Thursday evening saw viewers from across the UK tune in to watch Episode 7 of BBC's The Apprentice, where the candidates were tasked with creating and pitching their own application for children to learn more about banking. It was a task which felt like they'd been set up to fail from the get-go as Dean's subteam created an addictive – yet not very educational – game which caused the potential investors to worry about how much time a child might be spending on screens each day.
On the other team, Jordan stepped up as Project Manager for the first time, and despite the editors doing their utmost to convince those at home that he was leaving within the first few minutes, he managed to pull through with positive feedback from the investors.
Jordan created an educational quiz that was also fun for the children to test themselves each day, and him and Chisola did a wonderful job in saving their pitch which took a rather dreadful turn at the beginning as Liam suddenly forgot how to present. Jordan stood at the front laughing while Liam was struggling to remember his lines was a highlight of the episode for me, as was Amber-Rose's backstage facial reactions as she watched her team encounter the ups and downs of pitching...spoiler, there were many downs to it including my favourite moment when Liam interrupted Jordan to tell the investors that they might think children would find their product boring!
The team changes made this week definitely evened out the sides a lot more, and I know you've heard me say it before with Keir, but surely Amber-Rose is making interviews with her performances so far this series?!
Dean was a joy to watch in the boardroom and it felt like his true character shone through as he humbly admitted his mistakes and simply said that he had more to show Lord Sugar before leaving the process. Plus, the points he made about feeling like he created the game entirely on his own were valid – Anisa and Melica tried to contribute, but ultimately they both just kept saying the same thing and not offering anything new.
Dean brought out the quote of the episode with 'you can't bankrupt a 6-9 year old', however Jordan is very close behind with 'my back hurts from carrying the team through this task'!
Then of course, the important question is, should there have been a double firing, and did the right two go?
Frederick should definitely have been fired in my opinion – he was the Project Manager and didn't offer anything towards his team's money box, and didn't put himself on the app team which was arguably the most important part of the task – Jordan's team had a pretty rubbish money box but still got a significant amount of investment due to how good their app was.
It just felt like Frederick didn't really bring much to his team as a member, let alone PM, and the whole thing ended up a train wreck.
In my opinion Anisa should have been on the pitching team as she has proved herself at pitching in the past with her pop-star creation of 'Bami', and also would have offered a different perspective having been involved in the application creation team. She is also a very confident speaker therefore there wouldn't have been Liam type problems in placing her on the pitching team.
Mia did not perform well this episode and completely missed the mark with the target age range for her puppy money box, however I think it was clear from the beginning that Lord Sugar was never going to get rid of her.
Importantly, should Keir have been fired?
Absolutely not, it was 100% the wrong decision and quite a strange one, given the fact that Frederick did not want to bring him back into the boardroom anyway, and Keir has consistently proved himself to be one of the strongest candidates throughout the process, doing well in almost everything he has taken a role in, especially being a standout seller, which is what business is all about.
To be honest it felt like Lord Sugar had just decided before the first boardroom of the episode that he wanted Keir gone as there was no obvious reason he should have been fired, and he had an outstanding track record. But that's how unfair this process can be sometimes.
With the first double firing of the series having taken place, will we see one more before the penultimate week? Only time will tell.
'The search for Lord Sugar's next business partner, continues...'
The Apprentice is aired on BBC1 at 9pm every Thursday evening, and is available to watch on catch-up via BBC iPlayer.
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