Favourites
Series 1: Saira
Series 2: Ruth
Series 3: Don't have one
Series 4: Can't decide between Lucinda and Claire!
Series 5: Yasmina
Series 6: Joanna
Series 7: Melody
Series 8: Gabrielle
Series 9: Leah

I'm a ladies' man


Least favourites
Series 1: Paul
Series 2: Mani, I guess
Series 3: I'm pretty indifferent with all of them! Hated Simon actually.
Series 4: Jenny C
Series 5: Philip
Series 6: Dan
Series 7: Zoe
Series 8: Adam
Series 9: Natalie or Zee probably! I loved Luisa sometimes, hated her others!

I'll give a reason for each as well, otherwise it would all be a bit pointless.

Series 1
Favourite: Saira. It was close between her and Miriam, but whilst I rated Miriam more on performance, Saira had the edge on personality! And I loved how she was just never ashamed of herself.
Least favourite: Paul. He struck me as being a really unpleasant person. He hid behind his pseudo-honourable 'I don't want to say who should be fired', which was just pathetic really, business is business. In other circumstances, I'd say that made him nice, but he was aggressive, arrogant and had an appalling attitude towards his female colleagues - obviously Saira was the one that he had the biggest issue with, but I think that Miriam and Rachel both felt that he looked at them in quite a sexist manner. In addition to that, he was completely unable to control his emotions - I find it quite comical to compare his behaviour at 34 with that of 16-year-old Zara in YA2.

Series 2
Favourite: Ruth. In addition to being one of the best task performers of all time, she had a lovely honesty and integrity to her which I always appreciate.
Least favourite: Syed, for the exact reverse of the reasons that I like Ruth. He had a dishonesty and untrustworthiness to him. I like people who are completely frank, and don't try to weasel out of things.

Series 3
Favourite: Sophie. This was a difficult one to choose, and I chose Sophie in the end because whilst I didn't rate her on the tasks, I did appreciate her moral and ethical values. Possibly she was a bit too naive, but I think if she could find a balance between the two, business needs more people like her.
Least favourite: It's very tempting to say Katie, but that wouldn't be fair since most of my dislike for her is for things that have occurred since The Apprentice. So I'm going to say Rory, because he was a dreadful manager and a dreadful person, pretty much.

Series 4
Favourite: I didn't love anyone in this series, but I suppose I'd say Sara. I wanted her to win, but also I thought she was a decent person.
Least favourite: Jenny. Bully.

Series 5
Favourite: Yasmina. Talented, honest, straight-talking, much like Ruth.
Least favourite: Philip. Horrible shouty man, who had a chip on his shoulder about poor Lorraine for no reason at all.

JA1
Favourite: This is a hard one because I really liked nearly all of the characters in this series, but if I had to pick a favourite, based just on personality and not task performance, I think I would go for Tim, because he seemed like a lot of fun.
Least favourite: Rhys. Irritating, whining schoolboy.

Series 6
Favourite: This was another hard one to choose, but I'm actually going for Sandeesh, as I liked her spirit and she seemed like a really genuine person. Also, I think it must be said that she is one of the most beautiful women that they have ever had on the show. It's really rare for someone of her ethnicity to have green eyes, and it worked really well. I don't usually comment that much on what people look like, but I just thought Sandeesh looked stunning.
Least favourite: It is really close between Dan and Stella actually. I thought Stella was horrible, but I'm going to have to go for Dan, just because Stella was able to work with people regardless of her personality and Dan just wasn't. It is probably becoming clear that I really don't like aggressive men - or women for that matter, but I think men tend to come across as a bit more threatening in that capacity than women do.

Series 7
Favourite: Again, it was a difficult choice between a few people, but I'm going to have to go with Helen, just because I admire people who work that hard, and produce results.
Least favourite: Jim, because I felt he was a bit of a snake. Wasn't an exceptional performer, bigged himself up to come across as much better than he really was and in the end had a stupid business plan.

