The Apprentice 2025

yerwanthere123

Suppose we may as well start a thread!

New series starts tonight (Thursday, January 30th) on BBC One at 9pm.

Would love to see more of an emphasis on candidates doing well in tasks, and not on trying to make them look as stupid as possible, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hope it's a good one!

GAAcailin

I am looking forward to it; think I have watched all series (every year so far) so am feeling old now when I see all the young wans…

Jordan 199

I am on tonight. A tv star. Woohoo!

Galwayguy35

2 Irish in it this year.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118278#Comment_123118278

Wut?

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118312#Comment_123118312

Guessing he is saying he is the Dublin lad Jordan.
No particular reason not to believe him. Hope he goes well if so and gets to mid-point at least.
But would be nice if he Pm'ed one of us the final 3 names in the boardroom tonight, and the firee.
That would prove it so there'd be no doubt going forward.

I'm happy to volunteer for a PM.

Jordan 199

Sorry folks but I am not on The Apprentice. My name is related to a Formula 1 car.

AndrewJRenko

What's the story with yer wan with the furry hat?

ihateboards

Enjoyed it tonight. It so reassuringly formulaic like Bond or Peppa Pig. Pretty much shot for shot the same. It functions more as David Brent style comedy.

My favourite detail was hair transplant commission guy saying the market was headed for 53B annually and if he only captured 0.0 of the market, before he was cut off.

Objectively it’s a crap program, but the contestants subject themselves so willingly to the humiliation and are such lickspittles to Lord Sugar that the contrast with their deluded ambitions is delicious.

i124Q

I gave up on the apprentice 2 series ago. It had some awful awful ones lately.

The people they get in are useless, it's pure cringe now. Yes cringe is ok sometimes but it's just that bit too cringey for our liking now.

If the standard was higher and people actually had good ideas in the Tasks it would be way better.

I also feel like people go on it just for fame now. They are only there for the social media boost.

OscarMIlde

The selling team on both tasks were so abysmal, I'm wondering if there might have been some other contributing factor. I imagine Austria would have quite a few German tourists. They are notoriously private, possibly the camera crew put them off buying tickets.

Both PMs were actually pretty good for a first day challenge.

Rock Steady Edy

It always seems as though the teams have to pick a selling price before they know what they know fully what they are offering for sale and what it's going to cost them.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123118621#Comment_123118621

Do I recall Karen or Claude saying in recent years how much it irritates them when someone comes in with the 'If I can just get 1% of this global market figure' nonsense?

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119028#Comment_123119028

I feel the same - the candidates are picked based on their looks or stupidity for entertainment value. It then whittled down to the final 5 and we find out that their business plans are complete nonsense. It used to be entertaining and there always a few good candidates but now its just idiots on the show.

thebiglad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119200#Comment_123119200

Go on Trip Advisor /Viator and see what those kinds of tours cost - very few people wandering the streets are going to sign up for a €200 tour (per person) - certainly if I was on holiday and was going to spend that on a tour I'd be doing a fair bit of research not, some randomers walking up to me in the street, with or without TV cameras.

The 1st task, for that reason alone I find extremely annoying to watch - they are set up for a fail, how does demonstrate any business or sales ability.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119286#Comment_123119286

Ive said it elsewhere, when its the design or make a thing episode, they have already created the thing, then take it out for market research, and if the public say "I dont like it", it's too late, theres no time to fix it before they go and try to sell it.

I remember when they did the instant noodles about 4(?) years ago. Their tag line was about super spicy noodles and someone said it was as spicy as a chicken and mushroom pot noodle. It was too late to adjust the recipe and next day they were pitching to Tesco.

LambshankRedemption

I keep reading online that the Apprentice is past its sell by date and has become a joke and should be cancelled. Well, yes it is a joke. It's not real business. It's light, turn-off-brain entertainment for those of us who dont like Love Island, TOWIE or Big Brother.

Watching Dragons Den, if anything, I think that is the one that has become a joke without meaning to. I've heard a Dragon tell one business owner his business was at too early a phase for them to be interested and the same dragon to tell someone else their business was too mature. I also don't remember the last time Touka Sulliman invested in anything.

