I apologise now if this has been asked and answered many times but this is the first series of TA I've ever watched!
Are we supposed to believe that a board game for example can be invented, drafted and manufactured in 48 hours, ready for delivery into the shops, or is it a given that weeks of planning go into each episode?
If it's the latter, how are we to believe that the two teams brainstorm their product as is depicted in the show?

They do draft it all in 48 hours. That's why they often don't come up with anything decent. The winning product in the latest task was unusually good, normally the winning one wins because it has some level of potential rather than because it's actually good.

A real boardgame obviously cannot be invented, drafted and manufactured in just 48 hours, but the teams usually brainstorm and come up with a very basic (and often shit) concept that can be put together quickly by the production team.

Turning the concept into a finished product must take some doing, printing the graphics for the board, the questions, the play pieces, the box itself etc... Even if he finished game is basic (and often shit)

It was kinda funny the way they implied that, after a day designing the item, the production-lines rolled into life and knocked-out 300 limited-run items overnight, ready for them to flog the next day.

I find that a little hard to swallow if I'm honest.

I don't think they really misrepresent the truth but I suspect that it gets "dramatised" to some extent.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that, for example, in reality all that happened was that somebody had knocked together a couple of mock-ups of the proposed board game (using bits from other games etc) for them to use to demonstrate the game and the retailers were then asked to specify how many out of a notional production run of 150 they'd be prepared to buy.

I suspect there's a lot of production assistants having meetings with people and briefing them on hypothetical scenarios and there's also quite a bit of getting the Candidates to lug around empty boxes and act like they're excited about what's inside.

I agree... There's probably a list of game types that are available, eg a quiz game, a risk-style game and a monopoly style game. The Candidates are then given whichever game is closest to the one they have chosen.

Printing will probably take a day or so and that gives the Production Team time to fill inserts for the show. ie, all the talking heads bits.

To be fair, from what I saw, neither game was much more than a bit of printed cardboard. Things like counters, dice, etc. would already be mass produced to be added into the box.

Didn't they show the games being manufactured? I imagine they just repurposed already existing materials. The graphic design stuff like the actual board, the boxes etc. can be done in Photoshop or InDesign in a couple of hours easily given that they weren't overly complicated.

This is how the show works,

Each contestant sends in an application form containing their cv, cover page and an outline of their business proposal.

Alan sugar then decides which business plan is the most profitable and they are invited to take part in the show. Another 15-19 contestants are also invited to make up the numbers.

There are then 12 weeks of challenges which are irrelavant to the outcome. Sugar already knows who he wants to invest in, so this is just to pad out the show and gain viewers.

Each week someone is fired until the winner is revealed.

Thats my explanation. I cant fathom out why they make them run down the street flogging cheap tat to pensioners for ridiculous prices in order to prove their business plan is the best.

Thats the main flaw with the show. Im sure in the past sugar didnt know their business plans until the last episode, but now its clear he knows them before even meeting thr contestants.

That woman who got fired a few weeks ago because she wasnt confident at selling yellow candles? Her plan was a swimming school thing which has zero to do with pressure sales on a market stall. There was no logical reason for firing her except that sugar wasnt keen on her idea.

I think it's possible that he didn't know their business plans until the end, but in Series 7 that majorly backfired. Tom's, Helen's and Jim's business plans all had major flaws in them, and Susan wasn't experienced enough. In the end he chose Tom because his performance in the process suggested someone who could be decent and he had been extremely successful as an inventor outside of the process. After going with him, they actually decided to scrap the whole plan and re-create the product that Tom had previously worked on - and separately he went into business with Susan after a few years. So in that instance everything worked out, but it was a bit of a fail with the whole 'new concept' thing. So it makes total sense that he now knows the business plans from the start - although he does stress that he only knows the outlines, and not all the details. Neil Clough's business plan last year, for example, turned out not to make sense when it was analysed in detail.

Your example about Lindsay doesn't really work, because she was on the point of quitting the process anyway. It had nothing to do with her business plan, the whole process just wasn't right for her. I'm pretty sure that they have not chosen the winner from the start. If they had, there'd be no point in the tasks. Sugar would do better by going on Dragons' Den were that the case. The tasks don't have to have that much relevance to the plans, but they do test various aspects of the candidates' skill sets.

Series 7 is the series where the prize seems to have changed after they applied- in some cases at least. Not many people seemed to have worked up proposals. Helen and Jim didn't. Zoe, had an existing business to develop,but was knocked out to save Tom . Susan, who represented a higher risk,. was rejected - but he went into business with her anyway. He rubbished Tom's actual proposal, but then picked Tom - who had a, no risk, nail file patented in his past. There wasn't much else on offer. His Lordship not only didn't need to see a final proposal in Tom's case - because his nail file, and his work marketing and patenting it, were explained in his CV - but, in the event, he ignored the proposal on the table, and took what was in the CV.

