I could see it being Michelle Mone, as she was one of the names rumoured to be replacing Margaret years ago (alongside Karren and Claude). Given that Strictly Come Dancing currently has two young, female hosts then I guess it could work for The Apprentice also ?

Incidentally, if Claude were to take over then I could see Nick taking his spot during the interview stages (like Margaret did a few years ago).

I know what you mean, but personally I suspect they'll stick with the tried and trusted formula of having one male and one female advisor. Strictly has two female hosts, true, but then the judging panel is mixed.

They'd still have Alan Sugar (male) for balance in between, but yeah their first choice will probably be another man.

You might be right, but for me the fact that Ricky was brought in for interviews suggests this might have been part of a plan to reintroduce him to the viewers ahead of the next series.

I'm sure that Nick didn't decide to leave the show on a whim. Speculation: I expect it's been known for a long while, he agreed to do one final year and a plan was put in place to recruit his successor. We're only hearing about it now because it was planned that way - there would have been no benefit in letting the cat out of the bag up front.

I'm also pretty sure it won't be Michelle Mone. She runs her business full-time, and I suspect the time commitment involved in filming an entire series would be too great. I know the same is true of the others' time, but Nick doesn't run his own business. Karren's roles are, I believe as chairperson or non-exec directors (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), which are all part-time jobs anyway (between a day a week and a day a month, depending). And Sugar has MDs in place to run his individual businesses on a day-to-day basis.

It did.

Ruth Badger, unless as mentioned they want M/F

I'd bring back Margaret.

But I think it's likely to be Ricky. In some sort of weird TVland way of attracting younger viewers. They should do an "apprentice special" and have people apply for Nick to choose, he can have them do weekly tasks like the eyebrow challenge, or walking up and down London streets following a bunch of numpties selling pies.

I think it's pretty clear that Margaret doesn't want to come back, though. It's just about possible it may just have been a scheduling clash, but the fact she wasn't present at this year's interviews suggested to me that she's moved on.

I would like it to be Ricky, I think he did ok in the interviews. Claude is great as a once a series character but it would be overkill.

I see Claude being wasted as an advisor. He's my favourite person in this show, but him sitting only sitting back and giving LS feedback, while rarely talking to the contestants would be dull. Sure, he could talk to them in the boardroom, but it wouldn't be the same, because LS will understandably get most of the screen-time in that regard.

I would rather have Ricky.

I love her, but too cruel. Not being able to dive in to stop it from becoming a train wreck in slow motion will torture her.

I'm willing to bet she would leap over the boardroom table and throttle a candidate for trying to blame his/her poor sales on bad weather.

I appreciate that everyone has personal opinions, but I think the fact that it has carried on for nine series without her (including Young Apprentice and the series next year) is pretty conclusive evidence that it has been strong enough to survive without Margaret.

I think that possibly there are political reasons why Karren had a disadvantage from the start. When she took over, it was quite soon after the time when the BBC were being accused of prejudice against older women (such as when Alesha took over from Arlene on Strictly) and possibly some people thought that replacing Margaret with Karren was a similar thing. Of course, you and I know that that had nothing to do with it - Margaret wanted to step down, and as the only woman on the interview panel, and someone who had her own business and had been there herself on the Comic Relief special, Karren was the obvious choice to replace her. But not everyone is as informed as us - there may well have been casual viewers who thought it was a bit distasteful.

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I've never really gotten over Margaret going. For me Karren has been a poor substitute as she's far two much of a mini me Sugar who taks over and puts the boot in and she's never ever any fun.

Nick's leaving really will be the end of an era.

Nothing remains the same but this makes what was once must see viewing now a will I/won't I bother to watch another long winded unsatisfying LAS manipulation unless Bianca wins.

Claudine Collins?

I also think its Ricky Martin, the way they brought him back for the interviews can be seen as a clue for us, because I remember with Margaret and Karen replacing her, it was the same way the last year Margaret did the show Karen was brought in on one of the days within the show and the next thing we found out that Margaret was leaving and would be replaced by Karen, by the way I haven't watched for a long time after that, but this year, I found Karen very good. She notices a lot of what is happening with the candidates and mentions it in the boardroom. Nick was very quiet most of the time in the boardroom, from what we've seen of Ricky he might be more of the opinion to speak up, hopefully.

Probably be a inanimate object, don't know how such a colourless bloke can get so much work on tv.

Considering the fact that Karen Brady was recruited to replace Margaret it will probably be another West Ham senior chief executive, who should be spending their time recruiting new talent and getting the players settled in. Not appearing on reality tv shows

Actually, Karren was an interviewer for two years before Margaret left, so it is very likely that she was involved before Margaret announced her intention to leave. Personally I prefer Karren to Margaret.

Be fair Daniel, she got the Olympic Stadium for WHU while on the show, and every single Hammers fan is really, really delighted about that. Every last one of us. And we're also thrilled at the seven figure bonus she got for doing so.

(If there were to be another West Ham connection with the new guy, I'd have to insist it be Paolo Di Canio. Now that would be a television show...)

I agree nothing like sitting 200 hundred yards away from the main action needing binoculars to have a clue for what on earth is going on.


I won't have any one knocking Karen Brady's commitment to the football affairs of West Ham Utd. She did not fall asleep in the middle of the playoff semi final between Westham and Cardiff. She said on two separate occasions that 1 she was merely resting her eyes and 2 she was having an invigorating power nap to booster her concentration for the game, and I believe her!!!!!

I just think that Paolo Di Canio would just be to much of the play safe option for me after seeing the volatile and flamboyant Nick in action.

Joking aside that would be one hell of a show with him in it.

Katie Hopkins

I quite like someone else's suggestion: the first Apprentice winner Timothy Campbell.

I think that's part of it, but I also think there are also a number of other reasons - some fair, others not so much. Personally, I think she struggled a bit in her first year but has become more comfortable over time. These days, I think she makes more insightful comments than Nick - I don't agree with all of them and some of them are later proven to be unfounded, but they're generally fair comments to make on-task at the time.

I did take a bit of an exception to her outing Sanjay about Bianca - I tend to think that personal comments like that should stay in Vegas, as it were - but equally it wouldn't surprise me if observations like that have been made before but not broadcast, and Sanjay should have known better than to make a comment like that openly, even if all he was doing was trying to ingratiate himself to his new team. But that's just one isolated incident that shouldn't take away from the fact that, the last couple of series in particular, I think Karren has been rather good.

I don't think she struggled in her first year, not really. She had a very memorable moment in only her second episode (not including her debut on Junior Apprentice) when she spoke up against the girls' constant bickering, saying that they were setting a really bad example to young women wanting to go into business, and that she thought their behaviour was disgraceful. I think that earned her a lot of respect - she seemed to be genuinely upset about it, not playing up to the cameras at all, and I think it's the only time in the programme's history that anyone has openly voiced how people may be coming across to viewers at home.

I also think that her comments are fair, although I really object to her scathing comments about Susan's brainstorming about the French market, which I think portrayed Susan in a really negative light, not just in that episode but generally. (Then again, Susan is probably the most successful non-winner there has been, so she probably just laughs when she re-watches that these days.) Having said that, it occurred to me recently that I think we see too many comments from the advisors during tasks. I feel like we're told what to think too much, and I may not necessarily agree with what they are saying. I'd rather just judge based on what I see.

What are the 'other reasons' you're referring to? Just interested