The Apprentice (UK series six)

The Apprentice UK

◄ ►  Series Six

The Candidates Name Left Show       Stella English Week 12 Chris Bates Week 12 Jamie Lester Week 11 Joanna Riley Week 11 Stuart Baggs Week 11 Liz Locke Week 10 Laura Moore Week 9 Christopher Farrell Week 8 Sandeesh Samra Week 7 Alex Epstein Week 6 Paloma Vivanco Week 5 Melissa Cohen Week 4 Shibby Robati Week 3 Joy Stefanicki Week 2 Raleigh Addington Week 2 Dan Harris Week 1 Hired Runner-up Fired Resigned

Series Six of The Apprentice (UK) is a British reality television series. The series started on BBC One on 6 October 2010 and ran for twelve weekly hour-long episodes, as in all previous years. Following a web-based application, regional auditions and interviews took place during July 2009 in London, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham, about 75 candidates were called back for a second round in London and shooting took place in Autumn 2009. There are sixteen participants and the board consists of Alan Sugar, Nick Hewer and Karren Brady (in her first outing on the main 'The Apprentice' programme). The programme formerly featured Margaret Mountford, who stood down from the role in June 2009. However, she made a guest appearance in Week 11 as an Interviewer.

The series was won by Stella English, a 32-year-old investment banker from London. After winning, English worked at Sugar's company Viglen. Sugar subsequently gave her a new job at YouView in May 2011, after she complained of being "just a glorified PA" in her original position. English resigned from YouView in October 2011, leaving Sugar's employment altogether, claiming that she had had virually no contact with Sugar in her role. Previous series had begun in March but the 2010 series was postponed until the autumn by the BBC to avoid any issues regarding the general election and Lord Sugar's ties to the then government.

In the first task the apprentices had to make and sell sausages in London. Other tasks include opening a fashion boutique, running a bakery, selling crisps in Germany, designing and marketing a new cleaning product, treating unsuspecting tourists to open-top bus tours around the capital and inventing a new beach product. The candidates' house was located on Bedford Square in the heart of London's West End.

Candidates

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

Candidate	Background	Original team	Age	Result
Stella English	Head of Business Management	Apollo	30	Hired by Sugar (2010-12-19)
Chris Bates	Investment Banker	Synergy	24	Fired in the Season Finale (2010-12-19)
Jamie Lester	Overseas Property Developer	Synergy	28	Fired in week 11 (2010-12-15)
Joanna Riley	Cleaning Company Owner	Apollo	25	Fired in week 11 (2010-12-15)
Stuart Baggs	Telecoms Entrepreneur	Synergy	21	Fired in week 11 (2010-12-15)
Liz Locke	Investment Banker	Apollo	24	Fired in week 10 (2010-12-08)
Laura Moore	Business Development Manager	Apollo	22	Fired in week 9 (2010-12-01)
Christopher Farrell	Mortgage Broker	Synergy	28	Fired in week 8 (2010-11-24)
Sandeesh Samra	Recruitment Consultant	Apollo	26	Fired in week 7 (2010-11-17)
Alex Epstein	Unemployed Head of Communications	Synergy	26	Fired in week 6 (2010-11-10)
Paloma Vivanco	Senior Marketing Manager	Apollo	30	Fired in week 5 (2010-11-03)
Melissa Cohen	Food Business Manager	Apollo	27	Fired in week 4 (2010-10-27)
Shibby Robati	Surgeon and Business Owner	Synergy	26	Fired in week 3 (2010-10-20)
Joy Stefanicki	Marketing Director	Apollo	31	Fired in week 2 (2010-10-13)
Raleigh Addington	Unemployed Graduate	Synergy	22	Quit in week 2 (2010-10-13)
Dan Harris	Sales Director	Synergy	34	Fired in week 1 (2010-10-06)

Related press

Before the series aired, it was reported that in September 2009 contestant Christopher Farrell had admitted to two charges of possessing an offensive weapon after police discovered an extendable baton and knuckle-duster in his car following allegations he had hit his wife with one of the weapons. Farrell was re-arrested on 4 August 2010 and bailed until 27 October 2010 on charges of fraud with regard to alleged financial irregularities relating to a false representation made via cheque or credit card. Farrell was fired from his job at Mortgages4Plymouth over the alleged fraud and was believed to have gone into hiding in Spain. The Sun newspaper reported that Farrell had been sacked from a previous mortgage company in Saltash, Cornwall for misconduct after viewing internet pornography.

