The Apprentice (UK series four)

The Apprentice UK

◄ ►  Series Four

The Candidates Name Left Show       Lee McQueen Week 12 Claire Young Week 12 Alex Wotherspoon Week 12 Helene Speight Week 12 Lucinda Ledgerwood Week 11 Michael Sophocles Week 10 Raef Bjayou Week 9 Sara Dhada Week 8 Jennifer Maguire Week 7 Jenny Celerier Week 7 Kevin Shaw Week 6 Lindi Mngaza Week 5 Simon Smith Week 4 Ian Stringer Week 3 Shazia Wahab Week 2 Nicholas de Lacy-Brown Week 1 Hired Runner-up Fired

Series Four of The Apprentice (UK) was a British reality television series, which was won by Lee McQueen. The series began on BBC One on 26 March 2008, and ran for twelve weekly episodes. Auditions and interviews are reported to have taken place during the first two weeks of July 2007 in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol. A record 20,000 applications were received.

Sir Alan Sugar reprised his role as the boss, and Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford again served as his advisers. 'Frances', Sir Alan's boardroom 'receptionist', also returned. The show's spin-off, The Apprentice: You're Fired!, was again hosted by Adrian Chiles. Filming of the first episode of The Apprentice: You're Fired! took place on 25 March 2008. TV presenter Jennifer Maguire also participated in this series.

Production

Production of the fourth series took place in September and October 2007. On 19 October 2007, filming took place beside One Canada Square with candidates seemingly advertising an "Aston Martin Roadster Experience".

The candidates were based in an impressive 7,000-square-foot (650 m²), £5million warehouse conversion in Candahar Road, Battersea. The luxury duplex conversion, The Glass Factory, is owned by ex-Formula One racing driver Johnny Dumfries, the seventh Marquess of Bute.

Candidates

See also: List of The Apprentice candidates (UK) series four

There were sixteen candidates taking part in this series, and they were initially separated into two teams by gender. The women chose the name Alpha for their team, while the men named their team Renaissance.

Candidate	Background	Original team	Age	Result
Lee McQueen	Recruitment Sales Manager	Renaissance	30	Hired by Sugar (06-11-2008)
Claire Young	Senior Retail Buyer	Alpha	28	Fired at the end of the Season Finale (06-11-2008)
Helene Speight	Global Pricing Leader	Alpha	32	Fired in the middle of the Season Finale (06-11-2008)
Alex Wotherspoon	Regional Sales Manager	Renaissance	24	Fired in the middle of the Season Finale (06-11-2008)
Lucinda Ledgerwood	Risk Manager	Alpha	31	Fired in week 11 (06-04-2008)
Michael Sophocles	Telesales Executive	Renaissance	22	Fired in week 10 (05-28-2008)
Raef Bjayou	Entrepreneur	Renaissance	27	Fired in week 9 (05-21-2008)
Sara Dhada	International Car Trader	Alpha	25	Fired in week 8 (05-14-2008)
Jennifer Maguire	Marketing Consultant	Alpha	27	Fired in week 7 (05-07-2008)
Jennifer "Jenny" Celerier	Sales Manager	Alpha	36	Fired in week 7 (04-30-2008)
Kevin Shaw	Bank Manager	Renaissance	24	Fired in week 6 (04-30-2008)
Lindi Mngaza	Business Liaison Manager	Alpha	22	Fired in week 5 (04-23-2008)
Simon Smith	Engineer	Renaissance	35	Fired in week 4 (04-16-2008)
Ian Stringer	Software Sales Manager	Renaissance	26	Fired in week 3 (04-09-2008)
Shazia Wahab	Mosaic Artist and Company Director	Alpha	35	Fired in week 2 (04-02-2008)
Nicholas de Lacy-Brown	Trainee Barrister, Artist and Property Developer	Renaissance	23	Fired in week 1 (03-26-2008)

Weekly results

Elimination chart
Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Lee	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	HIRED
Claire	WIN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	BR	BR	IN	BR	BR	IN	FIRED
Helene	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Alex	LOSE	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	BR	IN	WIN	IN	IN	FIRED
Lucinda	IN	BR	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	FIRED
Michael	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	BR	BR	BR	FIRED
Raef	BR	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Sara	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Jennifer	IN	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Jenny	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Kevin	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	FIRED
Lindi	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Simon	IN	IN	BR	FIRED
Ian	IN	IN	FIRED
Shazia	IN	FIRED
Nicholas	FIRED

     The contestant was on the losing team.

