Well I guess that's a good question, and the silver lining within the possibility that my theory is correct is that it's only a subtle interference in the supposedly pure 'reality' TV show. It's certainly not obvious...Unlike stuff like X Factor. Watch that (if you have any time to waste) and it's clear that the entire thing has been completely manipulated to make a boring concept interesting.

I would guess though, that off-screen producers that must guide the contestants at certain points have just been told to play a bigger part this year. Did you not feel that the whole lying hot-tub incident seemed unrealistic? Considering the fact that the entire group will have spent an un-televised evening, morning, and journey to the boardroom together since the task took place without any mentioning of what happened.

I think it's plausible that James wouldn't have mentioned it and Roisin wanted to reveal it in the boardroom to throw him off guard.

Even in the house. As I assume they stayed there the night the task finished and before the boardroom the next day. You'd think while they drink the cellar dry of wine, someone would of spoke up. Unless they stayed in an hotel, has all their business suites with them and then went straight to the boardroom the next day. But again hotel bar / restaurant?

If it was staged it was extremely good acting by those who supposedly didn't know. It doesn't make sense as a staged reveal. Why would the producers stage it when James was trying to stage it himself (i.e. hoping it wouldn't be revealed, having told Roisin he would tell them after the task). Nor do I agree with the premise of the thread that James was acting. He was being himself (super confident in his limited ability).


I'm sorry, but it's "would have" (or "would've") not "would of". I wouldn't nitpick over one mistake but you've said it repeatedly in this thread.

Because of his conviction, he would have need a US Visa. However it would be a simple matter for the producers to ensure all candidates met US entry requirements well in advance. If the BBC were looking to fix things in just a few hours he would have been put in the UK team because he couldn't travel. I felt that the PM on that task, which depended on the product design and branding, should have been in that team anyway.

Daniel may not be able to sell anything but he can certainly buy stuff. It's no wonder he has such a high opinion of himself if he can make that kind of money.

Yes we've all acknowledged that there's things going on behind the scenes. But to check wether contestants meet the US entry requirements, would require the production team to ask those questions. So even if James had a VISA, (I doubt he did by the way he went on about going to America) they would still need to ask him "do you have any reason that you know of, why you wouldn't be able to travel to the US. So this in itself is quite a big glue that at some point in the process they're off to the US!! So his faux joy at getting a trip to the US was false!!

They wouldn't need to refer to any country specifically. They could just say, 'To the best of your knowledge, are you free to travel all over the world? Is there any reason you would not be able to travel abroad, including any countries specifically?' There is often an abroad task, so that wouldn't be a giveaway.

^^hmm sorry not convinced, the US has some of the strictest polices, where as most of Europe and large junks of the world you can just go, in fact usually they do go to Europe and once to Morocco. How would you know you couldn't go to the US unless asked, you can't prove a negative.

And lets assume James says "well actually last year I tried to go to America and couldn't" he would then still have to know that the US was on the cards.

This of course assumes he didn't already have a VISA for the states. But the way he was jumping around suggested he'd never been, he was like a child....oh wait.

And another thing occurred to my while typing this, would all the contestants need some sort of working VISA? I remember Top Gear when they did one of their races in America and they had to be all serious because their VISA only allowed "Factual Programming" and not comedy.

I don't think they get paid for doing The Apprentice so it would not be considered work.

Ollie sounds like a dog of much common sense. As for describing James as a "nobber", I LMFAO cos that's one of my favourite words, and it's true

I'm not sure... I think it is entirely possible that they are paid something at the end of it, but only because they have to legally under the terms of the contract. They do that on Big Brother - it's just £1 for the whole time in the House, but in order to contract the Housemates in that way, they have to pay them something. It is probably the same on The Apprentice, though I don't know as much about the technicalities behind the process. I auditioned for Big Brother a few years ago and got quite a long way, so I know quite a bit about that.

Whether you're being paid or not isn't the only criteria for deciding whether or not a work visa is required.

In this case, The Apprentice, as a whole, would almost certainly be considered as "work" for the purposes of a visa and so everybody entering the USA as part of that production would be likely to require a work visa.

I used to work in the USA and it was common practice for the company to fly family members out to the USA rather than flying employees home for time off.
The company started to ask the family members to carry stuff out to the USA for them (documents, laptops, small machinery parts etc) but that didn't last long because a number of family members found themselves in trouble simply because carrying business items into the USA wasn't permitted under a tourist visa.