The Apprentice (UK series three)

The Apprentice UK

◄ ►  Series Three

The Candidates Name Left Show       Simon Ambrose Week 12 Kristina Grimes Week 12 Katie Hopkins Week 11 Tre Azam Week 11 Lohit Kalburgi Week 11 Naomi Lay Week 10 Jadine Johnson Week 9 Ghazal Asif Week 8 Adam Hosker Week 7 Paul Callaghan Week 6 Natalie Wood Week 5 Sophie Kain Week 4 Gerri Blackwood Week 3 Rory Laing Week 2 Ifti Chaudhri Week 2 Andy Jackson Week 1 Hired Runner-up Fired Quit

Series Three of The Apprentice (UK), a British reality television, was broadcast in the UK during 2007 from 28 March to 13 June; it was the first series to be shown on BBC One, after the broadcaster moved it over from BBC Two, though it retained its usual timeslot as before.^[1] This series attracted 10,000 applicants and promised "tougher tasks and better people" than before, with Lord Alan Sugar (then Sir Alan at time of broadcast) commenting that he believed that this would prevent the show morphing into a version of "Big Brother on wheels."^[2] For this series, the number of candidates was increaed to sixteen, and the two teams named Stealth and Eclipse, with Simon Ambrose winning the series.^[3]

Two 90-minute specials were aired during the series run. The first programme was titled The Apprentice: Beyond the Boardroom and featured information about the personal lives of each of the semi-finalists.^[4] The second, The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them, featured Alan Sugar revealing his reasons over why he chose to remove each candidate from the programme.^[5]

Candidates

Weekly results

     The candidate was on the winning team; for Week 11, they passed the interview stage.

     The candidate was on the losing team.

     The candidate was hired and won The Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner-up.

     The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom with the PM.

     The candidate was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

     The candidate left the competition.

Episodes

Week 1: Coffee to Go

• Original Air date: 28 March 2007
• Eclipse: Jadine (Project Manager), Tre, Paul, Rory, Adam, Ifti, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Andy (Project Manager), Sophie, Gerri, Naomi, Katie, Kristina, Natalie and Ghazal.
• Task: Sell coffee in Islington. The team that makes the most profit wins.^[6][7]
• Task Review: Both teams decided to split up into two, with one half maintaining a fixed coffee stand and the other half staffing a mobile coffee van. Eclipse made a good start despite some initial purchasing blunders whilst Stealth struggled to sell after placing their van in an area already served by many low-price coffee outlets. Whilst both teams sold well, Stealth failed to make a large profit as a result of buying too much stock, milk in particular.
• Result: Eclipse had a profit of £360.97, while Stealth had a profit of £111.92.
• Winner: Eclipse - By £249.05
• Reward: A trip to the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden.
• Brought into the boardroom: Andy, Gerri and Sophie.
• Fired: Andy - For his hands-off approach as a leader, allowing the poor location and overspending of stock, and for not being to lead a simple task.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Sahar Ashemi, Ruth Badger and Mark Frith.
• Notes:
  • The night before the task, the teams were instructed to choose project managers and come up with team names. While Jadine immediately volunteered to lead the women, none of the men particularly wanted to be project manager, but eventually went with Andy because of his more extensive sales experience. On the day of the task, Sir Alan had Andy and Jadine switch teams, while telling the boys to change their name after the original was found to be the name of a company that Tre had previously worked for. This series is the first in the show's history to not feature a "battle of the sexes", as teams were mixed throughout the entire process.
  • Jadine caused considerable problems throughout the task, coming into conflict with Simon and Tre, after they claimed they had enough time to stay on a red route within a highly lucrative sales area before they needed to move on to avoid being fined for overstaying, while openly berating others for failing to emphasise the team's branding, after insisting on using it on their cart and van to make them stand out from other vendors. In the boardroom, Sir Alan claimed the use of branding would have had little effect. He also stated that despite making an unproven claim that several members were unwilling to be led by a woman, attacking her team before the results was a bad idea.
  • Sir Alan stated that all three candidates in the final boardroom were to blame for the loss, but ultimately decided that Andy's poor leadership outweighed Sophie's overspending and Gerri's poor location. Andy pleaded with Sir Alan to change his decision, without success; Sir Alan had to tell him that he was fired twice.