     The contestant was hired and won the competition.

     The contestant won as project manager on his/her team.

     The contestant lost as project manager on his/her team.

     The contestant was brought to the final boardroom.

     The contestant was fired.

     The contestant lost as project manager and was fired.

Challenges

Week 1

• Project Managers: Claire (Alpha) and Alex (Renaissance)
• Task: Both teams were given a van containing £600 worth of seafood and a choice of London market locations from which to sell. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: Alpha had decided early in the day to set-up their seafood stand in Islington. The women had difficulty in identifying seafood and correctly pricing them, as customers bombarded their stand before they had even begun. Despite this, the team managed to sell large orders to groups of people, increasing their earnings. Alpha made a profit of £153.98.
  • Renaissance: The team wasted a lot of time deciding on their team name and leader, and didn't get started until just before midday. They also decided to set-up in Islington. Like Alpha, Renaissance struggled to identify seafood. Nicholas had priced the seafood incorrectly, making them much cheaper than what they should have been. The lobsters were selling for less than a quarter of the recommended retail price. The team lost even more money when Michael panic-sold £100 worth of fish for barely half that amount. Renaissance made a profit of only £32.69.
• Winner: Alpha, by £121.29.
  • Reward: Dinner cooked by Michelin-starred chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Brought into the boardroom: Alex, Nicholas, and Raef
• Fired: Nicholas, for incorrectly pricing the fish, poorly defending himself in the boardroom, and admitting that he was unable to get on with "less educated" candidates.

Week 2

• Project Managers: Jenny (Alpha) and Raef (Renaissance)
• Task: Both teams were given use of an industrial laundry for the night. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result:The teams sourced business from a variety of customers including a hotel, a fishmonger and homeowners.
  • Alpha: The team had problems setting a reasonable price, attempting to charge the hotel £4,990 for £200 worth of washing, and the fishmonger £15 for £60 worth of washing. In addition, they were late getting started and hadn't finished by the end of the night. They suffered problems due to mix-ups with customers' clothing, including two lost items for which they were fined £50 in the boardroom. This was blamed on Shazia, who had the task of keeping track of items, but left early in an unsuccessful attempt to get hold of the steam irons at the house, which Renaissance had already removed. Alpha made a profit of only £195.55.
  • Renaissance: The team targeted large companies to service for. They made big earnings from the companies and finished their washing and pressing before the laundry had to close. No articles of clothing were lost, meaning no penalties, and the team made £328 exactly.
• Winner: Renaissance, by £132.45.
  • Reward: Tea at The Ritz.
• Loser: Alpha
  • Brought into the boardroom: Jenny, Lucinda, and Shazia
• Fired: Shazia, for leaving the laundry early and allowing items to get mixed up. Although Jenny made many major errors, including being appallingly rude to her team, Sir Alan did not want somebody messing up something easy such as handling clothing. The majority of the You're Fired studio audience disagreed with the decision.

Week 3

• Project Managers: Sara (Alpha) and Ian (Renaissance)
• Task: Both teams had to devise and run a themed food day in a pub with no previous history of serving food. The teams were given a list of wholesalers to use. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: Alpha chose a Bollywood theme. The team managed to arrange all their printing for free. They had to cancel their lunch service due to the food not being prepared properly, but their strategy of selling admission tickets for £5 that were redeemable against dinner, as well as their better purchasing decisions, meant that they were in profit before they had even served a meal. Alpha made a profit of £604.27.
  • Renaissance: Renaissance chose an Italian theme. But they ran out of time and had to resort to purchasing their supplies from Tesco, resulting in substantially increased food costs. They produced 200 flyers at £1 each. The team took more money, but because of cost overruns they made only £301.97.
• Winner: Alpha, by £302.30.
  • Reward: Cooking lessons at the Eckington Manor Cookery School in Eckington, Worcestershire.
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Brought into the boardroom: Ian, Kevin, and Simon
• Fired: Ian, for his "disastrous performance" as project manager, and for trying to deny that Kevin had given a pep-talk to the team in Ian's stead.
• Notes:
  • For the first time this season, Sir Alan chose the project managers.
  • Late in the day, Kevin brought all of Renaissance outside the pub for a motivational talk. In the boardroom, Ian bizarrely attempted to deny that such a meeting ever took place, despite it being recorded on camera and Kevin and Simon insisting that the meeting did in fact happen.

