The Apprentice 2012 Thread

I have just found out the new series of 'The Apprentice' starts a week on Wednesday.

I love this series, it is the best programme on TV. I base my whole life around it when it's on.

I haven't seen the contestants yet, when someone knows please link me.

So when the series gets going this is the place to post all your Apprentice thoughts and opinions. I know it's a favourite of Reebok Trotter.

Ah great can't wait.

Nat you'd be great on it. A millionaire business woman, owns a penthouse in Preston, has a number of high flying friends and has extreme left or right wing views dependant on the populist opinion at the time.

did you apply, if not why not?

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Ah great can't wait.

Nat you'd be great on it. A millionaire business woman, owns a penthouse in Preston, has a number of high flying friends and has extreme left or right wing views dependant on the populist opinion at the time.

did you apply, if not why not?

+1

I'll join in, although I usually start watching with about 5/6 weeks to go. They6 are starting to show their colours by then

Nat, are you doing the same thing for X factor ?. My missus lives for that one.

I enjoy The Apprentice very much indeed, but I am under no illusion that by and large, the contestant selection process is not a meritocracy. The majority of people are chosen because they are egotistical, talk a good game, and lack common sense - in other words because they will make good TV.

There are two things which irk me about The Apprentice:

1 - I always Sky+ it and I have to remember to avoid Twitter while it is on because it is one of those programmes that people who think Twitter was designed so they can give us a running commentary while they watch TV and the benefit of their bloody insight love.

2 - It has turned Alan Sugar into one of these famous people who we are all supposed to consider a national treasure, it's the same with Stephen Fry. I've read Sugar's autobiography and seen enough of him over the years to realise he is not a very nice man. He is part of an Axis of Evil on Twitter; Sugar, Piers Morgan and Duncan Bannatyne. 3 self important wankers.

I absolutely love The Apprentice! I will be glued to every episode. Sugar comes across as a bit of a pompous prat especially since he got to wear the ermine.

I have to admit, I do have a soft spot for Karen Brady. The thinking mans totty.

I've always thought Gary Megson would do well on The Apprentice...overpowering obsession to be successful, passes the buck in defeat, half of his CV is fictional, can talk the hind legs off a donkey about why his abilities are superior yet forever fails to actually deliver...

Anyway, I can't wait.

I thought this thread was going to be a spin off from the Nigerian scouting one.

I see that it's not, but you are all FIRED.

doffcocker wrote:I've always thought Gary Megson would do well on The Apprentice...overpowering obsession to be successful, passes the buck in defeat, half of his CV is fictional, can talk the hind legs off a donkey about why his abilities are superior yet forever fails to actually deliver...

Anyway, I can't wait.

LOL Is there no end to Megsons talents.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:
Nat you'd be great on it. A millionaire business woman, owns a penthouse in Preston, has a number of high flying friends and has extreme left or right wing views dependant on the populist opinion at the time.

did you apply, if not why not?

You've answered your own question really.

I did apply three years ago when I returned from NY, but was told I was too successful to be anyones apprentice. Alan Sugar asked me to e-mail him if ever I fell on hard times.

I used to love it and I will probably watch the new series but with each series the manipulation and editing becomes more obvious. They are good at hiding the winners each week but some contestants are clearly set up by the editing. Since most of the contestants are pond life it doesn't really matter though.

I did enjoy the Junior Apprentice although even here the kids are starting to appear not exactly normal.

I watch it occasionally but get a bit frustrated with the plonkers that are on it. Can't say there's been anyone I'd hire in all the years it's been on and Alan Sugar is more celeb than businessman these days. It's saving grace is the egotistical wankfest and unnecessary bitchiness but if that's what nibbles your nipples you'd be better off watching the American version with Trump. Just watched the US Celebrity Apprentice and it wiped the floor with the Brit one especially Joan Rivers and her whining daughter versus Annie Thingy the poker player - who played them all like a pro. Everything she did was to get a "read" on her opponents and didn't give a monkeys about anything but winning from Day1 whilst the others (apart from Dennis Rodman who just got pissed the whole time) were busy fawning on each other.
I'll give it (the Brit one) a shot, but it'll have to be better than previous years to keep my attention - and there will have to be at least a few contestants that are actually employable.
On the whole I find it annoying - a bit like Dragon's Den where nobody with a decent idea would even dream of going to ask those tossers for an equity stake - unwatchably cringeworthy.

That's part of the attraction for me. The way that so called intelligent go getters will bastardise themselves and stab one another in the back for five minutes of fame and the opportunity to toady up to Lord Foulbreath.

Sitting in the boardroom waiting for the axe to fall and looking for a scapegoat. Cringeworthy indeed, but it shows the lengths that people will go to just for the opportunity to be a somebody.

Reebok Trotter wrote:That's part of the attraction for me. The way that so called intelligent go getters will bastardise themselves and stab one another in the back for five minutes of fame and the opportunity to toady up to Lord Foulbreath.

