The Apprentice (UK series nine)

Series Nine of The Apprentice (UK) is a British reality television series. The series began on BBC One on 7 May 2013.^[1]

On 8 July 2013, an episode called The Final Five aired, which profiled the remaining five candidates. On 11 July 2013, an episode called Why I Fired Them aired where Lord Sugar explains how the candidates fared and why he fired each candidate.

The series was won by Leah Totton, with Luisa Zissman finishing as runner up.

Candidates

Sixteen contestants took part in this series, and initially were divided by gender, as in every other series. The men chose Endeavour as their team name,^[2] and the women chose Evolve. Three candidates - Sophie, Uzma and Rebecca - never had the chance to be Project Manager.

Candidate	Background	Age	Original Team	Result
Leah Totton	Doctor	24	Evolve	Winner (17-07-2013)
Luisa Zissman	Retail Entrepreneur	25	Evolve	Runner-up (17-07-2013)
Francesca MacDuff-Varley	Dance & Entertainment Entrepreneur	32	Evolve	Fired in week 11 (10-07-2013)
Neil Clough	Regional Manager - Soccer Centres	32	Endeavour	Fired in week 11 (10-07-2013)
Jordan Poulton	Business Analyst	26	Endeavour	Fired in week 11 (10-07-2013)
Myles Mordaunt	Marketing Agency Co-Founder	39	Endeavour	Fired in week 10 (03-07-2013)
Alex Mills	Company Director	22	Endeavour	Fired in week 9 (26-06-2013)
Jason Leech	Historian / Property Entrepreneur	29	Endeavour	Fired in week 8 (19-06-2013)
Natalie Panayi	Recruitment Manager	30	Evolve	Fired in week 7 (12-06-2013)
Kurt Wilson	Health Drink Entrepreneur and Health & Safety Manager	26	Endeavour	Fired in week 7 (12-06-2013)
Rebecca Slater	Pharmaceutical Sales Rep.	35	Evolve	Fired in week 6 (05-06-2013)
Zeeshaan Shah	CEO of Property Investment Company	27	Endeavour	Fired in week 5 (28-05-2013)
Uzma Yakoob	Entrepreneur & Make-Up Brand Owner	32	Evolve	Fired in week 4 (22-05-2013)
Sophie Lau	Restaurateur	22	Evolve	Fired in week 3 (15-05-2013)
Tim Stillwell	Mexican Food Entrepreneur	23	Endeavour	Fired in week 2 (08-05-2013)
Jaz Ampaw-Farr	Literacy & Education Company Director	41	Evolve	Fired in week 1 (07-05-2013)

Weekly results

Candidate	Original team	Week 2 team	Week 4 team	Week 5 team	Week 6 team	Week 7 team	Week 8 team	Week 10 team	Application result	Record as project manager
Leah Totton	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Evolve	Hired by Sugar	1-0 (win in week 6)
Luisa Zissman	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Runner-up	2-1 (win in weeks 4 & 10, loss in week 8)
Francesca MacDuff-Varley	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Fired in week 11	0-1 (loss in week 6)
Neil Clough	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour	Fired in week 11	2-1 (win in weeks 7 & 9, loss in week 4)
Jordan Poulton	Endeavour	Endeavour	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour	Endeavour	Fired in week 11	2-0 (win in weeks 3 & 8)
Myles Mordaunt	Endeavour	Endeavour	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Fired in week 10	1-1 (win in week 5, loss in week 10)
Alex Mills	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour		Fired in week 9	0-1 (loss in week 9)
Jason Leech	Endeavour	Endeavour	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve		Fired in week 8	1-1 (win in week 1, loss in week 8)
Natalie Panayi	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour			Fired in week 7	0-1 (loss in week 3)
Kurt Wilson	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour			Fired in week 7	1-1 (win in week 2, loss in week 7)
Rebecca Slater	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve	Evolve				Fired in week 6
Zeeshaan Shah	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour	Endeavour					Fired in week 5	0-1 (loss in week 5)
Uzma Yakoob	Evolve	Evolve	Endeavour						Fired in week 4
Sophie Lau	Evolve	Evolve							Fired in week 3
Tim Stillwell	Endeavour	Evolve							Fired in week 2	0-1 (loss in week 2)
Jaz Ampaw-Farr	Evolve								Fired in week 1	0-1 (loss in week 1)

Elimination chart
Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Leah	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	HIRED
Luisa	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	IN	LOSE	IN	WIN	IN	RUNNER-UP
Francesca	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	IN	IN	FIRED
Neil	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	WIN	IN	WIN	BR	FIRED
Jordan	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	FIRED
Myles	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	BR	FIRED
Alex	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Jason	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Natalie	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Kurt	IN	WIN	IN	BR	IN	IN	FIRED
Rebecca	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Zeeshaan	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Uzma	BR	IN	BR	FIRED
Sophie	BR	IN	FIRED
Tim	IN	FIRED
Jaz	FIRED

     The candidate was in the winning team (or, in Week 11, managed to avoid being fired.)

     The candidate was in the losing team.

     The candidate became Lord Sugar's new business partner and won The Apprentice.

     The candidate was the runner-up.

     The candidate won as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The candidate was brought to the final boardroom.

     The candidate was fired.

     The candidate lost as project manager and was fired.