Week 4

• Project Managers: Helene (Alpha) and Simon (Renaissance)
• Team Reshuffle: Kevin, Lee, and Raef move to Alpha. Claire, Jenny, and Sara move to Renaissance.
• Task: Running a photography business in Bluewater shopping centre. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: Alpha hired a David Beckham lookalike. Communication issues between the shop floor and the production room caused lost orders for the team. Alpha had problems operating their computer, caused mostly by Helene assigning Lucinda to work the computer despite her lack of technical knowledge and then refusing to allow anyone else to swap in for Lucinda when it became clear she couldn't do the job and were unable to meet the orders. Alpha made a profit of £145.10.
  • Renaissance: Renaissance opted for a "glamour and beauty" theme. Like Alpha, communication issues caused lost orders, only they were hurt seriously. Simon clashed with his teammates about ideas, particularly him insisting to have people take pictures in public. Renaissance made a loss of £73.81.
• Winner: Alpha, by £218.91.
  • Reward: Dinner aboard a luxury yacht, on trip to the Isle of Wight.
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Brought into the boardroom: Alex, Claire, and Simon
• Fired: Simon, with regret, for being out of his depth. The majority of the You're Fired studio audience disagreed with the decision, although Simon himself said that he deserved to be fired.
• Notes: Claire was ordered out of the boardroom shortly before the firing, after constantly attacking Simon and refusing to admit any wrongdoing in the task. Sir Alan told her that she would be leader of Renaissance in the next task, and strongly implied that she would be fired if they did not win it.

Week 5

• Project Managers: Lucinda (Alpha) and Claire (Renaissance)
• Team Reshuffle: Kevin moves to Renaissance to even the teams at six candidates each.
• Task: Both teams had to develop three new flavours of ice cream at farms that specialised in making ice creams, and then choose two to sell direct to the trade market in London. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: Alpha decided on "Avocado and Chili" and "Toffee Apple" flavoured ice creams after a focus group meeting. Their orders included those from a group of pubs and a those from a cinema chain that Renaissance had sold to first, but the manager decided to take Alpha's ice cream instead. However, Jennifer and Lindi decided to target ice cream shops that in fact made their own ice cream, believing that they could sell to them anyway, meaning that many of their scheduled sales appointments proved to be dead ends and resulted in no sales. Alpha made a profit of £1,273.64.
  • Renaissance: After arriving 30 minutes late to their focus group and finding nobody there, Renaissance's market research came from two drinkers at a local pub, who opted for "Very Berry" and "Cider and Elderflower" (nicknamed "Scrumplelicious") flavours. They struggled at first, even having a major deal broken because the cinema chain preferred Alpha's, but eventually secured a large order from a designer restaurant at the last minute. Renaissance made a profit £1,455.45.
• Winner: Renaissance, by £181.81.
  • Reward: A helicopter trip to Bowood House in Wiltshire.
• Loser: Alpha
  • Brought into the boardroom: Jennifer, Lindi, and Lucinda
• Fired: Lindi, for her poor sales strategy, cancelling appointments, and violating the task rules by promising exclusivity to potential buyers.
• Notes: Sir Alan said in the boardroom that if Alpha had won the task, he would have disqualified them and handed victory to Renaissance due to Alpha's sales to the cinema and pub chains being done on an exclusive basis, as the whole point of the task was to open up new sales for the farmers, which would be limited by the exclusivity deals.

