All in the title really.

I think my most liked contestant ever has to be James McQuillan from Series 5. He's one of the few contestants who never showed a bad bone in his body and never let himself get embroiled in the series politics. He started off very badly but knuckled down and long outlasted everyone who had it in for him, such as Bullsh*t Ben and PantsMan Phillip. He was a thoroughly nice guy all the way through and caused everyone, even ice queen Debra, to well up when he departed. Plus he is responsible for some of the most hilarious lines in the show's history - "if I mess this up, Sir Alan will kick my arse so hard I'll have his toes for teeth". What a guy!

For me, there's no question that my most disliked contestant has to be Jenny Celerier from Series 4 - the most cold-hearted, horrible woman ever to appear on the show IMO. The laundry task of that series is actually quite hard to watch because of her unashamed, serious bullying of Lucinda for no reason at all. Then, in the Marrakesh task, she openly attempted to cheat, and then told utter lies in the boardroom and was fired on the spot for it. Horrendous woman.

What about you?

My all-time favourite candidate was Zara Brownless from Young Apprentice Series 2. I really admire the way that she remained calm and composed throughout all the tasks, it's a great way to be. She never lost her cool, and she came across to me at least as very honest. She never tried to make herself look better than she actually was - she always accepted the blame if she'd screwed up, and I think it's telling that she's one of the few very articulate and educated people that Lord Sugar has taken a shine to.

Others I really liked are Harry Hitchens, Helen Milligan, Miriam Staley, Gabrielle Omar, Sean Spooner, Arjun Rajyagor, Patrick McDowell, Yasmina Siadatan and - even though she was fired after just one episode - Jaz Ampaw-Farr.

My least favourite candidate would probably be Harry Maxwell, again from Young Apprentice Series 2. He is one of the few candidates who to me at least, does not come across any better in interviews than he did on the show. I've read things that he's written, and he comes across as snobby, arrogant, big-headed and slimy. I'm sure he's got his good points as everyone does, but from what I've seen, he doesn't come across as someone who I could ever like.

Others who I really didn't like are Syed Ahmed, Paul Torrisi, Jenny Celerier, Noorul Choudhury, Stuart Baggs, Rhys Rosser, Jane McEvoy and Azhar Siddique.

This is just off the top of my head.

I really truly absolutely could not stand Alex Wotherspoon

Funnily enough i was watching the Marrakesh episode the other day, still cannot believe supposedly intelligent people went into a Halal Butcher for a Kosher Chicken, but yeah Jenny C was quite loathsome quite appropriate she got brutally fired on her Birthday.

Just realised that I forgot to mention Philip Taylor! I couldn't stand him - aggressive, graceless, horrible man.

Liked: Ansell Henry, Ruth Badger. Kristina Grimes, Tre Azam, Lucinda Ledgerwood, Simon Smith, James McQuillan, Kate Walsh, Melody Hussaini, Susan Ma, Ricky Martin, Gabrielle Omar

Disliked: Many from series 4 (Helene, Jenny, Jenniifer, Michael, Nicholas, Kevin, Alex) Noorul Choudhury, Stuart Baggs, Alex Epstein, Vincent Disneur, Stephen Brady

I actually made a list of apprentices from favourite to most-hated (Yes, I'm that sad!) and I'll list the top and bottom 5.

Note that I'm not including people from this series as it hasn't finished yet.

Top 5

1. Lucinda Ledgerwood - Simply put, my favourite candidates are the ones that manage well and, in my opinion, she was the best manager the show has ever seen. She had a fantastic record and I thought she was extremely creative and very likeable. She did have her flaws (playing the martyr a bit too much) but was up-front about her deficiencies and I think that she, in a different series, she could well have gone further.
2. Yasmina Siadatan - I think Yasmina is the most competent candidate ever to appear on the show. Terrific throughout, she was the first candidate to secure a 3-0 record as PM and, she was extremely likeable as well. I think, possibly she was the brightest candidate in the show.
3. Susan Ma - The definition of an entrepreneur and someone who I definitely think should have won Series 7. Her business instincts were fantastic and I think Lord Sugar agreed considering he went into business with her as well. Again, she had flaws, but most (if not all) of them were rooted in naievety, something which she will grow out of with age. I think she will be very successful in the future.
4. Nick Holzherr - Again, a very intelligent candidate. I do think that he should have been the winner of Series 8 as he was the best individual performer on tasks. A terrific leader, he was very unlucky not to win and I still believe his business plan got much more criticism than it merited.
5. James McQuillan - Yes he was likeable and funny, but I think that James was genuinely more than that. He was competent and intelligent and deserved so much more than he got when he PMed as both times I would struggle to pick out much that he did wrong. Railroaded a bit too much on occasion by Ben and Debra, but he was a clever guy and had he not completely bombed at interviews, I think that he would have taken a deserved placing of 3rd.

