, though? I wouldn't pretend to have had much more than the smallest peek into his mind, certainly.

I don't get the "he was picked on" thing either. Certainly his confidence and willingness to take risks landed him in hot water on more than one occasion, but that's just how he seemed to be by nature - and on more than one occasion the risk paid off big-time. I'd rather watch a contestant like him than one who lies low and keeps out of trouble week after week. Pretty boring TV, that!