Ö÷²¥´óÐã

The Apprentice - oh dear, I hope this program will not be sold overseas as a beacon of the future of British Industry. The program starts tonight but looking at the line up on the bbc website you could have mistaken it for those with a minimum of 15 years at her majesty's pleasure. I am sure Lord Sugar has less and less to say as to who eventually gets picked for what used to be a premier, positive program, and it is the expolsive mix of personalities that the production company concentrate on to make a 'show' that has nothing to do with the best Britian has to offer.
I think we are in for a high level of 'entertainment' but an aweful lot of fireworks, incredulous decision making and base human behaviour; and certainly not a lot to do with the best of British Industry. If I was pushed for a prediction on the faces alone, I would say Liz Locke, Stella English, Joanna Riley have a hope with Jamie Lester and Joy Stefanicki as an outsider. On the other end of the scale come Stuart, Raleigh, Melissa, Chris and Alex - possibly all the rest.
Poor Lord Sugar. As the interview process for this series was over a year ago and they are 6 months behind in the screening, I wonder what really happened?
Good Luck to all.

For "Pick the best amateur" programmes I'm going to stick to MasterChef - at least there you see some genuine talent at doing something that benefits everybody!

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There is one new contender who bears an uncanny resemblance to the
fashionable young lady with the bright lipstick who took part last
time. THIS TIME she wears no noticeable make-up, has grown her
blonde hair to neck length, (no headgear) but she has the very same
eyes and expression. I notice that she was kept in low profile in the new show and I did not hear her say anything. But I am feeling unhappy
that this could be a confidence trick ??? Is it the same girl I
wonder ? She certainly had the brains to do it. I wonder ???

I eagerly await to see the first episode of the new series of the Apprentice (recorded). I agree that some of the characters are somewhat useless, but it's all part of the entertainment.

Can someone on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã please explain to me why the girls won the task last night? While I understand that the Apollo team's absolute profit was £15 higher than Synergy's, they spent considerably more. My "back of the fag packet" calculations show that the Apollo team's return on investment was 60% whereas the Synergy team's return on investment was a whopping 106%. I don't doubt that a businessman with the aptitude of Lord Sugar also recognises this as a better result, so why is the Ö÷²¥´óÐã patronising its public by downplaying what is really not such a difficult concept?

Slightly irritated by the question "What are you most proud of about The Apprentice's success - especially since it hasn't been matched in the US Apprentice?" as it's basically not true....

The US Apprentice is a very successful show and is still going strong - I was watching the US Celebrity version when I was in Canada earlier this year. True - it's a very different show - typical tasks tend to be creating new marketing campaigns for Nike or Coca-Cola, whereas in the UK version it's designing new posters for Sid's discount shoes or the local dog track......

The US version doesn't get great viewing figures over here because the Ö÷²¥´óÐã shows it at half past midnightand doesn't advertise it (afraid perhaps that it makes the Ö÷²¥´óÐã version look a bit lame ?)

Don't get me wrong - I love the UK version too. Different country but same egotistical nut cases ....

To No. 3, "Haley"

The music used for the trails of this year's Apprentice is sung by Tony Bennett called "The Boulevard of Broken Dreams" here's the track in question

L O R D S U G A R

Y O U

A R E

F I R E D.

Lord SugarPuff, the telly peer...a respected businessman? Best joke I've heard in years!

@Yummiecakemaker - Fair point, as far as it goes. But what about if you look at return on amount available to invest? Presumably both teams had the same amount available to them. So if the boys had spent more and sold more, then they could have clinched the win. (On the other hand, of course, they might just have ended up with unsold stock...)

I think a case can be made for absolute ROI and percentage ROI as a measure of success. A small company may offer a small absolute ROI but be able to satisfy a small number of investors with a high percentage ROI, whereas a large company may well be able to satisfy a large number of investors with a relatively small percentage ROI as long as the absolute size of the ROI is big enough to give them a fair dividend.

In any case, both teams knew what the rules of the game were and it was up to them to devise their strategy accordingly.

I love the UK apprentice, I watched all the series 1 - 6 over and over, on you tube, on my computer, even I managed to get it on my iPod. I watched the US version only once and 2-3 episodes, enough to decide not to continue. The UK version looks more realistic, the US one is more like watching a film, staged ? The board room in UK version is much better, lively because it has whitish background, unlike the US version that looks like a dracula's cave: dark in every corner.