YA2
Favourite: Zara, and I can't really see the point of going into why, because we've had this conversation to death. If anyone wants me to I'll clarify, but I think everyone here already knows why Zara was my favourite, not just in this series but in the whole Apprentice franchise.
Least favourite: Harry M. I hate smug, arrogant, slimy people like him. To his credit, he didn't deserve to lose every task, but he also didn't deserve to get as far as Week 7. He had awful people skills, took any criticism of his ideas as a personal attack, and when he was Project Manager may as well have been in a team by himself. I think it's very telling that the other Harry, who is normally quite guarded about his personal feelings towards people, is completely open about the fact that he can't stand him.

Series 8
Favourite: Gabrielle. I think probably the most likeable candidate to ever be on the show!
Least favourite: Azhar. I don't think he did anything amazing on any of the tasks, and was another of those people who thought they were much better than they actually were. Forever known as 'Mr Strategy'.

YA3
Favourite: Ooh, it's so close between Lucy and Patrick... I think I'll have to go with Lucy though. She stayed very calm and in control, and she was quite a diplomat in a group (like when she tried to calm Amy and David down for the sake of winning the task).
Least favourite: Actually, most of the people in this series seemed really nice generally. I'll have to say Maria as she was quite difficult to work with, but to her credit she seemed very popular with the other candidates - both times that she was in the boardroom, the others in the house were really hopeful that she'd return. In interviews since she has seemed like a genuinely lovely girl, so I feel quite bad for doing this - but there is no one else I could justifiably give that label to. If I were to rank all my least favourites in order though, she'd definitely come last.

Series 9
Favourite: Jaz. Genuinely loved her! Even though she went in the first task, she really made her mark. I'd love Jaz to be my mate - we'd go down the pub and have a laugh!
Least favourite: I think Jordan. He was a strong task performer, but I completely agree with what Claude said to him. He had no right to go about selling shares for a business that was not his own, and besides he broke the rules by not allowing Lord Sugar 50% equity. He was never going to win simply because of the terms of his business plan, and by going on the show he took the opportunity away from some other man who might have had a really great business plan. So yeah... I really object to what Jordan did.

I completely agree, Paul is the most sexist man in the history of the show, it was disgusting, it felt like he didn't take Miriam seriously for the four tasks he worked with her.

I will give my reasons later and add in YA.

Whenever I re-watch Series 1, I never fail to be shocked by what Paul says to Matthew in Episode 5. 'The first time we've had a girl as a team leader and the first time we've lost. Put a woman in a position of power, they go f***ing doolally. Think they're Adolf flaming Hitler.'

Admittedly the first series did not have a particularly strong line-up of women, but that sort of statement is never justified, especially when despite their loss Rachel had actually been a pretty decent team leader - she'd performed better than Paul anyway. Even Matthew, one of the most unreasonable candidates there has ever been, immediately said, 'Irrelevant' in response to that.

I think these days if someone said that they'd cut it out. I think that would be a shame though, because you can't judge blatant sexism for what it is if it is censored. Paul was quite a controversial figure, but he had his fans, and I'd probably respect their opinions more if certain statements had been censored. It's things like that that remind you that he was actually a really unpleasant person.

Favourite

Series 1: Tim
Series 2: Michelle
Series 3: Kristina
Series 4: Sara
Series 5: Yasmina
Series 6: Liz
Series 7: Melody
Series 8: Katie
Series 9: Natalie

(and yes, one or two for shallow reasons alone ) Think that Yas is the best in business out of those, while Mel is the most hilarious one (that emergency biscuit sketch ). Also note that only 3 of those choices are fully english candidates.


Least Favourite

Series 1: Paul
Series 2: Jo
Series 3: Ghazal
Series 4: Pfffttttt.....picks a name out of the hat: Lee
Series 5: Noorul
Series 6: Melissa
Series 7: Zoe
Series 8: Stephen
Series 9: Zee

So far, the three people who have commented are unanimous about two candidates - Yasmina being the best and Paul Torrisi being the worst.

