Absolute Fave: James Max

Disliked: Saira, Ruth and Yasmina

I really liked all of these three.

Jason my favourite ever

Dislike: Luisa, Melissa (Series 6) Zoe Plummer to name a few

My absolute favourites....in no particular order, James Max, Miriam (S1) (those two were such a good double-act too), Lucinda (S4) (as an underdog who later proved herself capable, and also like myself in that she favoured a carrot rather than a stick approach as motivation), Kristina (S3), Ruth Badger (S2), Ricky Martin (I actually championed him from the start).

Ones I have really disliked...again, in no particular order - Jade (S8) (I thought it was a weak series anyway, but she was really unprofessional on several occasions I vaguely remember and I didnt find her funny or like her pouting, and her business plan was silly), Katie Hopkins (S3) (this whole building a reality TV career thing...that's not a career. That's vapid empty celebrity-dom at the bottom of the barrell. Why anyone would aspire to that...), Simon from the same series as well - maybe it was the edit but he just seemed vacant, Paul also from the same series, that thing with cooking sausages over lighters was ridiculous....also Saira (S1), simply because I didnt get the hype with her - having said that, I need to rewatch this series, but she was hopeless in the art task and, it just bugs me that she got to the final over both Miriam and James. Jenny Celery (S4) as well, but purely for the bullying, business is business after all and also the other Jenny in that series I found quite two-faced. Melody (S7) for her performance where she ignored the market research and lied to her PM about it in order to push her own interests. Mean spirited...

Luisa's business plan could be an orphanage for abandoned kittens, but after her Samantha Brick-like comments and what she did to Jason, I'll never be able to like her.

As for favourite candidate ever.... Jason of course.

I never understood the widespread dislike of Zoe, although she'd perhaps be ill-advised to enter a career in politics. She was capable enough on the tasks and might even have won had the final task been 1 on 1 rather than pairs.

Melissa perhaps illustrated the role of luck (or perhaps serendipity is the better word) in finding the right niche in the outside world, as she had apparently been very successful with Tesco but here seemed both inadequate and deluded. Indeed, many candidates have achieved more than me in their "day jobs" yet fall apart in The Apprentice.

I've said before that I think the problem with Melissa wasn't that she wasn't capable, it was that she was very insecure. She was determined to live up to this stereotype of an amazing businessperson who stands no nonsense, and she was so focussed on that that she forgot to actually show in the tasks that she could perform. I don't think she had any confidence in her own abilities, and to hide it went the other way; appeared supremely confident and got very offended when anyone suggested that she was anything less than the world's greatest saleswoman.

She had a few moments where I thought, 'She's actually more than she appears'; I can see how she'd be quite bright away from the cameras, if she was calm and not trying to fit into a persona.

Why do you dislike those three? I think you may well have just named three of the most competent contestants ever. Saira is arguable I guess due to her belligerent attitude, but she undeniably had bags of talent. Ruth absolutely walked to the final and it's ridiculous that she didn't win - possibly the most able contestant of them all. Yasmina was easily the best of her series and had a 3/3 victory record as PM.

Plus, although Saira had her moments, they were all likeable contestants IMO.

S1 - Definitely Saira, Tim and PAUL! Saira was hilarious and actually a really credible candidate. And Tim was exceptional as both a person and a candidate. Why Paul then? Because he was 1) insanely hot, 2) actually comes across really well in interviews, 3) his hotheadness is actually really sweet, there is something really cute about his personality. Other mentions go to Miriam, Ben.

S2 - handsdown! Ruth THE Badger. She was incredible! Loved her selling techniques. She was both entertaining and credible. Other honorable mentions go to Syed (entertainment) and Ansell (really sweet guy).

S3 - Simon for being hot. Katie for all the hilarious dramatics. Tre for his rebellious attitude. And Jadine because she genuinely seemed like such a nice, credible candidate. Rory gets an honorable mention here for being the hottest idiot I have ever seen. Karen was also really good but got a tragic Week 3 firing. It was the biggest 'wtf' moment I had in the series. She was really good!

S4 - Oh my god! Can't believe hardly anyone's mentioned these three people. Definitely Lee, Claire and Raef. Claire because she was hilarious and showed the most development out of any character on this show - she went from a hungry dominating bitch to a genuinely nice, caring and respectful person (did you see how she defended Sara). Lee was cute and such a nice guy (though didn't like that scene with Sara) and incredible candidate. And Raef was just a gent - such a nice guy. Jenny C gets an honorable mention as one of my favorites. Again why? Because she was the only properly funnily evil person on this show we have ever seen (besides Katie - though she did it more for the publicity).

