The Apprentice (UK series 1)
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Series One of The Apprentice television programme was aired in the UK from 23 February to 11 May in 2005. It lasted for twelve episodes and was produced for the BBC; shown on BBC TWO on Wednesday evenings.
[edit] The Candidates
Sir Alan Sugar was given 14 possible candidates for his job at Amstrad as the Apprentice. Sir Alan split all the candidates into two teams (composed of 7 candidates each at the start of the competiton) every week, and gave them a business task to complete. The two teams were called "First Forte" (originally the females) and "Impact" (the males).
The format was very similar to the original US version, which was licenced by RTL Group and produced through its Talkback Thames division. Each team named a project manager, with the winning team exempt from being fired, and the losing team faced the boardroom. With some exceptions, the project manager nominated up to three people to appear with them in the final boardroom sequence. The candidates in the final boardroom then pleaded their case why they shouldn't be fired, and which of the others in the final boardroom should be fired.
After evaluations with the board, one candidate who was deemed to be the worst performer was fired. As in the US series, when four players remained, the candidates were given one-on-one interviews with executives, after which two candidates were fired.
Timothy Campbell was a transport manager at the London Underground before Sir Alan Sugar hired him as 'The Apprentice'. Campbell beat Saira Khan for the highly coveted job in the final. Sir Alan said that he chose Tim as the winner because of his likeness to his East End self.
The 14 candidates for series 1 were :
| Candidate | Age | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Adenike Ogundoyin | 30 | fired week 1 |
| Lindsay Bogaard | 35 | fired week 2 |
| Miranda Rose | 26 | fired week 3 |
| Adele Lock | 29 | quit week 4 |
| Matthew Palmer | 39 | fired week 5 |
| Rachel Groves | 32 | fired week 6 |
| Sebastian Schrimpff | 29 | fired week 7 |
| Ben Leary | 29 | fired week 8 |
| Raj Dhonota | 30 | fired week 9 |
| Miriam Staley | 26 | fired week 10 |
| James Max | 34 | fired week 11 (Interview episode) |
| Paul Torrisi | 34 | fired week 11 (Interview episode) |
| Saira Khan | 34 | Not hired on television (Finale) |
| Timothy Campbell | 26 | Hired by Sir Alan Sugar (Finale) |
[edit] The Challenges
There were 12 challenges, one per weekly episode:
[edit] Week 1: Wilting Blooms
- Project managers: Saira (First Forte) and Timothy (Impact)
- Task: Sell flowers. The team that makes the most money wins.
- Result: First Forte wasted half the day selling flowers at the market before deciding to sell from sidewalk to sidewalk. Impact made better progress by immediately selling the flowers door to door.
- Winner: Impact.
- Reward: Trip to the London Eye and celebratory champagne.
- Dramatic tension: Adele and Saira argued about the latter's management style.
- Who gets fired: Adenike for lying to Sir Alan about the exact number of flowers she sold.
[edit] Week 2: Child's Play
- Project managers: Lindsay (First Forte) and Raj (Impact)
- Task: Create and design a new toy for the toy company Designworks.
- Result: Impact came up with the idea for an electronic trading card game while First Forte could not decide between secret messages cards and an exploding robot.
- Winner: The senior executives of Designworks voted for Impact's electronic game. First Forte's Lindsay chose Miriam and Adele with her in the firing line.
- Reward: Clay pigeon shooting at a country club.
- Dramatic tension: Lindsay wasted time deciding on which to present. Most people thought the robot was more interesting . She overruled the vote by personally choosing and pushing the card game.
- Who gets fired: Lindsay for not listening to her teammates.
- Notes: While Impact may have won, Sir Alan Sugar also confronted them with similar products from other toy companies in an effort to find out if they just copied the idea of electronic card games or they were simply unaware.
[edit] Week 3: Shop Till You Drop
- Project managers: Matthew (Impact) and Adele (First Forte)
- Mixed teams: Because the girls where two down, there was a swap. Ben, Sebastian and Tim swaped with Rachel and Saira.
- Task: Teams are given a budget of £1,000 and must buy a diamond, a bottle of champagne, jellied eels, a mattress, a bowler hat, a Freeview box, and a dental check-up and be back at the boardroom by 5:30pm. The team that saves the most money wins.
- Result: Impact gains an early lead in acquiring most of the items but encounters difficulty in finding a bowler hat and a Freeview box. First Forte wasted a lot of time but managed to acquire all of the items.
- Winner: Impact fails to find a new bowler hat and were fined £80 but the electronics store's shopkeeper decides to give away the Freeview box, thereby offsetting the fine that cost them.
- Reward: Dinner with Sir Alan at his favorite Italian restaurant.
- Dramatic tension: Miranda is miffed that Adele did not take advantage of her occupational specialty of buying and selling. Adele turned her into basically a secretary for the task. The tension between the two brought both of them to the boardroom along with Ben.