Week 2: Doggy Designs

• Original Air date: 4 April 2007
• Eclipse: Rory (Project Manager), Tre, Jadine, Paul, Adam, Ifti, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Katie (Project Manager), Sophie, Gerri, Naomi, Kristina, Natalie and Ghazal.
• Task: Design an innovative dog product and pitch it to three retailers. Most sale from orders, wins.^[8][9]
• Task Review: Stealth decided to focus their efforts on pitching their dog wardrobe to the largest store, Pets at Home. In Eclipse, Rory went against his team members' advice, and market research, to design a dog-owner utility belt. His autocratic leadership style (even as going as far to threaten to send team-members out for over-talking and wanting everyone to take off their jackets to show who was boss) irritated his team further; Tre in particular took offence. Ultimately, Eclipse took the lead with orders from Pets and the City and Harrods, whilst Stealth didn't get any. However, the tide turned with Pets at Home as Stealth got a considerable order, while Eclipse got nothing.
• Result: Eclipse made £565, while Stealth made £5,000
• Winner: Stealth - By £4,435.
• Reward: A luxury meal at The Dorchester Hotel in Mayfair.
• Brought into the boardroom: Rory, Tre and Ifti.
• Fired (during final boardroom):
• Ifti, with regret - For admitting being unable to focus and contribute to tasks due to missing his family.
• Rory - For his dictatorial leadership style, designing a poor product, ignoring the research team's advice, and attempting to evade responsibility for the loss by deflecting blame onto Tre.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Maggie Philbin, Toby Young and Mary Portas
• Notes:
  • Stealth's revenue out-grossed Eclipse's by a factor of 8.8:1 in the task, making it the biggest victory in the history of the UK version of The Apprentice at the time the episode was broadcast; the record has since been surpassed.
  • In his column in that week's Daily Mirror, Sir Alan commented that had the show not changed its format to allow multiple firings, which was influenced by a number of factors in the last series, he would have had to keep either Ifti, despite his clear lack of motivation, or Rory, despite his awful leadership. Sir Alan fired Ifti as soon as the final boardroom began, before informing Rory and Tre that the boardroom would continue, and a second firing would take place.
  • Tre was very critical of Rory's performance, and was shown to have little respect for his leadership. Although Sir Alan warned Tre about his behaviour, stating that he "did not know when to back down", he did not hold him responsible for the loss, and saw no reason at all to keep Rory, who found it difficult to defend himself in the boardroom. By contrast, Tre had to be explicitly told to keep quiet to let Rory speak. After Rory's firing Tre never shook his hand or even talked to him.
  • This task and its failings were shown on the spin-off episode The Worst Decisions Ever with guests criticising Rory's leadership heavily and his product even more-so, saying "such an item doesn't exist because nobody needs it". Tre even said that the belt could make users look like "a terrorist". Adam also derided the product saying it "should have been called the Poo Pouche" in a parody of its name "The Pooch Pouch."

Week 3: Start-up Service

• Original Air date: 11 April 2007
• Eclipse: Tre (Project Manager), Paul, Adam, Katie, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Naomi (Project Manager), Sophie, Jadine, Gerri, Kristina, Natalie and Ghazal.
• Task: Starting with £200, generate profit through whatever means. Most profit made, wins.^[10][11][12]
• Task Review: Eclipse started a gardening business in the day and a pub-singing service in the evening whilst Stealth set up a face painting service for children in the day and a kiss-o-gram service in the evening, with a kiss and a hug for £1. Jadine, Gerri and Ghazal all refused to participate as kiss-o-grams. Both teams got off to a slow start, though Stealth lost a lot of custom by not managing their location properly, which was blamed on Gerri. Back in the boardroom, Stealth were effectively accused of prostitution by Sir Alan after selling kisses on the streets of London, which he described as being like "another old profession I've heard about". Although Tre's leadership style was highly aggressive, Eclipse did far better.
• Result: Eclipse had a profit of £189, while Stealth had a profit of £65.
• Winner: Eclipse - By £124.
• Reward: A night out in a Cuban bar and restaurant in London.
• Brought into the boardroom: Naomi, Jadine and Gerri.
• Fired: Gerri - For a lack of contribution in all three tasks, her poor choice of location on two of the tasks, and for admitting she was "biding her time" before putting in a full effort.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Jo Cameron, Karren Brady and Rufus Hound
• Notes:
  • Both teams were given a list of 200 business ideas, approved by Richmond council, that they were allowed to choose from for this task.
  • Only Kristina and Natalie were willing to give out kisses, causing Sir Alan to point out how ridiculous it was for Stealth to choose to run a business that five of the seven team members were not willing to take part in.
  • Jadine believed Naomi was a bad leader and openly questioned her decisions at several points in the task. Although Sir Alan agreed that most of Naomi's decisions had been poor, he acknowledged that she was at least a hard worker, whereas Gerri seemed content to stay in the background. Jadine was subsequently retained for her potential, having been warned about her attitude again.