S5 - Phil and Ben were hot but horrible people. Lorraine actually moved me a lot and I commend her for what she was doing. But by far my fav candidate this season was Deborah with Yasmina not far off. Both were incredible candidates, but Deborah showed some sort of progression (like with Claire) and became a better person and more credible candidate throughout the process. Kate seemed a little artificial for me. James was great fun!

S6 - Favorite would have to be Stella by far! Wow! How good was she? The first time I ever thought that there's no other way there would be any other winner. She had a nice 'not playing up to the cameras' personality too! People were so critical of her for being wooden when she was by far the most talented of the whole lot - hated how they treated here in the house. However, I have to say that Joanna, Jamie and Chris were great too! Jamie and Chris were eye candy and credible and Joanna's story was so moving and she was so determined every week. Again she's like Deborah and Claire - somebody who progressed in the story of the Apprentice and became a better person and candidate. I like it when you actually see the process change someone.

NB - Hated Stuart Baggs - the only one of the antagonists I truly disliked. Because he was neither entertaining nor credible - just a load of hot air and cringeness!

S7 - Susan was my favorite but Helen was so determined every week. People said she was invisible for the first few weeks, but she wasn't really, she did small things but smart things! Jim was so sexy with his personality and funny ways of dealing with people. And honorable mentions go to Glenn for being a bit of a dope but a sweetheart nonetheless. Yeah and really liked Susie because of her contributions and again because of her development throughout the series. She went from being a whiny brat to someone who actually made really valid observations. Hated the way people would ignore her or gang up against her!

S8 - didn't care much for this series. No one really interesting was in it except Tom Gearing (for just being so damn hot), Gabrielle (she was such a sweetheart) and Jane (most credible candidate - like Karen from S3, couldn't believe she got fired so soon!).

S9 - Rebecca was great but sort of fell in my estimation of her in the task she got fired in. Luisa has genuinely been great this series too. Kurt also seems like such a funny and generally sweet guy. Other honorable mentions go to Myles, Leah and Neil (Neil's motivational speech was genuinely the first thing on this show to genuinely move me since Joanna's firing).

Some favourites:

Jim Eastwood
- Never bought him as a villain. Occasionally a little rude in the boardroom, and a bit cheeky on pitches, but he was one of the most exceptional candidates the show's seen. His salesmanship was utterly staggering, and he was so effusively confident. Possibly - not definitely, but possibly - my favourite candidate ever.

Tom Pellereau
- Good on all the tasks. His team lost a lot, but as a general rule, if they'd listened to Tom, they'd have won. That includes his PMship, incidentally.

Yasmina Siadatan
- A joy to watch. Probably the perfect Apprentice winner.

Gabrielle Omar
- The beating heart of series eight. So much fun.

Ellie Reed
- Didn't deserve to go! She was tough, but quiet, very well-mannered - interesting, very different kind of Apprentice candidate. Never saw the best of her. Most undeserving double firing in Apprentice history. On which note...

Vincent Disneur
- Was cast as a comedy character, and was fairly entertaining, but ended up being far and away the best PM of series seven. And got double-fired for it. Again - didn't deserve to go!

Jason Leech
- Oh, Jason.

James Max
- Less hilarious than Jason, but more genuinely business-credible to balance it out. Likeable and easy to root for. Very cool.

Lorraine Tighe
- Might be because I found Phillip so annoying, but she was the underdog of S5, and I really wanted her to do well. Was very glad she got to interviews. Along with:

James McQuillan
- Amazing.



Not-so favourites:
Matthew Palmer. Saira Khan - talks to everyone like they're children. Mani Sandher - so patronising. Rory Laing - great telly, terrible person, if he'd lasted another week he'd be that much worse. Jadine Johnson - irritated me in the first task, never recovered. Phil Taylor - "joke." Melody Hossaini. Luisa Zissman - abominable.

Might do it by series later. Definitely left some out on both tables, but I didn't want the list to be too long. Frankly, I'd be tempted to tick off every candidate and how much I liked or disliked them. Cos there are so many less significant or memorable candidates I really dug. Adele, from S1, for instance, I wanted to go so much further than she did. Admired Sophie Kain's principles, and the "Quantum Physicist" caption was frequently golden. Not my favourite ever candidates, no place in this list, but I really did think they were brilliant.

Just a note - Karen was actually in Series 2, not Series 3.

Glad to see the Tre love on here, I thought I was the only one. Best candidate ever ..... it's all tits and fish !

I liked Kristina Grimes from series 3 too and Joanna Riley from series 6. I think she got the nicest firing ever from Shugie.


Noorul was pontless and useless, that's all !

