I was just looking in the 'Rank the series' thread and it seems to come out at the top on peoples lists more than any of the others. Also whenever i speak to people about the apprentice Series 3 is always the one everyone remembers. They say things like 'oh i liked that one with that bitch Katie' and 'Tre was funny' or 'i AM your boss' or 'I remember that **** on the trampoline'

Its always been my fave but i partly base that on that it was the first one i ever saw. But i do think it seems to be the one with the most memorable candidates and tasks.

Down to a matter of opinion. My favourite three were Series 6-8 but I know I'm in a vast minority with this.

yes,they were my least fave!

I didn't think it was that great. There weren't many people who were really memorable in that series. If it wasn't for two people - Katie and Tre - that series would have been forgotten, and they are only memorable for how entertaining they were, not how strong they were on the tasks. (In fairness I think that both Katie and Tre were excellent on the tasks, but that was overlooked by the editors in favour of their entertainment value.)

Jadine was quite memorable i thought. Sugar seemed to rate her quite highly, i think if theres an example of an occasion where it clearly pained him to fire someone it was when he fired her.

True... I think she would have been more memorable in a different series, as from weeks 4 to 7 we barely saw her as everything was about Tre, Katie, Kristina, Adam and Paul.

It's because she lost it halfway through for some reason - she was a Stella-like candidate. Jadine so could have won it if she wasn't feeling homesick - away from her kids.

We saw very little of kristina too!

And Series 3 was good but the worst series overall in terms of forgettable characters, the most incredible candidates and the worst winner. If it weren't for Tre and yes Katie the series would have flopped.

Series 6, 7 (and maybe 1) were the best in terms of credible candidates. Series 4 was by far the best in terms of entertainment. And the best winner will go to Stella of Series 6.

Series 6? Seriously? The series that had Stuart Baggs, Shibby Robati, Melissa Cohen, Christopher Farrell and Alex Epstein? I'd say more Series 5.

I think that's really unfair when you had Stella, Joanna, Chris Bates, Liz, Jamie and even Stuart, Sandeesh and Paloma seemed quite competent. I think there were some really good candidates that series.

Yeah but s6 also had Chris B, Liz, Jamie, Joanna, Paloma and Chris F was actually really good. Melissa was actually a brilliant sales woman as well. And Shibby was actually quite creative - remember the last task?

S5 also had Kimberly, Rocky, Anita, Paula, Majid, Ben, Howard, Mona and let's not forget Noorul!

I could identify with Melissa on a personal level because I think she had a lot of the same insecurities that I have, but I can't rate her as a candidate (apart from her one excellent moment in the first episode, when she said, 'We've just heard advice from the experts, why are we ignoring it?'). With the Chris Farrell thing I was thinking about Octi-Kleen! There were totally some good people as well, I just thought the bad people were worse than the ones in Series 5.


I think a lot of those people were all right actually. I really liked Kimberly, I thought she had potential. Rocky was fired more for his boardroom decision than his performance on the task, if I remember correctly. Anita was fired in Week 1 so we didn't get to see her develop - you can't judge someone who was fired for one mistake. Paula was a good team leader, she just made a massive mistake with the figures, but they should have won that task. I thought Howard was a consistently good candidate, and it's a shame that he went.

Series 5 was the best.

Why do you suggest that Series 3 appears to be the most popular series then? There must be a reason for that

I think it's the most popular series because it is the only one that had a sort of storyline. The storyline was all based around Katie and Paul's relationship, and Katie's vendetta around Adam and Kristina. The editors did a really good job on Katie - she didn't come across as nasty at all until around Task 4 or 5, and before that she wasn't just a normal candidate, she came across as being one of the front-runners. She was Project Manager early on in the series, everyone said that she did a great job, and one thing from that episode that always stands out for me is that she did a video to camera about how she really needs Ghazal to do a good job on the pitch if they're going to win the task. We then see Ghazal royally messing up the pitch, and then we see Katie outside, talking to Ghazal and saying, 'Listen, don't worry about it. That happens to the best of us, it doesn't matter,' or something along those lines. That makes Katie come across as not only a strong candidate, but also a genuinely nice person, so it comes as a real shock later on when she starts saying really malicious things about the others. Her rivalry with the other candidates is really what held that series together, and as I said the editors did a fantastic job. No one knew where the Katie story was going, and it ended up being with her quitting!

Obviously Tre was entertaining as well, but he had more of a secondary role in the series after Katie. And of course, Simon and the trampoline helped as well!

Yes, I absolutely loved series 3, which was for me also the pinnacle of the whole Apprentice series. I felt it slowly started to go downhill after that with more and more candidates going for the celebrity factor.

Series 2 was the series in which the programme found its feet.

Memorable characters like Ruth, probably the most compelling salesdroid, and Syed, the prototypical handsome, charismatic charmer.

It gave us Jo sobbing, and the firing of Karen, probably the first to raise suspicions that perhaps Sir Alan, as he was then, was not overly impressed by education. It was the start of teams winning by ruthlessly cutting costs when blagging dodgy fruit to sell to the public. We saw the first team to lose money on a task.

Finally, it had all-time classic moments like 100 chickens for 100 chicken pizzas, and 7 million cat-owners.

Series 3 was the first series I saw and the series that made me love The Apprentice so I think for that reason it will always be my favourite. I was young but completely enthralled by the whole concept and there were some brilliant characters such as the awful Katie Hopkins, and the brilliant Kristina Grimes who still remains my favourite candidate ever. If I watched it more recently I may have placed it below some of the other series, but for sheer sentimental reasons it's my favourite

George is reight the editing of Katie's story was first class.

I've been watching bits and pieces of it over the last month, and although I didn't see it at the time it aired, it must have been absolute must-see TV.

Don't get this at all. Jadine was one of the most mentally weak people on the show over the years (along with the likes of Mani and Melissa). And the Eclipse obsession was spooky to say the least.

Jadine would never have won - the job on offer didn't fit her at all. If she's like anybody from Series 6 it'd be Joanna (oops racism) but less coherent.

I liked Series 3 but a lot of the end of the series left a sour taste in the mouth. Jadine's mental collapse, Katie getting to leave on her own terms after half a series of being vindictive and unpleasant, Simon stabbing Tre in the back (which of course was perfectly justified but Simon managed to make it seem slimy anyway because it was SIMON), those random wheelchair sales, that You're Hired where all the defeated candidates sat staring daggers at Simon for beating them.

Yes i couldn't stand Simon, easily the worst winner ever. Kristina would have been more acceptable.

Jadine had mental health issues before she went on the apprentice,she had apparently been sectioned at one time. Lets not be unkind about her

I'd just like to say I think that comment is quite inappropriate. Jadine has a history of psychiatric health issues, and was once sectioned under the Mental Health Act. I think that using the term 'mentally weak' in a negative sense to describe her is quite uncalled for actually.

Mani? Really? What did he do to show that he was mentally weak? I just remember him being a bit non descript

I saw the first episode of series 3 the other day, after reading a few people talk about Katie Hopkins. I noticed a change of style on how the episodes are edited. Also, when the PR brought the two people into the boardroom, one of them nodded because she knew she was partly responsible for the failure of the task. It surprised me she didn't throw a tantrum like most of them do now. Even if they failed hard they still deny it and blame others for stupid things.

I also liked the way they analyze the task and talk about things that went wrong without taking it personally.



I plan to see more when series 9 finishes.

Series 2 followed by Series 1, back when it was a niche show on BBC2.