Week 6

• Project Managers: Michael (Alpha) and Kevin (Renaissance)
• Team Reshuffle: Michael joins Alpha.
• Task: Create a new "occasion" for a range of greetings cards to pitch to prospective retailers, namely Clinton Cards, Tesco and the Celebrations Group. The team that makes the most sales wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: The team came up with the idea of a "National Singles' Day" to be held on 13 February, and produced a range of cards intended as an alternative to Valentine's Day cards for single people. Alpha's first two pitches were relatively unsuccessful due to objections over the date, and so Michael chose to remove it from their final pitch, which was to the Celebrations Group. Celebrations ordered 19,500 cards, while Clinton Cards and Tesco ordered 1,500 each, for a total of 22,500 cards.
  • Renaissance: Jenny suggested an environmental card, and effectively forced it on the team by not doing any research for their other ideas. The retail buyers questioned whether environmentally conscious consumers would want to express their views by sending a card, and Kevin's aggressive pitching alienated Celebrations and in particular Clinton Cards, who accused him of "preaching" to them after he likened their unenthusiastic reception of the cards to the U.S. not doing enough to combat global warming. Kevin's pitch to Tesco was less aggressive and secured an order for 6,000 cards, but neither of the other two retailers ordered any at all.
• Winner: Alpha, by 16,500 cards.
  • Reward: A private piano recital from Myleene Klass.
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Brought into the boardroom: Claire, Kevin, and Sara
• Fired: Kevin, for his mismanagement, poor sales pitching, and his decision not to bring Jenny into the boardroom.
• Notes:
  • This episode saw the start of Renaissance's major losing streak; from now until the end of the series, they did not win a single task.
  • Back at the house, Sara was the subject of a heated debate between several candidates - primarily Lee, Jenny and Alex - over her perceived laziness. Lee was shown to heavily criticize Sara. Raef was the only one shown on screen to jump to her defence on this matter (Claire, while not specifically defending Sara, pointed out that Kevin was the one to blame for the loss), although it has been said that Lucinda also defended her off-camera.
  • Michael spent 3 hours debating the correct way of spelling "National Singles' Day," and more specifically where the apostrophe in "Singles'" should go.

Week 7

• Project Managers: Lee (Alpha) and Jennifer (Renaissance)
• Team Reshuffle: Sara moved to Alpha, whilst Jennifer and Michael moved to Renaissance.
• Task: Buy a set list of items in the marketplaces of Marrakesh, Morocco. The team that spends the least wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: Alpha had difficulty in finding items, particularly Lee, Lucinda, and Sara. Helene and Raef got the cow hide for an amazingly small amount. The Santos orange juicer was given to them second-handidly, but they bought it off the tourists for a fair price. Alpha collected all ten items without penalties, spending only £413.61.
  • Renaissance: Renaissance, not paying attention to the dossier, bought a white mosque alarm clock instead of a green one, and didn't realize their mistake until later. Alex, Claire, and Jennifer then found a green one. Jenny and Michael attempted to sabotage Alpha by offering a sports store a bribe if they would incorrectly string a tennis racket that Alpha were in the middle of purchasing; however the store's employees refused to accept the bribe. Renaissance spent £449.60, but penalties were given for purchasing unbranded tagines and a halal chicken instead of a kosher chicken. The £153.99 penalty brought their total amount to £603.59.
• Winner: Alpha, by £35.99 without the penalties, and by £189.98 with the penalties.
  • Reward: Hot air balloon flight around Leeds Castle
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Brought into the boardroom (first time): Alex, Claire, Jenny, Jennifer, and Michael
    • Fired: Jenny, for lying about the Kosher chicken fiasco in an effort to get Michael fired, and for attempting to sabotage Alpha's efforts to buy a tennis racket, which she also lied and told Alex that she and Michael were involved in "espionage".
  • Brought into the boardroom (second time): Claire, Jennifer, and Michael
    • Fired: Jennifer, for failing to control the team in the task, for rushing to get to the marketplace, and for not paying attention to the dossier.
• Notes: This episode marked the first occasion where more than three people remained on the team, but the project manager was not allowed to choose the two candidates who would also face Sir Alan in the final boardroom. After Jenny's firing, Alex was sent back to the house, as Sir Alan considered his mistake (purchasing the unbranded tagines) to be the least serious of Renaissance's errors, and a second and final boardroom session took place.

