Television The Apprentice (2023)

68cob

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I used to watch this as there'd normally be someone I'd 'warm to' but not the last three or four series. The silly thing about the show though, is that some of the candidates business ideas would never be taken on by Sugar and there's been a at least a couple that this was only realised at the final five stage. I think the final two in the last series was a case of picking the lesser of two evils for him.
 

United Hobbit

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2017 - and that had joint winners, a man and woman.

Should've been Dani going. As soon as Karen said that Simba was maybe someone not worth listening to I knew he'd be going.
that's shocking how long ago it was and also apparently last year was another all women final five. I'm a woman but it's coming across as he's almost desperate to show he believes in equality for women, imagine if it was an all men final 5 for the second year in a row there would be uproar

Agree Dani should have gone, the way he said how she claimed she was a marketing guru, she designed terrible packaging as she was so busy arguing, and it added to people not wanting to buy the product!! There have been several poor decisions this season - Rochelle should have gone last week for example.
 

United Hobbit

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It would be so funny if it got to the end and he said "neither of you are worthy of being my business partner you're both fired"

Hope the interviewers absolutely roast them all

The winning businesses always tend to be the same mould - hair, beauty, or food
 

SilentWitness

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I wouldn’t be that surprised if Karen has a lot more input than is shown with the decision making.
 

Lay

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I thought Simba was alright. But 5 women in the final narrative was too good to miss.
 

Bobade

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I thought Simba was alright. But 5 women in the final narrative was too good to miss.
Was that not the case last year as well though?

Either way, the candidates will be dreadful so it hardly matters.
 

altodevil

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They've not had a new gimmick in a while - this is shaping up to a be an 'all fired' series. Everyone is terrible.
 

Zlatan 7

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Out of morbid curiosity I looked at that. All he’s ever done is sold fecking sweets and fifa points in school and then got a uni mate to set something up so he could sell club tickets and he gets on the apprentice! No wonder the show is shit these days.
 

Bert_

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Out of morbid curiosity I looked at that. All he’s ever done is sold fecking sweets and fifa points in school and then got a uni mate to set something up so he could sell club tickets and he gets on the apprentice! No wonder the show is shit these days.
The whole concept is daft. If you have a decent business, why hand over half of it to Alan Sugar? Just go to the bank and get a loan or something if you want to expand.

The only people applying to go on there are wannabe reality TV stars and folks that are seeking some kind of approval to overcome some form of personal insecurity.
 

edgecutter

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Honestly thinking I could apply and just come up with a random business idea. Probably have the same chance as this lot.

Really dire business ideas from nearly all of them.
 

United Hobbit

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Fire the whole lot of them!!

Wonder what business plans the men had? It's just the same s***, sweets and hair

If I was Marnie I'd have something to do with her having been a lawyer - headhunting, recruitment, training etc
 

United Hobbit

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and that's why he's kept Rochelle when she should have gone a few times. That's why it was better when he picked one to work for him.
 

cyberman

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Megan tried to be cute handing in a threadbare business plan to avoid scrutiny
 

hobbers

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Talk about damaging perceptions of female entrepreneurs.

The last credible one must have been the plastic surgeon. In 2013.
 

Bert_

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So the final five were...
  • Owner of a hairdressers
  • Someone who wants to start mass selling hair extensions directly to salons from scratch without any thought as to how they would go about it. Also thought revenue and profit were the same thing.
  • A cafe/sweet shop owner who wants a liquor licence to start selling booze
  • Someone who is going to revolutionise the pick-and-mix industry by putting the sweets into a box.
  • An amateur boxer who wants to open specialist boxing gyms by paying the trainers with free access to the gym they work in.
Cream of the crop

At least the boxer has done some groundwork and got additional funding secured. Actual business stuff basically. The hairdressers owner will probs win as it's less risky to just buy out half her business for £250k than take a chance on a startup.
 
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SilentWitness

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Hasn’t he given money to cake and sweet businesses twice now? It’s boring as feck.
 

United Hobbit

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It's so boring now, I'd like to know what the men's business plans were

Agree at least the boxer had done some homework and secured some funding, the main thing that would worry me is you need to earn a feck tonne to pay that amount back and will a gym do it? Id have sold it as trying to get kids away from crime and into boxing, but not sure how profitable that is. Something to do with her legal background would have been something new

Agree he will probably go with the hair salon, it's ridiculous as she's been the stand out to be fired in some tasks yet he's shifted other candidates who performed better - both the green skin care and the last one she should have gone. So makes you think actually he has read the business plans after all and knows exactly who will make him more money

Also the lips!!! Only one or two of them had their natural lips and looked far better why do they do it to themselves
 

68cob

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"ready for a roasting, let's go"
got me interested again
 

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It's so boring now, I'd like to know what the men's business plans were
Simba's was to do with care which I think is a great service but probably one not that profitable which is why he was booted over Dani. After listening to the business plans I called the final two. Despite Marnie's lack of experience in running a business I think they were impressed with her getting the funding and the business itself (location aside) and my heart says she'll win but my head says Rochelle for it likely being more profitable and experience.