- Who gets fired: Miranda because Alan felt that she should have shown more respect to the team leader.
[edit] Week 4: The Harrods' Sales
- Re-shuffle: First Forte is joined with Sebastian, Tim and Ben. Impact is joined with Rachel and Saira.
- Project managers: Tim (First Forte) and James (Impact)
- Task: Select items from Harrod's catalogue and sell them. They are given spots in Harrod's lower floor where they could sell. The team that makes the most sales, win.
- Result: At the last moment, Impact is able to sell a bag that gave them a near £100 lead over First Forte.
- Winner: Impact.
- Reward: A helicopter trip around English stately homes.
- Who gets fired: Adele for her inability to work with others. She tried to quit citing personal reasons but Sir Alan did not give her the opportunity. Project manager Tim ended up not having to choose who to bring with him in the firing line. Sir Alan fired Adele on the spot.
- Notes: Unlike his American counterpart (Donald Trump), Sir Alan Sugar seems more aware of what his candidates do and say during the tasks. In a private moment during a break, Ben reveals on camera that he is not all comfortable with selling and feels it is not his forte. Sir Alan confronted him on this in the boardroom conference.
[edit] Week 5: Art With a Capital F
- Project managers: Sebastian (First Forte) and Rachel (Impact)
- Task: Each team must choose one out of seven artists whose works they will showcase in an art gallery. The team that makes the most money will win the task.
- Result: Both teams chose an artist couple whose works are inspired by light and spectrum. Eventually, the couple chose First Forte. Impact had to settle for an artist who specializes in paintings of the female silhouette. Despite the higher selling price of the couple's works, First Forte sold a few and managed to make £19,563. Impact did sell more but artist's works generally sold only from £250 to £2,000 which resulted them in netting only £6,147.
- Winner: First Forte
- Reward: First Forte is treated to a trip and lunch aboard the Orient Express.
- Who gets fired: Matthew for being an awkward and overbearing character. Paul is the other person Rachel brought to the firing line.
[edit] Week 6: Advertising Executives
- Project managers: Miriam (First Forte) and Paul (Impact)
- Task: Design a TV and print ad campaign for Amstrad's new Jukebox music system.
- Result: The lack of focus caused Impact to deal with the TV and print ads separately. First Forte's Miriam was able to give equal attention to both projects. In the end, Sir Alan made Raj (Impact) choose who has the better campaign and Raj had to admit it was the other team's.
- Winner: First Forte. Paul chooses Saira and Rachel with him in the firing line.
- Reward: The winning team is treated to a shopping spree.
- Who gets fired: Rachel. Sir Alan could not believe she came from an advertising background and then come up with a mess of a print ad.
[edit] Week 7: Apprentice Celebrities
- Project managers: Ben (Impact) and James (First Forte)
- Corporate shuffling:Because Paul and Saira could not work well together, there was a shuffling. First Forte has James, Raj, Saira and Sebastian. Impact has Ben, Miriam, Paul and Tim.
- Task: Each team must negotiate with five celebrities who will auction their services or property with the money going to the refurbishment of the Hackney Empire theatre.
- Results: Raj was awestruck with his assigned celebrity, Paul McKenna. Sebastian did not push for more from his celebrity. Tim nearly lost the negotiation with footballer celebrity, Ian Wright, but was saved by Miriam. Impact made £18,000 whereas First Forte made £10,000
- Winner: Impact
- Boardroom: James, Raj and Sebastian.
- Who gets fired: Sebastian, for stepping too much in the sidelines and being more of a "Cartiers and Rolls Royce" man. However, Raj gets a warning for not doing more in his tasks.
- Notes: This is the first time James has lost a task.
[edit] Week 8: Food Fight
- Project managers: Raj (First Forte) and Ben (Impact)
- Task: Teams must go to the farm and negotiate for produce and then make food products with those produce and sell them in the market.
- Result: First Forte focused on jellies, jams and chutneys. James is concerned about how much they can make with the cook charging them £50 per hour. They managed to convince the cook to do it for free in exchange for promoting her store. Impact focused on soups but spent a lot of money buying the ingredients. Both teams are chastised by the market manager for arriving late. First Forte managed to sell all their stock. Impact still had a lot of leftover soup left. First Forte made £364, Impact made £69 profit.
- Winning team: Despite Raj's poor decision skills, First Forte.
- Reward: A trip to Monaco with profits from the task as their gambling money in the casino.
- Boardroom: Ben, Miriam and Paul.
- Who is fired: Ben for not taking stronger control over his team.
[edit] Week 9: Team News
- Project managers: Saira (First Forte) and Paul (Impact)
- Task: Sell telephone/text messaging services during the Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United football match.
- Result: Impact places an ad on the Jumbotron. First Forte would place a slogan on the banners and on the Spurs website. The potentially offensive slogan of First Forte's ad forces the marketing director to put restrictions, effectively shooting down both teams' ideas. First Forte places posters around the stadium. They also hire attractive girls to push their ad. Impact also hires people to promote with incentive of a percentage for text messages sold.
