I got thinking last night, Dara spent so much time cracking jokes with the guests I felt he wasn't spending enough time engaging with the actual show contestants. Especially Daniel, who was basically just there to be the butt of jokes for his segment.

Anyone else think the same? I'm not a huge fan of Adrian Chiles but I do feel YF used to be a better-balanced show that mixed some serious chat in with a few laughs.

I feel it's become the comedy half-hour with O'Briain and his panel-show comedian friends. Doesn't offer as much insight as it used to do.

As funny as I find it, I do feel that some of the jokes go on a bit too much .I also wish Dara would slow down his talking because, at times, I just cannot comprehend what he is saying.

That's the problem with Dara and mainly why I stopped watching Mock The Week. He just doesn't know when to shut up and has no sense of when the joke has reached a natural conclusion - he tends to run them into the ground.

I agree with others the YBF definitely needs a reboot next year. The panel guests are increasingly poor and seem badly-prepared or uninterested - Katherine Ryan was virtually comatose last night.

I'd prefer to hear more from the business guests rather than the lame attempts by Dara and his crew to try and make everything 'funny'. The humour will flow naturally anyway and doesn't need to be forced.

BIB - while the comedy is a nice (and necessary) side of the show, I particularly like it when the business guests surprisingly compliment the candidates - like the woman who told Nurun she would employ her in a heartbeat and the guy who told Sanjay that every team needs someone like him. Those moments, I find, are not only encouraging but often very touching.

I know what you mean but for me the humour is often awful, and/ or unfunny. How Dara made it as a comedian I'll never know, as I've never found him remotely amusing. His comedy timing and actual level of humour leaves a lot to be desired imo. Basic at best (and that's being kind). To each their own of course but it's a mystery to me.

He's just about ok on this but I think I preferred the show back with old happy face Adrian Chiles.

Last night's episode was pathetic. The way Dara took the piss over the quiz questions, yet didn't ask Daniel why he wrote them pretty much sums up the whole show these days. It's just a vehicle for Dara and his mates to muck about on telly for half an hour. I only watch it out of habit, and most weeks I wish I didn't bother.

If it were actually funny, it'd be fine.

Though, I'd agree - sometimes the eliminated contestants' involvement feels marginalised which doesn't quite seem right. (I know there are at least a couple of people this series I wanted to hear more from/about and the questions never came...)

It IS a comedy show. The problem here is the format when dealing with 3 fired apprentices. They should have brought in all 3 together, would have made for more fun.

Its been boring this series, but I don't think Dara is the problem. Better guests and more engaging with the candidates is needed

I think OP is right. Too much time is spent making jokes when i'd rather hear more from the ex-candidate. Sometimes i wish Dara would just shut the hell up!

Last night is the perfect example. Daniel was on and i was hoping that they would get into the nitty gritty with Dan about his feud with Mark. The feud lasted for weeks and weeks! That's what i was really looking forward to hear. So when Dara asked, how long was it discussed for? 30 seconds and they went back to making stupid jokes! F*cking ridiculous!

It's times like this i wish Adrian Chiles was hosting instead. He never let anyone off the hook!


Agree with you. Sometimes they're at it for minutes! Beyond pathetic!

I like it, and i like Dara, but it gets a bit much when Ed Byrne is on, as they are mates and have shared a house, Dara seems to be intent on just making him laugh to the detriment of the show.

Overall though i still enjoy it

Yes.. I miss Adrien Chiles hosting the show a lot!...... He is a serious interviewer where as comedians... any comedians! are just out to tell as many jokes as they can....
and think they have to be trying to make people laugh all the time!............... I don't like it!................

I just don't feel it fits the show it's meant to be based on - a lot of the time the show contestants don't seem to know how to deal with Dara and his wacky hijinks. They just smile and nod along as best they can.

Last night, he seemed to spend more time with his back to each contestant - cracking endless sarcastic comments with the 'panel' - than he did facing them.

I miss the days of the Chiles show where contestants basically had to explain themselves a lot more. But then I feel a lot of TV these days seems to change for the worse and get dragged down to the lowest common denominator - so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see it happen to something like YF.

Eurgh the worst thing are the comedians, they try way too hard

Or the Gaby Roslins of this world who don't try nearly enough...

There's a few things wrong with the show Dara's who is a very intelligent person has turned it into a comedy sketch show.

Why can't we have business people etc on the panel, why a comedian? what business insight do they have? All they do is turn the show into a popularity contest regarding the voting bit.

And it's flawed in that in the beginning we don't need 30 minutes (it's actually 25 I think looking on Sky planner) on a contestant whose had about 5 mins of screen time. But at the end when we've grown to know and like (maybe) some contestants we get a 8 min interview. This weeks a prime example. And on Sunday the winner will get less than 30mins screen time, the same as a contestant who was thrown out on week 1.

Because its not a business show its a reality show, classy people who own businesses dont watch crap like we do

I agree with the comments that the guests are the biggest problem of the show. I like Dara, he's very quick witted. But as Philip Wales points out - why do we need another comedian on the guest panel? They are never that funny either and they add little/no value. You've already got the comedy element with having Dara there, so sticking with quality business guests would be better. I think fewer guests who can add more value would be best, having 3 different guests each week just dilutes the quality of the programme IMO.

It's meant to add "added value" to the apprentice and take a more in depth look at the contestants.

BBC are very bad when it comes to these types of shows, "have I got news for you" used to be good (still is up to a point) you had at least 6 rounds of questions, nowadays its barely 3, it's turned into a comedy sketch show. QI's going the same way.

I imagine they'll go into greater detail next week on You're Hired with Mark when they'll have more time.

Having said that I didn't like how they pretty well skipped over Daniels segment pretty quickly. I'd have rather had more time spent talking to him than trying to crack jokes all the time. I don't mind Dara per se but I agree that he's a bit too forced a lot of the time. I did really enjoy the show when Chiles did it though; probably more so.

It was worse with Chiles - a hateful programme then with a misogynistic slant. Dara is a softer and kinder personality but I don't like the constant cracking of gags and the fact that it is like a comedy sketch programme or a showcase for comedians. I too wish he would shut up now and again. It's the same old same old BBC obsession with stale
(mostly male) comedy surfacing again.

I like it and I look forward to watching You're Fired more than the main show.

BBC Television are bad with it anyway. BBC Radio are a lot better. The News Quiz with Sandi Toksvig is still fantastic, in my mind, although I don't have that much time to listen to it at the moment.

I was sad when Adrian Chiles left the show, I don't think Adrian is doing another show at the moment maybe we can ask BBC, like in a petition, I don't know how many signatures we can get but we will need a lot to convince them, and just by what is said already in this thread, we have noticed Dara doesn't recognise when a joke has reached its natural conclusion.

It's only ever a comedy show when Ed Byrne is on it. All the other 'comedian' guests are soooo lame...