Topic: The Apprentice

[sinnermichael]

Right winner but my God, such an underwhelming series.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

Only one winner really but still going to be a failed business I'd say..

Spoiler

Just looked at the gym they've opened up and it's £60 a month to join, or £10 per session for non-members. Pretty much makes it a boxing gym for the middle class, which just goes against the normal target market and makes it inaccessible to most that would want to join. Also goes against Marnie's story, background and reasoning for opening it. There's a reason other boxing gyms are "spit and sawdust" gyms and it's because they are tailored for the demand that exists and are generally community facilities rather than a chain looking at profit and profit only.

[close]

[tubby]

Wasn't a great season, some really poor candidates.  There's still the entertainment value with the characters but it'd be good to get more competent people in the process instead of the goofs they've been using of late.

[El Lobo]

They're probably more competent than they're made to look to be fair. Might help if it wasn't 'right what do you want to call the car you're designed? Mr Zoom Zoom or the Slug? And where do you want the compulsory bread maker?'

[iamnant]

They're probably more competent than they're made to look to be fair. Might help if it wasn't 'right what do you want to call the car you're designed? Mr Zoom Zoom or the Slug? And where do you want the compulsory bread maker?'

Exactly and the interviews episode proved that it's all about trying to humiliate them and parade them as idiots, since the interview episode used to be much longer back and forths and was more about the concepts and details where as this was "Right, you're an idiot. Goodbye" and trying to make them cry.

It really was an appalling series and you can but hope the production team get the boot for a more competent and less intrusive, reality-TV style production next time round.

[John C]

Wasn't a great season, some really poor candidates.  There's still the entertainment value with the characters but it'd be good to get more competent people in the process instead of the goofs they've been using of late.

Yep, I agree and with Lobo and iam above. It's become just an entertainment show that destructs candidates either purposely by design or by cruel idiotic exposure.
Of course people will say we shouldn't take it seriously but the show expects us to take their business acumen together with their sales and marketing skills seriously.
That's how they are judged and eliminated weekly based on a serious target of a £250k reward outcome isn't it?

Unfortunately this season resulted is an incongruous concept of candidates portrayed as fuckwits while a supposedly respected judge egregiously divorced herself from a civil viewing society which firmly placed the entire show on an unredeemable decline from now on.
I don't think The Apprentice will recover from this series. The crass Baroness shot the show in the Louboutin.

[The G in Gerrard]

Only one winner really but still going to be a failed business I'd say..

Spoiler

Just looked at the gym they've opened up and it's £60 a month to join, or £10 per session for non-members. Pretty much makes it a boxing gym for the middle class, which just goes against the normal target market and makes it inaccessible to most that would want to join. Also goes against Marnie's story, background and reasoning for opening it. There's a reason other boxing gyms are "spit and sawdust" gyms and it's because they are tailored for the demand that exists and are generally community facilities rather than a chain looking at profit and profit only.

[close]

It's in central London? It should do well in theory.

[tubby]

We're back, starts next week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/the-apprentice-2024-candidates-series-18



Reading the bios, Tre Lowe is my pick.  He's a 'Music & Wellness Entrepreneur', whatever that is.

[redgriffin73]

Steve Darken definitely has a body under his patio.

Two pie company owners could make for some good in-fighting. One of them provides pies for Man City so he's probably included in their 115 charges somehow.

[Graeme]

I haven’t read the bios but I know I hate them all already

Can’t wait

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Why is the guy supplying pies to Man City looking for investment exactly?

I really want to have the willpower not to watch this ever again. But I will watch it, and hate it. Just like the last 8 years or so.

[Agent99]

We're back, starts next week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/the-apprentice-2024-candidates-series-18



Reading the bios, Tre Lowe is my pick.  He's a 'Music & Wellness Entrepreneur', whatever that is.

I do like the question 'Tell us something about you that we don’t know?'. Your name for starters. Who the fuck are you?

[jillcwhomever]

It should be good for a laugh.

[Crosby Nick]

Steve Darken definitely has a body under his patio.

