Review: BBC's The Apprentice Is Back

The search for Lord Sugar's new business partner, has begun.

*Note: this article contains spoilers for The Apprentice Season 19, Episode 1.*

Last night the candidates were thrown straight into the deep end, being given the challenge of planning and delivering their own tours in Austria – with one team being sent into the forest, and another team up the glaciers, the task began.

Anisa was a great project manager for me, and even though her team lost abysmally, I think we can safely agree that it was not her fault – she displayed just the right mix of authority and giving her colleagues autonomy to deal with decisions themselves – ultimately proving disastrous, but she had the right idea. They also did surprisingly well with giving their guests a good time, despite the fact that they were landed with yodeling and tree hugging for their tour.

On the glacier team Amber Rose brought high levels of energy, and the decision to prioritise fun over facts was one that I think candidates should prioritise more often in this process, because it clearly worked out well for them.

On the forest team Jana was the stand out dealmaker, negotiating well to get the prices for the tour down, but what a shambles from the selling team – I don't remember ever seeing anyone sell only six tickets for a tour, especially not at a loss. Carlo seemed to actually understand business which is always refreshing to see on a business programme, but unfortunately the respect from the others of his ideas was not up there. I feel like Melica could become a strong candidate later on in the process, possibly even making it to the final.

I have mixed feelings on Nadia – on the one side, she seems far too outgoing and opinionated to make it too far, and yet she also reminds me a lot of Marni Swindells, a previous winner, therefore could she be a dark horse in this race? Only time will tell.

The quote of the episode for me was 'why are we selling to a ninety year old?' A valid question when you're advertising bike tours, but not the smartest move to blurt out in earshot of your potential customers.

This year has already given us a slight change of format which I'm not sure how to feel about. On the one hand, the project manager not bringing back two members of the team during the final boardroom and instead cutting straight to the chase certainly meant that there was more chance of a fair firing, however for viewers at home it definitely decreased the suspense, taking away a little bit of that thrill factor that makes the show so appealing.

Splitting up the teams randomly as opposed to by gender during the first task worked well and I would be behind this happening every season, as I think it really helps to dispel those gender cliques that invariably creep in throughout the first few weeks.

Of course, the most important question to ask is: did Lord Sugar make the right decision in his firing? For once, I one hundred percent agree with his choice – Emma Rothwell didn't bring anything to the team, and didn't offer much in a way of defense during the boardroom. It will be interesting to see whether or not the rest of the candidates take on board Lord Sugar's cryptic advice – he appreciates those that put themselves in positions of leadership during the first few tasks. So, will more candidates step up to the plate to lead the AI based challenge next week? We'll soon find out, because 'the search for Lord Sugar's next business partner, continues.'

The Apprentice is aired every Thursday evening at 9pm on BBC1.