Episodes

Week 1

• Air Date: 7 May 2013
• Endeavour: Jason (Project Manager), Alex, Jordan, Kurt, Myles, Neil, Tim, and Zeeshaan.
• Evolve: Jaz (Project Manager), Francesca, Leah, Luisa, Natalie, Rebecca, Sophie, and Uzma.
• Task: Choose a variety of imported goods from a container, then sell them within sixteen hours. Most sales made, wins.
• Task Review: Evolve suffered from a lack of organisation, as Jaz spent a lot of her time motivating rather than devising a real sales strategy. Likewise on Endeavour, Jason struggled to make himself heard; this resulted in Neil taking over a lot of the decision-making. Despite a slow start, Endeavour quickly sold their items in reasonable quantities, though Neil's sub-team sold considerably more than Jason's. On Evolve, Jaz's sub-team descended into chaos when they arrived at London's Chinatown district far too early and found that none of the shops had opened, resulting in a disorganised rush around Oxford Street to find retailers. They also wasted time trying to sell to a store clerk who was not even in a position to make the deal. By contrast, Leah's sub-team sold very well, selling three times as much. However, Jaz's poor sub-team ultimately cost their team the victory.
• Result: Evolve had sales of £1,109.30, while Endeavour had sales of £1,167.90.
• Winner: Endeavour - By £58.60
• Reward: Being the first to see the candidates' house, and having a luxury meal there as a team.
• Brought into the boardroom: Jaz, Sophie and Uzma
• Fired: Jaz - For inefficient team leadership, hasty volunteering to lead the team, and focusing too much on one item which led to her neglecting other products as a result.
• Notes:
  • During his initial meeting with the candidates prior to the task, Lord Sugar asked for the project managers to step up on the spot. Jaz immediately volunteered herself for the women as the project manager. While Lord Sugar commended her for her bravery, he was unhappy that she did not consult the rest of her team or even think of the risks, whereas Jason had done so before moving forward as the project manager for the men.
  • When Uzma failure to sell anything was discussed, tt was noted her role was logistics and scheduling; she was given credit for this by Lord Sugar, who said that it prevented further disaster. Sophie also failed to sell anything, but this was due to Natalie hijacking her pitch of the Chinese lucky cats after she became worried that Sophie was losing the buyer's interest. Sophie was called out for this, but got away with a warning to step up in the following tasks.
  • Lord Sugar was particularity impressed with Leah's sub-team. Luisa initially attempted to usurp control, as she considered Leah unqualified to lead a sales team, but Leah stood her ground. Luisa was ultimately impressed by the work of her sub-team members, and said she would greatly oppose any attempts to bring them into the broadroom.
  • Despite Endeavour winning this task, Karren touched upon their poor team dynamic and how none of the men particularly stood out as doing a good job. While Neil sold the most and did a reasonably good job of leading his sub-team, he was judged to be the most at fault for the various arguments and accused of repeatedly undermining Jason's authority. Likewise, the majority of Endeavour criticised Jason for bad leadership, with Myles going as far to say that Jason's sales approach was more "Vicar of Dibley" than it was market trader. Tim was criticised for staying in the background. After Endeavour's win was announced, Tim attempted to defend himself on that matter before Lord Sugar stopped him, saying the victory meant further discussion was pointless.
  • This is the first occasion in the UK series that a female project manager was fired on the first task; Lord Sugar felt Jaz made far too many errors to be allowed to continue, along with her team deeming her to have been too focused on motivation instead of actual strategy. Another factor that contributed to her dismissal was the fact that she focused too much on an item that had high profits, but was a hard-sell and had left out other products which would have made an easier profit.
  • Karren attempted to defend Jason in the boardroom, considering most of the men tried to steam-roll each other rather than work together. When Alex attempted to stand up for Neil against Jordan's criticisms, he mistakenly called him Liam.

Week 2

• Air Date: 8 May 2013
• Endeavour: Kurt (Project Manager), Alex, Jason, Neil, Jordan, Myles and Zeeshaan.
• Evolve: Tim (Project Manager), Francesca, Leah, Natalie, Luisa, Rebecca, Sophie and Uzma.
• Task: Come up with a new flavour of beer and sell it. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: Endeavour created a chocolate orange flavoured beer, while Evolve's was flavoured with rhubarb and caramel. Things generally went smoothly during Endeavour's production process, despite Kurt sending a having a brewery team of three men who didn't even drink beer. Meanwhile, Evolve wasted a small sum of money, after Francesca twice miscalculated the amount of rhubarb flavouring needed, rendering two kegs undrinkable. Despite the mishap, Evolve's trade sales team performed very well, selling in large quantities. On the other hand, Endeavour made the foolish decision to bring no samples to their first pitch, which led to an embarrassing failure. Later on, Jason (who Alex and Zeeshaan tried to shut out of the deals) disrupted one of their pitches and bizarrely offered a lower price than even what the customer had suggested. The other sub-teams pitched at food and drink festivals, but Evolve's festival turned out to be nothing more than a glamorised pub. They attempted to sell their beer at a wine bar later, but this yielded even fewer sales. Endeavour's festival, on the other hand, had much bigger footfall and while their sales were initially slow due to their overpriced beer, their sales greatly improved after the prices were slashed.
• Result: Evolve had a profit of £399.02, while Endeavour had a profit of £831.56.
• Winner: Endeavour - By £432.54
• Reward: A trip to Belgium with beer tasting.
• Brought into the boardroom: Tim, Rebecca and Francesca
• Fired: Tim - For authorizing a bad location, weak leadership, and for failing on a task his business plan was related.
• Notes:
  • During the task briefing, Lord Sugar appointed Tim to lead the women of Evolve as project manager after he vouched to step up in the previous boardroom, as well as wanting to set up a drinks-based business. Sugar then appointed Kurt as Endeavour's project manager, as he already worked in the food and drink industry.
  • Despite the healthy margin of Endeavour's victory, Lord Sugar found a variety of faults regarding Kurt's leadership, including his poor decision of the brewery team consisting of members who didn't drink beer, the specific flavour of the beer (including an ingredient which the brewery team strongly disliked), and his choice of brand name before the sub-team had even arrived at the brewery, along with irregular pricing which were felt to be too high at their initial festival and too low when they moved to their second location.
  • Lord Sugar gave Rebecca a warning over her attitude after she sparked an argument with Uzma in the boardroom and then claimed that the other women were all conspiring against her. While she played a pivotal role in picking the poor location, it was ultimately revealed that Rebecca single-handedly brought in around 40% of Evolve's revenue, which proved instrumental in her survival.
  • Surprisingly, the majority of the You're Fired audience, combined with the panel, disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Tim. While it was noted that Francesca's mathematical mistake did not cause Evolve to lose, the panel agreed that it was such a basic mistake that it should have been grounds for instant dismissal.

