The hiring, firing and boardroom backstabbing has begun as a new series of The Apprentice gets under way.
Eighteen zealous contestants on the BBC One show stormed onto our screens on Thursday night desperate to impress business tycoon Lord Sugar.
Flanked by his advisers, West Ham vice-chair Baroness Karren Brady and former winner Tim Campbell, the 77-year-old self-made billionaire told the young hopefuls he was “looking for a Bezos, rather than a bozo” before sending them off on their first task.
This is the 19th series of The Apprentice and already plans are under way for a 20th, with Lord Sugar inviting people to apply for next year.
Here’s how week one of this year’s show panned out.
For their first task, Lord Sugar’s candidates were dispatched to the city of Innsbruck, Austria, to sell and run Alpine tours.
The glacier team, led by Emma Street, was responsible for organising and selling tickets for a tour of the glacier, which offered a sledge ride to the bottom of a mountain, where guests were greeted with Austria’s national drink, schnapps.
They started selling tickets for €175.
The glacier team won the first task (Photo: BBC/FremantleMedia Ltd)The forest team, led by Anisa Khan, arranged an e-bike tour of the forest into which they incorporated honey and bread-making.
Their tickets were priced at €200.
The forest team failed to impress (Photo: BBC/FremantleMedia Ltd)Both selling teams found it hard to shift tickets, which were viewed as too expensive, but managed to sell once the prices were dropped.
Telemarketing company owner Keir Shave, on the forest team, decided to do the guessing game “rock paper scissors” with customers to decide what price they paid.
It was a tactic which left Lord Sugar unimpressed in the aftermath. He said, “This is not what you apply in business”, adding that he was “gambling with the company’s money”.
In the final reckoning, the glacier team made a profit of €230.60 while the forest team suffered a loss of €166.
The winning team was sent from the boardroom to a “great house” with welcome drinks.
The losers were left to face the music in the boardroom, with the sales team in the firing line.
Who got fired this week?
Emma Rothwell was the first to be fired (Photo: Ray Burmiston/Naked/BBC)Emma Rothwell had the ignominy of becoming the first candidate to be booted off the show, after being one of the sales reps in the losing team.
Lancashire-born Emma, now based in Essex, had hoped to win Lord Sugar’s investment for her online gift business which she started during lockdown in her boyfriend’s garage.
But during her time in Innsbruck, she failed to sell any tickets for an e-bike tour of the forest.
And back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar was damning in his appraisal of her.
He said: “Emma, you haven’t sold any tickets, and you haven’t explained to me what in fact you did do.
“It’s difficult but my gut feeling is telling me, Emma, it is with regret, you’re fired.”
After making her exit, Emma told the cameras the magnate had made a “big mistake” by firing her and she had learned to “fight more in the boardroom” in future.
Although Emma took the hit this week, there was a word of caution for one of her fellow contestants.
Carlo Brancati, from Middlesbrough, was part of the sales group for the forest team and attempted to sell a tour to a 97-year-old man from Denmark.
As the hair transplant consultant came under fire back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar said: “It seems to me that you’ve got no colleagues here who’ve got a good word to say about you.”
This, he said, “sends a warning to me”.
Who are the remaining contestants?
Seventeen candidates now remain (Photo: Ray Burmiston/Naked/BBC)After Emma’s dismissal from the show by Lord Sugar, it means there are now 17 candidates left in the running to be the next apprentice.
But only one can make it through the next 11 weeks of tasks and boardroom battles to win the business tycoon’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.
Next week will see the eager entrepreneurs visit the London show Abba Voyage and then be tasked with creating a virtual pop star.
Here are the contestants still left and hoping to win it:
Amber Rose Badrudin Anisa Khan Aoibheann Walsh Carlo Brancati Chisola Chitambala Dean Franklin Emma Street Frederick Afrifa Dr Jana Denzel Jonny Heaver Jordan Dargan Keir Shave Liam Snellin Max England Melica Moshiri Mia Collins Nadia Suliaman Read More Details
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