If Jordan's business plan had come to the fore sooner shouldn't he have been fired a long time ago thus saving one of the earlier candidates

Yes, I'd have liked to see Myles in the interview stage.

Jordan was a dead man walking before his first answer.

You can't complain about how LS never fires anyone based on the task and he fires people due to their plans and then argue that Jordan should have gone for his plan regardless of the tasks.

People have short memories - Jordan was only in one boardroom (and therefore had only one opportunity to be fired prior to tonight) and that was Week Ten, so the only person he'd have denied was Myles, who was never going to get picked by Sugar and, on the task basis, definitely deserved to go last week.

Unless you are suggesting that we break the format to fire someone not in the boardroom and then, what's the point of the tasks? If you're arguing that he shouldn't have got on the show in the first place, then that's a different argument and one that has legs, but you can't just argue he should have gone regardless of task performance once he was on the show.

As much as I like Myles....his business idea is not really interesting.

I don't really think it has. Granted, it probably saw people with better ideas fall by the wayside, but I think if somebody had an idea that genuinely interested Alan Sugar that much, he'd have kept them regardless of their performance. If someone was ever destined to win, they'd have been kept around.

Yeah fair enough, but I wanted to see him handle Claude et al in the interview sage. I think he would have nailed it and had some good come backs, but as we all know it's the business plan that wins through, so I still think he would have been fired tonight and the right 2 made the final.

Neil was the best overall candidate for me though. Shame his business plan was terrible.

^^^^this

At what point in the process do the candidates hand in their business plans. I would assume before the start, because as they launch into the week to week tasks, they wouldn't have the time for preparation. So, if the boardroom team have had the plans for some time, then Jordan didn't prevent someone else reaching this stage.

The business plans will have been looked at, examined, scrutinised and discussed in detail way before the final candidates for the very first show are decided.

I completely agree with you. It's like when people complain that the show isn't entertaining any more, and then when they make it more entertaining, they complain that there is no serious business. Lord Sugar is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I may not agree with everything that people say on these forums, but at least I know what I want with The Apprentice. It's like how people say it needs a change of format; if it got one, they'd complain that they preferred it the way it was before.

Having said that, I thought Jordan should have gone last week. I spent the whole episode hoping that Myles would go, and then quickly switched to Jordan at the last minute. Myles wasn't great, but he was more viable than Jordan.

Incidentally has anyone noticed that there have only been three weeks this series (3, 4 and 6) that a Project Manager has not been fired? I've just worked it out and this is the record (well technically it's the joint record with the first series of Junior Apprentice, but I'm not counting that as it had significantly fewer weeks). Last year holds the record for the opposite scenario - there were only two weeks where a PM was fired.

I did think about that but I regarded Luisa and not Jason as the Evolve PM in Week 8.

No.

Jordan got to this stage on a mixture of merit and luck.

Tbh I think this episode was embarrassing for the bbc.

How Jordan even got on the show let alone to the final when he doesn't even own a business is just ridiculous. Totally ridiculous. And he didn't even want to give away 50%.

And the other woman that just plucked a 5 million figure out of thin air. What a joke

Officially, I believe they are both regarded as the Project Manager. Lord Sugar treated them as such in the boardroom, so as far as I am concerned there were three Project Managers this week.

No, they must have known ages ago.

Myles's business idea is dreadful in the current economic climate. Marketing and selling a brand of luxury goods? Luxury goods? Really?

In general, wealthy consumers, hospitality industry and luxury goods businesses are cutting back quite a bit (and lots of them have whined about it), which shows how tough it is at the moment. I mean, Bertelsmann and Penguin Group - two of the world's most successful trade and academic publishers - merged last year and some of their divisions together last month to save themselves. You'd have to be brighter than a box of broken light bulbs not to realise that it's not good timing to have ideas like Myles's at the moment.

For me personally the show isn't really about the business plans, I enjoy the candidates and how well they fare week to week.

I agree with you that his business plan isn't a sound idea especially in this economic climate, but this isn't the reason I wanted him in.
I wanted to see him handle Claude et al in the interview sage. I think he would have nailed it and had some good come backs, but as we all know it's the business plan that wins through, so I still think he would have been fired and ultimately the right 2 made the final.

I don't think it did. I have to admit I laughed when Claude called him a parasite and the shock on Jordan's face that he couldn't sell someone else's business was a hoot.

I only wish Alex was still in for the final and would have loved his interviews.