... at the board room firing scene. I seem to remember he used to be quicker and switched between them in such a way that you thought 'who's he going to fire??' and he messed with your brain by doing a last minute finger pointing switch.

now it just seems a bit slow, ponderous and pretty predictable. I do appreciate he's no spring chicken which maybe has a bearing on things.

does anyone else feel this or just me?

Can't agree, sorry. I think he's as on the ball as he ever was.

I thought it was gonna be James. He's still got it

I don't like Sugar but think he's been a bit sharper this series.

I think it's the editing. They've really strung it out, I'd imagine to up the tension, but like you I find it boring and repetitive.

It's always the same formula - the edit shows him berating two candidates and then he fires the one that he wasn't as harsh towards. Nurun being fired was predictable if you apply this formula.

Or, indeed, if you'd watched the last 3 episodes.

When he comes to the final deliberation and says to the first person "Regretfully...",...it's not them it's one of the other two.

So pretty much just me then still think he used to be better at leaving the viewer guessing, i don't see many 'james i think your journey's just about done ... but amy you're fired' all said in one go with last minute switch.

to me it's not as 'edge of the seat' any more. I'm happy to be in a majority of one

Apparently the boardroom filming actually lasts hours as Sugar rambles a lot. It gets heavily cut down in editing.

No wonder James needed a stretch.