Four weeks in now and it's just no more than ok, a few bigger but incompetent characters have gone now.

I know the viewing figures are ok which is good but it still struggling to get off the ground.

Not sure if the tasks are filmed differently this year but they don't seem to hold your attention as much.

I know with the characters last year this year would have a lot to live up to but I am not that optimistic for the rest of the series

I think what seems to be a concern for me is that they seem to be firing candidates with the most TV potential for entertainment in future weeks.
Steven and Sarah gone in the same week.
It might be good in terms of Alan Sugar getting his desired business partner, but it might be our loss and make for less entertaining contestants in future weeks.

It feels flat to me too. They've made the X Factor-like mistake of trying to fix what isn't broken. They've tried to excite people this year with many "firsts" - 4 surprise candidates, twice firing someone without them having a chance to defend themselves, and now firing everyone brought back to the boardroom, and Lord Sugar phoning the house personally.

There used to be genuine anticipation for the viewer trying to work out the one person who deserves more blame than others, watching LS decide who to fire, and hoping it was the one you thought should go. But now that anything can happen, it's not exciting any more. Knowing that they all can go, the viewer cares much less. There is less suspense.

They have tried to create too many surprises in one go, so that the show feels less important, and the surprises feel like they're happening for shock value. Firing so many contestants makes it feel Like LS doesn't really care about ANY of the candidates. Basically, it feels more like a TV show this year and it's harder to pretend it's real.

I think the problem so far is that there have been no real story arcs yet, and that is because there have been to many candidates up to this point: every candidate has either had episodes where they are main charcters and episodes where they're invisible, and others have had very small contributions into each episode and task. This has been quite disjointed, and it's made it difficult for us to get behind any difficult candidates, or for the producers to be able to tell particular story arcs about candidates.

I think that's what the problem is so far - it's been very entertaining, but I definitely agree that 'something's missing'. I think it'll lift off from next week with less candidates, although these first four episodes have been thoroughly entertaining.

I think most of the blame is definitely on there being too many candidates.
The multiple firings should have been a huge thing, but instead it just felt like an obvious and slightly desperate occurrence. I mean who cares about multiple firings when we barely know these people? In the end it simply becomes a statistic rather than the huge piece of drama the producers are obviously hoping for. Although the triple firing was pretty good, coming after 2 double firings certainly lessened its impact. I think most of it depended on it being the two biggest characters going.

Another problem for me, though I don't think it's exclusively to this series, is that candidates are just planning for the boardroom now and couldn't give a flying fart about the tasks. Though I have to say the way this spineless bunch avoid being PM probably makes them the most guilty of this.

Sadly at this moment I couldn't give a toss who wins or gets fired next. But I'm interested what will happen now that we're down to a sufficient number of candidates and who will bring the entertainment now there's no Steven or Sarah.

Last night's task was boring but the videos always are!
To my surprise, i think it's been a good idea to increase the number of contestants to 20.
It's allowing more scope for firing those that deserve to be fired after lame performances.
Too many times in the past people were saved only because firing them would muck up the schedule. Now. SIr Alan, can fire a lot more who sucked that particular week.
They know they can't coast along the way they once could.

I've always enjoyed The Apprentice, watched and enjoyed every series. But this year is a complete disaster. IMO the worst series by a mile.

The idea of having 20 candidates from the start has fallen completely flat because they've been so many of them, so none of them have had much airtime individually and as a result the viewers have not really been given a chance to get to know them properly.

Even the shock triple firing last night was merely that. A 'shock'. For television/ratings purposes, I agree with another poster that it didn't make the huge impact it should have because we've already had 2 double firings.

Plus the fact that none of them are particularity engaging to watch. Even the 2 'big characters' Sarah and Steven were not even that entertaining, just very annoying. The people left are either drips, have no personality or obnoxious.

I'll still continue watching it but it's a shame that the show has been reduced to such a mess when the usual format of 16 contestants and only 1 double firing worked perfectly.

I agree with others who say there's too many candidates.
I know that they're all mostly fodder. I acknowledge that. But at least before they were fodder, who you felt you got to know a bit.

Already there have been a handful of candidates who I was just getting to know and warming to as potentially entertaining candidates in future weeks. But just as I'm getting to know them they're gone.
There's just no time to get to know them. Because just as they start getting screentime and start to entertain you, they're fired. Then it moves on to a couple of new candidates who barely featured before, and just as you're starting to get to know them, they're fired too.

If you don't get time to invest in the characters then you're not going to care about their progression.
By the time it gets down to the last four candidates they could well be candidates who've hardly had any previous screentime, as there's been so many of them to get through and feature.

For example, this weeks episode had a team which featured two women with brunette hair (The two who were fighting over being the video director). This was the only week I got to get a proper look at them and realise that during the course of the episode that they were actually two different people.

I'm finding it one of the worst series so far, its way down the bottom with Series 8