The forums are a bit empty atm, so I thought I'd try and liven them up a bit (Even if I am wasting my time!) with an interesting series of threads called Who Would You Have Fired?

Basically, a while ago, I was bored and made a Word Document labelling who I would have fired in each week of a given series. I want to know who you would have fired out of the final three in every week in Series 1. You don't have to do them all and its just a bit of fun, so try to join in! Here are mine:

Week 1

Who was fired? Adenike
Who should have been fired? Miranda
Why? Adenike wasn’t great, but Adele certainly seemed to undermine Saira more than Adenike ever did and she wasn’t responsible for the task failure. Saira didn’t deserve to go as she single-handedly seemed to sell more than the rest of them. Miranda sold at below cost and well before end of trading and seemed to be the worst salesperson on a sales-orientated task.

Week 2

Who was fired? Lindsay
Who should have been fired? Lindsay
Why? Because it is unfathomable that one person can ignore so many people telling her that idea is crap. She performed a masterclass in how to force her idea through, ignore a focus group and just manipulate the ideas of her team. Miriam’s pitch wasn’t as bad as reported and, even if it is, its Lindsay’s fault for making the team writes two pitches. Plus she had no fight in the boardroom once it was evident that they lost.

Week 3

Who was fired? Miranda
Who should have been fired? Adele
Why? Apart from being an annoying, unprofessional jerk to work with? She had no control of the task, made unnecessary roles in the task and spent 80% of the task engaging in a petty spat with Miranda. It’s not Miranda’s fault that Adele gave her a stupid role in the task. Adele was very lucky that Tim was on her team or they would have lost by more.

Week 4

Who was fired? Adele resigned
Who should have been fired? Adele
Why? It was difficult to identify any task faults as First Forte were the ones who got their product list in quickly, had a good product mix, had other good ideas to attract customers and seemed to sell well. However, Adele was rude to the Harrods staff and stopped selling mid-way through the day, so if anyone should have gone, it should have been her.

Week 5

Who was fired? Matthew
Who should have been fired? Matthew
Why? Rachel may have sunk her team by not going for Johnny Clarke's high priced work, but she was a great PM overall. Other team members cost the task for her: Saira needs to take some flak for alienating Rob and Nicky Carter and producing a horrific pitch to them, whilst Paul was terrible on task and made loads and loads of errors and Matthew was hopeless as usual. If I had to pick one person to fire, it would be Matthew as he was probably the weakest overall.

Week 6

Who was fired? Rachel
Who should have been fired? Paul
Why? Rachel’s pitch may have been idiotic and Saira may have produced a terrible print advert and Raj may have contributed to the awful TV ad, but Paul sat back and allowed the project to fail and being the person chiefly responsible for the TV advert as well, he probably should have gone. However, I didn’t have a massive issue with him staying as he had previously been one of the top performers and he did admit fault with the task failure.

Week 7

Who was fired? Sebastian
Who should have been fired? Raj
Why? There is little to choose between Raj and Sebastian, who had identical records, the same PM records, both messed up on the task and they both had stayed in the background throughout the process. However, I think that Sebastian was more articulate and Raj was narrowly worse on task, so for those reasons, I’d have given Sebastian one more chance.

Week 8

Who was fired? Ben
Who should have been fired? Ben
Why? Though he was very good last week, he completely lost the plot this week. Ben never really took control of costs and whilst Miriam did overspend on certain ingredients, Ben didn’t stop it. In addition, his boardroom strategy of going after Paul was a woeful idea, especially as Paul was probably Impact’s best person on the task. Miriam did make some bad costly mistakes, but she had shown more in the past and I would have kept her on, on this basis.

Week 9

Who was fired? Raj
Who should have been fired? Raj
Why? Yes, Saira had a breakdown and yes, she was probably most responsible for the task loss and yes, she was partially rude to the Spurs staff, but at least she tried to win that task. Raj seemed content to ride off his PM win from last week and his contribution amounted to handing out fliers in the street. He hadn’t done enough since his last boardroom appearance as his PM win last week was largely down to Saira.

Week 10

Who was fired? Miriam
Who should have been fired? Paul
Why? Because Miriam’s task performance was virtually flawless, because all the reasons they lost can be attributed to Paul and Tim, because they tried to play stupid games with Saira and it backfired, because her so-called fatal flaw was committed on the other team, because she was awesome on TV, because putting Paul on TV would have got her fired. Seriously, there is no reason why Miriam should have been fired this episode and Paul had already had a few close shaves, so he should have gone.