He definitely has read/got the gist of all business plans before the series begins. Half the time it isn't that noticeable because of the edits but the Simba sacking was a bit much, making more sense with the context of the business plan.
 

RedDevilRoshi

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The wife had this on last night and I was sort of listening to it in the background whilst watching the Arsenal-Sporting game on the laptop. Karen Brady really comes across as an obnoxious twat. “It’s Baroness Brady to you, my friends call me Karen”. Don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone refer to her as “Baroness Brady” unless she’s friends with everyone there is out there?

I haven’t watched any of the previous episodes in this series as the show in general has gone massively downhill for years and the candidates this year have got to be worst set ever assembled. For instance, did one of the blokes have his own YouTube channel as his business plan? Then again when Sugar is still pumping the money into the BBC’s pockets, of course they are going to keep it running when in reality it should have been scrapped years ago.
 

Lay

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I know the business plans were terrible but the interview stage is just to humiliate them as much as possible. They just come off as a bunch a self entitled pricks.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Cream of the crop

At least the boxer has done some groundwork and got additional funding secured. Actual business stuff basically. The hairdressers owner will probs win as it's less risky to just buy out half her business for £250k than take a chance on a startup.
This is what worried me the most... That actual sporting /financial /governing bodies would give her money to do, what sounds like a really rubbish idea. You'd hope they exaggerated how shit her business plan was for the show.

Also, why does everyone on the show always want to open London locations!? Neither of the finalists are from there but both want to do it... Though at least Marnie has done some ground work and Put thought into it... She'll almost certainly win
 
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hobbers

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Hasn’t he given money to cake and sweet businesses twice now? It’s boring as feck.
Worse, to four of them. 2022, 2019, 2017, 2016. All sweets or cakes.

None of them businesses he would invest in himself without the BBC paying him to.
 

The Corinthian

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Genuinely awful business plans and awful representation of business women. I'm glad Karen made a couple of them cry.

It's obvious he'll go with Marnie. The fact that she has £350k loan (with I think half of it interest free) coming in makes her the safer option. They made a big deal about her not signing the lease, but in the bigger picture, that's pretty minor.

The show has gone stale. The general calibre of talent when £100k a year jobs were on offer was a lot higher.
 

United Hobbit

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Genuinely awful business plans and awful representation of business women. I'm glad Karen made a couple of them cry.

It's obvious he'll go with Marnie. The fact that she has £350k loan (with I think half of it interest free) coming in makes her the safer option. They made a big deal about her not signing the lease, but in the bigger picture, that's pretty minor.

The show has gone stale. The general calibre of talent when £100k a year jobs were on offer was a lot higher.
Completely agree, it's now just based on who he's decided will make him the most money - he's probably read the business plans, just the interviewers who haven't and decided who he wants to win. See Rochelle, who should have gone the past 2 weeks - oh look she's in the final that's why she didn't go!

Was far better when they had to work for him as he wouldn't have accepted any of this bunch

Also if the past 2 years had been an all male final 5 there would be uproar

I'm so distracted by the lips, bar the black haired woman who just left almost all the women had overly filled massive lips.

Stop picking people who look like love island candidates, it's supposed to be about business not looks

Add more interesting tasks, remember when they did the shopping channel one? Simon and the bouncer is a memorable example of that.

It feels like the winning businesses recently have all had to have a bit of "glamour" to them. It's been sweets/deserts or hair and make up
 

Damien

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Happy Marnie won, thought he'd go for the safer option in the end.

Megan trying to sideline Simba a lot was weird, something gone on between them two?
 

Sandikan

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Had the runner up in the work sweepstake. £100 to the winner, nothing for 2nd. Bit harsh, but dems the breaks.
 

Bert_

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Can we be sure this isn't satire? Marnie writing a rap specifically for the black guy to perform in her advert. Those guys discussing what makes a salon classy (getting fed and flamingos, plus a blimp). Can't be real.
 

Bepi

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Highlights from the early 2010s years I was following this comedy gold: Baggs the Brand (RIP), the bald man at the interviews destroying a startup candidate showing up with hand-sketched logos, and a scouser gym-man smashing the process all along only to be fired because ill-suited (wtf??).

EDIT: just seen the 2023 pics … aaaaall punchable faces, as usual again :D
Ok it was 2013 :D with “behind every project manager there is a Neil Clough” or “the right man with the wrong plan”, plus the posh cultured gaffeur and the two finalist goddess of me at 20yo :D, Dr Leah & Luisa. Thanks, youtube!!