The Apprentice 2018: Who got fired? Who was Project Manager? The weekly results
How much profit did the candidates make? Who was in each team? What did Lord Sugar say?
Total sales: £61,600 (which, as Karen put it, was “almost entirely due to Jackie”)
Team Typhoon
Project Manager: Sian – with, Camilla, Daniel, Khadija, Tom, Sabrina
Total sales: £86,603
The treat
An Irish dance lesson at Pineapple Dance Studios
The boardroom
After discovering they’d lost the task, Team Collaborative turned on each other in a big way. While project manager Jackie was blamed for the side’s poor shoe design, Jasmine clashed with Rick over the latter’s briskness in front of customers and Kayode was faulted for ignoring customer questions.
Kurran, Rick and Sarah Ann were all accused of not contributing enough to the task.
While fingers were pointed in all directions, Project Manager Jackie attempted to bring back Kayode and Kurran to the final boardroom.
However, while the three candidates waited outside, Lord Sugar decided he wasn’t happy with Jackie's choice. “I don’t know,” he told Karren and Claude. “I’m not happy. So many accusations between Rick, Kurran and Sarah Ann. I just don’t understand who did what. You know what, I’m going to sort this out.”
Lord Sugar then asked for the whole losing team to return to the boardroom. After recognising Jasmine had made a sale, he sent her back to the house.
Next, Sugar turned to Kayode, questioning why he didn’t make a single sale in the task. “It’s just like in football: strikers can score in every single game for 10 games. Unfortunately, for the 11th one he might break his run,” Kayode replied. “I broke my run. I’m definitely going to be back on it again.”
After deciding Kayode had done enough in previous weeks to stay in the process, Sugar sent him back to the contestants' house.
Jackie received a similar verdict from Lord Sugar: “[The shoes] didn’t end up a good product. End of story. Having said that, you sold 50 odd grand of them yourself. I think you warrant a chance.”
However, Kurran wasn’t let off so easily, with Lord Sugar telling him: “Nobody’s got a good word to say about you!”
Fortunately, Kurran saved himself from the firing finger with one last plea. “Lord Sugar, you’ve got the power to make a project manager, so that everyone listens to me, so that I can make the decisions, I can do the innovation and that I can actually lead for once,” he said. “I want to prove them all wrong.”
This was enough to see Kurran survive another week, with Sugar instead opting to let Rick go. “My instinct tells me you’re not for this process,” said Lord Sugar, before declaring, “Rick, you’re fired.”
Turning to Kurran, Sugar finished off the boardroom by saying: "Kurran, you are going to be the next project manager, come hell or high water! Do you understand? I don’t care what the bloody task is, you are doing it. Then you’re able to demonstrate what your skills are and whether you can lead people.”
Good luck next week Kurran. You’re going to need it.
Week Four: Bodybuilding expo
PMs, the teams and the money
Team Collaborative
Project Manager: Sarah Ann – with Kurran, Rick, Jackie, Jasmine, Kayode, Tom
Home sauna sales: £1389
Services and additional merchandise: £503.50
Total sales: £1892.50
Team Typhoon
Project Manager: Sabrina – with Sian, Camilla, Alex, Daniel, Khadija
Gym equipment sales: £1369
Services and additional merchandise: £269.99
Total sales: £1638.99
The treat
A boxing training session with David Haye
The boardroom
On bringing Sian and Alex back to the final boardroom, Sabrina said the loss laid with the service sub-team, who failed to sell enough spray tans at the expo.
Sian, the service team leader, didn’t agree. “I think the problem is that Alex made no sales and you had a high-end product that you didn’t sell enough of,” she said.
Defending his non-existent sales record on the task, Alex said, “I didn’t get the opportunity [to sell]. The next task I will be PM and I’ll win it.”
He told Lord Sugar he had a “millionaire mind-set” and was a “natural salesman”, but had just been “at the wrong place at the wrong time”.
“You weren’t put in the wrong place. You were in the smack bang right place!” disputed Lord Sugar. “You were in the exhibition that specialises for bodybuilders with bodybuilding equipment. I couldn’t have set it up better for you!”
Sugar followed this up by pulling out his firing finger, swiftly eliminating Alex from the process.
Week Three: Doughnuts
PMs, the teams and the money
Team Collaborative
Project Manager: Tom – with Kurran, Rick, Frank, Sarah Ann, Jackie, Jasmine
Ingredient costs: 469.56
Sales: 537.64
Total profit £68.08
Team Typhoon
Project Manager: Camilla –with Alex, Daniel, Kayode, Khadija, Sabrina, Sian,
Ingredient costs: £543.98
Sales: £765.02
Profit: £221.04
The Treat
A game of human curling at Queen’s skating rink
The Boardroom
After his second loss of the process, Project manager Tom brought back Jasmine (for not selling enough product as sub-team leader) and Frank (for becoming panicked in the doughnut kitchen).
