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Lord Alan Sugar has confirmed the return date for the new series of The Apprentice.
Series eight of the BBC One show will premiere on Wednesday, March 21 at 9pm, the entrepreneur confirmed on his Twitter page.
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"Ok its now official The Apprentice is back on on 21st March BBC 1 9pm (sic)," he wrote.
Aides Nick Hewer and Karren Brady will return to keep an eye on the new contestants as they battle it out to earn an investment from Lord Sugar.
Tom Pellereau won the last series after pitching a business aiming to reduce the financial and personal costs of employee back pain through specialist chairs.
Lord Sugar recently admitted that he had made some mistakes in the past when it came to firing candidates on The Apprentice.
"I don't think I've made too many mistakes in picking the winner. The mistake or firing the wrong person is usually in the early episodes of the show. Something like episode five, six or seven," he said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqR-0MKiMQ4&feature=player_embedded
Business entertainment series The Apprentice returns for an eighth series this week with 16 new candidates.
Series 8 Episode 1 airs at 9pm on Wednesday 21st March on BBC One. To whet your appetite, here are ten teasing quotes from the episode...
» "I could be like an animal, I will literally roar my way to the top."
» "I would call myself the blonde assassin."
» "I'm like a shark, I'm right at the top of the food chain."
» "I truly am the reflection of perfection."
» "They call me the Master Puppeteer."
» "This is my boardroom and, by the way, this is my money."
» "Just to be perfectly clear about this, I'm not looking for a friend. If I want a friend, I'd get a dog."
» "Enthusiasm is a huge asset of mine and I believe it's caught and not taught."
» "I do believe that business is actually very simple and it is made complicated by idiots."
» "By day I'm a business superstar and by night I'm also a professional wrestler.
Bilyana Apostolova became the first candidate to be fired from Lord Alan Sugar's Apprentice in tonight's (March 21) opening episode.
Sugar tired of Apostolova's sob stories in the boardroom and axed the Bulgarian following a disastrous printing task for the girls' team.
The opening challenge of the series involved the two teams buying £500 of blank materials, creating designs and printing them, and then selling them to the public for the largest profit.
Apostolova was part of the girls' sub-team, who were sent to London Zoo to flog their merchandise. However, the sub-team's bickering, aggressive sales approach and Apostolova's poor North London geography skills appeared to cost them time and money in the task.
When the important numbers were added up in the boardroom, Nick Holzherr's Team Phoenix triumph with a £616.20 profit. The girls' Team Sterling, who were project managed by Gabrielle Omar, only collected £214.80. The boys were rewarded for their efforts with canapés and cocktails at the house.
Back in the boardroom, Lord Sugar was quick to pick up on the failings of the sub-team and Nick Hewer cornered the girls on their behaviour with a local shopkeeper.
"The shopkeeper was so affronted by their sales approach that she wouldn't buy anything; she couldn't stand being cornered by a pack of baying hyenas," said Hewer.
Apostolova and Omar were joined in the final boardroom showdown by Katie Wright, who Hewer accused of "going missing" on the task.
Wright defended her minimal work on the challenge, insisting: "I absolutely swear I was not hiding, there's no way I would do that."
parkerman
22-03-2012, 08:42
Bilyana was an idiot. The boss was just about to fire Katie when she opened her big mouth again. Don't talk back to his Lordship, that's the moral!
LostVoodoo
22-03-2012, 09:15
Think my favourite bit was Gabrielle's emotional outburst in the boardroom, I thought she was going to cry, it's only week 1 dear!
Bilyana talked herself out of it, she just couldn't shut up! :)
Maria O'Connor became the second candidate to be fired from this year's Apprentice this evening, after failing to contribute enough to the losing girls' team.
Team Sterling, led by Jane McEvoy, stumbled to a second consecutive defeat on the BBC One reality show and were given a major dressing down by Lord Alan Sugar in the boardroom.