How could you put jo bottom?! I quite liked her, even if she was batsh*t crazy

Series 1
Favourite: Tim. Close call between him and James, as they were both agreeable guys with strong track records, but I think Tim was just that little bit more genuine.
Least Favourite: Adele. I understand she's a lot nicer in real-life, but her behaviour on the show was just awful.

Series 2
Favourite: Ruth. Easily the strongest candidate from this series, and she had a strong personality without needing to be bitchy.
Least Favourite: Syed. Arrogant twerp who wasn't anywhere near as good as he thought he was, and it was just cringe-worthy watching him trying to arse kiss his way to victory.

Series 3
Favourite: Kristina. Same reasons as Ruth, really, and her takedown of Paul in the Week 6 boardroom was just classic.
Least Favourite: Jadine. It feels funny naming her when Katie also appeared in this series, but in retrospect Katie actually wasn't too bad outside of Weeks 6 and 7, whereas it seemed like every episode Jadine was blowing up at everyone over the slightest provocation, and was always the first to criticize others yet completely unable to handle negative feedback towards her. (Post-series however, Katie easily takes the biscuit)

Series 4
Favourite: Raef. One of the show's most memorable candidates, and I think a better performer than he was often given credit for.
Least Favourite: Jenny. Good god, even in a series with more arseholes than a proctologist's office, she STILL manages to be the obvious pick!

Series 5
Favourite: Yasmina. Hardly set a foot wrong over the entire series (Sandalwood error aside), and was likeable too.
Least Favourite: Adam. Pretty much by default since he didn't even show up, and gave an incredibly lame excuse to boot.

JA1
Favourite: Arjun. A solid all-rounder who got on well with people, and proved that the geek can win out.
Least Favourite: Emma. Truth be told I didn't really dislike anyone from this series, but Emma seemed a little dour and coasted through the tasks without doing much.

Series 6
Favourite: Alex. I wasn't especially taken with any of the candidates from this season, but Alex was definitely a nice guy, and did well on some of the tasks even if his spell as project manager went pear-shaped.
Least Favourite: Paloma. Regardless of whether her behaviour in her final episode had been directed at Alex or someone else, I don't think I've ever seen such a blatant example of someone trying to set up a scapegoat from the very first minute of the task.

Series 7
Favourite: Tom. VERY close call between him and Helen, but Tom was just a little more memorable to me.
Least Favourite: Melody. She was actually okay for most of the series, but really went off the rails in Weeks 8-10.

YA2
Favourite: Harry H. Even-handed personality, good performer, and only prevented from being in the finale by the horribly conceived firing system in the week he left.
Least Favourite: Mahamed. Didn't massively dislike him per se, but he had quite an attitude about him and tried claiming credit for things he hadn't done.

Series 8
Favourite: Nick. One of the most consistent performers from any series, who seemed to do well both leading the team and handling the support roles, and always had a professional attitude.
Least Favourite: Stephen. Slippery little man who never did especially well, yet somehow lasted to near the very end of the process.

YA3
Favourite: Lucy. Stood up well to the crowd of harpies that tried to derail her as project manager in the second week, did well overall, and I think was unlucky in that Lord Sugar seemed to have decided fairly early on that Ashleigh was going to be the winner.
Least Favourite: Amy. Easily my least favourite Junior/Young Apprentice candidate, thanks to her incredibly toxic attitude in Weeks 2 and 3.

Series 9
Favourite: Leah. Strong, consistent performer, and the only times she really behaved objectionably were the two occasions when she got brought back into the boardroom (and the first time it was pretty justified considering it was against Zeeshaan).
Least Favourite: Myles. I guess more than anything I felt extreme disappointment at him, given that he did so well in the early tasks, and then turned into an utter trainwreck starting with the caravan task.