Week 4: Sugar Rush

• Original Air date: 18 April 2007
• Eclipse: Adam (Project Manager), Sophie, Katie, Natalie, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Ghazal (Project Manager), Tre, Jadine, Paul, Naomi and Kristina.
• Task: Manufacture sweets and sell them at London Zoo. Most profit made, wins.^[13][14]
• Task Review: Both teams went for similar ideas in terms of their product; Stealth opted for chocolate lollies (with an animal design) and bags of fudge, while Eclipse went for chocolate lollies (with a paw design) and orange flavoured lollies. Stealth struggled to manufacture enough product and so ran out of stock by 4pm, an hour before the task finished. In comparison, Eclipse had plenty to sell but struggled to offload their orange lollies which were mistakenly labelled as 'natural'. With limited time left they resorted to reducing their prices and eventually gave their remaining sweets away for free.
• Result: Stealth had a profit of £994, while Eclipse had a profit of £983.
• Winner: Stealth - By £11.
• Reward: A night out Bowling.
• Brought into the boardroom: Adam, Sophie and Natalie.
• Fired: Sophie - For lacking passion, selling the least and for her naivety about the business world.^[15]
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Vanessa Feltz, Trevor Bish-Jones and Nick Hewer
• Notes:
  • Sir Alan did not feel that Stealth were deserving winners, and was further annoyed by Ghazal's cocky attitude and failure to acknowledge her mistakes in the boardroom; Tre ended up doing this for the team. The panel of You're Fired also agreed that Stealth got lucky and had they lost, Ghazal should have been fired.
  • Although Natalie was not fired, she was given a severe warning after she repeatedly lied to Sir Alan about who was responsible for the labelling error. While it had been her mistake, she attempted to place the blame upon Adam.

Week 5: Fish, Lips and Horses

• Original Air date: 25 April 2007
• Eclipse: Natalie (Project Manager), Adam, Katie, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Kristina (Project Manager), Tre, Jadine, Paul, Naomi and Ghazal.
• Task: Choose photographs from two different artists and then sell them in a fashionable east London gallery. Most sales made, wins.^[16][17]
• Task Review: Stealth showcased artists with the themes of horses and fish, whilst Eclipse chose artists whose work related to lips and Morocco and Colombia, all of which had high price ranges. Following the choice, Natalie and Katie were distracted by one of the artists regarding the layout of their gallery, which damaged their strategy. In Stealth, Tre was uncomfortable around the pictures, some of which depicted nipples, and claimed they "belong in a fetish gallery". The teams took very different approaches to selling, with Eclipse going for a softer approach and Stealth tried the hard-sell, which proved decisive.
• Result: Eclipse had sales of £1,599.78, while Stealth had sales of £4,702.
• Winner: Stealth - By £3,102.22.
• Reward: A pampering session at a Champneys, a spa.
• Brought into the boardroom: Natalie, Adam and Lohit.
• Fired: Natalie, with regret - For lying in the boardroom, not bringing Katie back into it, and because Sir Alan thought she was out of her depth.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Brian Sewell, Alvin Hall and Fi Glover
• Notes:
  • A critical factor in Natalie's firing was her poor explanation of her decision to bring back Adam (one of only two members of Eclipse - the other being Simon - to sell anything), and Lohit (he had followed the soft-sale strategy pushed by Natalie and Katie and subsequently sold nothing, but not had made any serious mistakes). Natalie further harmed her cause by falsely accusing Adam of lying about his preference of artists in the boardroom; Adam stated that he had personally liked the lips pictures, but had expressed reservations about how well they would sell. Margaret, while not openly challenging Natalie, did point out that Adam had been telling the truth when the final three were sent outside.
  • It was implied that Katie should have been brought back and possibly fired for missing the point of the task, failing to ask relevant questions to the artists (and even going so far as to mock Adam for his attempts to do so) and then failing to sell anything.