Week 11

Who was fired? James and Paul
Who should have been fired? James (just) and Paul
Why? Paul should have gone last week and bombed in the interviews – I think he had burned out. James had been great across the ten tasks with only two defeats, but I think the other two were marginally better and James did seem to want to be on TV last week. Saira, though she has the worst record has done, on the whole, the best in my opinion. Tim would have been fired prior to this episode but he was awesome in the interviews and deserved his place on that basis.

Week 12

Who was hired? Tim
Who should have been hired? Saira
Why? Tim had been in the background for much of the series, but Saira was always in the forefront being the primary candidate who usually did well across the twelve weeks. On top of this, Saira made much more money than Tim with a more abrasive team and did a good job pulling together a team that was much more difficult to manage (partially her fault) but I really think that she proved more in that task and should simply have won overall.

I think Adenike was right to be fired. Just on the task footage it appeared to be Miranda, but in the boardroom other things came out. Firstly, it was said in the boardroom that Adenike was a very weak seller. Secondly, she appeared to lie in the boardroom about her own sales. We don't know whether or not she was lying, but when she said, 'I know I sold sixty' Lord Sugar seemed to think that she had just made up that number. Miranda certainly defended herself better than Adenike.


You've completely summed it up. Enough said.


I think it was right that Miranda went. Adele wasn't a good Project Manager, but I think that Lord Sugar summed it up well when he made the comparison with the previous week. Lindsay had been awful, but Adele just abstained; she didn't make things difficult. Miranda did make things difficult, she had been in trouble for that before and she had been in the first boardroom and seen Adenike fired for exactly the same thing. And actually, Adele did ask Miranda if she was happy to take on that role; if it was such a problem for Miranda, she should have said no. Ideally it should have been a double firing, but he couldn't do that then, and I think Lord Sugar made the right decision.


I agree that Adele should have gone; however, I did think she had a point about the Harrods' staff. In a stressful situation, if people you employ (like the face-painter) have gone all over the place and you can't get any information about where they have gone, you're going to get wound up by people. I didn't like that Sean guy at all.


This is an interesting one. I think that out of the three in the boardroom, Matthew had done the worst in the process, so he deserved to be fired. However, I didn't think that he should have been in the boardroom that week; Rachel should have brought back Paul and Saira, as Matthew didn't actually lose the task for them. Having said that, I can see why Rachel didn't bring back Saira; Saira had performed very well on the previous tasks, as had Paul, and while Rachel had as well, she didn't stand out as much as the other two. I think that this highlights a flaw in the format actually. Lord Sugar always says that the Project Manager has to bring people back based just on that task, but actually if you're trying to protect yourself, there is no point bringing back someone who did badly on that task but has done really well on previous tasks. If they've done so well in the past that they're clearly not going to be fired, then bringing them back only puts yourself in danger. To protect your position, you have to be tactical with your boardroom decisions.


It was very close between the three of them, but I agree that Paul should have gone. Not least because both he and Saira (but particularly him) had also been weak on the previous task, whereas Rachel hadn't really shown any weaknesses up to that point.


I don't really mind about either of them going. I think that Raj was more Lord Sugar's culture than Sebastian was, and that's what clinched it in the end. When debating between the two of them, Nick preferred Sebastian because he was articulate, and Margaret preferred Raj because she thought he had more common sense. Lord Sugar tends to prefer streetwise people.


I suppose I agree with you, although I've never been hugely interested in the firing decision on this one, surprisingly.


Agreed entirely. He had done very well to last until that point. Also, his other PM win was more down to Lindsay's failure than Raj's success, in my opinion.


Entirely agreed. It was close between Paul and Tim, but Tim was generally more of a solid worker than Paul. There have been a lot of shock firings since then, but I still think that this was the biggest one. Karen, Shazia, Liz... I don't think any of them quite reach Miriam level.


I tend to agree. Although I personally think that Miriam would have excelled at the interviews, so if she had been kept the previous week over Paul, I think she may well have stayed to the final. Now there's a question. Would a Miriam vs Saira or a Miriam vs Tim final be better?


I think that Tim's win over Saira was similar to Nick's win over me in Virtual Apprentice. Lord Stuart told me that in terms of our individual strengths, I was the better candidate, but I also had some weaknesses that Nick didn't have. It depends whether you want the candidate with the strongest but more specific skill set, or the candidate who possibly isn't so strong on anything specific but is a better all-rounder. I was happy for Tim to win, but I would have been equally happy with Saira. Although out of all fourteen candidates, I think that Miriam should have won.