Week 3

• Air Date: 15 May 2013
• Endeavour: Jordan (Project Manager), Alex, Jason, Kurt, Myles, Neil and Zeeshaan.
• Evolve: Natalie (Project Manager), Francesca, Leah, Luisa, Rebecca, Sophie and Uzma.
• Task: Design a new unique piece of flat-pack furniture, and pitch it to retailers. Most orders received, wins.
• Task Review: Endeavour went with Alex's idea to create a chair that could easily convert into a table with storage shelves. On Evolve, Francesca suggested a cube-shaped table with multi-functional sides, yet Natalie's attempt to listen to everyone's ideas meant that no consensus was reached on what each side would feature. Their prototype was ultimately revealed to be just a box on wheels that could be assembled without any tools or glue and could also double up as a table or footrest. Evolve generally had well-executed pitches, but their box was felt to be unoriginal and unattractive, so it only secured small orders, all from independent retailers. While Endeavour's chair was considered to be much more innovative and original, questions were raised over the styling and the height of its legs. However, these flaws were not considered insurmountable for a prototype and the team secured vastly greater orders as a result.
• Result: Endeavour received 3,216 orders, while Evolve received 174 orders.
• Winner: Endeavour - By 3,042 orders
• Reward: Up at The O2 - Climb attraction at The O2 Arena.
• Brought into the boardroom: Natalie, Sophie and Uzma
• Fired: Sophie - For a lack of presence, making no significant contributions within the three tasks, and showing no appealing skills.
• Notes:
  • Matt Edmondson's Awkward Conversations with Sophie was put onto the BBC Apprentice website a few hours before the episode aired, thus leaking the news of Sophie's firing prematurely.
  • While the teams had to set up appointments themselves during the task, Lord Sugar also laid on large sales pitches with a catalogue chain and a department store to assist them. In addition, Evolve were warned to improve their performance in the task briefing, and Lord Sugar was especially disappointed that the women had suffered such a massive defeat in this task as well.
  • Endeavour's pitches were not as competent as those of Evolve; in particular, Alex made a faux pas by having his backside prominently displayed to buyers during his assembly demo, while Myles attempted to aim the product at the wrong age market and Zeeshaan failed to sell anything in his pitches, which prompted Jordan to pull him from one of the pitches. Despite his pitching gaffe, Alex was given much credit for Endeavour's product, which Lord Sugar said was one of the best he had ever seen produced on the show.
  • It was noted in Why I Fired Them that Sophie had rattled off a list of skills that were not her speciality in the final boardroom, including pitching, selling and giving presentations. Lord Sugar considered these to be vital skills for setting up and operating a new business, and felt it proved Sophie unworthy of investment, while also feeling that it was worse that Sophie had done nothing compelling to save the team from failing, especially after being warned to step up in her first boardroom. Sophie's only major contribution was market research which, given the fact there was no consensus what-so-ever on what she was supposed to be getting feedback on, achieved nothing.
  • Lord Sugar noted this to be a very close decision, as he held Natalie at fault for being a weak leader and allowing Luisa to take over the entire task. He also accused Uzma of being considerably out of touch with her design expertise, in addition to refusing to take any responsibility for the task's failure. Ultimately it came down to the fact that Natalie and Uzma had at least tried to step up whereas Sophie seemed content in staying in the sidelines. The 'You're fired' Audience and the week's panel also agreed that while Natalie and Uzma made major errors in the task, Sophie was just as deserving to fired since she showed nothing that made her a viable candidate.

Week 4

• Air Date: 22 May 2013
• Endeavour: Neil (Project Manager), Alex, Kurt, Natalie, Uzma and Zeeshaan.
• Evolve: Luisa (Project Manager), Francesca, Jason, Leah, Jordan, Myles and Rebecca.
• Task: Open a farm shop, source stock for it and sell it to the public. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: Evolve decided to sell a range of buffalo meat products, along with fresh soup and jacket potatoes; the choice to sell buffalo was seen as risky. On Endeavour, Kurt persuaded Neil to have their shop exclusively sell milkshakes from their shop while having a small side line of fruit and vegetables. Evolve found Luisa to be a poor leader after she strictly monitored the budget, although her decision was supported by Leah and Jordan, and thus they completely ignored their efforts. On the other hand, Endeavour were extremely disorganised for some time after they opened, even though they enjoyed strong early sales of their milkshakes. Uzma's selling tactics frustrated Neil, while Jason managed to irritate his team-mates even though he was in the kitchen. Both teams miserably failed to meet their target quotas, but it was Evolve's high ticket items that led them to having a higher total.
• Result: Endeavour had a profit of £539.67, while Evolve had a profit of £631.52.
• Winner: Evolve - By £91.85
• Reward: Being taught how to cook by a top chef.
• Brought into the boardroom: Neil, Kurt and Uzma
• Fired: Uzma - For providing a weak performance throughout the process, appearing in the boardroom 3 times, and giving Lord Sugar a poor impression of her.
• Notes:
  • After the all women team suffered three defeats in a row, Lord Sugar decided to change up the teams. Natalie and Uzma (whom Lord Sugar kept his eye on from the previous week) were placed on Endeavour, while Jason, Jordan and Myles were shipped over to Evolve.
  • Partway through the task, Kurt decided to buy some apple juice from a local store and combined it with their fruit to produce smoothies. While it proved profitable for his team, Lord Sugar criticised it in the boardroom as not being in the spirit of the task.
  • Although Evolve won the task, Luisa's management was felt to have been poor, as having left Francesca, Jason and Myles with little say in purchasing products, she then bluntly told them they were only allowed to buy vegetables to dress the shop. Luisa ended up shouting at the sub-team, going as far as to tell them to "use some logic", causing Francesca to become so irritated that she abandoned the discussion. In the boardroom, Myles heavily criticised Luisa's leadership, causing friction between them. While Lord Sugar commended Luisa for sticking with a successful sales plan, he also told her that her sales team were probably more deserving of credit. Jordan was also chided by Lord Sugar for being overtly celebratory when their victory was announced.
  • After Uzma was brought back to the boardroom for the third time in four weeks, she insisted that it was a tactical move on Neil's part, but Neil strongly denied this, stating if he was being explicitly tactical, he would have brought Natalie back instead of Kurt. While Uzma's selling tactics were questionable in this task, she was revealed to be the second highest seller on the team, yet it was still not enough to overshadow her consistently poor performances in all four tasks.
  • Lord Sugar gave Neil strict criticism over his attitude stating that "there's a fine line between being confident and cocky", after Neil constantly refused to listen to Uzma during the task. He also chastised him for allowing Kurt to push his plan through and not having any backup plan. Lord Sugar told Neil that he had potential, but warned him to watch his attitude, while Kurt was also warned that he was lucky to have survived, as Lord Sugar considered him to be at near-total fault since it was his idea to exclusively sell milkshakes. He also got in trouble for his boast he could sell 200 milkshakes, which would have made £650.00 thus giving Endeavour victory. His survival was mostly down to previous good performances on tasks, in contrast to Uzma's relatively poor track record, though Lord Sugar warned him to keep his mouth shut.