Week 6: The Sausage Saga

• Original Air date: 2 May 2007
• Eclipse: Lohit (Project Manager), Tre, Jadine, Naomi and Simon.
• Stealth: Paul (Project Manager), Adam, Katie, Kristina and Ghazal.
• Task: Buy high-quality British produce and then sell it at a French farmers' market in Arras. Most profit made, wins.^[18][19]
• Task Review: Eclipse chose to sell smoked fish, marmalade and tea whilst Stealth opted for sausages, chutney, and cheap processed cheese bought at the last minute from Makro, a cash and carry. After a communication error with the printers, as well as arriving over 5 hours late, Stealth ended up paying for an incorrectly translated banner, far more than the bunting Eclipse used (universally deemed better). Paul planned to make up these costs by cooking sausages with a tin filled with lighter fuel instead of a camping stove; this failed disastrously, losing them precious sales. Kristina eventually found a restaurant who let them use their gas cooker for samples, at which point the sausages sold very well. However, they sold little to no cheese, due to the popularity of high quality cheese in France. On top of that, Paul and Katie left to sell to the trade very early, leaving Stealth without any fluent French speakers on the stands. Eclipse hit a snag in selling the tea in a predominantly coffee-drinking nation, but their fish and marmalade sold very well, greatly assisted by Simon's fluent French. Whilst neither team managed to sell all their produce, Stealth never came close to a profit.
• Result: Stealth had a loss of £225, while Eclipse had a profit of £410.
• Winner: Eclipse - By £635.
• Reward: Indoor skydiving in a vertical wind tunnel.
• Brought into the boardroom: Paul, Kristina and Adam.
• Fired: Paul - For his horrendous decision-making, accepting no responsibility for the loss, and for bringing Kristina back into the boardroom instead of Katie.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Jean-Christophe Novelli, Mark Frith and Nick Hewer
• Notes:
  • This week's team reshuffle was specifically intended to balance out the French speakers on the teams, with Eclipse ending up with Naomi and Simon, while Tre knew some basic French. Likewise, Stealth had Paul and Katie as fluent speakers, while Kristina had a loose knowledge of the language.
  • Though Eclipse's execution of the task was generally trouble-free (aside from the van taking their produce getting lost and only boarding the ferry with 30 minutes to spare), there was a major spat between Simon and Jadine on the ferry, apparently caused by Jadine taking offence to Simon referring to the team as "guys" despite having two female members in Jadine and Naomi. Lohit's poor grasp of French also caused him to make numerous gaffes while selling in the streets of Arras. Nevertheless, Sir Alan was very impressed with Eclipse's performance and gave strong praise to Simon.
  • Nick, who owned a house in France, sharply criticised Stealth for selling cheese, saying that in a French supermarket, no-one would ever "find an English cheese, never in a month of Sundays". Sir Alan also dubbed the choice as "coals to Newcastle".
  • Paul, Katie and Ghazal all attempted to pin the blame for the loss on Adam for overspending on the banner. While Sir Alan agreed that Adam was the most at fault on that matter, the £100 spent (£85 + VAT) would not even have been enough for the team to finish with a profit, and that it was the choice of products that had doomed Stealth before they had even started selling. He also made it very clear that he did not hold Kristina responsible, as she had correctly identified flaws in her team strategy, and was the only member who openly disagreed with Paul during the task, while also securing the gas cooker that helped pick up sales.
  • When questioned about Paul's decision to bring him into the boardroom, Adam said that Katie should have been chosen, and the only reason Paul had not was because they were "too close". Kristina went further, declaring that Paul and Katie were in an "inappropriate relationship", while Paul vigorously denied it. Sir Alan explained he did not mind relationships between co-workers if it did not interfere with work, but warned Paul that if it did, he would "be out that door so quick, you wouldn't know what's hit you." Despite defending him strongly, Katie was shown to disagree with several of the decisions Paul made in the task, including buying the cheese and using the improvised burner.
  • Before making his final decision, Sir Alan indicated that he considered Paul to be a better overall candidate than Adam, but deemed Paul's bad decisions and refusal to take responsibility to be unforgivable; these decisions were later featured on the spin-off Worst Decisions Ever. Although Adam survived, Sir Alan questioned whether he could succeed in the competition before he was asked by him to be Project Manager in the next task.
  • When Kristina and Adam returned to the house after Paul's firing, they did not receive cheers from the other candidates as before they returned, Katie and Ghazal had effectively framed them for the task failings. Katie also made personal attacks on Kristina, largely because she had been the only person who objected to Paul's decisions.