And, I imagine, that would be the case now- in most cases where there's an existing business. You might want to check the figures, and see the expansion plan, but Lord Sugar says he knows roughly what they are proposing, and the CV in many cases will tell him who looks capable of doing it. Anyone who doesn't offer what he finds interesting, or doesn't have the experience, or CV to be safe bets, doesn't look likely to survive. It then up to him who he dismisses, or gives a chance to for their task performances, and to decide which proposal offers the right risk/reward in return for the effort or cash he wants to put in. .

I'm sure that's at least partly the case but, then again, I guess the tasks are sometimes a useful way to gauge the competence of the candidates.
I mean, somebody could show up with a great business plan but then, in the course of the series, be revealed to be indecisive, disorganised, weak-willed and/or gullible and, as a result, Sugar might end up thinking he'd rather go with the 2nd-best idea put forward by a person who seemed more able to make it succeed.

And, of course, the flip-side is that there are probably a number of candidates who simply apply to TA along with Big Brother, Come Dine With Me, Coach Trip, Masterchef and a bunch of other reality-TV shows as well because they want to be a zeleb' so we probably shouldn't feel too sorry for them.

There are companies that specialise in small order/prototype production so the designers will just email them the required details and they'll put it all together overnight, with them basically just being printing onto cardboard and a few dice/counters etc shoved in a bag its not a hard job to set up a print machine to do a few hundred copies if you have the machinery and the counters/dice looked like the generic stock sort of thing they've got sat somewhere in a cupboard so really i'd say 100 standard box tops and bottoms plus the board and an insert explaining the rules plus question cards and dice/counters is not very hard to do for a company that does stuff like this as a living for other companies

I'm pretty sure the prize wasn't changed after they applied. If I remember correctly, it was announced quite a long way before the series began auditions that the prize would change.

I would say 3 things:

1. I doubt that Lord Sugar believes that any of the contestants will come up with a profitable business idea and that he mentally writes off the £250k almost immediately.

2. I doubt that many of the contestants are that bothered about their business idea either; they are in the process to gain exposure, make contacts and maybe even just have fun.

3. The whole business partner thing was obviously just a way for Sugar to continue the process without the legal headache of actually having to hire someone.

And I seriously doubt that Sugar even cares about who he ends up with in the final.

I agree with you about point two - I think they all want it, but some want it more than others, they are naturally all prepared for the fact that they may well not receive investment and some may be as keen for contacts and experience - but the others I don't really get. I don't understand why Lord Sugar would continue the process if he didn't want a new business partner. He is not under any obligation to keep it going, he doesn't need the money that he earns from it and in any case if he wasn't investing in businesses that were going to be profitable the loss of £250,000 would probably be quite a significant chunk out of his fee anyway. Which brings me onto my next point, which is that I don't see why he wouldn't expect any of them to have a profitable business when in the past the candidates have done. He has three very successful business partners in Tom, Ricky and Leah (four if you count Susan) who to the best of my knowledge are all doing really well - I'm not so sure about Ricky, but only because I haven't actively heard of his success in the way I have with the others, but I haven't heard anything negative about him either. Why would that not continue to be the case with the current series?

It's probably tax deductible.

I think that's how the Apprentice is played out too, with the Candidates tutored how to react to most of the situations. as they don't look as if they could do much acting left to themselves.

It's a simple, light entertainment show, which many people interpret the wrong way (like X Factor)

I thought the BBC invested the 250k, not Sugster?

I don't believe so.

I doubt it. All of his winners so far have been safe and viable with the new prize.

There's also a long list of apprentice candidates who have been very successful. The show may have helped a lot of them. Relatively few have developed careers outside business, and some of the most successful who did have gone back to theri business roots.

The issue may be more that the prize is only 250k and even a 10% return must be trivial for someone who could make £30 million a year just investing their money in an equity income fund. even if some investmenst end up larger, Lord Sugar must have wider reasons for doing the show.

The problem is that the show sets out its purpose in one way - to find entrepreneurs with potential and basic business skills - but it tends to go for the more limited, less costly projects, and the safer competent contestants - in fields he finds interesting. He's never let the people who display the most of the qualities he talks so much about win - the people with most fire, and the small self made business people don't. And he tends to also reject the corporate high flyers - who will go on to much bigger things, and most of the people who showed most basic business skills too.

How would the production team have any knowledge on how to create a board game?
Surely they'd be too busy producing a TV programme to be faffing around making board games?

There are several Geoknow's and Relationship Guru's for sale on eBay if you have a bit of cash to spare.

In fairness, he said last year that the reason he chose Leah over Luisa was that Luisa's option was too safe, and he wanted to take a risk with Leah.