The Apprentice.

I don't think there are many people like Katie Hopkins, to be fair!!

To be fair, the business plans were not very robust. This year's finalists. though, are a far cry from the likes of Katie Hopkins. They do seem to like each other and were supportive during the interview process. Still I suppose the producers think that the viewing public likes a bit of nasty. But the programme has become stale now and I don't think I will bother next year.

I thought the Interviewers were despicable towards the candidates, they showed no manners or respect whatsoever. There was no need for their abhorrent humiliation of the candidates. Who the hell did they think they were. They weren't interviewing them, they were just hell bent on tearing a strip off each one, downright nasty and uncalled for. Not clever !

My money's on the boxer.
She is more proactive than the others, not that I like boxing but it does seem popular.

The other finalist wants to expand her hairdressing business into Belgravia and other upmarket areas I think.

I thought that the woman who wanted to open boxing gyms was the only one who had actually put in the work to get grants etc for her business plan. I don't know what the other finalist wants to do. Is it opening another hairdressing salon? The interview clips were so short, I couldn’t make it out.

Rosalyn69

I actually have a soft spot for Lord Sugar. He wears wonderful suits.
I have watched a couple of episodes of this series. Just awful contestants.
As my husband says “I wouldn’t have given any of them a job when I was in business”.

I do like Lord Sugar having seen him on other programmes.

Karren Brady? 🤔

I really enjoy the Apprentice and have watched all the episodes over the years. I love to see how the candidates figure out how to invent, design and get on with each other.

I worked as a cleaner for a woman who had a relative involved with the making of this programme. She told me that,yes, a lot of it is contrived, but the real characters of the candidates inevitably come out in spite of this.

The plastic surgery element is disturbing as these very young women had no need to mutilate their faces, particularly their lips the way they have. It worries me that this is becoming the norm and my 16 year old Granddaughter is already thinking about changing her face. Horror.

Yes, I agree that so much of this programme is probably staged to make it “good” tv, to grab the audience, but nevertheless, I feel that encouraging nastiness, selfishness, greed and belittling to enable a programme to be “good” tv is abhorrent. It’s not the only programme around that does this, of course.
There is so much nastiness and unpleasantness in this world and programmes such as this only encourage this to be the norm, in my humble opinion, when it most certainly shouldn’t be.

It was very uncomfortable to watch. The bullying was awful and they didn't give the candidates a chance to reply, they just bulldozed them. It was awful. They are there to give advice and help the candidates not bully them.
The worst part was Baroness Karren Brady telling one of the candidates who called her Karren to call her Baroness Brady as only her friends called her Karren!! Totally unnecessary!! I cant stand her!! I dont know who she thinks she is.

I also like Karen Brady

I actually have a soft spot for Lord Sugar. He wears wonderful suits.
I have watched a couple of episodes of this series. Just awful contestants.
As my husband says “I wouldn’t have given any of them a job when I was in business”.

Patsy70 I agree a lot of it is contrived. I even wonder about the "Baroness Brady* bit. I think Lord Sugar's dreadful jokes are scripted. I just can't believe how unintelligent the contestants are.

The candidates are deliberately chosen for their ridiculously elevated egos and then 'played' for entertainment with careful editing. Karren Brady plays along with all this but does come across as patronising and unpleasant. I don't agree with these silly titles bestowed upon them making both her and Alan Sugar believe that they are superior to everyone without one.

The programme is evidently highly edited to make all the candidates look as daft as possible. But they all seemed to me to be strong, charismatic young men and women who were trying hard in often impossible circumstances. And all seemed thoroughly nice people into the bargain, engaging with each other when off task and often being encouraging and supportive. They are none of them perfect, but who is? I do wish people wouldn't dismiss them as 'numpties' when they are so clearly nothing of the sort. They are simply ambitious young people who try hard and sometimes lack knowledge and get it wrong. Did we know everything at their age? Give them a break. I applaud them for submitting themselves to the process and putting themselves at the mercy of ghastly people like Karren (sorry, Baroness) Brady. I wish all of them well in their future plans.

Totally appalling set of contestants, I would have liked to sack them all after the first couple of episodes. Most of them seemed completely vacuous and personally I wouldn't have employed any of them except maybe the boxer. Presentation skills zero and apparently the same score for their business plans. Still they must have been chosen for their TV 'appeal' and I have watched the whole series...

I havn’t bothered to watch this series beyond the first 2 episodes, previous series have been pathetic as well, by all accounts contestants have proven very poor quality.

Male or female to succeed in business you have to be as hard as nails, there is no room for emotion, these “poor girls” are not not even close to being good enough.

Karren Brady certainly does seem to be a nasty piece of works.

Having progressed from a convent school to training to sell advertising with Saatchi and Saatchi, she established her career by working for the pornographer David Sullivan, becoming a director of Sport Newspapers at the age of 20.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karren_Brady

The "Sport" and "Sunday Sport" so-called newspapers specialised in softcore pornography, printing topless and nude photos of young women and advertising sexual services such a sex chat lines.

It is hardly surprising that she demonstrates no empathy or respect for these young women on "the Apprentic".

I saw that snippet of the women facing Karen Brady on gogglebox last night and thought it was awful. Brady came across as a nasty piece of work (“and by the way, I’m Baronness Brady” said scathingly to one woman), and the women as ill- prepared. I’m glad I don’t watch it. From what I saw I thought it very distasteful.

Dottydots

I watched it and could have cried for those poor girls. How they were spoken to was disgusting.

Oh come on, they know exactly what they're letting themselves in for! They've watched previous series and seen how the candidates are treated at the interview stages.

The programme has become a mockery of itself. Tired, repetitive format (from the 5am phone call answered by a pyjama-ed contestant, to the tasks, to the interviews). It's obvious that the contestants are chosen for their TV potential not their business acumen. The interviews have moved from being searching to being brutal. Karen Brady has sunk to new levels of rude nastiness. The only decent person on it seems to be Tim Campbell.

I squirm at the lack of general knowledge of the candidates.

Time and time again it becomes apparent that these young people seem rather dim and I often wonder if indeed the candidates are chosen for what they don't know - to give the show (and it is a show) a comedic edge.

I am in a minority, quite enjoying some of Sir... Alan Sugar's comments but I agree that Karen Brady's comment was a little beyond good taste.

The last programme is usually also one of my favourites but what a shower these candidates were! I would not be able to trust them to run a business as with all the resources available with a quick click, they had not bothered to read through and check their business plans for errors or bone up on what is necessary to produce a decent business plan.

I had my money on Megan who seemed half-way sensible. She's now toast, which is why I never bet!

Totally agree it was out of order ! Sooo patronising and downright rude they’ve had these business plans since the very beginning and surely could have “ thinned down “ the awful ones instead if getting to this stage with him picking the best of a bad lot in terms of business sense - for goodness sake what’s the point of humiliating them at this stage ?

I watched it and could have cried for those poor girls. How they were spoken to was disgusting.

I too have only seen clips on Gogglebox as I did last night. What a horrible woman Karren Brady comes across as. My husband kept saying 'I told you she was awful'. He can't stand her after she was something to do with his beloved Birmingham City FC.

I stopped watching this year s ago. I can't stand Alan Sugars attitude and language to these mostly young people.