The end of The Great British Bake Off means only one thing – it is time for The Apprentice to return to our screens. This year, following Nick Hewer’s departure, Lord Sugar will be advised by Karren Brady, his faithful aide since series six, and Claude Littner, who is widely perceived as scarier than Lord Sugar himself.

Now in its eleventh series, The Apprentice continues to do what it does best, bringing a handful of the country’s most self-assured business wannabes together and pitting them against each other in television’s most brutal reality show. From the off, candidates were delivering their spectacularly arrogant speeches; most notably, Richard proclaimed himself to be “a Swiss army knife of business skills.”

This year, for the first time in the show’s history, they began with mixed-gender teams, something one candidate was less than happy about. After naming themselves ‘Team Versatile’ and ‘Team Connexus’ – the latter a decidedly better name than Dan’s proposition of ‘Team Sugar Babes’ – the teams were sent to Billingsgate Fish Market. The premise of the task was simple; buy fish, turn it into a product and sell it at lunchtime. Team Versatile opted for gourmet fish fingers and calamari, whilst Team Connexus went for salade niçoise and fishcakes. Fish fingers flew off the production line, while fishcakes floundered. When it came to selling, things went more than a little awry when Mergim attempted to sell fish fingers to a vegan restaurant leaving Claude to proclaim “that’s no way to sell.” More embarrassingly, Team Connexus appeared to have completely missed the memo that they were supposed to sell at lunchtime, and consequently missed a lot of the lunchtime trade. At the end of the day, Team Versatile’s calamari calamity paled into insignificance against Team Connexus’ meagre £1.87 net profit.

It was, in many ways, a predictable ending to a sorry story. Perhaps if Team Connexus had hit their target of 300 fishcakes, they would have won. In the end, Dan’s inability to sell – or, for that matter, name another candidate who should be fired – rendered him the first candidate to hear those fateful words: “You’re fired.”

The Apprentice follows its tried-and-tested formula to a tee. Extremely self-assured contestants prepared to look like fools on national television – check. Two aides, ready to dissect the candidates’ stupidity – check. One man, hoping to invest £250,000 into a new business partner – check. Although it is a somewhat predictable format, the candidates’ overwhelming self-confidence is enough to keep viewers – including myself – coming back for more.

 

Rosemary Maher

 

Featured image from The Guardian.