Edit: That'll teach me for commenting on something before watching the full episode. Touka did offer to invest last night, but his offer was 190k for 3%, and if he got his investment back in 3 months he will keep his 3%.

Effectively he wanted 3% of her company for free. Surely not in the spirit of the programme. Then in the end he pulled back his offer.

ihateboards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120051#Comment_123120051

Yeah I saw that too. It literally seemed like “give me 190k worth of shares for nothing and I’ll mentor you and have skin in your game”. I normally like Touker but it felt like he was taking advantage.

However the amount (190k) in play during a 15 minute exchange in the Den vs the full series of the Apprentice with 250k seems like a bit of a joke. Also Lord Sugar said last night that he’ll become an equal partner with the winner, this was a ludicrous proposition to Phils Pies in the last series which was worth so much more.

Another thing about the Apprentice, its as if you did XFactor up to the last 2 episodes doing covers and then say, right guys let’s hear your own songs. It’s dumb but a fun watch.

As others have said it’s about making a profile for the contestants and trying to promote themselves first and get onto the reality tv circuit.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123120250#Comment_123120250

Pity Im no longer on Twitter and watching it live, I would have liked to see the publics opinion on his offer. Peter Jones said at the end, "I think you did the honourable thing there", he didnt tack on "by withdrawing the offer".

In the Den, Dragons often ask for way more than was offered and some go up to 30-40% of the investment asked.

There was a piece I read in one of the papers a few years ago which summarised how/what winners of The Apprentice have done and to say some contestants took the piss is an understatement. One went on maternity leave a month or two after winning. The article insinuated some of the winners could not run a beer tent that was giving away free beer. Which was partly why they changed the format from 250k prize money to a 250k investment.

ihateboards

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123119510#Comment_123119510

This is known to some as 'The 1 Percent Fallacy' and its a sign of delusion.

Galwayguy35

Sugaris already asking people to apply for the next series.

The Irish one from Donegal wearing a tie was a bit strange.

Manach

The producers seem to more focused on having "personalities" rather than business people. For instance, Nanda with the constant confrontational converstations would not seem to be an asset on any team but her own team of one.

Rock Steady Edy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123126392#Comment_123126392

The next one would be his 20th series, and my guess is he'd hang up his boots after that. It would be a brave person that attempted to step into his boots and I think it will have reached it's natural end by then.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123126762#Comment_123126762

Why would he? It makes him money, is a bit of craic and probably takes about an hour our of his week, if that.

Manach

Looking forward to the giant hologram of Lord Sugar, surely not the strangest thing on TV this week.

Galwayguy35

That one in the pink suit takes being rude to a new level.

AndrewJRenko

Nadz? Seriously?

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/nads

LambshankRedemption

Tonights Apprentice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXdHK35x31M

I have to say, I really dont like these creative type tasks.

My favourite task is here is £100, come back with as much money as possible or the here is 5 random things, go sell them, or of course the, go to Marakech and buy 20 Camels, a fez, a Moroccan flag and get some dates.

About 20 years ago I had an animation studio program on my computer that brought out more realistic animations than what their virtual band ended up looking like.

Nadz? Seriously?

It's a load of balls.

Exclamation Marc

Irish person in early exit shocker.

Amber Rose clearly has a business idea that's worth a look because she should have been toast today. Awful PM.

Still Ill

Just caught up now.. There seems to be more and more of these stupid tasks in recent years involving corporate sales with big companies throwing around hundreds of thousands of fake £s. Boring! Let them go back to selling sausage rolls at the market or something.

I can only think it's easier to film this kinda thing in a controlled environment than having real customers that might have to sign a release form. It just comes across as so contrived and unrealistic.

ArmaniJeanss

Everyone given up already? Not a good sign when one of the more interesting tasks each year gets zero posts.

I thought it was enjoyable enough though at no stage did I know which sub-team was linked to the main team. Just 4 sets of people buying/negotiating. Carlo has been a mess in the 3 tasks so far, so I'm glad he went.