Seems that way now.

They love her now

I said that to my housemate when Nick made the comment about how well she was doing. Neil definitely isn't getting a winner's edit at the moment, and he seemed like the other frontrunner in recent week.

She seems to have changed. I actually quite like her now.

Loved how she kept winking in the boardroom. Bless her.

I have said all along she will win. In almost all the series I have got it right from the start. Knowing Lord Sugar by now its not hard to spot what he wants.
Those three business ideas what even LS cant make head or tail of surprises me. I thought he had to be told in advance what they were and he had 'cleared' them. Do they really think that LS would trust them with so much money for such hair brained schemes. He is not a software engineer and he hopes to start such a company by using one. He has no real idea what he is going to sell at all. Myles idea again makes even less sense. Till now in the past series all the ideas made sense except jedi's perhaps. It was something they had done in the past and wanted to improve upon. Dont think its necessary to do the interviews for these lads. No one would understand what they're talking about. LS has already said today he doesnt want them anyway. Might as well fire the lot.
I do think all the girls left are strong contenders, and most likely LS will join with each of them like he has done in the past with Susan Ma. He has the money and why not.
I hope they all get into the interview stage. That is if the teams are mixed next week he can chuck another boy out. Otherwise if the girls lose one will have to drop out.

Interviews are next week the second last week

I really hope not, she is insufferable.

I don't like Luisa, but thought she was good this week. She does have skills, she just needs to cut the baby voice and deal with people better in general. She seemed very focused and less argumentative on this occasion.

what was her business plan btw? I think I don't know any of the girls plans.

See new thread

Tonight's edit seemed far less contrived than mist others this series. The other women didn't have a bad word to say about Luisa and from what we saw, she didn't put a foot wrong. It makes a difference to me when someone wins a task that is measurable, like this one, rather than a subjective, spinnable one like last weeks. Luisa made all the right calls, supported her team, got the best out of them (and both Francesca and Leah have a tendency to sulky negativity if they're not managed well) and was truly magnificent. I really enjoyed this episode and hope Luisa is in the final two.

The 'your business idea sucks' segment tonight was equivalent to his 'Hmmm' when he's finished grilling what turns out to have been a winning team. It creates drama. All he really had to say against Neil's is that 'it had better be a bloody good strategy' and 'Are you a one trick pony?'. Neil's a definite contender, nothing said tonight changes that.

As someone who is normally irritated by manipulative edits, I genuinely enjoyed tonights. I thought Jordan ahd talked himself out of the process. However, I suspect that they're saving him for interview stage. The trailer had Claude saying 'You're a parasite' and from what Jordan mentioned of his business plan, it is to market software created by his coder partner. As Shug already has marketing people, Jordan's not really offering anything that shug couldn't do without him. Frankly, yes, he's a parasite. If a coder brings the right gaming idea to a competent company,, the game will sell. Shug doesn't need Jordan for this.

Neil's doing OK but Lord Sugar has noted his evading responsibility, and the question over him as more than a salesman. The salesman line usually proves fatal - from Saira and Ruth onward. That could be a feint though. His real problem is his proposal - which seems overhyped and in a saturated market, and it fails the Alex test of doing what you know.

Jordan seems to be offering percentages like on Dragonsden - wrong show. Suspect idea. Incomprehensible. Risk factor identified as high too.

That pushes the girls to the forefront. Leah looks safe, but her proposal may not be something he want's to be connected with

Francesca looks viable - but hasn't shone much.

That just leaves one. Luisa has a business. If it holds up, as hers, and viable ,and her proposal is for something not too different, she passes the risk test. If her figures or proposal collapse, she is still a goner. She's also been marked by both Karen and Nick now as a capable retailer - which is what she needs to be . Lord Sugar said the task was designed to test their ability to set up a business - the girls all passed. Luisa was the PM taking the decisions. Question is if he is prepared to ignore the newspaper stories.

haha ok

The strongest contestant, still going strong.

