Category Archives: The Apprentice

The Apprentice

Katie Hopkins nearly in Big Brother 1

It has emerged that everyone’s favourite Apprentice contestant took part in a trial run of Big Brother seven years ago – the year the very first Big Brother aired in this country! 

The two week trial stint is often done before the actual show to make sure the house is live-able, and in some years those that take part go on to be stand-bys for the actual show (if someone drops out) and, in some cases, actually appear in it.

Big Brother 1, of course, featured “Nasty” Nick. I wonder how Katie would have sorted him out? Perhaps she’d have been the hero of the whole show? “Nasty” Nick, if you remember, was thrown out for writing things down on bits of paper which ISN’T ALLOWED in the BB house. (Oh alright, he was trying to sway people’s voting…)

Apprentice’s Katie Hopkins was in Big Brother

On The Apprentice? Get A Website!

In previous years of The Apprentice, almost all contestants suddenly spring up websites that celebrates how great they are, what fantastic money-making schemes they’re involved in, how they didn’t want to be The Apprentice anyway... So, as the latest series has just finished, let’s take a look at what the current crop are up to, web-wise.

Simon Ambrose‘s site features a cool dude – not Simon – holding a globe and doing a thumbs up in a wacky Paul McCartney kind of way. Cheers mate!

Kristina Grimes is ultra clever, she’s clearly making a lot of money with those pay-per-click ads! Oh wait, it’s a parked domain…

What’s pantomime villan Katie Hopkins got? She’s gone down the same route as Kristina… I thought they were bitter rivals, but who knew they shared a mutual appreciation for PPC ads?

Tre Azam does much better, his website is actually about his company, IDMM. However, he loses marks by using his official photo from The Apprentice as his photo on the site, although he’s added his company logo in the background…and it looks like he’s going to be engulfed by a lot of smoke any second now…

Lohit Kalburgi is a relief! Go to his website and you see his lovely smiling face. Find out his thoughts on the show! What he’s doing next! His mobile number! (Not really)

Naomi Lay has quite a few pop-art style photos of herself (and one of Sir Alan, how flattering!) but, much more interestingly, has a blog for her time in The Apprentice. Worth a read if you want a behind-the-scenes perspective.

Week 8’s casulty, Ghazal Asif, tries to show that she means business with a harsh grey background to her site, but is a girly-girl at heart – wow, that’s a bright pink colour! Oh hang on, scratch what I said about business. Her “Let’s Talk Business” doesn’t feature anything, but will be up and running soon.

Jadine Johnson has another parked domain, the rotter! Although the top ad on it does state “Get Laser Eye Surgery Like Simon Ambrose”. He’s helping to shift products by association already!

Your favourite carsalesman and mine, Adam Hosker, has acquired some serious glasses for his website, and he now means BUSINESS. Or something. I don’t know what he actually means, because he doesn’t say much on his site. But he does get a few points for getting new photos of himself done, and not merely using the one from the show.

Katie’s one-time paramour Paul Callaghan has decided to go into wedding photography. Interesting career move. Oh, alright, it’s not the same one Paul Callaghan. Can’t find a website for him. Shame on him! That’s a business opportunity wasted, you’re fired! Oh, he already is…

Natalie Wood has a more personal touch on her website, with lots of talk about her (one of her middle names is Tryphina!), her studies and her babies. Aww…

Dr Sophie Kain‘s website is called “Sugar Kain”. Oh ha ha, I see what’s he’s done there. BUT she does do a well-written commentary of each episode (sadly, not beyond episode 8 – yet, I hope!) and provide interesting insider comments so well worth a read.

Gerri Blackwood is perhaps trying to market herself to the pre-tweens? “Funky” music accompanies her website (luckily, you can turn if off) with cartoon stars heading different sections. I actually like this site, quite chatty and fun. Not sure about the weird brown background though.

Rory Laing has gone down the tried-and-tested domain parking route, but with a different provider. Zzzzzz… Come on, you could be talking about your “famous” spats with Tre!

Ifti Chaudhri‘s website, much like his appearance on The Apprentice, is permanently “coming soon”. Ho hum. Was he even really “on” The Apprentice?

Now, by looking at this website, I think – thinkAndy Jackson might have made it himself. And that’s not just because I heard him on Radio 1 saying so. But judging by his press and business pages, he seems like a busy lad so I’m not going to hold that against him.

The Apprentice Final

Simon, The Apprentice    Kristina, The Apprentice

So, down to the last two candidates – 36-year-old Kristina Grimes, a pharmaceutical sales manager, and 27-year-old Simon Ambrose, an “Internet Entrepreneur”. (Although quite frankly, who isn’t?) 