“Frank was the one that didn’t contribute ideas,” Tom told Lord Sugar. “He did draw me away from being productive and that was the reason I brought him in here. Everyone else weighed in more.”
Although Frank admitted there “might have been a time I snapped”, he said the doughnut fryers creating a stressful situation.
Jasmine, however, blamed the project manager for the side’s failings. “Every single decision that Tom made had to be on a vote,” she explained. “Tom’s ideas are not his own – he doesn’t actually come up with any of those ideas.”
But it was Lord Sugar who had the final word. “Frank under pressure you become a bit snappy, a bit emotional – you need to be a bit more level-headed,” he said.
“Your project manager doesn’t think you did anything, you narrowly escaped last week.
“I have to assess who I think could be my potential business partner. Frank, you’re fired.”
Week Two: Interactive comics
PMs, the teams and the money
Girls Team
Project Manager: Khadija – with Camilla, Jackie, Jasmine, Sabrina, Sarah Ann, Sian
Magazine distributor orders: 3,750
Online distributor orders: 750
High street retailer orders: 10,000
Total orders: 14, 500
Boys Team
Project Manager : Frank – with Alex, Tom, Daniel, David, Kurran, Rick, Kayode
Magazine distributor: 750
Online distributor: 200
High street retailer: 0
Total orders: 950
The treat
The girls scaled new heights at Chelsea indoor climbing centre Clip 'n Climb.
The boardroom
Lord Sugar couldn’t resist kicking off the boardroom with a (very ill-advised) pun on the boy’s cosmic comic: “Gentleman, this whole story is set in space, a bit like ET. Well, it is like ET because one of you will be going home today.”
First off, David blamed PM Frank’s restrictive brief for the failure of their comic book story: “The issue that I’ve got is that we had from Frank the brief that said we have to be in outer space and we have to have a superhero.”
However, Frank said the blame was all David's, replying: “Because you said you were creative, I gave you the role of sub team leader. But I didn’t want to babysit [you], I wanted to have free rein!”
Kurran, who was criticised for his pitching style, also rounded on Frank: “You failed to inject any creativity into this comic. You made the catastrophic decision to halve our market by applying only to boys.”
However, it was David’s naivety that cost him a place in the competition. “David, you go into a pitch and read out the negative parts of your own product. You’ve got no business acumen," said Lord Sugar. "And for that reason, David, you’re fired.”
Week One: The buying task in Malta
The PMs, the teams and the money
Girls Team
Project Manager: Jasmine – with Camilla, Jackie, Khadija, Sabrina, Sarah, Sarah Ann, Sian
Spend: €191
Fines: €738.48 (the team bought seven out of nine items, but purchased one object past the deadline and failed to reach the airport in time)
Total spend: €929.48
Boys Team
Project Manager: Kayode – with Alex, Tom, Daniel, David, Frank, Kurran, Rick
Spend: €128
Fines: €636.68 (the team bought seven out of nine items, but got an actual octopus instead of the diving equipment of the same name. Plus they only purchased two out of six bottles of wine)
Total spend: €764.68
The treat
It was back to the house for the boys for a Maltese feast cooked by David Darmanin, who was raised in the country
The boardroom
Lord Sugar was not at all impressed with the losing team. He told them: “Ladies, it was the first task, but basically it was a very simple task. If you would have negotiated better, if you were on time, there was a chance that you would have beaten them."
Jasmine then opted to take Sarah and Jackie back to the boardroom. "I made some difficult decisions and stepped up when nobody else was prepared to make those decisions and some of the information I was given meant that we failed the task," Jasmine said.
Disputing this, Jackie then bellowed at Jasmine: "The fact that you have brought me in here clearly highlights that this is way out of your depth!" Jackie was then quietened by Lord Sugar aide Karren Brady, who said: "you can get your point across without shouting."
When asked by Lord Sugar why Sarah had been brought back, Jasmine replied that she wasted time by being disruptive.
“I was disruptive at one point, but it was just a disagreement and over within about two minutes," said Sarah. "It will never ever happen again.”
Sarah then accused Jasmine of talking down to her – “I don’t know why, but you seem to think you’re better than me and that’s why I’m in here.”
However, it was Lord Sugar who had the final say: “Sarah, you’re impatient, argumentative…All a bit of a problem for me. I have to make a decision based upon who I believe has got the capability for progressing in this process. Sarah, you’re fired."
The Apprentice continues on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC1
The Apprentice 2018: meet the candidates
Authors
Thomas is Digital editor at BBC Science Focus. Writing about everything from cosmology to anthropology, he specialises in the latest psychology, health and neuroscience discoveries. Thomas has a Masters degree (distinction) in Magazine Journalism from the University of Sheffield and has written for Men’s Health, Vice and Radio Times. He has been shortlisted as the New Digital Talent of the Year at the national magazine Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards. Also working in academia, Thomas has lectured on the topic of journalism to undergraduate and postgraduate students at The University of Sheffield.