Near misses for Jadine (S3), Stella (S6), Miriam (S1) and Jade (S8).

Bottom 5

1. Jenny Celerier - I'm not sure what can be said about her that people don't already know. Quite apart from the fact that she showed nothing in her seven weeks, she was a liar, a backstabber, a scapegoater and one of the most unpleasant people I have seen in reality TV. The way she treated people was absolutely appalling.
2. Alex Wotherspoon - I couldn't stand him. Someone who showed nothing (bar being OK at sales) in his stint on the show and largely got through by scapegoating others and sucking up to the PMs (Not unlike Jennifer Massey on the US show) The way he treated candidates such as Lucinda in later weeks almost pushed him into the worst candidate of the series, but not quite.
3. Melissa Cohen - More to do with her lack of competence than anything else she did (Although she was still pretty horrible) but I genuinely believe her to be one of the weakest ever on the show. She had this huge CV and couldn't deliver on any of it. The fact that she simply couldn't admit when she had done something wrong only furthered this impression.
4. Philip Taylor - He was alright in the early weeks, but his treatment of people later in the process was disgusting, particularly his performance during Pantsman week. He couldn't even show Sir Alan any respect and it was this that was a large contributor to his exit in the process. Thoroughly deserved to go on the task he did.
5. Ben Clarke - He had a bizarre beef with James (inferiority complex?) and was someone who believed he could do no wrong. I really have issue with people who cannot admit when they are wrong and Ben was this x1000. I would have fired him for the Sandalwood fiasco given his actions in that particular boardroom.

Michael S, Helene (S4) and Adam (S8) also narrowly avoided the list.

Wow, least favourite? I get that he wasn't that popular when he was on the show and was difficult to like, but least favourite? When you have the likes of Jenny Celerier, Alex Wotherspoon and Philip Taylor out there? I totally appreciate that it is your opinion, George, but wow, considering he was competent, I do feel that that rating is rather harsh

A lot of your list I actually agree with (can't list everyone!) but there are a few I'd just like to ask questions/make some points about.



I've been meaning to ask you this for a while - what would you say about Katie Hopkins? I thought of it because you've said before that you like the people who were good as Project Manager, and regardless of anything else, Katie performed extremely well on both occasions that she was PM - she was arguably the best PM in Series 3. Just interested to hear your thoughts on that one? (Incidentally, Katie only ever managed all-girl teams as well.)



Melissa is a very interesting one for me, because even though I didn't rate her as a candidate, I have always felt able to empathise with her in a different way to how I ever have with anyone else. I think that her underlying problem was that she had no confidence at all in her own abilities, and to hide that, she went the other way and appeared supremely confident. I do that as well, although I've got a bit more mature in recent years. At the time that that series was on, I was behaving a bit like that. I'd just started sixth form, and I was really determined that I was going to do fantastically; and even though I thought I probably could, I think I was so focussed on doing it, combined with my own insecurities and being naturally quite a confrontational personality anyway, I just became really tense trying to live up to this persona that I'd created for myself. So when this series was on, I noticed Melissa particularly and I saw some of the worst aspects of my own personality in her.

I think it's a shame for her that she was in that situation where she was trying to prove how awesome she apparently was to herself, because her CV shows that she is obviously quite bright, and she even did the occasional good thing in the tasks - the most obvious example being in Episode 1, where they were going to stick with cheap sausages after hearing the chef say that gourmet were a better bet, and Melissa stated the obvious: they've just heard the best advice they'll hear from someone in the business, why are they ignoring it? Who knows, maybe at a different time of her life she could have done better. She came across surprisingly well on You're Fired!

Maybe that wasn't entirely fair actually. You're probably right. I find it difficult to rate candidates, and I just thought of someone I didn't like straight out, and then put some other people I didn't like next to it. Not a good way of doing it, I concede.

Favourite : Saira Khan absolutely made the first series, and was probably the first candidate to be both competent and also "good tv". She was always a driving force on whatever team she was on, for good or bad, and was by turns hilarious and maddening. I doubt I would have got so hooked on the show without her. Debra, Chris Bates, James Max and Susan are all up there as well. Yasmina purely on competence grounds, and I don't think the show has ever had a better comedy character than Jason from this series.