Sitting in the boardroom waiting for the axe to fall and looking for a scapegoat. Cringeworthy indeed, but it shows the lengths that people will go to just for the opportunity to be a somebody.

I think the randomness of the decision making throws out the suggestion of the fix too much. Obviously the show is heavily edited to amplify the character traits of individuals, and you could make Mother Teresa look like the Yorkshire Ripper with come careful editing - and they always edit it so that there are perceived weaknesses on each side - which means they can basically do what they like and justify it.
Whereas Trump just sacks people because he doesn't like them - regardless of how successful they are in the task. He fired off the Kardashian bird because she had been attending a rehabilitation class having been found tipsy whilst driving. Whilst others in the task were absolutely crap he just said "I hate people that drink and drive- so f*** off". Now I'm not keen on folk who drink and drive either, but I do think it's a bit harsh to sack someone who is getting treatment for their problem i.e. actually doing something about it.
I just think it was set up to keep the bitches from hell in the competition so that the audience could enjoy the screaming matches.
I digress but the point is with editing you can make people look like anything and make the biggest loser the winner if you want to in order to boost viewing figures.

I watch The Apprentice religiously. However, it has gone down hill. I really wish they would alter the format because it is becoming samey and boring.

This is what will happen on this years apprentice...

12 of the brightest dim wads in the country will battle it out to become Alan Sugars business partner (wow - huge twist) where he will toss them a few quid to start their own business empire.
There will be two eye candy women and a token, outspoken, Asian guy. We will all recoil at his daring and cocky ways and we will be sad when he gets fired. There will be a mega bitch who makes it more or less all the way to the final. Nobody likes her - but people will admire her "determination" (aka back stabbing).

They will get given a task which amounts to a bunch of headless chickens trying to flog their bollocks for the best price to some passers by. Another task where they will scurry around London trying to buy random items like top hats and speciality dildos for as cheap as possible. One of the women will blag a free packet of rare leaf tea (from the shopping list) by offering to kiss a shop keepers' cheek. Some viewers will be outraged when Lord Sugar condemns her instead of applauding her "ingenuity".

The group will be sent to work on a farm in their suits - and one of the dolly girls will insist on heels. Then they will go abroad and complain that they couldn't speak "foreign"...

One of the men will parade around the house with just a towel on most of the time and answer the door in his boxers. Alan Sugar will make a typically "hilarious" quip about it.
"In my day we didn't have underpants -do you think I used to answer the door naked? Get dressed." They will swoon over his remark on the extended "you're fired" where Adrian Chiles will blow smoke remotely up Sugars back passage.

In the final we will be left with THE two brightest business minds in the country and we will wait with baited breath for them to reveal their world domination plans... Probably along the lines of trading nik naks on ebay versus a vaginal plastic surgery chain with a double entendre name - Giving you V's!

Please just make it better this time around - I am fed up of the same old shizzle with the only difference being the contestants.

wanderlust wrote:I watch it occasionally but get a bit frustrated with the plonkers that are on it. Can't say there's been anyone I'd hire in all the years it's been on

I thought Stella English, who won the 2010 series, was absolutely fantastic.

It's all gone Pete Tong for her working for Sugar though.

She's left and has submitted an Employment Tribunal claim.

Why would any sensible person want to work for a smug punter like Sugar ?

wanderlust wrote:
Whereas Trump just sacks people because he doesn't like them - regardless of how successful they are in the task. He fired off the Kardashian bird because she had been attending a rehabilitation class having been found tipsy whilst driving. Whilst others in the task were absolutely crap he just said "I hate people that drink and drive- so f*** off". Now I'm not keen on folk who drink and drive either, but I do think it's a bit harsh to sack someone who is getting treatment for their problem i.e. actually doing something about it.
I just think it was set up to keep the bitches from hell in the competition so that the audience could enjoy the screaming matches.
I digress but the point is with editing you can make people look like anything and make the biggest loser the winner if you want to in order to boost viewing figures.

Now that you have mentioned the word 'Kardashian' I cannot take you seriously again. You are dead to me.

I would have thought mentioning the word "Trump" would have done it before you got that far.
I've never seen "Meet the Kardashians" for obvious reasons, but this girl (albeit useless) was no more useless than most of the others and got fired on a whim.
The final between Annie Duke and Joan Rivers was perhaps one of the best pieces of telly simply because of the pure hatred they felt for each other. Duke did absolutely everything right from a business perspective - too ruthless if that's possible - so you'd have thought she'd have won, but she actually lost because of her bitchiness and constantly stating her desire to "crush that f****** bitch". Whilst the audience was predominantly expecting her to win, she lost a lot of friends and amazingly Trump sided with the homely values Joan Rivers espoused (honestly - Joan Rivers FFS!) over pure aggression - which was a bit of a shock.