Week 8

• Project managers: Lucinda (Alpha) and Helene (Renaissance)
• Team reshuffle: Claire joins Alpha, Sara and Helene join Renaissance.
• Task: Select and sell wedding dresses and accessories at a wedding exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The team that makes the most money wins.
• Result:
  • Alpha: On Raef's recommendation, Lucinda chose to go for dresses by high-end designer Ian Stewart, and this secured them their accessory choice of bridal lingerie. Alpha sold three dresses for a total of £5,105 and £647.24 worth of lingerie, making overall sales of £5,752.99.
  • Renaissance: Despite Michael and Sara recommending the Ian Stewart dresses, Helene refused to consider them owing to their high price and instead went with a mid-range supplier that sold much cheaper dresses. They also wanted to sell the bridal lingerie, but lost out to Alpha and so instead went with wedding cakes, which had been Michael and Sara's first choice. Renaissance sold five dresses for a total of £1,925, but failed to sell any cakes, mainly due to Michael and Sara's highly aggressive sales technique.
• Winner: Alpha, by £3,827.99
• Reward: Luxury spa visit.
• Brought into the boardroom: Helene, Michael, and Sara
• Fired: Sara, for her argumentative manner towards everyone, her inability to listen to others, and her general lack of contribution to the tasks in previous weeks. A majority of the You're Fired! audience disagreed with this decision, though like Simon, Sara said that she did deserve to be fired.
• Notes:
  • While Sir Alan told Helene that she lost the task right at the start by deciding to go for cheap dresses, he actually assured her that she would not be fired due to her good track record in previous tasks; this was removed from the transmitted episode, though.
  • After Sara's firing, Sir Alan appeared to be on the verge of firing Michael also, however, he and Helene were sent back to the house.

Week 9

• Project managers: Alex (Alpha) and Raef (Renaissance)
• Team reshuffle: Raef and Claire are moved to Renaissance, and Alex is moved to Alpha.
• Task: Create a new brand of tissues along with television and print advertisements, then present them to a panel of advertising executives. The team deemed to have created the best ad-campaign wins.
• Result: Renaissance created a smart aesthetic design for their tissue box, branded "I ♥ my tissues". Michael and Raef were meticulous in directing their television advert, and hired weather forecaster Siân Lloyd to appear. Crucially however, in the editing suite their advert proved to be too long, and most of the material showing the product itself was removed in order to bring it down to the required length. In contrast, Alpha's efforts with both their tissue box design and advert were deemed relatively poor, and Lee was ill-prepared for their presentation. However, their brand name, "Atishu!", was praised, and their overall campaign was deemed to be attention-grabbing and gave a very clear message about the product. This secured their victory in the task.
• Winner: Alpha
• Reward: An after-hours shopping spree at Harvey Nichols (London).
• Brought into the boardroom: Claire, Michael, and Raef.
• Fired: Raef, for losing focus of the requirements of the task due to his artistic flair, and for editing out the close-in of the product in the commercial (Sir Alan said that he had concluded Raef, with all due respect, was nothing but 'hot air'). The majority of the You're Fired studio audience disagreed with the decision.
• Notes: Siân Lloyd's involvement in Renaissance's advert was criticised for having little relevance to the product or the events in the advert, and also for the very brief duration of her appearance in the edited version. Lloyd herself admitted to the camera being unsure why she had been cast as a mother, considering she is single and has no children. Renaissance's brand name was also criticised by Sir Alan, who said he could not imagine anyone "loving their tissues".