Least Favourite : Zoe Beresford. The only reason it's not Jenny C is that her firing was just so very satisfying that it took the edge off. Paul Tulip and Alex Wotherspoon are both up there as well, and Jo Cameron, whilst not having a malicious bone in her body, was supremely annoying. I vacillate on Katie Hopkins based on how charismatic she's being at any given moment, but I think she had probably the greatest capacity for absolute malice of anyone who's been on the show.

What was so bad about Zoe? I mean, I didn't like her, but I didn't hate her that much. Didn't even consider her compared with some of the others. (That said, I put Harry Maxwell as my least favourite of all time, which TXF0429 has quite rightly pointed out isn't very fair so I probably can't talk, but even so.)

Most liked is probably Lucinda - she was quirky and interesting, aswell as sweet and level-headed but also independent and strong-willed.
My other favourites have been Saira (s1), Ruth (s2), Jadine (s3), Yasmina (s5), Stella (s6), Susan (s7) and Gabriella (s8).
Hmmm I always seem to like women that are quite competent but also with a fierce, sometimes stubborn, spirit.

My most disliked is probably Jenny C. What's bizarre is that she seemed generally pleasant away from the tasks, but on the tasks she became some sort of nasty, vindictive, spiteful monster. She really got her comeuppance in the task she was fired in, where Sugar really puts her on the spot about her approach to work. Like trying to sabotage the other team, and also trying to weasel out of getting the blame and putting it on Michael. Fired on her birthday aswell. heh heh
Others that stand out are: Adele (s1), Paul (s1), Paul (s2), Syed (s2), Nicholas (s4), Alex (s4), Kevin (s4), Philip (s5) and Jim (s7).
I think it's clear I'm not too fond of the cocky, arrogant males.
Though I didn't actually realize I was so consistent with it.

Competence-wise, not an issue. I think she was definitely in the top-three (and probably the top two) in terms of competence that series. Her two stints as PM were probably, bar Kristina during the Art task, the two best managed tasks across the series. Looking at her in Weeks 7-10 (Week 8, incidentally, is one of the weeks where I've read it completely differently to everyone else, didn't like Kristina at all in that episode), it is undeniable she was one of the best ones there for the job.

Where I've got a problem is her open malice and vindictiveness across the series and how she conducted herself in the boardroom. Had she not gone into the series with the attitude that she did, I think I would have rooted for her. However, the way she got to the top and the way she had to be the one finish off Adam with her appalling performance in the Week 7 boardroom and the way she was let off the hook by friends in her worst weeks (Weeks 5 and 6) mean that I cannot consider her as one of my favourites.


Part of my dislike for Melissa comes from the fact that Jamie was my pick (other than Stella) that series and they obviously clashed in the early weeks. I do wonder if she was screwed over by the editing as it seems as though she hyped up her abilities and she then... didn't deliver. On any level. She was awful as PM in Week 3, was hideous at pitching in Week 2 and simply couldn't sell (which was her day job) in Week 4.
To this day I don't get her reaction to getting fired. She was probably the worst performer on the team the week she left and she had to be prepared for a firing after failing to back up anything that she had written on her CV.

Haha, didn't mean to be aggressive or anything. I get the dislike for Harry M (I hated him at the time, find my posts about him back when YAS2 was on) but I think my opinion of him was slightly swayed by Sloutching Hatch as it is evident that he was intelligent and genuinely business-savvy and I don't think he had an unlikeable personality as (Like Maria Doran) he did seem to get along with the other candidates outside the tasks as evidenced by one of his comments after escaping the boardroom. One of his comments I do prominently remember in regards to Harry M is admitting his Birdbox sale in Week 4 was lucky, something I'd never think that a lot of adult candidates would do.

She just seemed thoroughly miserable and humourless, the entire time, and took it out on other people. I dunno, if we were talking "best" or "worst" or something like that then I'd measure it differently, but anything like "favourite" or "most disliked" I think there has to be some level of personal irrationality to it, and she really grated on me. Likewise if Harry M is your least favourite, I say have at it.

I quite like Katie actually, I always have (controversial, I know). I think that it was very clever of her to make a name for herself to deliberately enter The Apprentice as a caricature. Up until that point, the reality TV show element hadn't really kicked in, and I think that it's quite cool that she did it. It wouldn't ever work for someone to do it again, and it wouldn't have worked in any other series, but I think from her perspective at the time, it must have been brilliant to do that for the kudos. I also don't think her embarrassing flirting with Sugar and vindictiveness towards the other candidates would have worked had she not been utterly brilliant on the tasks. (Does that make sense? It made sense in my head, but I'm not sure if it does on the page.)



