Who else is absolutely loving The Apprentice Series 19? Because I know that I certainly am, and last night was no different.
Tasked with creating and selling to big name retailers their very own Easter egg, we witnessed a variety of responses.
Of course, Jana Project Managed his team as previously ordered by Lord Sugar, and Melica chose to put herself forward for the other side. I was a little bit disappointed by Melica as PM because I thought she'd bring more to the task than she ended up doing – it's not that she did a bad job, she just didn't shine like I hoped she would have done, but in the end her team ended up getting the win, so from a wider perspective it doesn't matter too much.
Their luxury 'egg' actually looked quite good in the end in my opinion, and the minty green colour with white chocolate striped across the top was pleasant from an aesthetic perspective, plus looked quite nice to eat, however different from competitors which was a strong USP.
Regarding 'Ed's Easter Egg' (thank you for saving us from that one, Jonny) the egg itself was a disgrace and very much looked like a children's competition for the best decorated egg. I was a bit surprised that nobody was talking about the 'shop' green screen background on their promotional video as I personally found it very off putting and it certainly didn't look professional.
My favourite quote of the night goes to Amber-Rose, for after having it pointed out to her that unique was spelt wrong on her flashcards, the only response was 'oh, nice'. Top tier comedy.
In fact, Amber-Rose was one of my stand-out candidates of the night, coming up with what I thought was a brilliant name – Choco-lux – for her team's brand, as well as directing their promotional video and creating the whole concept for it.
My second top performer for this episode was Keir, for starring in the promotional video and also doing a great negotiation to sell 750 more units to a client.
Also a word of acknowledgement for Dean, coming up with his team's idea for their chocolate log flavour, which turned out to be surprisingly popular – he is quickly cementing himself as a very strong contestant.
Of course, Mia managed to secure 80 000 units to Tesco, which was very impressive, but I do feel like it was a situation where whoever was lucky enough to head up the deal with them was going to walk away with the same amount, and not necessarily down to her negotiation skills alone.
Something that I found very interesting in last night's episode was the fact that Mia mentioned back at the house after the boardroom that there could be a triple firing, however no names were mentioned...I'm very intrigued to find out who she thought should have gone on that task.
The sales numbers for both teams weren't really great (although of course, there was a big difference in sales even between the two) however I think that was mainly down to the products being horrific.
The fact that the 'space' eggs sold 9000 units can be a source of hope to every aspiring entrepreneur in life for many years to come – if it was me, once I'd seen the product I would quickly have changed the idea from planet to asteroid and sold it off as an interesting space themed catastrophe! At least there would have been consistency between the product and the branding message.
Can we also take a moment to appreciate that iconic child that said the egg didn't make him feel like he was in outer space? This episode easily produced one of the best consumer research moments across all series' for me.
Overall this felt like quite a messy task, and not just physically. It felt like everyone was a bit all over the place and there was no clear direction given, or vision for what they wanted to achieve, topped off by Jana announcing his exit from the process which seemed under very strange circumstances.
The all important question though, should a firing have taken place?
Judging on the whole task, it was the fairest thing to not fire anybody last night because it wasn't anyone's finest hour, and if Jana had remained he would almost definitely have been the person in the firing line anyway.
Personally I would have considered the possibility of getting rid of Chisola – I really like her, however that's two weeks in a row now that she's messed up; first by miscalculating the sausages causing a large overspend, and then this week by adding the sprinkes which made their egg look a complete mess. I would like to see her put herself forward as PM soon and witness how she performs in a leadership situation under pressure.
Also, Anisa putting herself forward to be subteam leader when she couldn't be Project Manager made my night – she just can't get enough of it! It's a risky game she's playing, but ultimately, what's the point of being there if you aren't prepared to take risks?
I don't know about you, but that episode has certainly placed me in the mood to go and raid the shelves of Easter eggs ready for spring itself...who's with me?
BBC's The Apprentice airs on BBC1 every Thursday evening at 9pm.
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