What exciting task would Alan Sugar come up for them to prove their worth in the final battle? He’s apparently recently required a building on London’s South Bank for £120 million (ooh, the show off!) that he plans to develop. The job for each candidate, therefore, was to come up with – in four days – a conceptual idea of a new building for that space, and present that idea to a roomful of “property experts”.

And, as always, the final sees former contestants come back to help with task. After being re-introduced to them, two teams formed: on Simon’s there were Tre, Jadine, Lohit and Rory, whilst Kristina found herself with Paul, Adam, Natalie and Naomi.

The first day on this final task seemed very chilled out. Both teams went on school field trips. Naomi and Adam went to the Science Museum. Lohit, Rory and Jadine talked about nature at Kew Gardens. Simon and Tre went to the Aquarium and even brought Mummy Margaret Mumford along for the ride. I joke! They weren’t on field trips, they were doing “research” of course… Of course, silly me.

But down to the nitty gritty: designing buildings. Both teams ended up with initial ideas that were subsequently scrapped. Simon (in strong collaboration with bestest bud Tre) came up with a ship design. With much persuasion from Rory, and in discussion with the proper architects the next day, this was changed to a building consisting of three waves. Kristina’s team thought up a “long building” with two angels at either end, also changed to a big spikey-shaped thing (im my eyes, anyway) that was supposed to symbolise a phoenix rising from the ashes. Or something. (In reality, a brand-spanking new building replacing an old one. Ahh, see what you’ve done there. Clever.)

So, blah blah blah, they both made presentations to Sir Alan and his assembled property experts. And the next day, back it was to the boardroom for the final decision. The interesting thing about this task was that there was no way to clearly judge the winner; no “X made a profit of £500, Y made a profit of £1000”.

I thought both contestants had fair claim to becoming The Apprentice, both had positive and negative points throughout the entire series. Certainly in the final task, they performed equally well. Both were likeable – unlike, say, the Series 1 Final, where quiet and calm Tim was up against gobby Saira.

They were also quite different: Kristina being the more mature, having more business experience, and being a very good salesperson. Simon seemed incredibly enthusiastic in most task, and at his young age would be more easily moulded into what Alan Sugar wanted of an apprentice.

So, who won? Simon! The halls of Amstrad will be a much brighter place with his colourful socks…

Katie…You’re Fired

So despite potentially being hired by Alan Sugar, it now turns out that The Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins has actually been fired from her real job. Although working at The Met Office since September 2006, she has been let go as she “failed to pass her probationary period”. So nothing to do with her behaviour on a popular TV show, or her selling her love life to the tabloids then? I expect they’re all at it at The Met Office. Selling stories to the tabloids, I mean*…I’m not trying to imply anything else…

*Not really

It took me an absolute age to come up with the title of this post. Let’s see, she was on The Apprentice and she’s now been let go from her real job…”Katie, please go to your desk and pack up your things”? “Apprentice contestant no longer working for the weather people”? No, I seem to be missing something very obvious…

BBC News: Apprentice contender Katie fired

The Apprentice’s Katie Hopkins – Her Story

So, only four days after walking out of the The Apprentice (okay, so a lot longer in real life, but only four days since the episode of her turning down a place in the final aired), Katie Hopkins tells her side of the story in the News of the World in an article titled I’m 10 Out Of 10 In Bed.

Well, when I say “her side of the story” I mean her story of lots of romantic liasons and “romps”. So this is a woman who is supposedly incredibly clever; has a high-powered, high-earning job; and would have been a finalist on The Apprentice. And now she seems to be making some kind of career out of having lots of affairs and talking about them? Hmm, classy.

One saving grace, however: they’ve involved her in a semi-glamourous photo shoot and FINALLY wiped off that hideous 80s make-up. The woman’s 31 years old! Who on earth still wears sky blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick?!

News of the World

The Apprentice Episode 11 AKA The Katie Hopkins Controversy

Ahh, the episode in which three (count ’em, THREE) people get fired in one go. There was no task this week, as such, but instead a “gruelling” interview process which saw each candidate being grilled by three top businessmen. I’m never a fan of this task…whilst undoubtedly it’s a great way to test each candidate, it doesn’t really make for great telly. And hey, The Apprentice is a television program, I want to be entertained!

So, nothing particularly interesting from the interviews themselves. Nor the feedback given to Sugar. Lohit was the first to go – unsurprisingly. Nice, but not quite Apprentice material. Tre was also fired for his personality; a bit too temperamental at times. But Tre was fired AFTER Sir Alan had said that Katie was in the final…and this is the controversial part of the episode.

Now, I’m not a Katie fan at all, and certainly wouldn’t have picked her to go into the final if I was Sugar. Genuinely, I  believe that Kristina and Simon are better candidates. But she was one of the people Sir Alan picked, so be it.