Two pie company owners could make for some good in-fighting. One of them provides pies for Man City so he's probably included in their 115 charges somehow.

Excellent. Will read their profiles later. In the meantime, is the woman bottom left wearing the England cricket World Cup kit from 2019 (I’ll post an image as I know you won’t know what that looks like!).

[redgriffin73]

Haha, I did think has she just turned up in some old sports kit

[Crosby Nick]

Steve Darken definitely has a body under his patio.

Two pie company owners could make for some good in-fighting. One of them provides pies for Man City so he's probably included in their 115 charges somehow.

Also without looking it up, just going off the picture I’m going to guess that Steve Darken is back left in the grey suit?!

[killer-heels]

We're back, starts next week.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/the-apprentice-2024-candidates-series-18



Reading the bios, Tre Lowe is my pick.  He's a 'Music & Wellness Entrepreneur', whatever that is.

Not a looker in the bunch.

[CraigDS]

Is it full of daft pricks again? Show used to be decent when there were a good number of half decent contestants.

[redgriffin73]

Also without looking it up, just going off the picture I’m going to guess that Steve Darken is back left in the grey suit?!

Yes

[redgriffin73]

Not a looker in the bunch.

Can't remember the last time there was a hot bloke in it.

[tubby]

Dr. Asif Munaf literally says "I’ve got an extremely high IQ. I’ve got an extremely high bench press. And to top it off, I’m quite good on the eyes."

He's the total package.

[GinKop]

Why is the guy supplying pies to Man City looking for investment exactly?

I really want to have the willpower not to watch this ever again. But I will watch it, and hate it. Just like the last 8 years or so.

Same, and I love it but also hate myself.

[UntouchableLuis]

Here we go!

[Libertine]

Pure cringe as always, great stuff.

So, the guy who shouts out "YES!" when he hears about a 52% refund. You'd give him £250K??

[tubby]

Boy's sub team leader is my guy.  He looked like he couldn't be bothered with any of them.

[Graeme]

All shite. Great stuff.

PM should have gone. Talks the talk can’t walk the walk.

On the subject of the Apprentice, check out ‘Unfinished Business’ on TikTok / YouTube.

It’s that moron Joseph Valente that won a few years ago (and never should have). He’s literally turned into a real life David Brent.

[swoopy]

What a load of morons. Supposed to be professional business people and can't read a bloody brownie recipe.

PM shouldve gone. Turned up late to lunch which was ruined and then tried to blame it all on a glass of prosecco ffs.

[Agent99]

Pure cringe as always, great stuff.

So, the guy who shouts out "YES!" when he hears about a 52% refund. You'd give him £250K??

I really wish Sralan had said that nobody was being picked to come back as he was firing that dickhead for clapping instead.

[Peabee]

Do people still watch this shite???

[jillcwhomever]

Pure cringe as always, great stuff.

So, the guy who shouts out "YES!" when he hears about a 52% refund. You'd give him £250K??

I don't think I've ever seen someone do that before in the boardroom. 

[tubby]

Do people still watch this shite???

Yes.  Why come in a thread and post something like that when there's people who are obviously enjoying watching it still?

[Jon2lfc]

What a load of morons. Supposed to be professional business people and can't read a bloody brownie recipe.

PM shouldve gone. Turned up late to lunch which was ruined and then tried to blame it all on a glass of prosecco ffs.

to be honest i think we all know that the whole show is a set up.
No way that this bunch of jokers are the best 18 candidates for the prize out of the 100s/1000s that applied.
They select the 18 based on TV entertainment value. And toss in a handful of serious contestants that they already know will make the semis. It's those serious ones that the rest are just road kill for.

Plus Alan can put a negative spin on every one of them in the tasks. With certain edits they can make it look like he is basing the firing on very strong evidence. But it's simply just "team member who was weak on a task" v "losing team leader" most of the time. And if one of those is one of the 'serious' candidates, then guess which one is chosen to be fired?