Sugar is starting to pick up on the fact that Neil is somewhat limited, a good lieutenant but how much more?

Leah isn't bad, needs to get involved and leave her mark on something soon though.

Don't think so. Too much carnage beforehand. They've emphasised a strength late in the game, but she's not a winner. Bit more of a Debra Barr.

Neil's proposal doesn't look that viable. it sounds rather like Alex's legal site.

However, he then has a choice of Luisa and her news coverage. or Leah and her politically sensitive cosmetic surgery.Problems there with both.

Or there's Francesca and dance? But she's not been that visible. Or Jordan - and even if the offer was viable he would have a problem letting Jordan win when the proposal seems incomprehensible to anyone listening.

Agree with all of this. ^^^

I'll admit i'm not fully up to speed on the business ideas yet, just going by the person and their qualities at this point.

We are guessing on Luisa - she seems to have 3 businesses and the third non cake one may be on offer which may be more of an unknown. Leah we know about and must raise questions about being a suitable field if its cosmetic surgery.Francesca we are assuming is offering something to do with dance, as thats what she does, and her twitter is full of supportive customers.

Neil is going to look odd winning when his proposal seems to be something new to him , and highly ambitious, and in an existing sector - which are the arguments he used against Alex.

She led well on this task and I will admit she did do well, but it was her day job. Any hype about winning the show, for now, is exaggerated, imo.

But all she has to do is prove she can do what she is proposing - and she has if its retail. if its related to her existing business, she stands or falls on her figures.

Neil can't prove his, as its all on paper .The paperwork also may not add up.

Jordan can't explain his proposal, and it may not be viable, or meet Lord Sugar's terms.

Francesca hasn't had a task to show her specific organising skills or connected to her business , or done that well as a PM. Even if she has a good proposal = she may not look strong enough from the tasks. She may be safe as options go though if she doesn't manage exotic dancers.

Leah comes with a proven skill and has shown a range of abilities, but she's not got as good a record as Luisa or Neil.

Luisa performed well on the task, but is not a winner IMO. Posters on this forum have highlighted that they can't find one of her supposed three businesses, and the other is just an ebay shop offering cut price electricals. Ripe for interview slaughter. That leaves a cupcake shop that is basically a hobby business. There could be a strong proposal to expand this latter one, perhaps by franchising, but there are already at least three cupcake franchises operating that I've seen.

I would genuinely be disappointed if she won - not because of the newspaper stories, cos she has the right to be young and have fun as much as anyone else - but because of what we've seen of the negative side of her personality on the show. Her manners make her a terrible role model. Kinda similar to my opinions on Luis Suarez winning Player of the Year, it doesn't matter how good he is on the pitch, he's a horrible individual. Luisa isn't as bad, but her manners are appalling and how she talked to the designer early on and to Jason in front of people, is not good business practice.

Player of the Year should have absolutely zero to do with personality, in my opinion. If Suarez was the best player, then he was the best player.

Similar feelings on the Apprentice. I dislike Jordan massively, but Miles was weaker.

His alternatives are Leah and Neil. All three have the same issues. Neil can sell . but is a more unthinking pit bull, at times. Leah can't communicate as well with people, and has upset more of them - notably several suppliers this series. Jason would have been sacked by all the stronger candidates - more roughly by Neil or Alex on what we saw, and probably by Leah, given how she attacked Zee.

He has no shrinking violets left there. Lord Sugar's not one himself either. He's also had people tell him for the two weeks since that teams work well with her, and that she can lead. Karen told him that, Nick has told him that, Neil told him that. This week Leah and francesca told him that. And, even in the week Jason is fired , the team worked far better on the second day with her as PM. Its not a an issue - unless he wants an argument to back off her.

Good attitude to have. I cannot stand Luisa at all, but it is undeniable that she is at the upper end of the standards of this year's candidates.