- Winning team: Impact captured 704 subscriptions. First Forte got 468.
- Reward: Renowned Chef Gary Rhodes will come to the contestants' dorm and cook a luxurious meal.
- Boardroom: Saira, Raj and James
- Who is fired: Raj, long overdue firing and for never putting his best effort.
[edit] Week 10: Apprentices on TV
- Project managers: Miriam (Impact) and James (First Forte)
- Task: Teams must sell several items on live TV for one hour. They are given a list of items to choose from. Teams may not sell the same items the other is selling. In the possibility that both teams like the same item, they must negotiate. Presenters may not be involved with the choice of products.
- Result: Miriam and James are chosen as presenters. Tim and Alan of Impact pretend to have picked the same items Saira of First Forte chose so that she got fewer of the things she wanted. Saira ends up with a silly unisex jacket and an uninteresting mattress among the items. On the day of the live presentation, Miriam is getting advice and direction from both Tim and Paul who keeps interrupting Tim. James managed to sell out the mattress and a considerable number of unisex jacket.
- Winner: Despite ending up with a few tacky items due to negotiation with the other team, First Forte sold and made far more money than Impact did.
- Boardroom: Miriam and Paul.
- Reward: Take rest and recreation at a castle in Scotland.
- Who gets fired: Miriam for not managing her staff properly, and having two people instead of one give her direction during the presentation.
- Note: Sir Alan Sugar later admitted Miriam probably didn't deserve to be fired at this point, as she performed better than her teammates at this task.
[edit] Week 11: Apprentice Interviews
- The remaining four applicants undergo grueling interviews after which 2 applicants will be fired. Unlike the US version (where interviewers in Series 1 were Trump Organization officials, and in Series 2 and 3, four executives from other companies - no interviews in Series 4 because of the multiple firings), Sir Alan's advisers also interview the applicants.
- Who is fired: James because Sir Alan and the interviewers are not convinced of his dedication to work for Sir Alan, although he has the best resume of the four; and Paul for unclear reasons to work for Sir Alan considering he has thriving businesses of his own as well as being too aggressive and temperamental.
- Who stays: Saira and Tim
[edit] Week 12: The Final: Apprentices Reunited
- Finalists: Tim and Saira
- Task: Each team is given a riverboat and £5,000 budget to hold an event. Attendees must buy tickets to the events.
- As is the case on the US version, fired candidates are brought back to help the finalists. Tim chooses Miriam, Sebastian and Ben, while Saira chooses Paul, James and Raj.
- Result: Tim's team chooses to hold a fashion show while Saira's team holds a wine tasting event that would showcase a new brand of California wine. Saira's team more than recouped their budget with £ 5,800. Despite making only about £2,800 and therefore losing money, Tim explained his long-term strategic vision.
- Not hired: Saira is not hired. (Sir Alan did not dismiss her with "You're fired!") However, Sir Alan said there was also a position in his company for her if she wanted to take it. She turned it down for now, but may decide to work for Sir Alan in the future, but she is not allowed to apply for subsequent Apprentice series.
- Hired: Tim
- Unlike the US version, Tim is hired despite having a loss on his record as a Project Manager. Compared to the five US Apprentices-to-date, all US Apprentices had spotless records, with Series 4 Apprentice Randal Pinkett (13 weeks), Series 2 Apprentice Kelly Perdew (15 weeks), and Series 3 Apprentice Kendra Todd (18 weeks) having a 3-0 Project Manager record a piece. Series 1 winner Bill Rancic and Season 5 Apprentice Sean Yazbeck had a spotless 2-0 record as Project Manager.
[edit] Trivia
- During the first task, after the men had bought their flowers, they left the market to get a cup of tea – without any of the roses they had paid for. Who ever had bought the roses had failed to arrange it and Tim, the project manager, had not noticed either. Luckily Matthew had realised and in a panic they all ran back into the market trying to find the stall they bought the roses from – the problem was that no-one could remember exactly where it was. Eventually they found it and the whole team were relieved.
- Impact's second choice for a toy was "Moist", a grungy/glue type substance that would grow like a plant when fed. Sir Alan's aide Margaret Mountford found this concept revolting.
- With regards to week 3's reward, Sir Alan paid for the Italian meal himself. However, he didn’t actually spend much time at the table with the candidates. The candidates were better off than the production team, several of whom were huddled under a tarpaulin outside the shop next door.
- In reality, Paul Torrisi was fired before James Max. However, the editing of the programme showed Paul getting fired after James. The continuity error of this editing is evident. When James is fired and exits the boardroom, you cannot see Paul's luggage anywhere in reception. When Paul is fired and exits the boardroom, James' luggage is still in reception.
- Raj described the helicopter reward of week 4 as "underwhelming". He and James were also kicked off after half an hour so that the production team could use their helicopter to take fancy shots of the other helicopter.[1]
