I'm sure they knew beforehand.

What I am aghast at is that they hadn't flushed out the fact that Neil always wears short and ill fitting jackets.

Jordan and Francesca should not have been allowed on the show.
As said previously Jordan was using someone else's business and couldn't legally organise a deal with Sugar.

Francesca had entered the amount £5 million pounds turnover "Because it was the first number that came into my head".

Whoever selects the candidates should get "you're fired" from LS ditto the nodding dog team of Karen and the old timer adviser.

For me one of the most embarrassing moments of the Apprentice ever, yet it seems to have been largely glossed over.

How on earth anyone on this forum can say Fran should have been anywhere near the final 5 let alone in the final itself (yes some people have said this) is beyond me.
One of the most basic yet fundamental parts of her business plan was pure fiction. It wasn't embellished, it wasn't a miscalculation, it was made up!!!
She, like Jordan should have been ejected form the interview at that stage.

You failed to pinpoint Neil Clough's hair brained business plan from an early stage, so for that reason Sugar, it is with regret, that you're fired.

I can not believe how many of these candidates even managed to be selected, let alone then have been allowed to blag their way through this process. Personally I would like Lord S to say he will not invest in any of them, put a real spanner in the works and NO you are all s**t not going to bother, thanks.
Perhaps Lord S should have had his hot honchos research their proposals a bit more thoroughly before exposing us to this ridiculous prolonged TV drudge.

Meh.

It's only what every other business person in this world does, pluck a figure out of the air about what them and their business is worth to sell themselves. It's marketing.

Well I have even said she should have won. That certainly will be beyond you but it isnt beyond me. Please see her own thread which provides an answer to your astonishment. Just think for a second, she has been ten years in business working for herself, do you really think she has never entered a bank for a loan or overdraft in that time and was never asked for her figures.
Usually the hardest questions have the most simple answers.and this has now been given on her own thread by one of the most experienced posters here who even has his own apprentice site.

Sugar did mention in the last episode that he had a quick look through the plans at the start of the process but I'm guessing it was more than a quick look. As mentioned by other people, it's possible, perhaps highly likely, the producers and Sugar himself, wanted to keep Jordan in the show in order to make his firing that much more entertaining and humiliating! He got a classic exit from the show.

My gut feeling is Sugar does check out the plans early on in the hope that certain candidates can make it to the end of the process.

Probably at the start of the show they hand in more detailed ideas of their business and their CV's etc as theres no way they can check up on all those educational qualifications..speak to tutors/friends in the time it takes to hand their proposals to nick/karen and take a seat for 30 mins