Week 5

• Air Date: 28 May 2013
• Endeavour: Zeeshaan (Project Manager), Alex, Leah, Kurt, Natalie and Neil.
• Evolve: Myles (Project Manager), Francesca, Jason, Luisa, Jordan and Rebecca.
• Task: Find and secure eight items for a new multimillion pound hotel in Dubai, negotiating for lower prices. Least amount spent (fines included), wins.
• Task Review: Myles took a more methodical approach for Evolve, and decided to research where to buy from, while Zeeshaan decided to rely on his existing knowledge of the city, even telling Endeavour not to use maps though his leadership caused friction between him and Leah. Both teams suffered trouble buying a custom-made 6 ft flag, as Myles's sub-team wasted over an hour sitting around waiting for their flag to be made. On the other hand, Kurt ordered a flag that was too small (thinking that there were 12 cm in a foot instead of 12in) for Endeavour, forcing them to order another and pay for both. Myles rushed a lot of his deals through without negotiating as much as he could have, though had collected most of the items, while Endeavour ended up getting much better discounts during their dealing around the city. However, Zeeshaan misinformed his team as to what an oud was, causing them to waste time trying to find an item which wasn't even correct, while Neil also ended up buying a kandura which did not meet the hotel's specifications, and as such, was discarded from Endeavour's final total. In the end, Evolve got 6 of the items needed, while Endeavour only got 4 items, leading both teams to be fined for the missing ones.
• Result: Evole spent £695.16 (including fines), while Endeavour spent £783.36 (including fines).
• Winner: Evolve - By £88.20.
• Reward: Drinks at a modern cocktail bar.
• Brought into the boardroom: Zeeshaan, Leah and Natalie
• Fired: Zeeshaan - For his arrogance, dictatorial leadership, failing on a task where he was most the qualified candidate to lead (out of both of the teams), and for bringing Leah and Natalie back into the boardroom instead of Kurt and/or Neil.
• Notes:
  • For this task, both Myles and Zeeshaan were elected as leader of their respective team, owing to their knowledge of the city of Dubai, with Zeeshaan having lived and even sold there for years.
  • Halfway through the task, Zeeshaan informed his team that an oud was a perfume. Despite the briefing giving it specifications of mahogany and Alex telling him that the perfume was spelled differently, Zeeshaan refused to acknowledge this.
  • Lord Sugar was confused after Zeeshaan decided to bring back Leah and Natalie, as both Kurt and Neil were both guilty of making critical errors that accelerated the team into failure. It was felt in the end, that Zeeshaan had only brought Leah back for personal reasons, after constantly arguing with her throughout the task (despite her impressive bargaining skills), while the choice of Natalie was due to a tactical move by him, although his efforts to accuse her little contribution backfired due to his own performance. Even though it was acknowledged she did not deserve to be in the final boardroom, Natalie was given a final warning to prove herself and only avoided being fired because of her passionate defence; after Zeeshaan was fired, Natalie began weeping for having survived the boardroom again.
  • When discussing the task in the final boardroom, both Leah and Natalie accused Zeeshaan of being sexist, claiming that he had mistreated them throughout the whole task and brought them back into the final boardroom for no reason other than the fact that they were women; indeed, Leah and Natalie highlighted both Neil and Kurt's errors, but also the fact that Zeeshaan had brought back two women. Zeeshaan did not help his case further, by renouncing this after he gave poor excuses for letting Kurt and Neil go, along with not holding the door for the two women when coming back for the final boardroom. It was also noted that though Leah was sub-team leader, Zeeshaan wanted to talk to Neil on the phone instead of her during the task, which Leah picked up on at the time and relayed back in the boardroom. It was strongly implied that had Kurt and/or Neil had been brought back into the boardroom, they would've most likely have been fired over Zeeshaan.
  • After the final boardroom, Zeeshaan waited for the other candidates to leave the boardroom, like most fired candidates had done, though upon the women's exit, neither Leah nor Natalie shook Zeeshan's hand or even talked to him. Back at the house, discussion about the chosen members, led one candidate commenting that they understood Leah's choice, but not Natalie's, while Natalie asked one of the two men who avoided firing, whether they had felt relieved about not being brought back, to which they confirmed they had been.

Week 6

• Air Date: 5 June 2013
• Endeavour: Leah (Project Manager), Alex, Kurt, Myles, Natalie and Neil.
• Evolve: Francesca (Project Manager), Jason, Luisa, Jordan and Rebecca.
• Task: Organise corporate away days for two major clients. Most profit made, wins.
• Task Review: Evolve went for a "Back to School" theme and although their event ran reasonably smoothly, they had activities that had little to do with school or business, including wine tasting and cupcake decorating, with many people being confused as to the purpose of the event. They also hired a motivational speaker after being pressed by Rebecca, who was effective, but cost them a considerable amount. Elsewhere, the majority of Endeavour wanted a school theme but Leah went against the team and decided initially on a history theme instead, but then changed it to an army theme after meeting with the client; this caused Alex to be disrespectful to Leah throughout the task. In addition, their planning and preparation was disorganized and the team continually argued, mainly with Leah, while they were also late with meeting their client, due to hectic planning and heavy traffic. There was often a lack of structure in Endeavour's event due to the rain, which at one point forced them to retreat indoors while having Neil and Myles wrestle in sumo suits, for which they were chided for in the boardroom. They did, however, have many more army related activities and Neil and Myles spoke individually to each worker about what they do, which proved effective, with Neil being even more effective by being used as a motivational speaker, which proved to be the highlight of the event. This ultimately was the difference for, both teams' profits, though they were reduced due to the clients asking for refunds.
• Result: Endeavour had a profit of £1,579.50, while Evolve had a profit of £1,095.81.
• Winner: Endeavour - By £483.69
• Reward: A day at a luxury spa
• Brought into the boardroom: Francesca, Rebecca and Luisa
• Fired: Rebecca - For suggesting poorly executed ideas that cost Evolve the win (i.e. the motivational speaker) and for having no standout skills other than sales.
• Notes:
  • After Myles was moved over to Endeavour, both Francesca and Leah were appointed by Lord Sugar to be project managers in the task. Lord Sugar also stressed that neither should think of the task as being an "away day jolly", but that it had to be related to business. Both teams, however, were noted to have slightly ignored this at some stages. While Lord Sugar said in the task briefing that the winner would be decided on via a combination of the profit and feedback from the customers, the final decision was ultimately based solely on the profit made by each times, as the satisfaction ratings for both teams were virtually identical.
  • Both project managers were criticised heavily by their team; Francesca for being indecisive, going along with bad ideas and using "empty words", whilst Leah was criticised for choosing a theme the team did not agree with, thanks partly to her not having had an away day before, and then changing it at the last minute, after the sub-team had already hired an event which no longer fitted the theme. Lord Sugar, however, defended Leah on this, after she was criticised last week for refusing to display her own opinion against Zeeshaan. Despite Leah's lackluster review, Lord Sugar sympathized with her after learning that both Alex and Neil were not acting within the spirit of the task and practically bullied her into making certain decisions. Neil, however, was praised by Lord Sugar, feeling his overall performance made him the most deserving of the credit for Endeavour's win and was also praised by Karren, who stated the clients were very impressed with him. This meant that, had Endeavor lost the task, Neil would've most certainly not been fired and Lord Sugar would've fired either Leah or Alex.
  • Jason was noted by Nick Hewer to have done very little in this task and was subsequently called out in the boardroom for hiding in the background.
  • In Series 10 of the show, Neil acknowledged on You're Hired that he had since become a professional motivational speaker because of the results of this task. This was seen as ironic, however, as he was most open about not hiring the motivational speaker.
  • Lord Sugar was concerned when Francesca brought Luisa back into the boardroom instead of Jordan, as Jordan was the team's financier and had the power to prevent Francesca from overspending the budget. He was annoyed that Francesca brought Luisa back for purely personal reasons as opposed to reasons related to the task (before the final boardroom, Lord Sugar went as far as to try and tactically warn Francesca not to bring back Luisa, but ultimately to no avail). However, Lord Sugar's opinion changed when Luisa started making distasteful remarks about the corporate world of business and was frustrated with her disrespectful and short-tempered attitude, to the point where Karren scolded Luisa for her immaturity. Luisa only survived due to her passion and the fact Lord Sugar considered her the least responsible for the failure of the task, but warned her about her disrespectful personality.
  • The majority of the You're Fired audience disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Rebecca. The group felt Rebecca should had been a given another chance to prove herself as project manager, and that Francesca was most deserving to be fired for being such a poor leader.