Actually, while I don't object to Melissa being fired that week, she did technically sell more than Stella on that task (as Stella's sales were voided because she charged the wrong price).

Top 5
1. SUSAN MA
2. Yasmina Siadatan
3. Harry Hitchens
4. Tom Gearing
5. Lucinda

Jason & Luisa from this series have potential to be in there. If Tim had stayed longer he'd probably be in here, too.

Bottom 3
1. Jenny C
2. Ben Clarke
3. Adam Corbally

Uzma & Francesca both have potential to be here. Francesca in particular is like a really bad smell that just won't go away!

I should add that I also absolutely despised Ben Clarke (Series 5), Paloma (Series 6), Stuart (Series 6)... obviously, and Katie Hopkins (Series 3) - but none as much as Jenny Celerier.

Ben - a self-obsessed, arrogant, odious little man.
Paloma - had an unfair vendetta against Alex and was quite insulting at times.
Stuart - no explanation needed really, everything there is to be said about him has been said.
Katie - controversial for the sake of it and basically used the show to have a bit of fun/establish a new career.

I also loved Tom (winner of Series 7), Lucinda (Series 4), Debra (Series 5), Ruth (Series 2) and Tre (Series 3) - all for different reasons. Jason and Alex have potential this year.

Tom - nice, quirky guy who proved you don't have to be either a motormouth or a faceless drone to win this process - who had genuine talent as well!
Lucinda - started as just sympathy due to the Jenny C incident, but I thought she had a quiet authority to her and was too... well, interesting to win the thing.
Debra - one of the most ruthless contestants ever but really mellowed throughout and became a really respectable person, and has since campaigned against workplace bullying. She learnt a lot.
Ruth - probably one of the most talented people to have ever been on the show - she coped well with every task and it's a travesty she didn't win.
Tre - hilarious and always provided a hefty dose of drama, whilst still basically being a decent guy. I also liked how he dismissed other people's nonsense (especially Rory's bizarre "take off your jackets when you speak to me" crap), and just got on with the task.

My most liked woud be Susan Ma. Partly for shallow reasons; she was surely the best-looking female ever on the show. But she was also really astute (even though she would think out loud at times without her thoughts really being in order, hence her comments about the French and their children) and she seemed to have a very optimistic positive personality.

Sara Dhada wouldn't be far behind her. She of course was also very attractive, but I think she was a decent person too in a series where there weren't so many nice people (Simon and Raef were nice guys too)

My least liked would be Jenny Celerier. What can I say that hasn't been said? Her behaviour to Lucinda in the laundry task was vile and she orchestrated the bullying of Sara after the cards task. She was underhand in Marrakesh, offering the shop staff bribes to sabotage the other team. She wasn't even competent - not that it would have excused her behaviour if she had been - being absolutely shambolic as PM on the laundry task, coming up with an awful idea for a card and then that kosher chicken howler in Marrakesh.

My Favourites would be:

1. Raef Bjayou
2. Lucinda Ledgerwood
3. Yasmina Siadatan
4. James Max
5. Jason Leech

Honourable mentions go to Tre Azam, Joanna Riley, Jim Eastwood, Tom Pellereau and Tom Gearing

In reverse order, my least favourite candidates would be

5. Syed Ahmed
4. Helene Speight
3. Philip Taylor
2. Jenny Celerier
1. Alex Wotherspoon

My favourite candidate was Tre Azam from series 3 for various reasons but I'd hire Tim Campbell or Miriam Staley both from series 1.

My least favourite was Sharon McAllister from series 2, with Adam Corbally from series 8 as a good runner up.

My favourites would be

JAMES MAX - he seemed like a decent chap, wasn't afraid to muck in on the tasks and had a pretty good record
YASMINA SITARADAN - In my opinion the first candidate to really undertsand how you went about winning the competition
JO CAMERON - mad as a bag of otters, she was an easy scapegoat in the end, despite her beng the voice of reason on ocassion

Least favourites
JENNY CELERY - just read what everyone else has put
BEN CLARKE - would surely rate as the worst Apprentice candidate ever were it not for .....
MICHAEL SOPHOCLES - words have not yet been invented to describe his incompetence. I wouldn't trust him to build a sand castle in the desert.

Just a question, is that a problem? I kind of admire Katie for being ballsy enough to do that. Maybe I'm being a bit contradictory of myself, because I admire Lord Sugar and I generally see The Apprentice as being a serious business competition, but I think it's quite funny that Katie did that at that point in the series. I wouldn't find it funny if anyone else tried it because that's just copying.

I am surprised at the lack of mentions for Gabrielle! One of my faves!