Sir Alan - You're fired! (The Apprentice)

Member Name: katykicker

Product:	The Apprentice
Date:	18/04/09 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great concept, cocky contestants, lots of arguing.

Disadvantages: Can get a little too bitchy.

The Apprentice is the ultimate job trial. 16 contestants are competing against each other for the chance to work for Sir Alan Sugar, founder of Amstrad and earn themselves a £100,000 a year salary.

The contestants are from various backgrounds and have each worked different jobs to one another and have various qualifications, thus prompting them to sometimes argue about who is the best qualified for a particular challenge or who has worked in the job role which has given them the most experience for the task ahead.

The 16 apprentices are normally split in to two teams of 8 to begin with and as the numbers deplete throughout the series Sir Alan will mix around the contestants to try and find those that work well with one another and those that don't.

Each week Sir Alan will call the apprentices together and set them a challenge for the days ahead which could be anything from washing cars to selling catering services and the team that makes the most actual profit (or the smallest loss) will win that weeks challenge. The winners of the weeks task will be provided with a treat which varies each week such as a Polo lesson or a Spa evening etc. The losing team will have to go in to the boardroom to face Sir Alan and justify why they should not be fired and who they think should be fired. This is the part of the show which can get very bitchy as contestants lie and back-stab one another to try and save their own skin.

I think the concept of the show is fantastic and you get to see different sides to people as well as seeing both sides of the story and therefore you can see who is actually lying and over the 12 weeks or so that the show is running I always find myself growing to favour some people over others. Some contestants will claim to have qualifications that they don't and some of them are just plain stupid and it's a wonder how they managed to get degrees and good qualifications?!

In the final week there will be two or three people left fighting for a place with Sir Alan's company and this is where things will really heat up as the challenges they face get much more difficult and the prize at stake is within their grasp (if they play their cards right).

There can only be one winner and inevitably my favourite each year (at the start) always gets fired within one or two episodes!

The Apprentice is shown on BBC1 at 9:00pm on Wednesdays and runs for one hour. It is followed by The Apprentice: You're Fired at 10:00PM on BBC2 which is a chat with the person who has been fired in that nights episode (filmed quite a while ago!).

Overall I am a massive fan of the show and will therefore be rating it 5/5. The concept of the whole thing is just fantastic and I love Sir Alan, he is just a comedy legend! He comes out with some great comments that not many people would really be able to get away with!

Summary: A highly addictive show which will have you crying with laughter at the sheer stupidity!