Week 7

• Air Date: 12 June 2013
• Endeavour: Kurt (Project Manager), Alex, Leah, Myles and Natalie.
• Evolve: Neil (Project Manager), Jason, Jordan, Luisa and Francesca.
• Task: Sell products, including motorhomes, at the Motorhome & Caravan Show at the Birmingham NEC. Most sales made, wins.
• Task Review: Endeavour lost out on two products that they wanted to sell to the other team, and so instead, they found themselves with a roof-top boat box and a foldable chair with a hood, while Kurt and Alex chose to sell a retro-styled camper as they personally liked it, even though the demographic they were trying to sell to was wrong. On Evolve, Neil was noted to be keen on the retro camper as well, but decided it would not sell as well due to the age demographic problem, so instead they chose to sell a collapsible camper alongside an electric bike and a children's camping kit. On the day of the show, their sales started slow, as Luisa and Jordan's choice of very expensive products made them difficult to sell to passers-by, yet after sales picked up, Evolve's bike and camping kits proved to be sensible choices, although they didn't sell nearly as well as hoped; Luisa also sold noticeably more than Jordan due to being popular with customers. Jason proved to be very popular with customers on the camper front, which allowed him to gain the first two of the team's three total camper sales, irking Neil. Endeavour sold considerably less well with their products and failed to sell any of the caravans as all the customers agreed the retro camper was far too modern. This led to Evolve scoring a comprehensive victory.
• Result: Evolve had sales of £33,616, while Endeavour had sales of £1,479.
• Winner: Evolve - By £32,137
• Reward: To visit the Manchester Velodrome and meet Sir Chris Hoy
• Brought into the boardroom: Kurt, Alex and Natalie
• Fired:
  • Kurt - For his awful leadership, picking an unsuitable caravan due to a personal opinion, not selling a single item, taking no responsibility for the loss, not bringing Myles back into the boardroom, previous task-failing blunders (most notably in Weeks 4 and 5), and for being the Project Manager for one of the worst defeats in the show's history.
  • Natalie - For losing out on the popular products, failing to achieve a CV claim on selling, and for her generally unimpressive track record throughout the process.
• Notes:
  • Endeavour's failure to secure the more popular products came down to a mixture of Myles' overzealous pitching, Leah's lack thereof, and Natalie's aggressive pursuit of a discount, the latter of which Natalie and Leah denied in the boardroom.
  • Had Evolve not received the sales on the caravans, which brought in £30,400, they would have still won the task on accessories alone, which made £3,116; the caravan sales added insult to injury. In terms of difference, this is the 3rd biggest victory in the UK series of the Apprentice (a 22.7:1 victory); Lord Sugar described Endeavour's performance as "a bloody disgrace."
  • In the task briefing, Lord Sugar sternly told the candidates that they all had to sell, and singled out Jason in particular. Jason turned out to be the top salesperson out of everyone, and was called back by Lord Sugar to be personally congratulated after the rest of Evolve had left the boardroom.
  • Lord Sugar wondered why Alex did not put himself forward as project manager for the task, as he had been the only candidate not to take on the role. While Alex put himself forward for becoming project manager, Kurt stepped up as well and won his team's support because he had experience being in a caravan. Even though it had been discussed that the retro-styled camper was not a good product to sell, Alex rejected this claim and blamed the team for not being able to sell it. Despite facing criticism from Lord Sugar and Karren for letting his personal opinion cloud his judgement, Lord Sugar ultimately decided to give Alex another chance.
  • It was noted by Nick Hewer that Leah was the closest to selling one of Endeavour's caravans, but the deal fell through for undisclosed reasons. Nick also mentioned that Kurt brought Leah over to sell the caravans at the last minute because she was "eye-candy", which he was castigated for saying in the boardroom. This was unknown to Leah at the time.
  • After being brought back into the boardroom, Natalie accused Kurt of bringing her back in an effort to get her fired instead of himself since Lord Sugar had given her a final warning after Zeeshaan was fired in Week 5, but Kurt denied this was the case. While Lord Sugar acknowledged Kurt brought Natalie back for tactical reasons as opposed to her performance on the task, he decided that Natalie had more than enough opportunities to prove herself and failed to deliver on any of her promises.
  • Kurt was the only candidate this series not to thank Lord Sugar after being fired.