McEvoy, O'Connor and Jenna Whittingham ended up in the final showdown with Sugar, but the 20-year-old restaurateur got the axe after it was revealed that she fell asleep in the back of a car during the challenge.
O'Connor blamed McEvoy for a lack of clear leadership and for changing the final product, but she hit back: "It was a thought out discussion and you were asleep!"
In his final summary, Sugar sniped at all three candidates, commenting: "All three of you have got your own businesses and all three of you have made fatal errors here and I'm sitting here thinking which one of you has got the ability to run a business in which I'm going to invest.
"You should have all known better."
Speaking after her firing, O'Connor said: "I was there to achieve a business investment, I didn't get it. I'll get it from someone else or I'll make my own money and do it myself."
Earlier in the task, the boys' team had also been divided over their eco-bin product, but ultimately proved triumphant with 13,000 sales. They were rewarded by Lord Sugar with a meal at The Ivy.
The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.
Here's a tip for anyone planning to take part in next year's Apprentice. Don't fall asleep during the tasks! It may seem obvious, but wacky eye-shadow wearer Maria O'Connor did just that on last night's (March 28) episode.
O'Connor's snoozing and lack of effort in the household invention challenge, combined with a bumbling girls' team who are better at squabbling than costing, ultimately resulted in the 20-year-old getting the chop from Shugs.
Digital Spy caught up with Maria to find out where it all went wrong.
You're not going to fall asleep on me I hope, Maria.
"I am actually. I've had too many interviews and I'm going to fall asleep right away! Ha ha."
You were only on the second task. Why were you falling asleep?
"I just had a nightmare, didn't I? The problem is that I'm used to working in restaurants and I'm very much a night person rather than a day person."
Nick Hewer described you as a "very noisy young woman"...
"Yes."
A fair description?
"I think so. *shouts* I think that's a pretty spot on assessment of me, Alex."
Were you disappointed with your performance on the show? Sugar described the girls as "diabolical"...
"I don't think I came across the way that I am at all. I think I came across seriously and I guess that's the nature of the show, but I'm a bubbly, fun person. I like to have a laugh. Across the whole process, we had a hell of a lot of laughs, but that isn't what they have tried to portray."
Did he make the right decision firing you this week?
"I don't think it was a fair decision. The failure of the task was blamed on me falling asleep. But to be honest that is just crap. I fell asleep because they were talking crap and I certainly didn't miss anything. They were not talking about anything interesting and decisions were not being made. It was just really boring. They were wittering on and talking crap all the time."
Who should have gone?
"Jane should have gone. She was the one person responsible for the task and she didn't do what she was supposed to do."
Did Jane pick the right people to come back with her?
"No. I think Katie should have been in the boardroom as well just because of her contribution on that task."
Everyone appears to hate Katie...
"Actually, I really liked Katie. I was one of the few who did. I thought she was a really lovely girl."
What was your assessment of Splish Splash?
"What a load of crap!"
Should the girls have gone for the tap cosy?
"I don't think the other idea was any better, but Splish Splash, oh my God, what a load of crap."
Why didn't you voice your opinions more about these products at the time?
"I did stand up quite a lot, but you just didn't get to see that. I was pointing out problems with the final product, sticking my hand in the air, but that was just the way that it went."
Jenna seems like a pain in the neck...
"She is quite irritating."
What was she like to work with around the clock?
"Eugh!"
Her voice is rather grating in the boardroom...
"If she had a nice voice it would have been alright, but she was just so loud."
Who are you rooting for and who did you hate?
"Gabrielle and Katie were my favourites. They are my favourites. They are my girls. They are so lovely, they are unreal. The only person I didn't really get on with was Jane. She's not my type of person, she comes across as a bit heartless and I just got fed up with it."
Are the boys much stronger than the girls this year?
"Yes, they are. I gladly and openly admit the boys were a better bunch. If I'd worked with the boys, I would have come across a lot differently. I would rather work with boys all the time. I would always work with boys."
Your eye make-up was fabulous. Any plans for a cosmetics brand?
