Good Afternoon!

Its Wednesday which means its time for The Apprentice re-watch. This week is Week 10: Apprentices on TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOTRoN0xCPw

Unless anyone else would like to do it, I will open the discussion at 9. Have fun!

Goody! I like this one.

Hello Everyone! I hope you enjoyed the episode - I certainly did; a very, very entertaining episode!

The unlucky tenth person to be fired and the person who just missed out on interviews was

Spoiler

Miriam

This is often considered to be one of the worst firings of all time and indeed, it is very difficult to see what the firee did wrong. Do you agree with Sir Alan's firing? If so, why? If not, why do you think Sir Alan fired them?

Miriam was PMing for her second time, whilst James became the first person to notch up three stints at Project Management. How did they perform in the last regular task?

It seemed for a long time as though Impact were going to wipe the floor with First Forte, so what went wrong for Impact? Do you feel they should have won or were First Forte the right task winners?

Who were the Top performers on the task and who didn't do as well? Did the episode change your opinion on any of your favourites?

Saira and James became the first team of two in UK Apprentice history - Did you enjoy the personal interaction between the pair?

This type of task is one of the most popular ever, with it being repeated in Series 3 and Series 5. However, it has been discontinued since then. Do you enjoy this type of task and why do you enjoy it?

And finally, an easy memory question from me. Who is the only candidate to last all ten tasks without switching teams once?

As ever, these are just starting points for the discussion. If there is anything else you wish to discuss, feel free to bring it up even if you haven't seen the episode. This episode usually provokes strong feelings in viewers (It certainly does in me!) so I'd like to see a good debate get going!

Hi Jack

Sorry, but I haven't had time to watch it - I'm going to Uni on Sunday and I've obviously had a lot to think about, which is why I haven't contributed to the last two discussions either. I'm still meaning to do it, both for this episode and for the previous two, but it won't be tonight.

The answer is Paul, by the way.

No problem George; two years ago I was in the same position so don't worry! Good luck! I hope everything goes well for you. Whenever you get a spare moment to watch them, feel free to comment and then I'll definitely respond!

Yes indeed, it was Paul; no-one else came close really; Miriam was on First Forte till Week 7 and Saira started and finished on First Forte, but had a period on Impact obviously in between.

Did anyone else notice that in the what happened last week they credited Tim with the win when it was Paul who was PM. That was a tad shady I thought.

I wasn't surprised that Miriam was fired. At first, Tim and Paul looked like they were so much more nearer the door than Miriam but there was a complete and tangible change in play when Paul mentioned that they brought more products than they needed home so that Mim could be in the decision herself as to what she wanted to sell. Having said that, and despite not being a great manager, I do think Miriam should have stayed due to past performance.

I was surprised that it was never brought up that Tim and Paul didn't ask many questions about the products whereas Saira was constantly digging for clues. I think that played a big part in how well the teams did.

I loved team James and Saira in this episode, just so entertaining and both (even Saira) coming across just completely likeable. The wolf jacket moment is gold. I'm glad that they won.

No I didn't notice it until you mentioned it. It did focus loads on Tim in last time review, which was weird. I wonder if it was an honest mistake though. In the Soap episode of Series 5, they call Yasmina Kimberly at one point.


I thought Miriam did all she could. It wasn't that Miriam had a choice of several good items and she personally chose badly; it was more that Paul and Tim conceded all the instant sellers and best products to Saira and they were doomed from that point onwards. Miriam shouldn't be expected to do every single little thing on task. Don't forget James delegated product selection to Saira and if Miriam had put, say Paul on TV for the sake of having total control of product selection, she would have got lambasted for putting Paul on TV when he wasn't really very good on TV. Not only this, but Miriam wanted to have total control over product selection, but Paul actively talked her out of this, saying "You have to put trust in us".

Sir Alan's logic was confusing. He fired Miriam because apparently, she didn't say to Paul and Tim "Only one of you should be on production". However, he even claimed that Miriam was better than James at presentation so its not as if this was a major reason for the loss. In addition, James and Saira didn't even have an extra person so its not as if it was something the other team did overly well. It was a very, very weak reason for the firing imo.


I agree; First Forte won because Saira picked products that would sell and she removed her personal opinions. Tim and Paul cost it for Impact by using their own opinions instead of asking what sold. Indeed, whilst Paul and Tim were lambasting Saira's product choice, Saira was predicting that Wolf Jacket would be a strong seller and she was totally right. She got product selection spot on. As for production, well, I guess you could interpret it differently. I thought she did quite well though.


The wolf jacket moment is possibly my favourite ever moment on Reality TV - "James, you can't wear that on TV, love!"

(I still haven't watched it, but this is on what I remember):

I think that ultimately, Miriam's big mistake was being Project Manager. To get things absolutely right, it would have made a lot more sense to wait until after they had decided the presenter for the Project Manager to be chosen. However, I don't think that it's fair to blame the team for this, because the other team did exactly the same thing and it didn't hinder them at all.

It's interesting that whenever this task was repeated, they made it so that everyone had to take a turn both and presenting and at producing. The outcome of this episode makes it very obvious why this was done.

I suppose it was fitting that Paul & Tim's scheme backfired on them - as Melissa Cohen would put it "They were karmically retributed!"
I'm pretty sure that this task was also tightened up in product selection in later series too - it was odd that they could select 15 products and then be allowed to only present a few of them.
Comedy gold with wolf spirit jackets and yoghurt slurping
Although I'm not convinced that Saira really knew what Tim & Paul were up to in the negotiation generally she was very impressive this week - feeding the sales figures through to the audience was genius.
Right one went? I don't think DS has enough of these guys - for me to express my anger!
One of the things that annoys me about apprentice is the meme that the Project manager is the be all and end all - Tim and Paul are supposed to be professionals - did they really need mummy Miriam to tell them to divide up what is clearly a one man job? As TXF said Miriam had a choice of products, but it was a choice of poor products - they couldn't point to a surefire best seller she ditched.
Interestingly I think this was about the first instance of the now obligatory "fire tease" - which I really think has got old now:yawn:
Who should've gone? Well I blame Tim for the silly negotiation trick - its the kind of thing hes done before with the not telling the girls about the phone call in the toys task and trying to blag the other teams seed money in the Harrods task.
But on overall performance it should've been Paul - just a pity he was the first in a long line of loudmouths that reminded Lord Sid of his youth...

Bad product choice did for team impact. Concentrating on messing up Saira's selection was strange. It was as if they had forgotten the purpose of the task.
Mirriam shouldn't have been fired imo. She was a good candidate and been really impressive over the series.

Paul or Tim? Pretty even, toss a coin.