But then what happened was rather extraordinary. About to decide on the other finalist, Alan Sugar noticed Katie “didn’t act like someone just chosen to be a finalist”. (I’m slightly paraphrasing there.) Quite caring of Alan, all of a sudden. Katie then decided that she wasn’t 100% sure whether or not she’d be able to uproot herself and her two young kids, as well as her “support network” (family, I presume) from her current home to London. Fair enough, I assume that that’s not a decision to be made lightly. But what I don’t understand is why she had only just come upon this realisation at that point. If she really was someone so driven, someone so capable and suitable for the job, surely this was something to have considered a long time ago. Why be in the show if don’t believe you’re going to be chosen as The Apprentice?

So really, Katie wins all round. She was actually chosen to be a finalist, but she made the choice to turn it down. And now she’s the only one that can truthfully say she could have been The Apprentice, because we will never know for sure what would have happened had she been in the final.

And all this talk of her doing it for publicity, and a way in for a career in media. Hell yes. I don’t doubt that for a second.

The Apprentice Episode 6

Sir Alan showing off again this week, that little rascal. This week’s task – given to the teams via video as he “couldn’t be there in person” was preceded by his boast that he has sold in every country in the world. Really? Don’t remember any Amstrad goods in Croatia… Anyways, the task was to sell typically English produce to French, in a small market town. Each team was given a list of suppliers of traditional English food, and given a day to buy all their stock and get over to France for selling the next day.

One team decided on marmalade & jams, tea and smoked fish. The other chose sausages, cheese and chutney. Oh yeah, and that’s cheese from Makro the famous producer of English products, otherwise known as a cash-and-carry. Needless to say, these giant slabs of English cheese didn’t go down well…especially not a country so famous for its cheese as France! And also needless to say, they lost. That’s Army Paul, Posh Katie, Schoolboy Adam, Gobby Kristina and Quiet Ghazal getting a bollocking from Alan Sugar. Team leader Paul chose Adam and Kristina to go back in the boardroom with him. There was no way Kristina could have been fired at this stage, as she was infinitely better on the task than either Paul or Adam. Adam seems to be doing his hardest to do as little as possible in each task, so goodness knows how he’s survived this long. But Paul, alas, got fired because he just made too many bad decisions. No doubt he won’t be hurrying back to a Makro any time soon.

Adam went back to the house after to be greeted in stone cold silence as none of the other housemates expected – or wanted – him back. I think he might – might – now realise what the others think of him. Katie – rumoured to have had a relationship with Paul – was surely the least impressed!

The Apprentice: Episode 3

Ooh, I was expecting this episode to be exciting! I thought the idea of giving each team £200 to start their own business – any business (well, two in fact, one daytime, one nightime) – for the day was a good one. Except neither team came up with a particularly good idea. The boys did gardening and didn’t realise how much hard work it would involve or how to appropriately charge people; then pontificated for ages about what to do during the evening, and ended up being singagrams. The girls did face-painting for children. Except it was term-time and there were no kids about! At night they became kissagrams. And at £1 a kiss, they were hardly likely to see the cash rolling in. End result: boys win.

So yeah, not the best episode. Although they did show a bit of the romance between Katie and Paul. Well, when I saw “a bit of the romance” I mean she put her head on his shoulder (this image was on the front cover of Heat yesterday – talk about scraping the barrel!), and there was a shot of them walking arm in arm. Wowee.

The Apprentice: Episode 2

So the task this week was to design a doggy accessory, and pitch it to three pet-store type retailers. Both teams seemed to struggle for ideas – the girls even considering a good nappy at one point (ooh, how practical…!) – before deciding on a doggy cabinet (girls) and a body pouch for carrying everything you need when you take your dog for a walk (boys)…otherwise known as pockets, or perhaps a bag.

The girls team won by basically selling their item in quantity to the major pet retailer with nearly 200 stores in this country. The boys got minor sales, but only to retailers with one store each. A lesson in there for all of us, ladies and gentlemen.

 So what did we learn from this episode?

  • Tre is easily the most annoying contestant, possibly ever – mouthy and argumentative, and with very few redeeming features
  • If you’re going to miss your family a lot (and hey, I don’t doubt that that’s very possible), it’s probably not a best idea to go on a reality TV show and do so publicly and then do NOTHING of note and get booted out early on
  • Related to the above point – in my experience, if people brag about how much money they’re going to have by the time they’re XX…they’re spending too much time talking about it, and not enough time making it!
  • Don’t underestimate Sir Alan. EVER. He’ll do crazy things like fire TWO people in the same show! Wow!

Next week’s task sounds very interesting. Each team gets given £200, and told they can do anything…as long as they make a profit. Seems like one team was “out of control”….hmmm, I wonder what they sold?