"No, I have no plans for a make-up range. I just think you should always match your clothes with your make-up. You've got to stand out a bit, haven't you? There's 15 candidates in that room, you need to make a big first impression."
What are your plans now that you've left the show?
"I'm sticking with the restaurant business. I want to open another four restaurants in four years, so I have big ambitions and big plans."
The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.
Michael Copp the first male candidate to be fired from this year's Apprentice after he failed to impress Lord Alan Sugar in a condiment task.
Copp, Katie Wright and Ricky Martin ended up in the boardroom after team Phoenix's 'Belissimo' ketchup only sold 305 bottles, compared to team Sterling's 607 jars of chutney.
Duane Bryan's winning team earned a trip to the race cars at Silverstone, while the losers were forced to defend the flop produce and argue over the problems in the Losers' Cafe.
Sugar was highly critical of project manager Wright and production line leader Martin's efforts on the task, but appeared to take a dislike to Copp's complaints in the boardroom that he wasn't as educated or "born with a silver spoon" like other candidates.
"I don't care where you come from, I don't care whether you got a 2:1 at Oxford or Cambridge or you're just a streetwise person. That doesn't bother me at all," said Sugar.
Attacking Copp, Martin commented: "You've sat on the fence more times than I've had hot dinners Michael."
Sugar's final verdict on who was to blame for the task failure came down to an "instinctive gut feeling", telling Copp that he didn't believe he could "hack it" in the competition.
Speaking in the black cab home, Copp said: "I'm feeling a little bit frustrated with myself that I didn't represent myself to the best that I could have. At the end of the day I've got a successful business outside of this so I know what I've actually achieved already in life. The future's bright for me."
The Apprentice airs on Wednesday nights at 9pm on BBC One.
Jane McEvoy has become the fourth candidate to be fired in this year's series of The Apprentice.
The food manufacturing boss was sent home by Lord Sugar after selling just £10 worth of second-hand items resourced by Team Sterling in this week's challenge.
McEvoy was brought back into the boardroom alongside Gabrielle Omar by project manager Laura Hogg after their 'Vintage Gold' shop in Brick Lane made £783.49 profit, less than the £1,063.40 taken by Phoenix.
As the team actually achieved higher sales than Phoenix, both Omar and Hogg were taken to task over Sterling's sizeable costings.
Omar was accused of ordering excess materials to create their "shabby chic" look, while her colleague was branded a "raving lunatic" by Sugar for allowing the £1,000 seed fund to be spent without any kind of strategy.
The Amstrad founder then asked McEvoy to justify her poor performance, to which the Irish businesswoman admitted that she was "quite a serious person" and "more comfortable in the business to business environment".
Although most of the team had deemed Omar responsible for the failure of the task, Sugar commended her enthusiasm and declared that the decision was between McEvoy and Hogg.
After telling the project manager that she "lost the plot and didn't run the team very well", he turned to McEvoy and said: "But I have a bigger concern with you Jane - you've been in the losing team three times in four weeks and nothing I have seen yet tells me that you are this great business person."
Speaking after her firing, a tearful McEvoy declared: "Lord Sugar mightn't have wanted me but I will be extremely successful in everything that I do and hopefully in a few years' time he'll look back and say 'I shouldn't have fired her'."
Phoenix were managed by fine wine investor Tom Gearing, who won his team a 1940s swing dance party with his frugal approach to the task.
parkerman
12-04-2012, 07:36
Wrong decision in my opinion. Laura should have gone. She was completely out of her depth as project leader and didn't have a clue.
But then, on the other hand, as Sean Lock said, "Lord Sugar is never wrong. That's why he's LORD Sugar and not Alan."
Apprentice star Duane Bryan has become the fifth candidate to be fired from this year's series.
The drinks company founder was axed by Lord Alan Sugar after Team Sterling lost this week's fitness challenge, in which professional wrestler Ricky Martin served as project manager.
