I think Bianca was always going to be in the final based on her business plan. As had this been the original format where it was about a job i feel sure she would have probably been fired over those couple of very silly mistakes she made. But she was safe because Sugar likes her business plan.

I do think His Lordship maybe sees the characters of the series in early tasks and maybe sometimes keeps them in a few more weeks than they should so it makes good television. Most obvious time of this was undoubtedly Stuart 'The Brand' Baggs. An utter pillock who should've gone early but he was such an entertaining character to watch I think Sugar thought ratings may stay higher a bit longer if Baggs lasted longer.

I work as an editor and by looking at the show, the editing, the soundbits etc, I can pretty easily tell that it is not scripted and that the editors work from what they've got. However, I think a lot of the commentary and voice over underways is just tailored to tell the story the producers want to. So regardless of the real situation if they want to make a team look bad, they will. But hey, that's all reality-TV in a nutshell.

What annoys me though in the show is the fake pauses the editors input after someone comes in with a line that's supposed to deflate or end a scene. It's just so blatantly obviously edited to look like some kind of reaction shot. It's a device that is used ad nauseam - sometimes you see that it's from a different part of the sequence where the contestants are listening to a behind the scenes person or having a reaction to something completely different. I think the reality would have more of an impact if they just show the situation as it played out.

Actually, the biggest mistake that she made (the Westminster exclusivity one) she was on the winning team for, so couldn't be fired. And on the other one, it was only a minor mistake, her first mistake and she'd done well on the other tasks.

Also, I know I am certainly coming across as an apprentice nerd, but I recently saw that alan, tweeted a link about a hoisery company.
Which has made it obvious that Bianca has won.
Saying that, jokes on me if it turns out to be Mark,

You haven't read my bloody post. You've just cherry picked a line from it.

I'm saying that it will be scripted. Not that everybody is pretending and rehearsing lines for a made up character, but that there are elements which are scripted.
It's ridiculous to believe that shows like this aren't scripted.
They have to be in order to get some sort of coherent narrative flow. For it to have a narrative structure it has to be scripted, otherwise it would probably be an unwatchable incoherent mess which no one watches.

As soon as editors and writers who plan a sequence of events get involved, subjective bias is naturally present. It can't not be. The very nature of editing it means reality is changed. That's what editing is for, to change reality into a form intended for consumption by a particular type of audience. The creative process has to introduce subjective bias when choices for what to put into the programme are made. There's no way that these programmes somehow cobble themselves together by some sort of objective process, and that everybody involved believes that they must be neutral so try to mimic the perspective of an unfeeling robot.
Many of these shows even make it easy for you by having the title 'script editor' in the credits.
The show even has its own archetypes, just like much written fiction does, and the candidates are molded to fit into those archetypal roles as much as possible.

Of course it's scripted. The question is to what extent it is scripted, and what is the motivation and purpose behind most of the narrative choices which are made.

It must be scripted to an extent.

I mean, just take the example of Mike Souter and the two food samples which blew Roisin's business plan out of the water. He revealed one - then Roisin (led by Mike) then 'conveniently' said 'yes but it is not available in ready meal form', smoothly allowing him to contradict that claim by producing the ready meal box which uses Konjac!

Roisin's reaction to that was genuine and certainly unscripted proving that the show is loosely-scripted whilst leaving adequate room for ad-libs and unexpected reactions like Bianca's tears.

Minor throwaway because I'm naive and dont want to say anything to jeopardise my position Ive be lucky enough to land:

How its done is that its all serious and a scene is done from start to finish, its real. That real scenario created the first draft. After that we pick out the best things or ask a candidate to emphasise a point they made more. Sometimes Lord Sugar isnt even talking to anybody, how else do we stick a huge DSLR infront of his face without it being in any other shot?

Essentially, yes its real but then they are told to repeat what they just said omitting some things and emphasising othes.

Wow! That's a whole lotta repeatin' goin' on!!!

And your "position" sounds really interesting. Feel free to PM me if there are any vacancies!!!

Priceless

Interesting? you're kind but Im only a step above an intern.
Most of what you see from each scene is from multiple takes!

And its long yes but most of them arent physically there

The thing is, the dynamic is actually quite chill
Really, Sugar is actually an upstanding guy in person
Only he does have a problem sharing Hobnobbs (inside joke!!)
Like, some of the contestants arent actually booted when they are fired
Literally, they stay at the house a couple days to reshoot some scenes!

Nevertheless, to get to greater things, one needs to take a step at a time. And I'd swap places any day!!!

Great to get this little insight into the mechanics of the show - thanks!

Right! But really its not super exciting, most people quit after a week
Like just the other day
Yakov our sound intern

Didnt like the reptition
Undermines my abilities he said
Dont think he came back the next day
Excuse me, it makes me sad thinking about it
?

I think by saying this you're really saying all reality shows are scripted because to an extent they're all moulded by the editors and producers' team working on it in post. To create a story from nothing is reality-TV at its heart because ordinary events do not always play out with our preconceived idea of story and entertainement. If they were to just show the events as they unfolded unbiased it would a weird form of documentary but it wouldn't be on BBC prime time

Quite. Like all reality shows, TA has a certain formula and it's then edited together to give us a vaguely coherent narrative structure - Mark vs Daniel, James' various flaws coming home to roost in the country show task, a ticking-off one week pushing a candidate to put themselves forward as PM the next.

But there's a big difference between being formulaic and the producers honing a narrative (both of which are true) versus a show being scripted. There's more than enough that goes on without any manipulation to keep us all entertained as it is.

Yup those long pauses just get used too often time and time again.... you can just imagine the film crew asking each apprentice to stare at the opposite wall for 2 mins without blinking while they setup their cameras to ensure they have the right footage for every scene