It's been a week since the 2018 season of The Apprentice launched in trademark awful-yet-wonderful fashion. I wasn't planning on doing a blog as I watched the first episode, so do excuse a lack of content and analysis on this occasion. As the series goes on, I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say and be a lot quicker saying it...
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The Apprentice 2018 kicked off in the only way it possibly could: boys versus girls, a Project Manager being hounded into leadership by her colleagues (who, of course, withdrew their support when the going got tough), half of the 16 candidates receiving minimal screen-time because The Edit could not allow more, horrendous blunders finding their own special spot in the Apprentice history books, the winning team rising victorious by default and celebrating like they won the World Cup, and someone ultimately bidding the series farewell before they could even get going.
It's cringe-worthy, it's horrendous, and it's TV gold. Personally, I think that either the standard of contestants has been dropping or the agenda of the edit has been changing over the latest The Apprentice series, because the hopelessness of those participating hit an all-time low last year. Nevertheless, Lord Sugar - who was beginning to get too sweet last season, with his weekly mantra of "last chance, last chance" and his hiring of TWO sub-par candidates - seems to have read the reviews. The ringmaster appears on a sort of mission to save his show with harsher criticisms, thought-out decisions and a no-nonsense, no-time-wasting approach. Week One last Wednesday was highly promising.
People are going to keep tuning into this show whatever the candidate quality. It's part and parcel of the business-based reality contest that some of the characters are going to be there for the drama, the disasters and/or the fame. You only have to look at the number of ex-hopefuls who have danced straight off to Celebrity Big Brother to work that one out. But The Apprentice is a timeless format, full of tasks that never get old thanks to the horrendous errors of those participating, and the cutting one-liners of those running the show.
The process kicked off the series with the Nine Items task - which usually makes an appearance much deeper into the show, and is a clear audience favourite. It was like Christmas come early for many loyal fans, and it was a smart move: Get viewers hooked from the first moment, and give more candidates a chance to get some lines in. When your team has to split in two and hurtle round a certain location - in this case, Malta - looking to get required products as cheaply as possible, there's no real opportunity to withdraw from participation.
That said, it's still hard to match names to faces after a single one hour broadcast. While it's only a real issue for those writing reviews, 16 faces are and will always be far too many people to keep track of - especially considering the fact that most of the guys, with their bland coloured suits and shorter hair, are particularly difficult to differentiate. The girls' tendency to dress up and occasionally display a piercing or two makes them easier to tell apart. An eyebrow piercing features this year, and it's particularly distracting - although does nothing to identify the woman in terms of a name. She's just The One With The Eyebrow Piercing, the same as Kayode Damali - the overly-enthusiastic, overly-self-confident Project Manager of the boys' team - is The One With The Earrings.
This task is incredibly basic, which makes the face-palm moments all the more wonderful. For example, the girls' ability to purchase the same product twice - with both teams finding a way to blame each other - was vintage Apprentice non-communication, and Alex Finn's negotiation of a single cent off a couple of drinks left many speechless (for all the wrong reasons.) As one of four candidates aged 22-and-under - unusual for the show, which has never witnessed a winner under the age of 24 - 20-year-old Finn will need to up his game in order to stay afloat. Several of the guys came across as un-creative, unhelpful seat-warmers (see 'actor' Kurran Pooni and 32-year-old David Alden), but those who were less in the limelight could prove to be strong contenders. In Week One, the contenders are so many and the minutes so few that the less lines you have, the more likely it is you did a good job - as the producers will always be more interested in the epic fails. Given that the boys' team generally got along well, whether they were agreeing correctly or incorrectly, it was hard to distinguish who had clear potential.
The girls took centre stage, which had a lot to do with the fact that they narrowly lost (thanks, in part, to one of the sub-teams arriving back late.) Jasmine Kundra, 34, had been nominated by and virtually forced into Project Manager-ship by Canadian contestant Jackie Fast, and several of the team - various ones of whom bickered at liberty throughout the task - quickly jumped onto the trend of blaming the loss on the 34-year-old. Because, let's be honest, nominating oneself as PM in week one is a virtual death sentence. Sugar's cop-out is to fire the leader for 'poor management'.
His lack of harshness being questioned last season may have made the AMSTRAD founder more careful about his first firing this year. Still, it was mother-of-two Khadija Kalifa who potentially threw Kundra a lifeline by stating, prior to the final boardroom, that she felt 34-year-old Fast had chucked Kundra under the bus a little at the beginning of the task.
Kundra opted to bring Fast and 29-year-old Sarah Byrne with her into the final showdown - with Byrne's sub-team leader, Sian Gabbidon (an avid Apprentice-watcher who comes across as a bit sneaky), fortunate to avoid the bottom three.
Ultimately, Kundra carried herself with dignity throughout the boardroom, spoke calmly - as she did throughout most of the task - and all-in-all came across as level-headed and rather impressive. Fast, who seems skilled in passing the blame onto anyone but herself, was less easy to warm to and seemed on the brink of elimination, but Byrne - one of an increasing number of northerners on the show, whose lip augmentation and loud voice got more attention than her general performance - eventually got the boot, having been brought in for her divisive behaviour. It was a meaningful move from Sugar, to fire a candidate who could easily have shrugged off responsibility for the loss of that particular task, but was not going to win the show in a million years.
As a couple of the businesses he has previously invested in continue to struggle, Lord Sugar might be starting to look at the bigger picture now, instead of just orchestrating a good TV show.
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As a side note, I watched the audition tapes for every candidate ahead of Wednesday's premiere, and I noted down Jasmine Kundra and Jackie Fast as potential winners. Several of the male candidates also looked promising. The guys have been generally weak over the last couple of series, with female candidates dominating the later stages, and it's about time that they should step up and provide a first truly notable name since Joseph Valente.
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