Week 7: The 97 pence Victory

• Original Air date: 9 May 2007
• Eclipse: Simon (Project Manager), Tre, Jadine, Naomi and Lohit.
• Stealth: Adam (Project Manager), Katie, Kristina and Ghazal.
• Task: Purchase a set list of ten items, negotiating for lower prices. Least amount spent (including fines), wins.^[20][21]
• Task Review: Simon's erratic style of leadership caused tension amongst Eclipse, with deals being rushed without enough time for negotiation. Over in Stealth, Katie and Kristina put aside personal differences and managed to negotiate a number of items successfully. Both teams were initially confused as to what nigella seeds were, with Adam even suggesting they may be a form of AstroTurf. Eclipse wrongly assumed that buying second-rate tiles was classed as a discount, and were fined as a result; however Stealth were also fined for failing to purchase the nigella seeds. The teams' final balances were separated by the narrowest margin in the show's history.
• Result: Eclipse's remaining money was £459.68 (including fines), while Stealth's remaining money was £458.71 (including fines).
• Winner: Eclipse - By 97p.
• Reward: A racing car driving day at the Bedford Autodrome.
• Brought into the boardroom: Adam, Ghazal and Katie.
• Fired: Adam - For poor management skills, failing to buy all the items despite the smaller fine it would occur, appearing in the boardroom four times in a row, not bringing Kristina back into the boardroom and because Sir Alan felt he was out of his depth.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel:Michelle Mone, Jon Culshaw and Dominic Littlewood
• Notes:
  • The items that teams were required to get, included: a car battery, 3 kg of nigella seeds, a square metre of marble tiling, hair-removal wax, a house plant, leather trousers, a bin, a wetsuit, a white rabbit and a unicycle.
  • The victory margin in this episode is the smallest margin ever made on the show's history. If Adam had bought all the items, the fine for lateness would have been smaller and would have resulted in Stealth winning by £29.03.
  • When Adam, Katie and Ghazal were asked to wait outside the boardroom, Margaret criticised Adam's decision to bring Katie and Ghazal back into the boardroom as being "very silly", as she suspected he brought them back for personal reasons, although both he and Ghazal had made serious mistakes during the task.
  • Whilst Katie did a decent job this task, Sugar gave her harsh criticism over her poor performances and her CV and for continuously interrupting Adam in the boardroom. Her survival in the process was due to her showing potential, but was warned to improve her work.
  • Sir Alan seriously considered firing Ghazal, sharply criticising her for failing relay information about the nigella seeds, upon realising what they were by the halfway point. He also questioned her level of experience, but agreed to give her one last chance after she asked to lead the team on the next task. Sugar did admit that Adam probably did not deserve to be in the final boardroom as often as he had been, but felt that he made too many mistakes in both his turns as project manager to be allowed to continue.
  • It was revealed the camera crew with Stealth's sub-team of Katie and Kristina broke down during the task, and they were delayed for over an hour while a replacement was sent out. To make up for this they were allowed an additional hour at the end of the day to complete the task.

Week 8: Brand-a Trainer

• Original Air date: 16 May 2007
• Eclipse: Jadine (Project Manager), Tre, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Ghazal (Project Manager), Naomi, Katie and Kristina.
• Task: Create a brand logo, poster and video advertisement for a new style of trainers. Best campaign made, wins.^[22][23][24]
• Task Review: Eclipse created "Street" trainers with a "reclaim the street" brain child of Jadine, and a promise to donate 10% of the sale price to youth charities. Stealth built the campaign for their "Jam" trainers around an urban music theme. Despite Naomi having the most advertising experience out of the Stealth members, Ghazal largely ignored her advice and let Katie direct much of the campaign. Stealth's TV ad, though well made, was heavily criticised for lacking a message and failing to make it clear what was being advertised. A group of advertising executives decided which team won the task; they ultimately decided that while Eclipse's campaign had made a bad move by naming the specific amount donated to charity, Stealth's campaign was so generic that it barely resembled a trainer advert.
• Winner: Eclipse - For a campaign that remained focused on the product.
• Reward: A lesson at "Cocktail school" in The Savoy Hotel in London. On their way back, Eclipse saw a poster of their Street trainers on a bus stop.
• Brought into the boardroom: Ghazal, Katie and Naomi.
• Fired: Ghazal - For her very poor leadership, trying to force Sir Alan to fire Naomi by bringing Katie back, her cocky attitude, lacking business experience and for her generally poor track record.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Trevor Nelson, Karan Bilimoria and India Knight
• Notes:
  • In the initial boardroom, Ghazal attempted to pin the blame mostly on Naomi, claiming she made no contribution despite her experience. Although her ideas were felt not to have been especially better than Katie's, Naomi quickly denied she was responsible, with Nick agreeing by making it clear that both she and Kristina had been sidelined in the task. Ghazal made a further attempt to sway Sir Alan to fire her by bringing Katie back with her, but this backfired after he saw through this. In regards to her firing, he stated that Ghazal was "all talk and no do" and that she "argues for the sake of arguing".
  • Katie, despite her poor track record, avoided being fired due to being the best performer on the task, refusing to assist Ghazal's plan to get Naomi fired, and for her overall defence in the boardroom. However, Sir Alan warned her that, despite this, she was now on her final chance.
  • Tre did not attend Eclipse's treat, partly because his religious beliefs prevented him from drinking alcohol, but mainly because as he was upset at the likely prospect of Ghazal being fired.