I like this thread, by the way! We should do one for each series - although I can't remember all of the series quite as well as I remember this one. Series 4, 5 and 7 are quite weak for me as I have only watched them once.

I have watched Series 1 over the last two weeks, so I will do one of these soon!

Week 1
Who was fired? Adenike
Who should have been fired? Adenike
Why? Although it is very close between Miranda and Adenike, I liked the fact that Miranda took the initiative to at least get some money back on the flowers, even if it was at a loss. Adenike didn't contribute that much from what we saw, and seemed quite abrasive.

Week 2
Who was fired? Lindsay
Who should have been fired? Lindsay
Why? Does this really need discussion?

Week 3
Who was fired? Miranda
Who should have been fired? Adele
Why? Adele was a shoddy PM. The fact she lied in the boardroom about what she'd said to Miranda, summed it up really (she denied she'd said at the beginning of the task that if they lost Miranda would be coming in). Miranda wasn't as defiant to the PM as Adele and Siralan made out anyway.

Week 4
Who was fired: Adele walked
Who should have been fired? Adele
Why? Because she was ineffective and negative throughout pretty much the whole process so far.

Week 5
Who was fired? Matthew
Who should have been fired? Matthew
Why? His argumentative nature made him very ineffective. |He contributed little to any task, and I actually consider him the worst candidate from Series 1.

Week 6
Who was fired? Rachel
Who should have been fired? I would have tossed a coin between the three of Rachel, and Paul.
Why? All three of them made fatal flaws: Saira devoted her time instead of being with the Macman, Rachel for wasting her time with the mood board, and not putting her skills to good use, and Paul for letting all this fly, and producing a sh*t advert. However, Saira's past performance saved her, and for me it would have been between Paul and Rachel (Rachel having the worst track record of the three IMO).

I will do Weeks 7-12 later.

And for the second half...

Week 7
Who was fired? Sebastian
Who should have been fired? Raj
Why? Yes, Sebastian had been under the radar on this task, and he might not have been Siralan's kind of guy, but I just feel Raj always gave off an air of boredom, he had no real passion about the process - he was very lucky not only to lead his team to victory on Task 2, but to have survived the boardroom up until this point.

Week 8
Who was fired? Ben
Who should have been fired? Paul
Why? Although Ben didn't perform very well on this task, Paul showed himself to be a very aggressive person. He made himself look very undesirable as an employee, and if I were Alan, I would have put him on a 'last warning', kind of thing after Week 6's cock-up.

Week 9
Who was fired? Raj
Who should have been fired? Raj
Why? I have explained about him in Week 9.

Week 10
Who was fired? Miriam
Who should have been fired? Paul
Why? Because Paul had performed badly on pretty much every task since about Week 5 - even though he won as PM in Week 9, he was by no means a bad PM. I absolutely detest his attitudes towards women! Firing Miriam was completely irrational, as her performance was pretty much flawless. Hands down, Alan Sugar's worst decision ever.

Week 11
Who was fired? James and Paul
Who should have been fired? Paul and Tim (Tim only marginally though)
Why? Paul for reasons I have already explained. Tim, is a controversial choice I know. I think that there is about a hair's width between Tim, James and Saira, but I just feel that Tim wasn't really at the forefront of any great successes throughout the series - yes, he led his team to victory to Week 1, but even then, he wasn't very visible! I am not saying he was a bad candidate in any way - he had lots of skills - he was just a bit naive, like an unrefined diamond.

Week 12
Who was hired? Tim
Who should have been hired? Saira
Why? I just feel she was pretty much the main character throughout the series - we had watched her develop throughout the twelve weeks, and it just seemed a bit flat for Tim who had been not as prominent to win. Saira was brilliant at sales and negotiating, and also she was good at leading and organization. She could have learned a lot from working for Siralan I think.



I haven't watched Series 1 since Spring 2012 - this is only my second time viewing it - and it is a really good series: classy yet entertaining! One of my favourites now

I agree with most of them Hown; in fact the only one I majorly disagree with is your Week 8 firing. Paul was, in my opinion, the top performer for Impact that week as he was always driving costs down, was a decent seller and certainly didn't make any of the big mistakes that contributed to the loss. By contrast, Tim was on finance (The very thing that failed the task for them as the costs spiraled out of control), Ben didn't keep his eyes on the budget and Miriam made the bad cheese mistake. In general, I think that though both Tim and Miriam overspent, Ben was the PM and should have looked over costs. Paul WAS aggressive in the boardroom, but I don't think it was too unreasonable as both Miriam and Ben tried to tag-team him, when, in my view, he was the best candidate on task that week (For that team at least).

