He made the point that the products Simon chose sold well and virtually saved their sales figures, whereas the products Naomi and Tre chose did not sell. This almost made Simon untouchable in SirAlan's eyes.

BUT... Naomi and Tre were the ones actually selling Simon's products on TV and getting people to phone in. It was down to their presenting - such as it was - that those products got sold.

The products Naomi and Tre chose did not sell BUT is was Simon who was supposed to try and shift them on the show! And he "cocked it up royal"!

For the first time I thought SirAlan's thinking was flawed and I was amazed Margaret and Nick didn't mention this either.

I'm sure Margaret and Nick did mention it and it was edited out. I'm sure Siralan based his decision on previous weeks and his own inbuilt fears (of another Michelle) and prejudices (against fluffy blondes) rather than actually on the task itself.

Personally I think SAS admired Simon for taking a risk. If non had sold then he would have been fired. Remember SAS is looking for someone who has that something different. Maybe Simon is that person. They were not there to show how good they were at presenting.

Also Simon gave SAS a real laugh and that must count for something. I don't think Simon has an ego unlike some of the others.

Simon hasn't been that good over the weeks either IMO. He wasn't good at selling or negotiating , he was panicking and rushing it. I haven't seen any spark in him business wise at all.

He did say at the beginning it wasn't about how good their presenting was, but about how good their product choices were.

Exactly...Simon products were poor as they didn't sell enough to win the task BUT Siralan already has his favourites so Simon was going to go through even if he sold £0.

But his products did make the majority of their team's sales. He picked the best products on his team. Unlike the stupid decoupage things Naomi chose.

I agree, and he also ignored Alan Sugar's instruction to pick medium priced products - he'd have been hauled over the coals for that any other week.

I just think that SAS has a soft spot for Simon and whatever Tre or Naomi (undoubtably the best presenter) had done wouldn't have made any difference.

It reminded me of the week that Miriam got fired (series 1) possibly because he wanted Tim in the final. And Miriam was a stronger contender than Naomi IMO.

Simon's choices made half of what his team's profit just by selling 2 wheelchairs for £200 a time.

Naomi and Tre didn't exactly sell the wheelchairs very well because you could tell they hated them as a product. If they'd sold 5 rather than 2 (which they may well have done had they been demonstrated a bit better) They'd have won the task by a mile.

Despite the fact he moaned about it, I think Sir Alan acknowledged that Simon had taken a risk, which despite not selling much in units, bought in a lot of money.

The risk didn't pay off though. He sold two units and only made £400, which is terrible.

Just because the other choices were also poor doesn't mean that the wheelchair any better in itself.

but Simon could have fed them ideas to sell the product as he was producing at the time. He just sat there like a rabbit in headlights.

It was his product he should have been able to tell them what to say to make it appeal.IMO

To be fair though, they aren't on the show to become presenters, so being able to present on national TV isn't a factor.


Si chose something that sold, Naomi didn't.


There ya go!

But SAS himself said the risk was one only the braindead would take.

If he wants a real laugh he should retire and watch UK Gold.

SAS as you put it, i prefer just Sugar, is pandering to the production staff.

Simon was the idiot for choosing the Wheelchair, he got lucky that he managed when sales were down 2 numpties actually were drugged up enough to get out their credit cards.

And that is the problem I have with the Apprentice.

Everything is about sales. If you want a sales monkey then hire a sales monkey, but stop pretending this is anything other than a recruitment process for a sales monkey.

I was a bit confused about it too - especially as he said whilst watching the show what a stupid item to pick the wheelchair was !

Of course its flawed.

Its about TV an has bugger all to do with business now.

If Sugar has any say in the choice of the final candidates I will be surprised. Almost all of them are stupendously incompetent.

Perhaps he just didnt want another young attractive blonde to win!

Or perhaps he thought that neither of them were up to the job and he sacked one knowing he could sack the other next week?

I think you're spot on here. What I don't get is this.....

Simon's group apparently sold £900+ worth of goods (can't remember the exact amount). SAS specifically said that they didn't sell any of the mini trampolines, and that they sold 2 wheelchairs. The wheelchairs were £200 each. So by my reckoning they must have sold £500+ worth of the decoupelages (or whatever they're called) - or am I being a plum? and have just mis-understood it all.

The task was to sell products on tv, Naomi and Tre did this despite the high risk guff that Simon picked. Simon on the hother hand was a useless ****, who frozen behind the mic in the control room and completely messed up the selling of the other products.

So taking all that into account, Simon failed on 2 of the 3 criteria of the task.

I believe Simon should of gone because he didnt sell.
The normal presenters on these channels are good at what they do.
They can sell shite.
You just need to look at bid up/price drop. Loads of crap, but they sell it.
So if simon had read up on the products and who may buy them he could of sold them.

Imagine if Simon had been told to sell the wheelchair and shaver (his own choices) and Tre+Naomi had sold the decoupage kit and trampoline (their own choices), Tre+Naomi would *still* have done better IMHO because they were doing a better job of selling. Would Simon have sold two wheelchairs? I'm not sure.

In my opinion product choice was only half the story in this task, since a skilled saleperson can sell anything. Definite favouritism to Simon this week, I think.

Siralan's logic was shit. The trampoline thing, at the very least, was very sell-able by a decent presenter. The price point was a bit high for what it was, and that was part of the problem, but I bet if it was Naomi bouncing up and down on it, a whole gaggle of male viewers would have bought it. :lol And even if no men watch that channel, she still could have sold a dozen or more, I bet.

And certainly the decoupage kit would have sold much better in her hands. Not hugely, but at least decently.

On top of all that, she deserved high praise for basically doing the ENTIRE presentation off the top of her head since Simon sat in the control room like a deaf mute, with his jaw hanging stupidly slack, and a terrified look in his eyes.

Also, on a personal visceral level I resent Siralan ditching the hot bird with the big... er... wings.


You misunderstood it all. There was a third product sold by Naomi and Tre, and that sold fairly well. The hair removal kit. The people at the station thought it was selling badly, but of course they were comparing its sales to what they'd normally do in that time and not to the disastrous four other products which would follow.

I can sort of see that there was some logic in Simon's choice of the wheelchair based on his assumption of the demographics of the audience at that time (although personally I think this was flawed)

However he failed to convince the others of his reason so they didn't sell it convincingly

The decoupage would have sold better as part of an art session, so as a stand-alone item was pretty rubbish, made worse by Simon not knowing how to demonstrate it. He was also rubbish with the trampoline and didn't even mention the training DVD and literature. And as for his "producing" . . . painful!

To be honest, I'm surprised they sold ANYTHING!

However, every time I think of Simon screwing on the legs of that trampoline, I can't help but snigger

But then when he tried to repeat this line of attack in the boardroom he seemed to be taken aback by Simon's vigorous defence of his choice and his explanation of the logic behind it - at least Sir Alan didn't return to that line of attack after that. I remember thinking at that point "Simon's just saved himself from the sack there" - he was certainly my favorite to go up until that point, but Sugar does respect a strong performance in the boardroom. I think it's that rather than anything else (it didn't help that Naomi appeared to be complacent and didn't think she needed to fight) that saved him. That and the very odd fact that neither of the others appeared to criticise him for his woeful production skills, but that's hardly Sugar's fault...