The Apprentice

The Apprentice

I have watched this show from the start and in all that time Alan Sugar has made but one mistake in keeping a candidate on a further week when someone else should have gone, (Stuart Baggs) this very fact underpins the very real and identifiable skills that are required in the changing world of business. Of course these are very different skills from a profession that does not have a product or need to sell or market.

The candidates have often already risen to the top of the pile through avarice and it is for this reason and the constant refreshing of the format that keeps this show at the top of its game.

If I was to acknowledge a weakness it is the creeping political correctness and it's often London centric concerns that reflect the aberration of the metropolis and its peddling of liberal authoritarianism. The programme must always reflect the wider UK to maintain is relevance and preeminence.

Tom Allen on your fired is the best since Adrian Chiles

Easy explanation. Thousands submit a business plan. Ten idiots/narcacists/delusional people plus one about credible and the winner Are selected. Lord Sugar has already decided the one that's going to make him even more money but it's dragged out for a few months with the performing monkeys entertaining us with their unique brand of obnoxiousness (that peasant librarian wannabe gentry!!!) After real business people completely humiliate them nothing changes in their jelly brains and they still think they have been on the program for merit, not basically a slaughtering that even web toed folk who marry their sister can look down on. To give them credit though, they can dress themselves and are toilet trained. I think.

Fourteen aspiring business people (seven men and seven women) come together to go for one available job working for Sir Alan Sugar for $100,000 a year. However this is no ordinary job interview and instead of being a couple of days long the interview lasts about 12 weeks. Each week the two teams are given a task to carry out, the team that succeeds the most (in terms of sales generally) is rewarded but the team that loses is berated before three are selected for one final discussion before Sugar fires one.

I didn't bother with this show at first just because I'm not a massive fan of reality shows and this one looked like it was based on cruelty and shouting. However I gradually started to watch it and, although I don't worry about missing a show, I do enjoy it as a show. The task structure makes each week different and interesting for different reasons and I was surprised by how engaging each show was. Of course being a harder reality show it is driven forward by a lot of fighting, raised voices and confrontation but it is not forced or cruel for the sake of it – it just happens as a result of the structure and task. The dynamics of the characters are constantly interesting and it is impossible to watch it without getting drawn into the debate and judgement. This is why it works because it engages on this level – you won't like many of the people in the show and you may not like Sugar but it is the dramatic race against time and tensions that make it work.

I'm not totally convinced that the whole business concept rings true because for the type of job they are going for £100,000 a year isn't really that much money, plus their antics are not the sort of thing you expect from people in their earning bracket or areas of responsibilities. Some of them are smart, sharp and controlled but others you just have to wonder why they think anyone would want to give them a lot of responsibility. The tasks do require skills but they normally are more about the ability to work under a great deal of time pressure that makes them hard rather than requiring much more than good common sense. So aside from the link to business skills being a bit questionable this is quite an enjoyable show. It is cruel (Sugar plays the harsh host just like countless others) but mostly it is interesting and engaging to watch the two sides race against the clock (and each other) to complete their task. A winning formal then which, although it is a reality gameshow, stands out as one of the stronger reality gameshows.

Why are we - the British tax payers - paying for this absolute piece of garbage? 14 seasons of a complete and utter non-entity (Alan Sugar) - the epitome of capitalism gone wrong - braying, bullying, abusing and manipulating so-called contestants for a prize that seems to be absolutely worthless - employment by him. Could I, as a business man, bet the BBC to fund my 'talent' search? I don't think so... Could we please place this rubbish in the receptacles provided - or better still, just flush the entire, stupid idea... so that'll reside in posterity, along with Sugar - in its fitting home.

When this came out it used to be interesting to watch. The contestants seemed quite good and the tasks made sense.

The longer it's gone on the more it's skewed to having contestants who are annoying and seem to be there to make a name for themselves, but to be honest it's the programme itself that's led to that.

The tasks they're given and the way the show is presented is so manufactured now and clearly edited/scripted to be that way.

The sooner this is scrapped the better!