Week 10

• Project managers: Lee (Alpha) and Michael (Renaissance)
• Task: To select and rent out a set of luxury sports cars. The team that make the most money, by rental, wins.
• Result: The teams had a chance to review the available cars, before the project managers had to choose two for rental sale. Renaissance decided to choose the Ferrari and Spyker. Alpha chose the Aston Martin, and the risky and rare Pagani Zonda, with a price tag of £2,750 for just one day of rental. Claire and Helene had almost no difficulty attracting customers for the Spyker, but it was Claire who made the sales. Michael fruitlessly searched around for customers to rent the Ferrari, with one customer almost taking the offer. Alex and Lee struggled to find customers, but Lee eventually made deals to a few. Lucinda struggled as she wasn't good in sales. She asked Alex and Lee to help her, but they stuck with the Zonda. Lucinda tried to sell rental of the Aston, but mistook it for the Zonda, and sold nothing. At the square, Claire and Michael got a few more buyers, but for hours not days. Claire and Helene saw that Alex had booked one customer for a full-day on the Zonda. Lee helped Lucinda in the selling, and Lucinda finally made a sale. Renaissance made sales of £2,114, almost all of which was earned by Claire (Michael sold about £200 worth, while Helene did not make a single sale). Alpha made sales of £11,815, with Alex contributing £8,000, Lee £3,400, and Lucinda £65.
• Winner: Alpha, by £9,701
• Reward: Wine tasting at a Mayfair hotel.
• Brought into the boardroom: Claire, Helene, and Michael
• Fired: Michael, for his consistent attempts to take advantage of the other candidates, and for his poor track record of appearing in the final boardroom four times in a row.
• Notes:
  • Six luxury sports cars were featured, namely the Koenigsegg CCX, Pagani Zonda S, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Spyker C8, Aston Martin V8 Vantage and Ferrari 360 Spider.
  • Lucinda's victory on this task meant was her eighth overall, tying her with James Max from Series One as the most successful candidate.
  • Helene came perilously close to being fired due to her failure to make any sales, but was saved by the fact that Sir Alan felt she had been one of the strongest candidates prior to her three-week losing run, and decided to give her a chance in the interviews.

Week 11: Interviews - Semi Finals

• Semi-Finalists: Alex, Claire, Helene, Lee, and Lucinda
• Task: The five remaining candidates undergo a sequence of intense interviews by four of Sir Alan Sugar's business colleagues. The interviewers then report their impressions of the candidates back to Sir Alan to help him choose the finalists. The four interviewers were Paul Kemsley, a property developer; Claude Litner, Sir Alan’s former “global trouble-shooter”; Karren Brady, the managing director of Birmingham City Football Club; and Bordan Tkachuk, the chief executive of the computer and IT firm Viglen, one of Sir Alan’s companies.
• Result: Claire was accused of being too talkative but otherwise got the best reports from the interviewers, with Karren Brady even offering to employ her if Sir Alan did not. Lee was considered to be a good all-round candidate, but got caught off-guard when asked to do a humorous impression by Paul, which backfired when he was told this demonstrated he did not seem to take the interview seriously. He was also reprimanded for exaggerating on his CV, lying about his length of time at university. Helene was also considered to have a good set of skills, but faced criticism for not having demonstrated any progression in work outside of her current company, and was accused of having a poor attitude after she repeatedly made insulting remarks about the other candidates. Alex continuously came under fire, with his CV being highlighted as boring. While he argued that this was because he was only 24 years old, both Karen and Paul insisted that this was not an excuse, stating that they had achieved more than him by his age. However, he did earn some praise for his accomplishments as a salesman, particularly the fact that he had managed to earn a living purely from sales commission. Lucinda got the worst reports, as she was praised for being intelligent, but heavily criticized for being a "handful". The interviewers questioned her motives for wanting the job, and felt that her teamwork skills were weak. In the end, the interviewers agreed that Claire was the front-runner, but there was no clear consensus on who should be in the final with her. As a result, Sir Alan fired Lucinda, the only candidate who everyone agreed was totally unsuitable for his organization, and put all of the other four candidates through to the final.
• Fired: Lucinda, with regret, for being "too zany", having a degree unrelated to business (in aroma therapy) , and because there were doubts over how much she desired the job.
• Notes: During the boardroom, Alex obnoxiously brought up the subject of Lucinda's lack of desire towards wanting the job, which may have led to Sir Alan's decision to fire her. Also, only one candidate was fired, despite the fact that Sir Alan had previously said that three people were going to get fired. This was because he felt that all of the four finalists were worthy of the job and wanted to put them through one last test to help him with his final decision. In the episode, Lucinda was not shown to be fired with regret. However, in the Why I Fired Them episode, she was.