Actually, I think I'm going to change my Series 8 least favourite from Azhar to Stephen. I think Stephen just slipped through my mind when I was considering it the first time. He was definitely worse than Azhar (not by much though).

Well, this thread has made me want to watch a lot of it all over again. I've recently watched series 1 and am halfway through 2. Was Paul Torrisi a bigger tosser than Syed? Why were the two black men - Tim and Ansell - so much more mature and generally nicer than their white male counterparts? Who would win in a fight between Saira and Ruth? So many questions. So little time.

Favourites:
Series 1 - Saira
Series 2 - Ruth
Series 3 - Jadine
Series 4 - Lucinda
Series 5 - Yasmina
Series 6 - Stella
Series 7 - Susan
Series 8 - Gabrielle
Series 9 - Alex (closely followed by Rebecca and Leah)

Least favourites:
Series 1 - first Adele, later on Paul
Series 2 - Paul
Series 3 - no-one at first but eventually Katie
Series 4 - yikes I think each episode I developed a least favourite, I could probably name half the cast. But will go for Jenny C for being consistently loathable.
Series 5 - Philip
Series 6 - wasn't too keen on most of them, but think Melissa just edges out Chris.
Series 7 - Jim
Series 8 - not too sure, probably Stephen for being naturally slimy, though I did find his sliminess funny after a while because I knew he couldn't help it.
Series 9 - probably Neil, just beating out Luisa and Zee.

Overall I tend to like the rather insane and stubbornly focussed females, apart from series 9 (wtf happened there?)
While I tend to dislike males that are too cocky and sometimes too aggressive.

Paul/Syed: Difficult question, and I think they're both very similar. I think that Paul was easier to work with than Syed, because Syed was very willing to just do his own thing regardless of what anyone said, whereas Paul could at least be managed to get the best out of him, if you knew how to speak to him and get him to respect you. On a personal level, I'd rather spend time with Syed than Paul. Paul had a really nasty streak which came about in the way that he spoke to people sometimes - he was really sexist, and he was almost like a child in the way that he handled confrontation. His opinion seemed to be that he always had the right to lose his temper, and if he did it was always someone else's fault - he even said as much! I'd never trust Syed or lend him money or anything, but I think I could possibly have a laugh with him in short bursts. So I'd choose Paul to work with, and Syed on a personal level, although I really wouldn't want to have either of them in my life for either business or pleasure.

Black men: I think that was just a coincidence! Also possibly the producers chose Ansell as 'the new Tim', in that he was a confident black man with a calm demeanour and good sales skills.

Saira v Ruth: Either of them could potentially win, but I think it would be more likely to be Ruth. Saira was awesome, but she also had some very poor tasks (Weeks 6 and 9), whilst Ruth didn't really have any. Also, whilst both were amazing saleswomen, I think that Ruth was slightly better, because Saira's personality rubbed a few people up the wrong way, whereas Ruth seemed to get on with most people.

S1 James + / - Matthew
S2 Paul + / - Jo
S3 Adam + / - Rory
S4 Lucinda + / - Helene
S5 Yasmina + / - Phillip
S6 Stuart + / - Melissa
S7 Jim + / - Melody
S8 Gabrielle + / - Jane
S9 Alex + / - Luisa

JA1 Tim + / - Zoe
YA2 Lizzie + / - Harry Maxwell
YA3 Ashleigh + / - Maria

Bit of a funny skew, there - men are 7/12 of the favourites, and only 4/12 of the least favourites. I suppose I tend to gravitate to candidates who are quite silly or quirky but still rather good at business, which in this show has more often been men. Alex Mills, Tim Ankers, James Max, et al. I think the men have also been more ineffectual villains - Stuart, for instance, was sort of edited into the villain role but he did show some business nouse and was more ludicrous than irritating. Likewise Paul Tulip - bit of a gobshite, but good value in a series that was full of slightly boring suits. They haven't cast as many fun female villains, someone like Melody just sapped the life out of the screen every time she appeared, I dreaded her coming back every week. Helene scores least favourite in her series for the same reason - maybe less objectionable than someone like Jenny Celerier but really very boring.