Kristina Grimes was the best candidate of all time imo. She just got it. I can't believe she lost to Simon in the final. I loved Melody too (particularly her constant chat about "Dalai Lama"). Jadine, Yasmina and Susan were great too. Love Leah and her outrageous pout from this year.

Rory Laing shining example how not to approach the task of being PM, treated everyone on the team as if they were Children, forced his dreadful design on the team when they were other ideas on the table, then proceeded to try & tame Tre instead of giving Tre something to do, but came over David Brent instead.

Thought Melissa was far too immature for The Apprentice, her reaction when she got fires spoke volumes for me, she needs to grow up.

I liked Zoe a lot, but I can see why she grated on many people. She had a rather pretentious manner. I thought some of the hate went way OTT though; there were people on Facebook and Twitter going into precise and sickening detail on tortures they wished to inlict on her. It can't have been much fun for her to have read some of them, if she ever did.

I didn't find Jenny funny at all; just hateful. Except when she got fired on her birthday; now that was funny!

I read an interview with Zoe where she said that a lot of that was the editing. She said that in real life, no one has ever had a problem working with her and she can get on with most people, so it's interesting that they made her into a bit of a caricature... or something along those lines.

I didn't see what was so bad about Zoe. She was very confident, but I didn't see her as being unpleasant. I think people first thought that in the first task where she clashed with Hibah - but to be fair, Hibah appeared to be simply jealous that Zoe was getting more sales than she was. I didn't see why Hibah was trying to join in Zoe's sale, Zoe didn't need her and she was halfway through a negotiation when Hibah butted in for no reason. Beyond that, I didn't see her do anything especially nasty or anything.

Agreed, although her firing was quite brutal which was deserved & satisfying, think only Stuart Baggs has had a more brutal firing than Jenny C.

Favourite

Joanna - I'm only a cleaner" from S6

Liz Locke also S6 -only got fired because Stuart Baggs told blatant lies.

The Badger - should have been hired - and in the aftermath I bet Sralan wished she had been

Disliked

Melody Hossaini - told blatant lies in the French shopping task - mis-translating things to the other team members who didn't speak French - plus she was from HR and was insistent on the stupid "role play" pitches they love so much.

Stuart Baggs - for lying about his business, thus getting Liz Locke Fired

Michelle Dewberry - for playing the "sob story" card, thus robbing the rightful winner (The Badger) and then getting pregnant and quitting after 3 months in the "official" job

There is only one, Jim Eastwood. The guy was a legend. He'll never be beaten.

Jedi Jim the master.

I don't think she did anything nasty at all. I think it was just, as I say, her manner many found grating.

I don't think the clash with Hibah in the first week was what turned people against her; I don't think Hibah herself was hugely popular with the viewers, tbh, and in any case it was clear that the clash didn't last. Zoe and Hibah were obviously on fairly good terms in the following task.

If there was one task that I think people disliked her on, I think it was the art task. Zoe had something of an artistic background and saw herself as best placed to sell artwork. I think she saw it as doing her best for her team, but Emma and Arjun saw it as Zoe taking all the glory and most viewers probably agreed. In any case, the public tend to dislike posh girls.

I liked Zoe though. She could be brash at times, but there was no nastiness to her. I thought it spoke volumes about her that when the press were flashing cash at her school asking classmates to dish the dirt on Zoe for money, no-one did. (Also speaks well of her classmates, of course)

Favourites:
Susan Ma
Joanna
Luisa

Least favourites:
Ben with the ego.
Noorul
probably loads of others who I have forgotten.

tom definitely a lovely guy and i liked him also Chris Bates and Nick Holzherr , all 3 did very well. i was happy when tom won finally someone i liked winning and it was deserved. also Tim Ankers from young apprentice. jason from thsi series to , a funny and lovely guy. him and tom were the nicest people on the show.

most hated probably all the cold , arrogant horrible ones. Harry M from young apprentice , he was very similar to an ex of mine who was a vile person. all through the run it bothered me , i felt sick every episode. doesn't help when harry is horrible to. i cant believe he has his own Wikipedia page now and a presenting career now or something , he was arrogant. theres been no one on the main run since i started watching in series 4 ive really hated until now. Luisa oh my god. she thinks the sun shines out her ass. she loves herself and i don't even think shes that good looking really. an absolute vile waste of space human being. i feel sorry for her child , using jordan and being fame hungry to on top. my god she makes my blood boil.

Do you mean Tom Pellereau or Tom Gearing? I'm assuming Pellereau, but just thought I'd check...

Favourite: Saira Series One

Least Favourite: Katie Hopkins and Luisa