The Apprentice - Season 17 - Thread 2 - The Season With A lot of (Lip) Filler!

[RicciardoPerez]

Thread 2 :)

Looking forward to catching up on tonight's ep! What was it again? A children's cartoon?

I have watched The Apprentice from the very start in all its incarnations, and every week there is yet another descent into madness.

The over-50 stereotyping - was that staged? I mean, Idris Elba is 50+. Are they really that completely clueless?

I don't remember that. Any idea who it was and I could google it.

OK @ArcaneWireless when I'm looking for something to fill an odd half hour, I'll give it a go.

I think that was Stella English, she & Suralan had falling out and I think she sued???

Michelle Dewberry, I think.

She quit and said the job was a joke and she had nothing to do. For £100k a year that wouldn't have bothered me.

They're very young. It seems ancient to them.

I've just caught up.

I really think Rochelle should have been the second firing.

She seemed to intentionally let the product fail, and thought she could blame Brad for it all.

Avi was really entertaining but didn't seem like a real contender.

I really feel this years offering has been really bad compared to normal and part of it was the appearance of the ladies.
Its changed from a business show to now an entertainment show where the contestants and given impossible tasks, no chance to communicate between the teams and chaos ensues.

Thanks both. Stella English apparently sued Lord Sugar, or his business, but was unsuccessful. She said the role was 'glorified PA' Maybe she could've made more of it? That was the series Stuart Baggs was on. RIP Stuart.

Wiki says
'Following the sixth series conclusion, production staff became concerned with the behaviour of Stella English after she had won the contest. A few days after winning a job under Alan Sugar, English quit her post after deeming it to be "a sham" employment. Shortly after her resignation, she complained against her former employer's response to her decision and subsequently attempted to sue him for constructive dismissal. Both Sugar and the producers disapproved of the negative media attention that English brought about after her case was dismissed, and agreed during a meeting that the format of The Apprentice could not continue for the next series. As a result, the format underwent a complete revamp before production began on the seventh series'

According to Hull Live, Michelle lasted a bit longer, but quit early and never really explained why. Wiki says she went on to join GB News and she has a son with Simon Jordan, ex owner of Crystal Palace.

Alan was right about the tooling and manufacturing costs for the star shaped container and I don't know about anyone else, but over 50 I'm not looking for twee ornaments, even if they would allow me to store paperclips on my bedside table for that paperwork emergency 😐

All the obviously enforced and staged strutting about in lines, the every week close up on the annoyed reaction of the candidate who puts themselves forward as PM and doesn't get chosen, the seemingly not allowed communication between the PM and sub team. So repetitive and tiresome. But I've come this far so feel obliged to finish, lol (more fool me 🙄)

Only three more weeks
By the final all the bad stuff will be forgotten

I'll never forget the stuff that stains your skin green. I really do think that was the worst product ever made on the show.

Great if you are auditioning for the Incredible Hulk though

Agree @ReneBumsWombats its got to be the very worst

I've just turned 50 and could have wept at their views of our age group. Though I'm not a man but it's so cringe to think they thought a paper clip holder would be appealing. My dh is 52 and I don't think we even own a paper clip 😂 Anyway that's the youngsters for you. My youngest is 16 and she can't believe she has such ancient parents 😂

ReneBumsWombats · Yesterday 22:10
I'll never forget the stuff that stains your skin green. I really do think that was the worst product ever made on the show.

Worst physical product yes.

The worst branding was the exploding airline a few years ago.

Wasn't there a food product once which had to be withdrawn as not fit for human consumption?

I’ve succumbed and bought myself a fireside chair and some antimaccasars.

And a big slipper. And a winceyette nightie.

@ArcaneWireless - get out the Horlicks, but not too strong.

This was like a comedy show! A green cream that stained the skin and came in a child's shower gel container!

Brad was stitched up twice by the sub teams ignoring his brief - the cafe bike (which the experts had liked) and then taking his idea of making the product green to the extreme that they knew it stained the skin. He was then savaged for trying to change the product after the event when he was trying to salvage a terrible product. Being unmanageable isn’t a valuable skill.

Comparing Tim with most of the current contestants shows how much the programme has changed.

I think ?Marni (court advocate) is the best of those left.

Rochelle is in the beauty business, and I'm surprised she didn't do better at the formulation stage.

I agree. It’s all a bit same-y this year.

I wonder if it's a dull series or I'm just bored of it after 17 years.

I used to like the tasks where they had to choose items to sell on Shopping TV or persuade artists to allow them to represent them and sell their work.

Yes - and the selling at an expo tasks where they'd have to choose one high-end product and one low value one.

I agree, this series has been heavy on make it, advertise it, sell it tasks and these are too unrealistic now. Even if you accept the parameter of doing it in two days, the artificial separation of manufacturing and branding teams and the fact that any customer research is done when it's too late to change anything, makes a nonsense of it really.

I was just coming on to say the same ... what happened to the shopping channel task? the one where they had to sell an artist's work? They have to compete for high/med/low end products to sell? They were definitely more varied in the past.