Week 8

• Air Date: 19 June 2013
• Endeavour: Jordan (Project Manager), Alex, Leah and Myles.
• Evolve: Luisa (Project Manager), Jason (Project Manager), Neil and Francesca.
• Task: Come up with a new online dating concept with a television advert, and then pitch it to a group of experts. Best concept made, wins.
• Task Review: Evolve went with a pitch aimed at the Over-50's market, whilst Endeavour went for a theme aimed at young businessmen. Evolve quickly descended into chaos after Luisa repeatedly criticized the market, while Neil and Francesca led poor market research which set the team to create something aimed more at the 80's market; Luisa's deplorable attitude compounded Jason's indecisiveness, causing the team to not finish their website. Following the heated turn of events on Evolve, Luisa gained Neil and Francesca's support to take over the task as project manager from Jason at his behest. Evolve then created a very poor advert that the experts felt was targeted at a totally wrong age group. Endeavour fared much better in the task, completing a corporate-themed website that was finished timely, albeit a bit bland, while advert (starring Alex) was better received, yet criticized for the comedic tone it had which did not fit with their professional website design. In the end, Lord Sugar awarded Endeavour the win, as their mistakes were nowhere near as bad as the problems with Evolve.
• Winner: Endeavour - For creating a concept with fewer mistakes.
• Reward: A caviar tasting session.
• Brought into the boardroom: Jason, Luisa and Francesca
• Fired: Jason, with regret - For abdicating his duty as Project Manager (the first in the show's history) especially on a task where he was more than qualified to lead, failing to stand up to Luisa's bullying, and for being unable to cope in the world of business due to his sensitive personality.
• Notes:
  • Lord Sugar wondered once again why Alex was not the project manager, especially considering that he had experience with dating websites. Leah and Myles both cited Jordan's technology background as more suitable, but Lord Sugar became concerned that they were too scared to let him lead, rather than just being discourteous. At this point, Alex achieved the all-time record of surviving the longest into The Apprentice without being project manager.
  • In "Why I Fired Them", Lord Sugar noted that under normal circumstances, Endeavour would've lost based on the advert alone. However, due to Evolve's severe disorganization and somehow even worse campaign, Lord Sugar felt as if he had no choice but to give Endeavour "the benefit of the doubt". In addition, Lord Sugar and Karren noted Jordan's tendency to be more of a "delegater" than a Project Manager and it was heavily indicated, had Endeavour lost, Jordan would've most likely been fired.
  • On returning to the boardroom, Luisa attempted to pin the blame of not completing the website solely on Jason, denying that she practically forced him to abdicate as project manager. Neil tried to defend Jason, while Francesca attempted to back up Luisa's version of events and accused Jason of extreme incompetence, before Nick interjected and lambasted Luisa, telling Lord Sugar that she "nipped at his heels, like a terrier nipping at the heels of a bewildered sheep". He then described the exchange as "the most disgraceful display of bad manners I've seen in many a long day".
  • For the first time in the show's history, a project manager stepped down mid-task, while it was also the first time the same team had two project managers in one task - Luisa took over from Jason as project manager of Evolve at the end of the first day. Because of this, both Jason and Luisa were asked by Lord Sugar on which candidate should be brought back. Jason chose Francesca, but Luisa wanted Neil. In the end, Francesca was selected after she took offence to Jason's criticisms and demanded to be brought back, while strongly implying an intention to help Luisa gang up on Jason.
  • After Jason's dismissal, Lord Sugar gave both women a severe warning - Luisa due to her atrocious behavior, and Francesca due to her poor advert and market research, refusing to take criticism, and for failing to say anything in her defense while attacking Jason (which could esily have been a costly mistake). Luisa in particular was told she was on her absolute last chance. It was also heavily indicated Luisa would have been fired had Jason not abdicated.
  • It was generally agreed by both Lord Sugar and the remaining candidates that although Jason was a "very nice fellow", his departure came at the right time.
  • After both women left the boardroom, Karren requested to follow Luisa's team in the following task, as she was so concerned by Luisa's behavior she wanted to decide whether she was capable of working with Lord Sugar.
  • As Jason was fired, a different version of the background music was played with solely strings.
  • The majority of the You're Fired audience disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Jason, with the audience agreeing that Luisa or even Francesca should have been fired, though the panel and Jason himself felt he deserved to be fired.

Week 9

• Air Date: 26 June 2013
• Endeavour: Alex (Project Manager), Leah, Jordan and Myles.
• Evolve: Neil (Project Manager), Luisa and Francesca.
• Task: Create a new brand of ready meal. Most orders received, wins.
• Task Review: Endeavour's idea (created by Myles) was a brand called "Deadly Dinners", which was aimed at children and featured scary imagery on its box; despite the poor reception by his team and the market research, Myles was able to convince Alex into going for it anyway. Elsewhere, Evolve created a line of Caribbean/Asian fusion cuisine meals called "Oh My Pow", which was aimed at adults. "Deadly Dinners" was judged to be of good taste by the focus group of children, but the horror themed packaging completely turned off parents. Conversely, "Oh My Pow" was felt to have an appealing concept and colourful branding, but tasted too bland. This was attributed on the team's bizarre decision to put Francesca in charge of the recipe, despite having no professional cooking experience. In the end, Endeavour secured orders, but only from one retailer, while Evolve got combined orders from two other retailers.
• Result: Endeavour received 1,000 orders, while Evolve received 2,800 orders.
• Winner: Evolve - By 1,800 orders.
• Reward: Driving Ferraris at Bedford Autodrome
• Brought into the boardroom: Alex, Myles and Leah
• Fired: Alex, with regret - For allowing Myles to convince him on the less popular concept and attempting to place the blame solely on him as a result, taking bad gambles, waiting too long to be Project Manager, and for lacking the necessary expertise and focus in his prior career to make his business plan a reality.
• Notes:
  • After being shot down twice to become a project manager, Alex was appointed the role by Lord Sugar after going eight tasks without being one whereas some candidates had done so twice (or even three times). Yet his leadership was criticised due to the brand; Alex's original idea for the ready meal involved exotic cuisine from around the world, which would also teach children about geography. This was considered a good idea, from both the majority of the team and market research. Despite this, Alex chose to adopt the idea Myles had, given that Myles' expertise as a parent was more valuable.
  • Luisa was felt to have been a back-seat driver in the task, and even "shyed away" from the responsibility of project manager, as although she ran a baking business, she was felt to have attempted to do little after being heavily criticised last week, believing it was the reason she did not want to get involved in the creation of Evolve's recipes. Karren felt that Luisa was doing this as a fail-safe move in the task and trying to set up Francesca as a scapegoat in case the team lost, a move that made Luisa look bad as a result. Nevertheless, Karren deemed her to be the best performer on the team for her strong design in the branding of their ready meal, which proved to be a key role in Evolve's victory.
  • Before the final boardroom, Alex asked if he could bring back Myles alone, saying that neither Jordan nor Leah were in anyway responsible for the loss, but Lord Sugar refused to allow this. Alex ultimately let Jordan go back to the house, as it was his pitch that was deemed the best in the boardroom, given that it secured the one deal the team had made, though it was implied early on that Leah was not responsible for the failure of this task.
  • In the final boardroom, Lord Sugar asked Leah what she brought to the table. An offended Leah then argued that she was a key performer in most of the tasks, even if the team she was on was not successful. She then laid siege into her teammates in the boardroom, lambasting Alex's leadership and business direction while slamming Myles for his lack of input and being "all style and no substance". While he was unhappy with Leah's overt aggression since she was not even in grave danger of getting fired, Lord Sugar was impressed with her defence in the boardroom.
  • Even though Alex himself felt he deserved to be fired, the majority of the You're Fired audience, combined with the panel, disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision, with the general consensus being that Myles should have been fired for being the creator of the bad branding idea. Lord Sugar himself acknowledged that most people would think that Myles "got away with murder", but decided that he had more potential as a business partner, although he and Leah were warned to step up in the next task, as any room for leniency was now gone.