The group's 'Beat Battle' workout, a combination of mixed martial arts and street dance, achieved total sales of £7,970 from three health club chains.
Stephen Brady's Phoenix, however, collected £12,810 from a single deal for their retro 'Groove Train' routine.
In the boardroom, it emerged that Sterling lost because the promising concept of 'Beat Battle' wasn't executed properly. Karren Brady added that their promotional video appeared dull in comparison to Phoenix's clip, which featured Azhar Siddique in tight shorts performing exercises on space hoppers.
Bryan and Laura Hogg, who directed and starred in the promo respectively, were brought into the boardroom by Martin for failing to demonstrate the martial arts element of the routine, weakening the product.
However, Bryan defended both himself and Hogg, stating: "Laura shouldn't be here. She came and delivered, she contributed."
He also accused Martin of "trying to pass the buck", while the businessman-come-athlete blasted Bryan for getting too "emotionally involved".
In delivering his verdict, Lord Sugar noted that Hogg had been brought back into the boardroom just one week after almost being fired, but gave her another chance after deciding that she was not responsible for the task's failure.
He continued to criticise Martin's choice of boardroom companions, saying that he had made a "very, very bad management move", but finally opted to send Bryan home.
"You put yourself forward to product the video, I personally believe that the video was the main cause of the failure of this task," Sugar said. "And therefore Duane - you're fired."
Speaking on his way out of the boardroom, Bryan accepted: "Lord Sugar knows what he wants and unfortunately this time it wasn't me.
"That's not going to take anything away from me, I've got a lot to give, a lot to prove and I'm going to go out there and do that. I'm hoping that you've not seen the best of me yet."
The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.
parkerman
19-04-2012, 11:00
I think the wrong team came back into the boardroom never mind the wrong person.
Azhar Siddique became the latest candidate to be fired by Lord Alan Sugar on tonight's Apprentice (May 2) after failing to impress in a wholesale products sales challenge.
Sugar said that he was worried about the other candidates' criticism of Siddique, that he is always "standing around, moaning all the time".
Siddique was part of the losing Team Phoenix, who were project managed by Jade Nash this week. They picked up a healthy £838.21 profit on the task, but were edged out by Nick Holzherr's Team Sterling, who earned £955.20.
Sterling were rewarded for their victory with a trip into central London and the chance to drink cocktails made by the UK Bartender of the Year.
In the Losers' Cafe, Jade appeared to take responsibility for the team's loss, conceding: "It's hard when you talk about who is accountable. I'm the PM so probably me."
Back in the boardroom, Sugar skewers Team Phoenix over their lack of strategy, low pricing and decision to split their stock 50/50 between their two selling locations.
However, Jade took Tom Gearing and Siddique back into the boardroom for a final showdown and she turned on the fridge company boss, accusing him of wasting her time on the task.
"Azhar just kept butting in on the phone and wanting to speak to me about strategy all the time, but no solutions," she told Sugar.
"When someone is not being constructive... not coming up with a solution, it actually hinders what you are doing and it actually wastes time."
Siddique was defended by Gearing and he accused Nash repeatedly of being "out of her depth", but ultimately he paid the price for not working well with his colleagues.
In his final summary, Sugar said: "Jade - I think that you show a lot of enthusiasm but I get the feeling on this particular task that you could have controlled it a little bit better.
"I think the mere fact that you brought Tom back in here when, in fact, he was a great help to you on this occasion, is a difficult thing for me to accept, to be perfectly honest with you.
"Azhar - people are saying about you that you're just standing around, moaning all the time that this is going wrong, that is going wrong, you don't seem to come forward with any solution to what should be done.
"Jade as the Project Manager, you were responsible really for the whole strategy of this task, margins, profits and location, and for that reason I'm struggling. But I do admire your enthusiasm, and on that basis, I'm going to have to say that Azhar - you're fired!"