Actually, looking back though, in spite of Tim's decent interview performance, I reckon I would have fired him in Week 11. I was thinking of Tim's run to interviews the other day and it went like this:

Week 7: Messed up the Ian Wright pitch
Week 8: On charge of finance, where Impact messed up the most
Week 9: Was the only one on Impact to react poorly to Spurs pulling out their support and didn't catch on the face-to-face element of the task
Week 10: Made the critical error of conceding all of the instant sellers to Saira. This cost them the task single-handedly as Miriam did everything else right.

So, he was pretty lucky in general to reach interviews and despite his good performance there, I don't think this could be overlooked.

The only other one I have even minor qualms with is Week 1, but the editing was so choppy in that episode, it was difficult to know what to believe or who was poor. I personally didn't think it showed initiative to sell flowers for a loss halfway through the day though.

I am clearly not very observant - if I could have listed those things against Tim in my argument for him to get fired in Week 11 I would have!

You're right, Week 1 is a tricky one... Although it was a brash decision at least Miranda put something forward - Adenike just seemed a bit naff, and it did seem like she plucked the number she sold out of the air!

Will we do one of these for another series?

I don't think Adenike would have got any where near the second half of the series if she had survived and we didn't see much from her. The only other thing is that every time I watch the episode, the crime she commits for getting fired (disrespecting and undermining Saira) is being committed tenfold by Adele! The thing is that we just don't know due to the editing. As Saira brought Adenike back in, she was probably the worst culprit.

I've got my firings for the first series down on my laptop atm. I'll set up the second series, if you like?

The interesting thing is that in the first episode, Saira wasn't asked why she actually chose to bring Adenike back in. It would appear that it was due to the disagreement at the flower market - however, it was also brought up that Nick thought Adenike had poor sales figures. It is possible that Adenike was the lowest seller on the team, and that that was the reason why Saira brought her back. It could also have been what swayed Sir Alan to fire her over Miranda - Miranda made a big mistake, but she did at least seem able to sell, and she used her initiative despite it being the wrong decision. Her card was very much marked from that point onwards though, resulting in her being fired two weeks later.

I'd like to have one of these for Series 2.

There is one for Series 2 George

I dont know why Episode 1 is edited so strangely... The prodcution was probably a bit messed up and they improved as the series went on.

Task 1: Miranda, but only just. She and Adenike both did really poorly, but I think Miranda's panicking and selling flowers at a loss early in the day was a bigger mistake than Adenike's rudeness to Saira.

Task 2: Lindsay. She left nowhere else to direct the blame after overruling everyone and going for the Secret Signals, and bringing Miriam back into the final boardroom was another cock-up.

Task 3: Adele. Even if Miranda was somewhat at fault for her attitude, Adele exacerbated the arguments and ultimately did a poor job of organizing the team.

Task 4: Well, Adele quit so it's really redundant, but she did deserve to go for being rude to the Harrods staff, hardly selling anything and then giving up, which in turn caused Tim to have to waste his time getting her back on track.

Task 5. Matthew. I don't actually think he was quite as bad as some have suggested, but he did pretty much nothing on the task beyond blowing up at the other team and throwing false accusations of theft around.

Task 6: Close-run between all three in the boardroom, but I would ultimately say Paul, for being in overall charge of the team, and producing such a terrible TV advert that it would have doomed the team regardless of Saira's print ad and Rachel's presentation.

Task 7: Raj. Not that Sebastian was great by any means, but Raj didn't even manage to complete any sales negotiations, while Sebastian at least managed to get some tickets out of Mel Smith, in addition to being generally better on the prior tasks.

Task 8: Ben. Granted, Miriam was probably the most directly at fault due to her over-spending, but Ben did virtually nothing to control the team, and didn't do an especially good job of defending himself in the boardroom.

Task 9: Raj. Saira was bloody awful in this task, there's no question of that, but Raj hadn't done much of anything in the task, and in the past weeks Saira was so much better than him it wasn't funny.

Task 10: Paul, for having the weakest overall record of the three in the boardroom, and not doing a hell of a lot on the task other than acting like a prat.

Task 11: Paul and James. Paul was a no-brainer, he was the weakest of the final four by a mile. While I James was a very good candidate overall, considering the backgrounds of the three I actually think that in the long-term, Saira and Tim would have benefited from working with Sugar more than James would have.

Task 12: Tim deserved to win, as he seemed to be more of a well-rounded candidate and a better leader compared to Saira.