Week 10

• Air Date: 3 July 2013
• Endeavour: Myles (Project Manager), Neil and Jordan.
• Evolve: Luisa (Project Manager), Leah and Francesca.
• Task: Start a business from scratch with a stake of £150, selling at a market on the first day and a shop on the second, reinvesting profit in good sellers. Most money made, wins.
• Task Review: Evolve's execution of the task was virtually flawless with Luisa having a clear strategy throughout the task; the team focused on fashion accessories and enjoyed strong sales figures on both days. The team made some errors though, such as cutting prices a little too early on the second day and investing in expensive dresses that did not sell, which attracted some criticism, but their overall strategy was successful, and Lord Sugar commended them for "smelling what sells". Meanwhile, Myles proved a very weak leader on Endeavour; all of the team struggled to think of what to sell, and then sold little during the first day on the market stall. Their situation became even more dire after the ceramic art pieces that they tried to sell were incredibly niche and very expensive, though when they did sell they earned much profit. It was also noted, however, that the men had around twenty items in their shop in total, and as a result had to make a stall outside of it. Neil was the only one of the men to sell significant quantities during the first day, while Myles did little and Jordan was mostly tied up buying stock and selling to retailers; even then he proved indecisive of what to buy. With matters not improving on the second day in the shop, Jordan took a risky move by investing what little profit they had made into the purchase of a unique hand-made designer vase. He hoped to sell it for a substantial profit but failed to get any retailer to buy it.
• Result: Endeavour had a final total of £550.26, while Evolve had a final total of £809.50.
• Winner: Evolve - By £259.24
• Reward: Meal cooked by a Michelin-starred chef.
• Brought into the boardroom: Myles, Neil and Jordan.
• Fired: Myles - For very poor leadership, using a bad theme, and for allowing Jordan's mistake to reinvest, along with the ready meal blunder in the previous task, and Lord Sugar not finding an appealing market for his business proposal.
• Notes:
  • While the margin of Endeavour's defeat was much smaller than three weeks ago, Lord Sugar named this performance as the worst of any team in this series. Neil was the only team member who Lord Sugar or Karren felt had even vaguely performed well on the task. Karren, meanwhile, had particular criticism for Jordan, feeling he was taking no responsibility for his actions and was constantly blaming Myles for the failure of the task, even though his own efforts had contributed very little to the team's profit.
  • Luisa was praised during the task, as although Lord Sugar and Nick had doubts about her, she ultimately proved that she had good business knowledge.
  • In the final boardroom, Lord Sugar briefly queried the three men on their business plans, and seemed concerned that Jordan's proposal was not in keeping with the deal offered at the start of the show. In the Why I Fired Them episode, Lord Sugar said that in retrospect he should have further questioned Jordan on his proposed business deal at this point, and added that he would almost certainly have fired Jordan alongside Myles had he discovered the truth.

Week 11: Interviews

• Air Date: 10 July 2013
• Task: The five remaining candidates must undergo a series of interviews by Lord Sugar's trusted associates - Margaret Mountford, Claude Littner, Mike Soutar and Claudine Collins. Lord Sugar decides who proceeds, based on feedback.
• Candidate Reviews: Luisa was given praise for her prior successes in business, but concerns were raised on her immaturity and unprofessional behaviour, which were prevalent throughout her interviews, while her business plan was also felt to be poorly written up. Francesca was commended for building herself into an entrepreneur and having a unique business plan, but the advisers were unsure whether or not she could pull off a nationwide proposal, with parts of her financial model not adding up either; Claude further exposed a flaw in it by finding out her turnover rate had been made up than based on actual reports. She was also criticised for being slightly boring and not being very ambitious when compared to the other candidates. Leah was applauded for her superb academic record and for blossoming into a strong businesswoman, but came off as stiff and vain to some of the interviewers, while it was touched upon that Leah's business plan allowed the opportunity for exploiting future customers, which she insisted otherwise. All in all, the three women received generally positive reviews whereas both of the men did not; while Neil was complimented on his overall knowledge and business skill, his business proposal was universally panned by the inquisitors, not only for contradicting itself but having a huge potential to crash and burn. Neil was un-fazed by the criticism and insisted that he had the drive to make it work, while he also refused to make any changes or have a back-up plan prepared, which did not go down well. Jordan was the worst received out of the five; though his intelligence was commended, the interviewers felt he had no entrepreneurial strengths and exposed all of the loopholes in his CV, noting that he did not own any shares of the existing company that he wanted Lord Sugar to invest in. Most importantly, Jordan only offered a little over 15% equity of the business to Lord Sugar, which deliberately violated the contract negotiations made prior to the start of the show; Claude was so shocked and appalled by these revelations that he refused to even interview Jordan, labelling him a "parasite" and terminating the interview without giving him a chance to defend himself.
• Decision: In the boardroom, Lord Sugar immediately fired Jordan after his excuses failed to satisfy the persistent flaws within the business plan, adding he had "nowhere else to go with this". He then told Neil that his business plan would not work whatsoever, despite Neil continuously saying it would. Lord Sugar then, with regret, fired him. After one last round of discussions, Lord Sugar selected Leah and Luisa as the finalists, the former for the potential big rewards of her business, and the latter for her solid business success. Francesca (whose business plan was felt to be the least ambitious of the three) was therefore fired, though Lord Sugar did wish Francesca the best of luck in her future endeavours.
• Fired:
  • Jordan - For being unanimously the weakest candidate by Lord Sugar and the Interviewers, and for proposing a business plan that he did not have a single stake in.
  • Neil, with regret - For offering a completely unworkable business plan, and being too stubborn to suggest any alternative.
  • Francesca, with regret - For being the weaker candidate out of the remaining three, lacking a firm grip on her financial records, and for raising concerns on scaling the operation to larger sizes and handling it.
• Notes:
  • Unusually, Jordan's "walk of shame" scene and taxi interview were edited out of the final cut of episode. This was most likely done to highlight Lord Sugar's seriousness when it came to his investments.
  • Despite Neil's steadfast determination that he could make his plan work, the potential for failure was too overwhelming and his refusal to allow any changes left Lord Sugar with no choice but to decline his business offer. Lord Sugar was incredibly disappointed in Neil, seeing that such a promising candidate had been let down by a horrible business plan. While he said that he would have given Neil "a job tomorrow" if the series plan was still looking for an apprentice, Lord Sugar labelled him "the right man with the wrong plan" before firing him with regret.
  • Despite Jordan having arguably the best track record, this was not even brought up in the interviews or boardroom. It was also not brought up that Francesca was the only candidate not to win as project manager.
  • Despite putting her through to the final, Lord Sugar expressed moral issues around Leah's proposed business plan, and only put her through to the final upon her insistence that she would not make profit out of consumers unnecessarily.
  • Right before firing Francesca, Lord Sugar noted that the decision could be regretted in the future.
  • Lord Sugar put Leah into the final, leaving Luisa and Francesca, and Lord Sugar then decided that Francesca hasn't shown Leadership skills, and that she wouldn't be able to scale it into a large business.