I find it really boring as it's just the same formula every series.
But I can see why people enjoy watching it cos it's fun laughing at jokers.
The cringe makes it funny if you watch it with others.

[Trada]

I still don't understand when a lot of tasks comes down to the cooking

And why do they get quotes from firms that charge say £40 a head then they have to cook the stuff themselves so you are just paying all that money for ingredients it would be better and cheaper to order in takeaways

[iamnant]

I still don't understand when a lot of tasks comes down to the cooking

And why do they get quotes from firms that charge say £40 a head then they have to cook the stuff themselves so you are just paying all that money for ingredients it would be better and cheaper to order in takeaways

Honestly, the tasks are engineered by the producers to create cringe TV, as in actual business, you'd just pay someone else to do the catering, you'd ask the client if they want booze or not, you'd probably even ask them what kind of entertainment / team bonding they'd want from the options available and then when it comes to negotiating, the client wouldn't be forced by a TV crew to hold off rudely for a certain fee.

My friend's been on one of these corporate away days that was on the Apprentice and he said they were always re-doing takes, telling people what to ask and what to say to the contestants, duplicating walking in / out shots, just delaying the whole day. The people on the "corporate trip" know they're going on a day of filming for the Beeb, not an actual corporate trip, and they know it's a bunch of idiots cooking for them etc. so when these refunds are calculated they're done so knowing it's just part of a game and not in anyway based in business reality.

[JerseyKloppite]

All of a load of rubbish but entertaining rubbish as always.

The program can be selectively edited to create a narrative, but when you make genuine mistakes then they don't have to. Using the crumble on the fish cakes, then shoving them in a microwave rather than an oven, is ridiculous. The fact that they did this and still didn't lose the task is indicative of how crap the blokes were.

Can't believe the PM survived that to be honest. There was clearly a misunderstanding re alcohol but that didn't ruin the task. Turning up 45 minutes late so that the main was cold and inedible, they didn't get to have dessert, and then they were forced against their will to watch (£275 worth of) dancing before leaving in a rush. Ridiculous Ollie's business must have been underwhelming, one thing to fire someone who doesn't do much if you lose narrowly, but this was a huge failure, they actually lost money, so you'd think the guy with responsibility for it all would take the hit.

The blokes' sub-team leader seems like the most competent one I can remember in there for a while. Asked about budgeting for the meals and the PM just shrugs and says "don't worry about that"

[jillcwhomever]

All of a load of rubbish but entertaining rubbish as always.

The program can be selectively edited to create a narrative, but when you make genuine mistakes then they don't have to. Using the crumble on the fish cakes, then shoving them in a microwave rather than an oven, is ridiculous. The fact that they did this and still didn't lose the task is indicative of how crap the blokes were.

Can't believe the PM survived that to be honest. There was clearly a misunderstanding re alcohol but that didn't ruin the task. Turning up 45 minutes late so that the main was cold and inedible, they didn't get to have dessert, and then they were forced against their will to watch (£275 worth of) dancing before leaving in a rush. Ridiculous Ollie's business must have been underwhelming, one thing to fire someone who doesn't do much if you lose narrowly, but this was a huge failure, they actually lost money, so you'd think the guy with responsibility for it all would take the hit.

The blokes' sub-team leader seems like the most competent one I can remember in there for a while. Asked about budgeting for the meals and the PM just shrugs and says "don't worry about that"

Yes, you have to wonder how the team leader did survive, right from the start he was naff. He wouldn't even allow people to make suggestions in the beginning as he went on this long, blustering explanation of what they were going to do. It didn't get them very far did it? The cookery bits were just mind boggling, did nobody think to test out the crumble mix? You just pick up a container with something in it and away you go! As for the microwave bit, words fail me how they cook for themselves at home? 

[JerseyKloppite]

A nice surprise seeing them dash around my neck of the woods this week

And yes I have a bachin. Not a Bach-eeen though…

[Graeme]

What are Jersey wonders like

[JerseyKloppite]

What are Jersey wonders like

Underwhelming

[tubby]

Good episode this week.