Also, far more early boots in the "least favourites." It's easier for someone who's fired early to stand out for being dreadful than to stand out for being fantastic. I really liked Sophie Kain, Felicity Jackson, Ellie Reed and Vincent Disneur for as long as they were on-screen, I liked them as people and I thought Felicity and Vincent were pretty good on tasks, too... but they didn't really rack up enough hours to get to the top of my good books, whereas someone like Jim was there for twelve weeks, and fantastically entertaining even on an off-day. (He was also hands down the best salesman the show's seen - properly excellent candidate.)

Luisa I ummed and ahhed about, because I actually think she's done herself some credit since the show finished. She's all over the tabloids and the reality show circuit, which is not my thing at all, but she's living the life she wants to live regardless of what anyone else says, she's belligerent in all the right places, I quite respect her. The tabloids'll try to shame her for being promiscuous or getting drunk or whatever and she just goes, "So what, it's fun, I love it!" She completely owns every choice she makes, and quite right, too - the world needs more of that. But while it's one thing to tear Katie Hopkins a third asshole on Twitter, I think it's quite another to speak to your teammates the way she used to, and the rest of the cast was generally pretty likeable... so yeah, on balance, Luisa's my least favourite S9er.

1. Tim
2. Ansell
3. Simon
4. Lee
5. Kate
6. Liz
7. Helen
8. Nick
9. Myles

These are candidates I liked because they weren't vicious all the way through, they had their moments of defending themselves but they were generally strong but likeable people.

1. Matthew
2. Jo
3. Katie
4. Jenny C
5. Ben
6. Stuart
7. Zoe
8. Stephen
9. Natalie

These are candidates that were constantly slippery, had little or no substance in terms of what they said or did and got by with slating others to apportion blame; they often got away with it as well which was annoying.

I found Simon very slippery! Do you not remember how many times he gpt aaway?! Tre should have has him in the firing line in Week 9, he should have gone in Week 10, he would have gpme in Weel 11 had it not been for Katie, and Kristina was a far superior candidate to him in the final.

Also, Lee was very vicious in Sara-gate

Favourite

Series 1-3 didnt watch
Series 4: alex
Series 5: Philip (at the time but now probably james)
Series 6: chris
Series 7: tom (my all-time fave such a sweetheart & a brilliant business mind ofc)
Series 8: nick
Series 9: jordan
YA1 - Tim - "Wind is my least favourite weather type"
YA2 - zara
YA3 - (cant recall any of them enough to pick a fave)

ashamed to say these are all for shallow reasons except zara. But chris , tom ,nick & tim were all likeable people also.


Least Favourite
Series 1-3 didnt watch
Series 4: helene
Series 5: ben (though he was good entartainment value)
Series 6: stuart (in a love to hate kind of way)
Series 7: melody
Series 8: - (least memorable series cant remember one i disliked)
Series 9: luisa/leah - (both has shallow & dislikeable as each other)
YA1 - Zoe
YA2 - Harry M - he made my skin crawl & he is my least fave ever of all series both adult & young versions
YA3 - (cant recall any of them let alone pick a least fave)

harder to pick this one. Harry M is the only one i really detested really.

How can you not like Leah? I understand Luisa, she was a bit more love-hate, but I thought everyone loved Leah?!

Much as I appreciate the fact that you share my love of Zara, how can you possibly like Philip? He was horrible!

Well, judging by the (other) answers it seems that series 9 was very open in terms of which candidates were liked (unlike series 2 and series 5, for instance).

Personally, I couldn't really care less who won in the end. And I do kinda agree that they were not that far apart in personality.