In case of sir Alan ... lord sugar now, I like his personage in the series. he looks more down to earth and "street market" people (thus know how it is going on the street). The facts that he started his bussiness from zero (in compare to Donald Trump who is a son of a rich bussinessman), may make him having different way of looking things during the apprentice processes.

OK, now about this new season. Why I got the feeling that the candidates are much more "sophisticated"? Previous seasons are full of drama, well that's one of the attractive points to watch. The program is about bussiness but, still it is a TV program. I miss Margaret very much, but Karen is doing pretty well indeed. I like her comments reminding the candidates that they are representing women in the bussiness world. Very well said, agree with lord Sugar. By the way, looking back when Karen was assisting the interview in the past few series: she lost weight ? :D

I found myself irritated, but also amused, by the steady stream of grammatical flaws from the latest person to be booted off: manoeuvrement? professionality? ...they will be retributed??? But I think the other flaws were more salient :)

Definitely one of the most heated boardroom exchanges i've witnessed, and for me Alex was definitely the reason that potential sales were lost, as it was agreed at the beginning of the task that his extensive knowledge of both retail sales, and location were invaluable, and that for myself, was absolutely key, and the fact that he talked himself up, and failed so miserably, I would have fired him as a consequence of his own actions.
I am not a Perloma fan, however she demonstrated that not only is she smart, but moreover she is a team player, and able to listen to the comments and suggestions of her team mates, and with what her team had in terms of merchandise, I think they did exceptionally well, as result of her motivational skills, and I on't think 1 of the team members said that she was an inept team leader, and whilst I think she is firey, I think she would have served Sir Alan well, however relative to the ultimate decision, that's why Sir Alan has amassed a 3/4's of a billion pound fortune. It's like anything one has done for 40 years, in that you develop an instinct for making the right decisions.
But I really think Liz is a dark horse, who is very adaptable, and dare I say it, she has a face that I think would fit snuggly within Sir Alans' jigsaw vast jigsaw puzzle.

I must confess, I have been a fan of 'The Apprentice' from the outset, and not only do I love the 'format', but I think some of Sir Alans' comments, and Nicks' quizical looks are just tv platinum, and to watch, apparently very bright and intelligent young men and women buckle under the intense pressure also makes for very engaging viewing, as that is also a part of the process, and in my humble opinion, I think maybe we see much of candidates reverting to 'type', when under great pressure.
All in all i'm addicted, and cannot wait until next Wednesday.

Last episode mostly about a trip to German Germany to sell them our crisps, and being alert to background music chosen for the key scenes, I was disappointed that for the very first German scene the music chosen was Vivaldi (from the Four Seasons), very Italian!. Later on there was another opportunity to underline the fact that it was a poignantly German occasion in German Germany and the music chosen this time was Fingal's Cave (Hebrides overture), a very Scottish connotation indeed, albeit written by Mendelssohn, who was German by all means, but hey, what an opportunity missed to tap into the widest possible library of music with the widest imaginable palette available to all. They could have used "sunrise" from Gotterdammerung or any of Bruckner's scherzi or a clip from Haydn's Surprise Symphony or something from Richard Strauss or even Bach. The list is endless,but Ö÷²¥´óÐã chose to be totally obtuse and musically illiterate enough not to use any purely German music al all. Would you Adam and Eve it. Hey Ho!

I like watching the boardroom arguments in the second half of the show, they are very telling and more often than not you see the "true colours" of the people fighting for their survival. I have agreed with most of the firings but the reason given when Sandeesh was fired for not being aggressive enough was not a valid reason to fire her. The person I like the least is Joanna, she comes across as totally ruthless and will walk across everyone for what she wans, and for that reason alone I suspect Lord Sugar will keep her till the end. I hope not.

I really very much enjoy this program and learn a lot .Thank you very much to Lord Sugar and Ö÷²¥´óÐã. But I couldn't understand that Stella told a lie when they bought something in london .I could not believe that many of people like Lord Sugar really appreciate her albeit before that task I did as well.

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mr sugar brilliant a real inspiration and comes across to me a a decent bloke