Boardroom battles, power struggles and too many high ego business professionals to count. Yes, The Apprentice is back on our screens for its tenth series, and it didn’t disappoint. It may be argued that the series is a little bit dated now; we’ve seen the same pompous wanabees year after year, and the tasks are much the same. Well, maybe, but this year Lord Sugar has caused a bit of a shake-up, and there are twenty, not ten, candidates battling it out in the boardroom.

The series opened with a classic selling task. The teams, the boys and the girls, were challenged with selling a wide array of weird and wonderful products to the City of London. With ten members apiece, you would think they’d all have plenty of ideas, and their combined skills would have ensured major profits. Of course, this is the Apprentice, and nothing quite runs quite so smoothly, and the boys ended up in the boardroom. Their attempt to sell gourmet sausages certainly impressed no one.

The BBC treated us with a second episode this week. Tasked with coming up with a garment that incorporated wearable technology, the teams had the opportunity to showcase their creative and entrepreneurial skills. Though, it would seem the task only served to highlight many of the candidates’ weaknesses. If the poor designs or lack of sales weren’t enough to shock us viewers, Alan Sugar went all X Factor and introduced the double elimination, in which we said good bye to Robert for not taking on the challenge of team leader and Scott for ‘hiding’.

It would seem that the girls have the upper hand at the moment, with two wins under their pointy toed heels and three male candidates out of the running already. All the candidates, male, female, from the youngest, Soloman, to the oldest, Sarah, should all be prepared for an almighty challenge on their hands. Bring on week three!

Emily Willson

Images property of themirror.co.uk and The Essex Chronicle