An annoyed Siddique said in the black cab home: "I do feel robbed, I was wrong to be fired. I think there are people in this process who are playing a game, playing a strategic game, and I think they wanted me out of the process because they saw me as a threat, they saw me as one of the stronger candidates, and obviously they've got their way."
The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.
Apprentice candidate Laura Hogg has become the eighth contestant to be fired from this year's series.
The Scottish bridal shop owner was sent home by Lord Alan Sugar after making just £750 commission in this week's urban art sales challenge.
Hogg was part of Team Phoenix, who brought in a total of £4,442, including a £2,000 commission obtained from corporate client Renault by project manager Tom Gearing.
However, the Gabrielle Omar-led Sterling were able to bring in £4,579 despite failing to win a commission from Beefeater Gin, triumphing in the task by a margin of £137.
In the boardroom, Gearing was forced to take the blame for losing profitable artist Pure Evil due to what Nick Hewer called "a lack of a real desire to represent him". He was also scolded for choosing work by James Jessop instead, which was deemed too expensive and too large for buyers and failed to sell.
Gearing brought Hogg back into the boardroom after discovering that she sold the least pieces at their gallery. He also selected Jade Nash, arguing that she was indecisive about the move to represent Jessop and Bristol-based artist Copyright.
Lord Sugar immediately expressed his doubts about Hogg, saying: "Maybe you're just not a good sales person, maybe you're just not a good business person."
She responded by fighting off accusations from Gearing that she took a "backseat" in the challenge and declared: "I am a very good sales person, I just didn't work smart last night."
In his final summary, Sugar blamed Gearing for the "two massive big flaws" that cost Phoenix the task - the loss of Pure Evil and the selection of James Jessop. He then told Nash that she made a "big error" by not pushing forward an alternative artist when they lost Pure Evil.
However, he then turned to Hogg and said: "You think you're a good person, you're certainly a good talker. I'm not totally convinced that you should remain in the process so Laura - you're fired."
Speaking after her departure, Hogg admitted: "I'm feeling pretty gutted at the moment, especially since I am so confident in my own sales ability and I can't believe that's what sent me home."
The Apprentice continues Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.
Ricky Martin has been crowned the winner of The Apprentice 2012.
The 26-year-old recruitment manager was hired by Lord Alan Sugar to become his new business partner over runner-up Tom Gearing, with fellow finalists Nick Holzherr and Jade Nash being fired earlier.
Sugar will now make a £250,000 investment into Martin's business idea, a recruitment agency specialising in science and technology.
The four candidates faced interviews with the entrepreneur's colleagues Claude Littner, Margaret Mountford, Mike Soutar and Matthew Riley.
The final boardroom saw Lord Sugar picking between Martin and Gearing, before concluding: "It's a very, very difficult moment for me right now. You're both credible people to invest money in, so is it the devil or is it the safety? And I should keep to my ethos of keeping it simple, keeping it straightforward. So Ricky you're going to be my business partner. Ricky, you're hired."
Martin said: "Lord Sugar and I are going to be a powerful force to reckon with. I can't say I've digested it yet. I'm ecstatic. Genuine shock, I'm so, so pleased. Tom is incredible at what he does, great competition but I believed in myself, I thought I always I had it in me and I proved it."
Runner-up Tom Gearing added: "If I was going to lose to anyone, I was happy it was Ricky. He was such a strong and credible candidate. We had some amazing experiences, I met some really good people, it was fantastic, and I have no regrets about it at all."
The interviews included Mike Soutar enquiring why he decided to go by the name 'Ricky Martin', while Claude Littner described his personal statement as "crass, obnoxious and infantile".
However, of Martin's business plan, Littner said: "I read your business plan and I was quite impressed. It was interesting, well-written and you've done very well in your career."
Before Lord Sugar made his final decision, Karren Brady told him: "Ricky has got great credibility in the field. He's the one that has changed the most over the process."
Claude Littner added: "I've got to say, I'm mesmerised by the guy."
Ricky Martin follows last year's winner Tom Pellereau, who became Lord Sugar's first business partner through the BBC One show.
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