The Apprentice (UK) 2012

[Stavros]

This year's Apprentice has been poor compared to previous years; the format hasn't changed, the tasks are the same, yet each year people boasting about their world class skills in marketing, selling, strategy and presentation seem more likely to succeed in bullshit than anything with added value in today's testing times. I would doubt if Lord Sugar would normally share a cup of coffee with them let alone £250,000.

So far we have had a promotion for English sparklng wines called Grandeur (!), an Italian sauce called Belissimo, gourmet food on sale outside a football ground in Edinburgh on Sunday lunchtime -yes, 'Gourmet' food, the kind of pasta and meat balls that the average Scottish football fan has probably never heard of never mind tasted; while spray-on tan turned out to be a big seller in Essex...

There is a candidate called Nick, who may be a posh-boy but either doesn't own a comb or intends his hair to look like it was slept in for a week; Nick who has a tribe tattoo on his arm and may have been spawned by a former soldier of the Kray Brothers; Jade, whose irritating, whining voice and practical skills don't match; and Tim, a monosyllabic, moody robot whose hair -unlike Nick's- is carefully coiffed so that it never moves, spooky.

I am watching it on iPlayer so I don't know if the interviews have been done yet. If I was Lord Sugar, I would pretend to have a heart attack and shut it all down. I'm not looking for a friend, if I want a friend I'll get a dog. And that's the best line this series....

[loveboof]

Don't forget about Ricky Martin... the 'reflection of perfection' lolz

And I think the coiffed dude is actually called Tom. I used to think he was ok, but he's had a few rough weeks.

I doubt Alan Sugar cares about that 250 grand though - I'm sure he gets paid more than that for the show, and if by any small chance their business makes any money then he gets a 50% stake in it...

[Stavros]

Yep, Tom not Tim, my mistake. Good point about the 250k, we shall see on Sunday what these 'business plans' actually look like. Loveboof, what would you present to Lord Sugar to get his mojo working?

[loveboof]

Yeah I'm looking froward to seeing what their actual business plans are - there was a girl last year (maybe the year before), who was good all the way through, and then her plan turned out to be setting up a cake shop or something! lol

What would I present to Lord Sugar? Well I am toying with the idea of setting up a business for myself anyway - in music publishing. So I guess I would present a more finalised version of that to him. But who knows what he's interested in these days...

I'm guessing he'll be more interested in what Nick has to offer on the tech side of things, but apparently Tom already has a pretty successful business with his dad. Something which is proven to make money will appeal to him!

What would your business plan be?

[Stavros]

Sell eveything and retire!

[robertlouis]

Isn't this another concept that's way past its sell by date?

Nowadays it seems like a pale reflection of the pre-crash times, and the moronic cretins who populate it are more like the prats who peopled the city in the 80s. I've recruited for blue-chip businesses most of my professional life and very few of this lot or their predecessors would have got through the initial cv cull.

Still, the saving grace is that Alan Sugar will never match, thank goodness, the utterly preposterous Donald Trump in the US version.

Maybe they should combine the next series with The Voice and call it a day.....

[loveboof]

Yeah, the formula is pretty tired these days...

The UK version is a million times better than the American one though! I'm not just saying that because I'm English - there are loads of great American tv shows, but in this case there is no comparison.

I haven't seen much of The Voice, but from what I hear as soon as they stopped swiveling on those chairs it went a bit downhill :/