The Apprentice UK - Series 17 (2023) | "Generic worm"

Sorry, I don’t think they are being overly harsh. The contestants are asking for a £250,000 investment and if they cannot produce a basic document then it is going to be pulled apart, savagely or not. Furthermore, not many of their business models even sound like a great venture to buy into. A lot of style over substance - and some of them lack even the style to be fair.
Maybe if you’re trying to be a serious business show, don’t cast people with terrible business ideas and don’t decide who gets to the final stages through a set of completely irrelevant tasks?
 
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Sorry, I don’t think they are being overly harsh. The contestants are asking for a £250,000 investment and if they cannot produce a basic document then it is going to be pulled apart, savagely or not. Furthermore, not many of their business models even sound like a great venture to buy into. A lot of style over substance - and some of them lack even the style to be fair.

There is a difference between critiquing a business plan and just being an asshole.

Example:
- Renting property in Belgravia isn’t a good idea because…

Rather than:
- Are you insane? What is wrong with you? Are you stupid? Go back to being an air hostess.
 

LTG

he/him
Marnie seems like the only realistic prospect here and yet they still did their best to make her look like a fool in interviews, but sing her praises in the boardroom.
And they seem to think Rochelle’s existing business can work (just not the unrealistic expansion).
 
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Maybe if you’re trying to be a serious business show, don’t cast people with terrible business ideas and don’t decide who gets to the final stages through a set of completely irrelevant tasks?

But they know what they are signing up to. It has only been revealed this week that one of the contestants signed up for Love Island too, so it just goes to show, that some do not even take it seriously and just want the fame.

I completely agree that nobody should be spoken to or treated nastily, that’s a fact. But I also stand by the point that you don’t go to a business meeting asking for an investment with ‘pie in the sky’ figures and fantasy ideas from ‘cloud nine’.
 
“If you’re so detailed focused why are there so many grammatical errors?”

Detailed focused? Detailed? Twat.
 
Rochelle being in the final despite being bottom 3 several times

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They should ditch Tim and make Linda and Karren the two that oversee the teams each week!

12 weeks of Linda put downs would be some of the best TV ever. I don’t think she would stop herself from shouting over their brainstorming sessions how shit and ludicrous their ideas are!
 
But they know what they are signing up to. It has only been revealed this week that one of the contestants signed up for Love Island too, so it just goes to show, that some do not even take it seriously and just want the fame.

I completely agree that nobody should be spoken to or treated nastily, that’s a fact. But I also stand by the point that you don’t go to a business meeting asking for an investment with ‘pie in the sky’ figures and fantasy ideas from ‘cloud nine’.
I think we’re just not on the same page. The interviews have always been tough, but for me this episode leaned too much into nastiness. I found it really uncomfortable to watch.

This is fairly accurate:


It’s a general tone-shift I’ve noticed in the show. Nobody *ever* gets praised. They just get set up in a way that someone (often someone richer) can put them down for being stupid. Even the commentary from Tim and Karren is worse than usual, full of bad-faith criticism. It’s telling that when a contestant makes a decision and it gets criticised, I know exactly what the mentor would have said to criticise them if they’d decided the other way.
 
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Remember when Claude heaped mountains of praise onto Soloman, praising his CV and Resume and blowing him up. . . Only to knock him down and destroy his business plan.

It seems like the production team have forgotten that we need to get a hint of credibility before we see these business wankers humbled. Rochelle and Marnie have been given almost no opportunity to show potential this series and the interviews just highlighted that.
 
I think we all need to remember that interviews have always been done with a nod and a wink.
I fully agree that the editing this year has been shit and they need to stop making the candidates look so incompetent up until the eleventh hour if this is to even be remotely believable.
However, the interviews should always be no holds barred. I don’t think there’s any issues around what anybody said, it really wasn’t that mean - the problem is there is no balance.
 
I think this show has had its day to be honest. The entire format is incredibly outdated in 2023. This year has been the most obviously staged to me.

For example in the car on the way to the interviews Victoria just happens to say ‘imagine if Karren was in the interviews’ and lo and behold, for the first time ever Karren is doing the interviews. Just too obvious.
 
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Last night's episode left a sour taste in my mouth, the interviews did just feel a bit cruel for the sake of it to be honest.

Karren's "only my friends call me Karren" line would've been a slay if they hadn't been calling her Karren for the last 10 weeks?!

It feels like we've not really seen anything of Marnie and Rochelle to warrant them being the two finalists.
 
What is the purpose of this show? If the assessment by the interviewers is anything to go by the contestants are all supposedly fucking idiots with useless business plans, so why is Alan going to be investing next week? The format is lacking in integrity. It doesn’t make any sense. They’ve made them all look like absolute clowns without any redeemable features the entire series, so why are we here? What’s the point of all this?

Also, something really doesn’t sit right with me about a bunch of millionaires and billionaires cackling at Rochelle’s aspiration to open a salon in Belgravia saying that she should settle for Barnet instead. Giving very much she’s not one of us and never will be.
 
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The last episode got under my skin. It was draining to watch a full hour of deliberately mean spirited interrogations, and not at all what business is actually like. It’s nice to see people succeed, in addition to the usual gaffes.

The two candidates who were brought to tears were sent home? The producers got what they wanted and said bye.

Time for a big refresh.
 

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