I'm just as devasted as many on here about Raef - one of the few likeable candidates left in this series - getting fired.

I've been hooked to The Apprentice since the tail end of Series 2, but after tonight's episode I don't feel like I can be bothered to watch the rest of this series. Lucinda is the only candidate I still hold out hope for, but I somehow fear she won't make it.

Part of me is thinking that this series has just been unlucky to have a lineup of so many nasty, back-stabbing candidates, and the firings of Shazia, Simon, Sara and Raef were simply mutual, all were just unfortunate to be responsible for the failings of the tasks.

Or is The Apprentice dumbing down? Is Sir Alan just keeping the more unpleasant candidates for their entertainment value and the hope of higher viewing figures?

It has gradually become more BB-esque from series 2 onwards, but it seems to have really degenerated this series....

It's all been a bit bizarre really. What we see on screen has often been completely at odds with who gets fired at the end, with what seems like different standards for different people from week-to-week. Seems a bit forced and heavy-handed, like.

I find it alarming that, of the remaining candidates, Claire is one of the "nice ones".

Yess... it's sad, but it is turning into bigbrother

Unfortunately your right there.

SAS made the show and now he is breaking it

He obviously sees things in the remaining candidates that we don't though. It isn't a popularity contest, AS has to find someone he thinks he can work with.

Sir Alan doesn't really have to work with them. He can just pay them £100,000 a year (chickenfeed to him) for a while (maybe a year?) and sit them somewhere out of the way with nothing to do.

The worst of it is that Shazia and Sara weren't even resonsible for the failures of the tasks when they were fired.

Big Brother 1 was excellent - a true social experiment. No one knew quite how it would pan out, they were even allowed to take in a book and a musical instrument.

Subsequently, with the advent of celebrity obsession, everyone became media savvy and started playing to the cameras. Consequently the producers found it necessary to find ever more outrageous contestants who were then plunged into equally emotive scenarios.

Unfortunately this is now true of all reality shows and since The Apprentice changed to BBC1, inevitably the initial "reasonable" approach, appealing to a more minority audience perhaps, has done the same.

Still love it but I often wonder what SAS makes of it all.

If the Apprentice really is following the BB model, does this mean we can expect next series candidates to consist of a couple of loud and proud homosexuals, a transexual, about ten obsessed attention seekers, and an irritating accent to narrate the series?

Maybe they'll be a "secret garden" to hold further candidates, who can just be thrown into the mix half way through the series.......or maybe we can vote for a firee to return to the group and get another chance.

Then when each candidate gets fired, Davina awaits outside the office ready to interview.

Yep, it's growing on me........

And Jade Goody, as PM, gets fired as being responsible for sending the whole team in search of East Angular somewhere West of Pakistan. Craig Phiilips could make a guest appearance as master joiner for SAS's new high chair.

You know what, we may joke but I could honestly see the time come when Sir Alan selects two candidates for firing, to which the audience call in and vote for which one they want to go.

Obviously it'd have to be a more recent filming but these tv companies will do anything for a buck, and the audience voting thing has gone crazy over the years.

Turning into Big Brother. Even Raef said it in an interview. He said when they all ganged up on Sara, it was like Big Brother

It literally was like something out of CBB5....

It was very Big Brother-esque, that quite frankly uncomfortable scene back at the house. It completely characterised this years bunch - nasty, arrogant, back-stabbing tw*ts. I only really like Lucinda now. Claire is okay in small doses but the rest of them I really can't abide.

I enjoy Big Brother but I enjoy The Apprentice for different reasons. I don't fancy seeing TA turn into BB. One is enough.

They need to stop the Big Brother-esque stuff for next series. It only puts an expiry date on the show because people will expect it every year and if the conflict and what have you doesn't happen as much in the future then people will say it's "boring".. ratings slide etc.

I don't find this series as good as last year because I feel resentment to many of the candidates.

I think we already had it - Jenny "the chin" could've been a bloke once and Nicolas and Michael are definitely a bit camp (if not gay). And let's face it the whole lot of them are obsessed attention seekers.

By all accounts Michael has a pretty willy and was letting Lindi take turns on it.

De Lacy Brown was definitely gay.

Excellent post.

I too wonder what SAS makes of this series. Not that he'll be to bothered but, this series more than any other has led many to question his judgement.