The Apprentice: Ladies Day

With my job as a financial adviser, I'm out most nights and have to resort to taping "The Apprentice" series 4 for weekend viewing. So, I haven't been able to give you my usual post-screening commentary as I did over the last couple of years.

However, having seen Week 7 dominated by women for both good and bad reasons, I had to comment.

First was the first double firing of this series of the 2 Jenny's: Jenny Celerier - the fungus in the boardroom with her poisonous game-playing, insults and attempted bribery and industrial espionage and Jennifer Maguire, who despite claiming to be the best salesperson in Europe, couldn't plan, was colour blind and couldn't read.

I think Alan Suguar fired JC because Kevin Shaw, last week's losing project manager failed to bring her back into the boardroom after she came up with the idea of sending cards to save the environment and then revealed she was sending fewer cards during a sales pitch. He wanted to fire her then. He admitted as much on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. She didn't help herself this week by trying to sabotage the other team's tennis racket and he felt she lied about her knowledge of kosher but I think she just mis-communicated her basic knowledge. This week he got his chance by choosing the candidates he wanted back in the boardroom. He broke the rules by doing this. He's done a double-sacking before but this new development has set a precedent. It means anyone in a losing team can be fired.

Secondly, on the plus side, Sara Dhada & Lucinda Ledgerwood both did well on the winning team with their planning and preparation and got kudos from Alan Sugar's PR man, Nick Hewer. Alas both have been criticised in the past for not doing enough but Sara won her task in week 3 with the Indian pub food & Lucinda ran a very smooth project in week 5 with the ice cream and was unlucky to lose, despite not having arguments in her team. They showed you didn't need to be aggressive, gossipy and manipulative to win. They showed a kindlier, gentler approach to business and sales. I hope they go far in the series but I fear they will be cut to pieces before the final, for all the past criticism of them, which may have been fair to some extent but was overblown and wasn't the main reason for a team losing a task.

I was shocked by the end of week 6's episode when Lee McQueen, who won this week's task was one of the Chief Inquisitors condemning Sara, for apparently doing too little. The cabal had attacked her in the boardroom and continued back at the house. They had no right to attack her in a group. Raef Bjayou defended her, to his credit and he won a lot of fans for it. At the beginning he seemed an upper class twit to me but he has got on well with those who are neither prince or paupers and isn't condescending, supercilious or patronising at all.

I hope Lee thanked and said sorrt to Sara for helping him win this time and treats her better in future.

For all that, I'd like Raef to win The Apprentice this year, although I can see someone like Claire Young challenging him despite her sniping, interference and lack of support. Alan Sugar seems to be giving her several second chances, including her sabotaging of Alex's rug negotiation.

Tre Azam is writing a blog on the current series and you can find out what happened to him and the rest of the 2007 Apprentice candidates.

The Apprentice: Episode 11 Preview

After 10 weeks, the 16 candidates should have been whittled down to 6 but Ifti Chaudri threw in the towel so there are only 5.

I would have expected another challenge to drop the numbers down to 4 after which there would be the interviews but the producers have given that a miss and we are going straight into the interviews. I wonder if they have cut an episode to save time & money.

With the interviews eliminating 3 candidates, they can only be 1 more episode where the 2 finallists face off.

Going on the form of the 2 previous winners, Tim Campbell & Michelle Dewberry, Alan Sugar seems to pick the quieter candidates who don't annoy or argue. They don't get much screen time for those reasons so I assume they are quietly effective in the background. On that basis, Lohit Kalburgi should win and he is The Apprentice for me. More so that the first 2 winners, he has shown he can manage his team and the other candidates have said they like him.

Of the other candidates:

• Simon Ambrose - made too many mistakes in the past and is lucky to have got this far
• Katie Hopkins - very agressive criticism of other candidates behind their back. Rumoured to being using this to launch a media career as she doesn't want to work for Alan.
  
• Tre Azam - honest and outspoken. Rather like Alan himself. However, having annoyed too many candidates, Alan can't afford to have someone like that working for him, especially he is the only one who can be so outspoken in his company.

This leaves Kristina Grimes who is a strong candidate; she has played a very political game during the series, making sure she has criticised her PM, to cover her back should her team lose.

So my prediction is for Lohit & Kristina to be the last ones standing at the end of tomorrow's episode.

The Apprentice: Naomi nobbled

This week on The Apprentice, Naomi Lay was laid out cold after picking stickers to sell on TV. I thought that was an unfair decision after Simon Ambrose failed as a producer although he tried hard bouncing up & down on a mini-trampoline. He also grabbed the solo limelight for himself when a better combination would have been him & Naomi together - I'm not sure the shopping TV audience is ready for cross-ethnic TV couples and Tre Azam on his own, with his brand of straight talking sales.

The Apprentice: Ghazal's gone

After being on the losing team in last week's The Apprentice, when Adam Hosker got fired, Ghazal Asif volunteered to be PM and got her wish this week. Alas, she came a cropper when she didn't use her brand & advertising gurus, Katie Hopkins & Naomi Lay, effectively. Her team failed to promote a brand and get over the message that they were selling trainers.

Up till this week, their were 4 ethnic minority candidates out of 8, Ghazal Asif, Tre Azam, Jadine Johnson & Lohit Kalburgi. This 50% contingent is far higher than previous series and is much higher than the proportion in the country. I wonder if the BBC went very-PC & OTT in getting so many on the shortlist, not forgetting Ifti Chaudri, of course.