Week 9: Feeling The Strain

• Original Air date: 23 May 2007
• Eclipse: Tre (Project Manager), Jadine, Simon and Lohit.
• Stealth: Katie (Project Manager), Naomi and Kristina.
• Task: Interview representatives from five nations, choose three items from one nation, and then sell them to the trade. Most sales made, wins.^[25][26]
• Task Review: Stealth chose to market Canadian goods, including a "Rug in a Box" set, a portable light therapy device and a set of sport shoe insoles. Eclipse chose a set of Swedish products, a lamp with a built in air purifier, vacuum cleaner heads and a set of microwavable soft toys. At the end of the first day Jadine suffered a minor emotional breakdown, leaving Lohit able to set up only one appointment with a potential buyer. Similarly, Stealth failed to make any appointments due to spending too long being briefed by the Canadian Trade Commissioner, Michelle Gartland, and so both teams were left to make their appointments the following morning. The teams performed similarly well, but Stealth's products proved to have a higher market value, resulting in them making more, while Eclipse had trouble getting sales appointments and were fined by 10% for being late to the boardroom.
• Result: Stealth made £2,226.59, while Eclipse made £1,344.29.
• Winner: Stealth - By £882.30.
• Reward: A £500 voucher to spend, with the aid of a personal shopper, at Selfridges.
• Brought into the boardroom: Tre, Jadine and Lohit.
• Fired: Jadine - For losing focus during much of the first day, admitting that she was unable to contribute to the task due to missing her daughter, and for making an unconvincing argument on being kept over Tre or Lohit.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Vijay Patel, Karren Brady and Felicity Lee
• Notes:
  • Two days before this episode was broadcast, the Cutty Sark was badly damaged in a fire. The ship was used in this episode as the location for the teams' briefing.^[27]
  • Sir Alan told Jadine that, although she was not ready yet, he felt that she could be a truly great businesswoman one day.
  • After Jadine's firing, Lohit was informed that, if had not been for Jadine's problems, he would have been fired. While he had sold the most on the team and defended himself well in the boardroom, Sir Alan was now certain that he was not suited to his organisation. In addition, Tre was heavily criticised for choosing products with a low retail price and failing to bring back Simon, whose poor research had hindered both sub-teams in making sales appointments. Sir Alan made clear that he considered Tre primarily responsible for the loss, but spared him due to his strong track record prior to this task.

Week 10: Selling On TV

• Original Air date: 30 May 2007
• Eclipse: Simon (Project Manager), Tre and Naomi.
• Stealth: Kristina (Project Manager), Katie and Lohit.
• Task: Select and sell a variety of items on the Ideal World teleshopping channel. Most sales made, wins.^{[28][29][30][31]}
• Task Review: Stealth chose chocolate fountains, foot spas, slimming pants and steam mops but Kristina kept repeating "Okay" throughout her entire chocolate fountain ad and her vacuum cleaner demonstration went badly wrong, as it succeeded only in spreading the dirt around. Lohit was given the awkward task of trying to help sell ladies' slimming pants along with Katie, though the two ended up selling in reasonably good quantities. Eclipse manager Simon gave very few instructions to team-mates, Tre and Naomi, while in the producers' gallery, after choosing foldable wheelchairs, decoupage pads, trampolines and leg shavers to sell, and thus they struggled. Simon's choice of a foldable wheelchair was questioned, but ended up accounting for more than half of Eclipse's income, while he also made a spectacle of himself by bouncing on a trampoline and then unwittingly appearing to be masturbating when screwing in its legs.
• Result: Eclipse made £921.79, while Stealth made £1,339.10.
• Winner: Stealth - By £417.31.
• Reward: Trip to a Turkish Bath.
• Brought into the boardroom: Simon, Tre, and Naomi (the entirety of the team).
• Fired: Naomi, with regret - For her selection of poor products, being disrespectful towards Simon, and for a generally average-at-best track record, despite her great presenting skills.
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Vanessa Feltz, Allisaon Keenan and Mark Frith
• Notes:
  • Despite much boardroom hilarity at the on-screen antics, Sir Alan was not pleased with either team and was reluctant to tell Stealth their reward; complaints from Ideal World viewers described the candidates as being "rubbish" and "a waste of time".
  • Although he committed many errors, Simon avoided being fired because of his enthusiasm, his impressive track record, and for his choice of products contributing around £880 of the money raised by Eclipse, with Sir Alan defending him against Naomi's attempt to blame him for his presenting on the task and failing to sell her choices of the trampoline and decoupage pads. While Tre lacked the same enthusiasm as his team-mate, and contributed little input, Sugar believed that Naomi was more directly at fault for the loss and that she had a far more inferior track record than him.
  • Kristina's performance was badly received; Sir Alan was not remotely amused by the "comedy" of Lohit selling slimming pants, and was amazed Kristina had managed to sell any vacuum cleaners at all, sarcastically suggesting the customers should be put in straitjackets.
  • A majority of the You're Fired studio audience disagreed with the decision and felt Simon should have been fired.