Week 12: The Final

• Air Date: 17 July 2013
• Finalists: Luisa and Leah
  • Leah's Team: Leah (Project Manager), Alex, Uzma, Francesca and Myles.
  • Luisa's Team: Luisa (Project Manager), Jason, Neil, Zeeshaan and Natalie.
• Task: Finalists launch their businesses, coming up with brands and campaigns.
• Task Review: Luisa's plan was to set up a website intended to sell to members of the baking trade, while Leah intended to set up a chain of cosmetic surgeons. Leah came up with the name "Niks" for her business, though none of her team liked it, and later Francesca and Myles found out that the public linked it to skin cuts, forcing Leah to change it , though to "NIKS" since it was already printed on all the products; Leah was noted to be more harsh on her team-mates in this task. On the other hand, Luisa struggled to think of a name for her business and so accepted Zeeshaan's suggestion of "Baker's Toolkit." Furthermore, both candidates featured themselves prominently throughout their launch campaign, and in their promotional videos. Luisa became focused more on preparing samples than rehearsing her presentation, and so noticeably stumbled at several points in it, even breaking down in tears afterwards; while the overall content was felt to be quite good, the attending industry experts were a little concerned that it seemed to be aimed exclusively at women, and targeted at consumers than trade customers. Leah's presentation ran much more smoothly, though was felt to be a little dry and corporate by those in attendance; there were still questions about the brand name, while it was noted that it was a very difficult market for her to get into, even if it was rapidly growing and popular. Despite these issues, both Leah and Luisa were noted to be obviously knowledgeable about their chosen industry. One of Leah's major criticisms from the interviews still remained, which she denied as being a "morally wrong" service being delivered, and repeated her stubbornness, denying Lord Sugar on a number of points. In the end analysis, he felt that Luisa and her plan had a lot of small problems, but noted that going into the baking industry wouldn't be especially risky while the profit margins would be quite low. On the other hand, he felt that Leah's overall plan was a lot more polished and that there were fewer problems, but that the cosmetics industry was an extremely risky one to go into, even if the profit margins would be extremely high. In the end, Lord Sugar felt that the risks involved in Leah's business would be worthwhile, and named her as his new business partner.
• Runner-Up: Luisa - For a mediocre presentation, offering far lower profit margins than desired, and for raising concerns about her giving her full attention to her business.
• Hired: Leah - For a better overall execution of the final task, and for offering much bigger profits with her business.
• Notes:)
  • Unlike past Apprentice finals where the finalists' teams were chosen via a draft, here the two finalists were allowed to call any of the candidates from this series and hire them to work in their teams. Notably, Neil was the only member of Luisa's team who she actually wanted to hire, as all the other candidates that she wanted were hired by Leah first, leading to her ending up with a team who she largely did not have confidence in; she was particularly concerned about Jason and Zeeshaan, though in the boardroom she admitted that both had been effective team members.
  • In her presentation, the concern about Luisa's target market being exclusively for women, came down to the logo, website and whole decorations she used, being all shades of pink. Meanwhile, in Leah's presentation Francesca began thing by performing a rhythmic ribbon dance routine.
  • On the You're Hired show after the episode, Luisa apologized to Jason about Week 8, having looked back on the footage.
  • Despite her victory, Lord Sugar did have some concerns about the fact that Leah dismissed any criticisms of her presentation and business idea getting out of hand, as well as the risks involved in the industry. On the other hand, Luisa was praised for appearing more mature in the final and for blossoming over the process, and even when Luisa admitted to delivering a bad presentation, Lord Sugar rejected the claim stating that he had not noticed her losing her way during the speech.

Ratings

Episode viewing figures from Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).^[3]

Episode No.	Airdate	Total viewers (millions)	BBC One Weekly Ranking
1[4]	7 May 2013	7.25	7
2[5]	8 May 2013	6.64	8
3[6]	15 May 2013	7.22	4
4[7]	22 May 2013	7.69	2
5[8]	28 May 2013	6.88	2
6[9]	5 June 2013	7.29	2
7[10]	12 June 2013	7.81	3
8[11]	19 June 2013	7.48	4
9[12]	26 June 2013	7.30	5
10[13]	3 July 2013	7.53	5
11[14]	10 July 2013	8.24	1
12[15]	17 July 2013	6.74	2
Series average		7.34	N/A

Note: During the 2-hour final, the show was shared with the The Apprentice: You're Hired, and as a result the figures are lower than usual. The first hour was the main show whereas the second hour was You're Hired.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The Apprentice (UK)

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Sir Alan Sugar

• The Apprentice (UK series nine) at BBC Online

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