Week 12: The Grand Finale

• Finalists: Alex, Claire, Helene, and Lee
• Task: Develop an original fragrance for men, and then market it at an industry event.
• Teams:
  • Renaissance: Alex and Helene with Jennifer, Kevin, and Raef
  • Alpha: Claire and Lee with Jenny, Michael, and Simon
• Results:
  • Renaissance: The team struggled for name ideas, and it was eventually left to a product designer to suggest a bottle design, which eventually evolved into their brand, DUAL. While the design of the DUAL bottle was innovative, including a detachable smaller bottle, it was more expensive to produce and therefore not fitting the given retail price of £29.95. Despite the major error, the experts loved the smell of the fragrance, which smelled of caramel and chocolate, although it was also pointed out that it was a (seemingly accidental) copy of a fragrance that Helene normally wears, Angel.
  • Alpha: Alpha named their fragrance R0ULETTE, playing on associations with gambling and James Bond. They replaced the 'O' on the name with a '0', representing the 0 on a roulette wheel. R0ULETTE was criticized by both an industry representative and Sir Alan, as likely to be unpopular with women buyers due to the gambling connotation. The experts also stated the fragrance was "retro 50", as in "boring". Sugar expressed that although Claire's question and answer skills were excellent, it does not help sell fragrances.
• Winner: Alpha, Claire and Lee proceed to the final two.
• Loser: Renaissance
  • Reason: Although Alpha's name and theme of R0ULETTE were unpopular with some women, Renaissance's budgetary problems caused by the DUAL bottle design were felt to be a more serious flaw, resulting in Alpha being once again named the winner of the task.
• Fired: Alex and Helene, for making the bottle unreasonably expensive and therefore losing the task, plus the following additional reasons:
  • Alex, for his overly defensive nature, for failing to show skills aside from selling, and for having the least impressive employment record of the final four candidates.
  • Helene, for her highly negative attitude throughout the process, for taking a backseat during the first day of the final task, and for trying to shift responsibility for the bottle's price onto Alex.
• Runner-Up: Claire; Sir Alan complimented her on the improvement she had shown over the course of the series, but expressed doubts about whether he'd want to work with her in the long-term.
• Hired: Lee, who was viewed by Sir Alan as "very resilient" and "very convincing". Sugar also was impressed that Lee improved his presenting skills by "100%".
• Notes:
  • Throughout the entire season, Renaissance only won two tasks, while Alpha won nine. Alpha holds the record for the most wins, and Renaissance holds the record for the most losses.
  • This is the first time two candidates were fired simultaneously. Usually Sir Alan would fire one candidate and then proceed to fire a second candidate.
  • Lee's joint victory with Claire in the task meant that he also equalled the then record of eight wins overall, tying Lucinda from this series and James Max from the first series. It was also his sixth task victory in succession (not counting the interviews), tying the record which Max also held. In Series 7, Helen Milligan broke this record by winning nine tasks in a row (and ten tasks overall.)

Related programmes

To date, four additional hour-long specials have accompanied Series Four; The Apprentice: Worst Decisions Ever, The Apprentice: Motor Mouths, each revisiting candidates from the previous three series and two candidate profile programmes entitled The Apprentice: The Final Five and The Apprentice: Why I Fired Them .

An Apprentice version of the Weakest Link also accompanied the series, with major characters from all four series competing for their chosen charities. The contestants were (in order of elimination):

• Kevin Shaw (Series 4)
• Paul Torrisi (Series 1)
• Katie Hopkins (Series 3)
• James Max (Series 1)
• Ian Stringer (Series 4)
• Tre Azam (Series 3)
• Jenny Celerier (Series 4)
• Kristina Grimes (Series 3)
• Jo Cameron (Series 2)

Jo defeated Kristina in the final and donated £11,550 to her chosen charity.

Ratings

The show had gradually been increasing in popularity since it began, but this series proved to be a major ratings success. Every episode finished in the top ten of the BBC One Weekly Ranking, and the series finale became the first-ever Apprentice episode to be the BBC's top-rated programme of the week. Moreover, it was the BBC's third most successful series of the year, beaten in audience numbers only by EastEnders and Doctor Who.

Episode Viewing figures from BARB.

Episode No.	Airdate	Total Viewers	BBC One Weekly Ranking
1	26 March 2008	6,730,000	8
2	2 April 2008	6,730,000	9
3	9 April 2008	7,320,000	6
4	16 April 2008	7,430,000	5
5	23 April 2008	7,850,000	5
6	30 April 2008	7,280,000	5
7	7 May 2008	7,170,000	5
8	14 May 2008	7,110,000	6
9	21 May 2008	5,730,000	9
10	28 May 2008	6,840,000	6
11	4 June 2008	7,940,000	4
12	11 June 2008	9,290,000	1

External links

• The Apprentice at BBC Online