Week 11: Interviews

• Original Air date: 6 June 2007
• Semi-finalists: Tre, Lohit, Katie, Simon, Kristina.
• Task: The five remaining candidates are individually interviewed by three of Sir Alan Sugar's closest associates - Paul Kemsley, Claude Littner and Bordan Tkachuk. Sir Alan decides who are his finalists.^[32]
• Candidate Reviews: After the round of 25-minute interviews, three candidates – Katie, Simon and Kristina – stood out. The only candidate with positive reports from all three interviewers was Kristina. Conversely, very few positive comments were made about Lohit, who was quickly fired after being deemed "nice," but too "boring." Tre was next to go, after Sir Alan told him that, while he was a strong candidate, he lacked the required maturity. He was also described as argumentative and difficult. Simon was praised for being academically gifted and for knowing more than the other candidates about Sir Alan's companies, but his track record, however, came under fire for appearing too woolly, making it hard to understand where Simon is going with his career. While doubts were expressed over Katie's motives for entering the show, Sir Alan nonetheless made her the first finalist. While he was deliberating over whether to make Simon or Kristina the other finalist, Katie was clearly beset by doubts. After Sir Alan advised her that she would have to make an absolute commitment to the job should she get it, she suggested she "stand down". This allowed Simon and Kristina to proceed to the final.
• Fired:
  • Lohit - For being too nice and for having the worst CV of the final five.
  • Tre, with regret - For performing poorly in the interviews, his argumentative manner and for his lack of maturity.^[32]
• Left: Katie - Resigned, citing potential difficulties in making childcare arrangements should she be offered the job, despite a place in the finals.^[33]
• The Apprentice: You're Fired! panel: Kirsty Walk, Nick Hewer and Michelle Dewberry
• Finalists: Kristina and Simon.
• Notes:
  • Sir Alan noted that Lohit's firing was overdue, and that he would have been fired two weeks previously if not for Jadine's inability to continue in the process.
  • In a one-off special, The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them, broadcast a few days later, Sir Alan Sugar expressed his opinion that Katie had never really been interested in working for him but had entered the competition merely for the kudos. He said that he felt he had been hoodwinked, and that if Katie had not voluntarily stood down he would have reversed his decision and fired her after all.^[5]

Week 12: The Final

• Original Air date: 13 June 2007
• Finalists: Simon, Kristina
• Kristina's team: Paul, Naomi, Adam and Natalie.
• Simon's team: Tre, Jadine, Rory and Lohit.
• Task: Each finalist must put together a proposal for the redevelopment of a site on London's South Bank, designing a major landmark building that is both profit-making and has an iconic design, before presenting it to an audience of property, finance and architectural experts, along with Sir Alan Sugar and his assistants. Best design, wins.^[34][35][36]
• Task Review: Simon proposed "The Wave", an ambitious building with an "organic" design, while Kristina offered "The Phoenix", whose name symbolised the regeneration of the site. Both presentations were well received by the experts. In his final boardroom evaluation, Sir Alan contrasted Kristina's experience with Simon's creativity, and said that both candidates were very employable.
• Runner-up: Kristina - For playing a little too safe in task, despite a superior track record in the series and prior career to that of Simon.
• Winner: Simon - For being more of a risk taker than Kristina, as well as his intelligence and insight on Sir Alan's business background.^[37][38]
• Notes:
  • The site to be developed was originally occupied by the IBM Building; this site was purchased for £120m by Sir Alan Sugar.
  • The final boardroom scene broadcast was one of two different boardroom showdowns, one for each possible result, that were filmed. Sir Alan then took the two finalists to lunch to tell them who had actually won closer to the airdate.^[39] Sir Alan himself admitted that he was "taking a risk" hiring Simon.

Criticism and controversy

This series was described as "the most controversial" out of all three series that had been made at the time.^[40]

Candidates

Adam Hosker

On 8 August 2007, former candidate Adam Hosker who was fired by Sir Alan in May was questioned by police over allegations of him being involved in a fight with 21 year old Stuart Haworth who was a radio operator for the Territorial Army after a drink was spilled. He was alleged to have pushed Haworth before being dragged away by friends. Haworth did not need hospital treatment for his injuries but made a formal complaint.^[41]

There was also controversy surrounding his exit from the show implying a North-South rift between other candidates particularly his previous project manager Paul Callaghan and fellow contestant Katie Hopkins who he said felt offended that he was working class, Northern and had a background in the motor industry. However, his exit also won him support from the North-West and the support of Series 2 runner-up Ruth Badger.^[42][43]