It also didn't help that both the other female finals of the Apprentice were better (quality). It made this one a bit beige.

By the way, the most surprising thing to me (about the answers) is the fact that Stella only has 1 vote for favourite in her series. I vividly remember following that series on this forum (at the time) and people were walking away with her like she was the daughter of the holy god (really surprised how that has changed).

I didn't really like anyone from Series 3; Simon was probably the most undeserving winner based on the tasks on a par with Tom but he seemed like he was a pretty nice guy; I wouldn't say he was slippery, he was just lucky to get off as much as he did as there were people worse than he was.

I agree with that about Lee and I'd actually change it to Raef.

Stella's a funny one - I can't think of any other winner who so completely dominated their series (though statistically speaking the winner with the best track record, believe it or not, is Lee!), but she just torched her reputation with her actions after the show.

Obviously Stella's actions post-show completely sour people's opinions of her. It's the same with Katie Hopkins - what she said in Series 3 seems positively tame compared to the sort of controversies she has been involved with since. I didn't really like Stella on the show though, and I thought she was massively overrated. She had a nasty streak to her - I really didn't like it at the end of Episode 7 when she said to Chris and Liz, 'It was good for us that you messed up, because actually you could and should have won', and then threw a really horrible look to Stuart. Admittedly Liz did the same thing to Stella in a later episode and I didn't like that either, but I think it was worse when Stella did it because Stella was big enough to take it. Stuart had his flaws, but at the end of the day he was a 21-year-old lad, probably had some insecurities and Stella could and should have known better. (Of course, it is entirely possible that the editing skewed that, but I think we have to assume that what we're being shown is true.)

I didn't think Stella was anywhere near as good on the tasks as she was made out to be either. They went on about how she came in and took over the boys and led them amazingly in Week 2 - did she? I didn't think so. She was a better Project Manager than Dan had been, but that wouldn't be difficult. Under her leadership, they came up with the Cüuli, which wasn't very good and would have lost had Laura not made the mistake of not going for exclusivity with Boots. She didn't seem able to make a decision and stick to it - she refused to be a model, and then caved in to pressure, for example. She made it very clear that she wanted Jamie, and not Chris, to lead the pitch, which I thought was the right decision; we didn't see what happened after that, but when it got to the pitch Chris was leading it, so clearly they hadn't stuck to the plan. I certainly didn't think she was the amazing team leader that she was made out to be. And there were things on other tasks as well. On Task 4, she made a big mistake with the pricing which meant that all of her sales were cancelled (I actually think that she should have been brought into the boardroom instead of Melissa, because Melissa at least sold something and Stella didn't sell anything after her sales were disallowed - however, I can see why Jamie didn't bring her back, because she was never going to get fired, and choosing Melissa would be much safer for him). In Week 9, Laura got the blame for the truffle deal with the restaurant, but I didn't think that was fair. The restaurant would never have gone any lower than what Laura suggested, and Stella was the one who actually wanted to go there in the first place. In my opinion, it was Stella's fault that that went so badly wrong.

The editing was clearly intended to make out as though she was this incredible businesswoman, but she didn't look like that to me, if you analysed her actual performance and not people's comments about her.

I agree with you. I thought Stella was overrated; she got praised on the bus tour task especially but it seemed to me that the tour was very boring and really badly organised and otherwise on most tasks, she was usually flat or negative.

Oh, goodness yes! I'd forgotten about the tour, but it was really cringeworthy. 'Oh, where's the Cenotaph? Oh, we've missed it. Where's Downing Street? Oh, we've missed that as well. Never mind, I'm going to sing Knees Up Mother Brown!' Jamie's tour was so much better. I'd ask for a refund if I was on Stella's.

it was a hard series to like anyone. Leah just came across as cold. And i didn't like either her or luisa really. Plus the whole choosing cosmetic surgery.


I was 16 or so at the time so i blame my youth.
Also pants man was just genius right