The Apprentice 2018

[Mantis]

Stopped watching this years ago too. It's just too repetitive nowadays, Alan Sugar is a total twat and I've decided that giving these people the oxygen of publicity is actually a really bad idea. Striving to be "that idiot off TV" is just awful, regardless of how amusing they are to laugh at. This show gave us Katie Hopkins for Christ's sake.

[Raid]

This show gave us Katie Hopkins for Christ's sake.

It did, and while I imagine exposure to Alan Sugar will probably have negative effects, there've been plenty of people on the show that haven't formed a career out of being a bigoted Edwin.

[Mantis]

Oh absolutely, but the last couple of years that I watched, they still seemed to lean more towards filling the cast with contemptible obnoxious twats. And quite frankly, I experience enough of that day to day at work to derive any joy out of it.

Not having a TV licence anymore has kind of scuppered my chance to watch anything on the BBC anyway since they locked iPlayer content behind the account system.

[Raid]

I suspect the format's enduring popularity is down to the fact that everyone has their own ideas about how they'd go about doing the tasks - it's a lot more involved than the talent competitions that follow a similar format. The fact that you get to laugh at idiotic decision making is just a bonus.

[Maturin]

Yep, at its heart it has a real-world aspect to it - especially in terms of how one should go about interacting with others to meet an agreeable solution to things. (Something which many of the candidates fail spectacularly at doing!)

Which rather sets it apart from other regular reality TV, despite the motivations of some of them. In fact, it's the only reality TV of any kind I watch.

Having said all that, it's nothing like the quality show it was in its first 2 or 3 series. There was in general a higher calibre of individual back then I think.

[Sly Boots]

I dunno. We started watching it within the past 5 years or so, but a year or two ago we went back and watched all, or nearly all, the series we'd missed. And to be honest there wasn't anything dramatically different then in terms of the calibre of contestants or the tasks. They were great, watching them all in fairly quick succession though I don't think things have really changed all that much.

[Raid]

I've been watching for nearly ten years now, and I can't honestly say I've noticed any change in quality. Perhaps it's just the fact that there's a year between series and my memory isn't amazing, but to me the contestants have always been at least a little... eccentric? Nobody would watch if they had serious business people; as with every show of its type the contestants are selected because they're expected to work well on TV.

Remember "Baggs the brand"? The guy who was constantly boasting, and then it got to the interviews and it turned out everything he'd said was complete bullshit? He was on the show in 2010, but he could easily have been among the contestants on any series since.

[Maturin]

Not for me; I definitely got a sense of there being a difference when it came to my perception of their overall capability and how they generally came across in a professional manner. Still had the odd buffoon, but they carried themselves differently I think.

I've watched several of the early episodes (2005-2008) on Youtube myself over the last year too.

[Sly Boots]

One of my favourite bits from the early shows, which we still quote now, was the Indian guy from somewhere in South London, strong London accent, on the phone with an Indian cash and carry looking for a particular product for the treasure hunt, and on the phone suddenly sounding like a guy fresh from the streets of Mumbai: (in full Indian accent): "You have seed for naan?" And the looks on the faces of the others

I still can't work out whether it was racist or not.

Maybe the idiot/chancer to decent prospect ratio has moved along the scale towards the former over the years, personally don't think it has been that much though.

[Rusty]

The biggest change, I think, is that Lord Sugar now invests in their business ideas, whereas previously they were offered a job in his company.

So they're not really apprentices any more. It's like a shit Dragon's Den

[Jez]

It was round about the point the job offer turned into an investment thing that I stopped watching.

[Rusty]

When they were nobodies applying for a job the antics they got up to rather matched their goals. They're all 'over-achievers' (well they act like they are) who don't care about getting one over on a direct competitor.

Now they should be like Dragon's Den apllicants and be professional and passionate about their business goals to entice an investment. Their antics now go against what I would constitute as competent business people. I would probably think I'd be losing my investment.

I would love to be fully behind the scenes to see how much staging/directing there is.

[Sly Boots]

When they were nobodies applying for a job the antics they got up to rather matched their goals. They're all 'over-achievers' (well they act like they are) who don't care about getting one over on a direct competitor.

Now they should be like Dragon's Den apllicants and be professional and passionate about their business goals to entice an investment. Their antics now go against what I would constitute as competent business people. I would probably think I'd be losing my investment.

I would love to be fully behind the scenes to see how much staging/directing there is.

Rational people can act like mongs in a group environment, particularly a competitive, pressured one and particularly when large egos are involved... even allowing for the fact each year they seem to have one or two proper loonies to ruffle a few feathers, outside of the show (such as on the after-show) most come across exceedingly well. I think the format of the show is as much to blame for how many of them come across on camera, but then that's what makes it entertaining for people like me who continue to enjoy it.

[Jez]

Entertainment orientated editing I suspect much of the time.

[Rusty]

Still love the squirmy interview stage though. That's the bestest bit.

It does show that lots of people lie on their CVs. I don't. Is that why I'm where I am now? I don't lie well?