Natalie Wood

Contestant Natalie Wood complained about a situation with Adrian Chiles, host of The Apprentice spin-off programme, The Apprentice: You're Fired!. Chiles, who has a distinctive Birmingham accent, asked Wood on the spin-off programme whether her Essex accent had been a hindrance. "But how can you pick up on my accent when Sir Alan is sitting across the table," commented Wood. "How can he say that? Essex is fantastic and I'm proud to come from Essex. A lot of people from Essex are very successful. I find it hard to swallow."^[44]

Gerri Blackwood and Tre Azam

Candidate Gerri Blackwood claimed that the allocation of showers in the house where the candidates stay appeared to have been manipulated in such a way as to force the female contestants to shower together. She told the Daily Star "One of the bathrooms was used by the film crew, but two of the others were closed off with 'Out of Order' signs on them. That left two bathrooms to share between 16 people. I am not sure whether it was deliberate or not but you can imagine they wanted us to share showers".^[45] In her interview, she also claimed that Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford fed the candidates misleading information so that they would fail the tasks, and that Sir Alan Sugar's boardroom diatribes were re-filmed to make them look better.^[46] Fellow candidate Tre Azam also criticised the editing of the programme, claiming he was worried that his portrayal "might have been dumbed down because I made some of the other characters look too weak".^[47]

Results

Week Six and Paul Callaghan

After Paul Callaghan was fired in the sixth episode, wholesale chain Makro and manufacturer Wyke Farms criticised the programme due to the negative comments made about its cheese. In the episode, Sir Alan Sugar verbally blasted Paul for taking the inexpensive products to France to sell.^[19] Makro and Wyke Farms claimed that the cheese is very popular in France. Richard Clothier, the Managing Director of Wyke Farms, said "Alan Sugar, you know a lot about electronics, but not that much about cheese, and for that reason, you're fired!".^[48] Further controversy emerged after it was revealed that Paul started a romance with fellow candidate Katie Hopkins while competing on the programme, which received much coverage from the tabloid press.^{[49][50][51][52]} This was cited as one of the reasons Paul was fired during the aforementioned episode, as other candidates complained about the situation, saying that the relationship affected the performance of the team during the tasks.^[51]

Week Eleven

Several organisations, including the Trades Union Congress, the Liberal Democrats, The Equal Opportunities Commission and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, accused Alan Sugar of sexism and breaching the 1976 Sex Discrimination act after only questioning contestants Katie Hopkins and Kristina Grimes about their child-care arrangements, despite the fact that male contestant Tre Azam was also a parent (though Hopkins and Grimes were single parents at the time of the interviews, whereas Azam was married).^[33][53][54] Sugar's questioning, during the eleventh episode, eventually made Hopkins resign from the programme and decline Sugar's initial offer of a chance to compete in the final episode.^[55][56] Sugar defended his actions and told Fiona Phillips of GMTV that he was aware of all rules regarding sexual discrimination within the workplace.^[57][58] The incident was well documented within the media.^[59][60][61] In addition, internet conspiracists believed that Katie's exit from the show was fixed and that the segments were re-filmed and edited in later. Fellow candidate Simon Ambrose, however denied that this was the case and insisted that nothing was changed.^[62]

Related programmes

The Apprentice: Beyond the Boardroom

This was a one-off special shown on BBC Two on 2 June 2007.^[63] The programme featured interviews with the final five candidates from this series. Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford also gave their opinions on the final five, along with some of the previously fired candidates.^[4] The programme spoke about the candidates' private lives, revealing that Kristina Grimes was sent to a convent at age 17 due to her pregnancy, Tre Azam once fell asleep whilst driving and nearly died, Simon Ambrose was bullied as a child and has an IQ of 174, Katie Hopkins once burgled a south London newsagents for a crate of Toilet Duck and that Lohit Kalburgi is a homosexual.^[4][63] Friends of the candidates and members of their families, including parents, children and partners, aired their views.^[4]

The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them

This one-off special was screened on BBC Two on 10 June 2007, three days before the revelation of the winner of this series of The Apprentice. In the programme Sir Alan Sugar looked back over the series so far, discussed the merits and demerits of the candidates, and explained in more detail why he fired each candidate when he did.^[64] The episode featured the former participants' views of their time on the programme and what they had learnt from the experience.^[5] Sugar's assistants Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford also spoke about the former contestants.^[5] At the end of the programme, Sugar reviewed the performances of the two finalists, Kristina Grimes and Simon Ambrose, and said that deciding who to hire would be difficult.^[5] Despite voluntarily leaving rather than being "fired", Katie Hopkins also featured on the programme and her time on The Apprentice was discussed.^[5]

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.^[65]

Specials

References

External links

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