Contestant Joanna Riley was found to have been convicted for racially abusing three taxi drivers in October 2005 and it was also alleged that contestant Shibby Robati had received a string of complaints while working as a junior doctor for St George's Healthcare NHS Trust leading to a formal warning from the General Medical Council for "unprofessional behaviour".

Weekly results

Candidate	Original team	Week 2 team	Week 3 team	Week 4 team	Week 5 team	Week 7 team	Week 9 team	Week 10 team	Application result	Record as project manager
Stella English	Apollo	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Hired by Sugar	2-0 (win in weeks 2 & 8)
Chris Bates	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Fired in the Season Finale	1-1 (win in week 4, loss in week 8)
Jamie Lester	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Fired in week 11	1-1 (win in week 9, loss in week 4)
Joanna Riley	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Fired in week 11	2-0 (win in weeks 1 & 10)
Stuart Baggs	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Apollo	Fired in week 11	1-1 (win in week 7, loss in week 10)
Liz Locke	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo	Fired in week 10	1-1 (win in week 5, loss in week 9)
Laura Moore	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo		Fired in week 9	0-1 (loss in week 2)
Christopher Farrell	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy			Fired in week 8	1-0 (win in week 6)
Sandeesh Samra	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy			Fired in week 7	0-1 (loss in week 7)
Alex Epstein	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo	Apollo				Fired in week 6	0-1 (loss in week 6)
Paloma Vivanco	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo	Apollo				Fired in week 5	0-1 (loss in week 5)
Melissa Cohen	Apollo	Apollo	Synergy	Synergy					Fired in week 4	1-0 (win in week 3)
Shibby Robati	Synergy	Synergy	Apollo						Fired in week 3	0-1 (loss in week 3)
Joy Stefanicki	Apollo	Apollo							Fired in week 2
Raleigh Addington	Synergy								Quit in week 2
Dan Harris	Synergy								Fired in week 1	0-1 (loss in week 1)

Elimination chart
Candidate	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Stella	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	BR	BR	IN	HIRED
Chris	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	BR	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Jamie	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	IN	FIRED
Joanna	WIN	BR	IN	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Stuart	BR	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Liz	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Laura	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Christopher	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Sandeesh	IN	IN	BR	IN	BR	BR	FIRED
Alex	BR	IN	IN	IN	BR	FIRED
Paloma	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Melissa	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Shibby	IN	IN	FIRED
Joy	IN	FIRED
Raleigh	IN	LEFT
Dan	FIRED

     The contestant was on the winning team or managed to avoid firing (Week 11).

     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.

     The contestant withdrew from the show.

Challenges

Week 1: Bangers

• Project managers: Joanna (Apollo) and Dan (Synergy)
• Task: The candidates set about making and selling sausages on the streets of London. The team that makes the most profit wins.
• Result: Synergy focused on making cheap sausages, while Apollo decided to make gourmet sausages with a higher meat content. Despite a slow start, Apollo successfully sold their premium sausages to city professionals, as well as selling to a restaurant, and shifted all their stock before the end of the day. Synergy enjoyed good sales at their Portobello Road market location. Eventually, the team had to resort to selling all of their remaining packs for £53 right before the deadline. Despite their vastly higher costs compared to Synergy, Apollo secured victory by a margin of £15. Dan's leadership was heavily criticized by his entire team saying that 'he makes the orders, we do the work.'
• Winner: Apollo
• Reward: Champagne and barbecue served at the candidates' house.
• Brought into the boardroom: Alex, Stuart and Dan
• Fired: Dan, for being a "dictator" to his team. He barked orders at them, refused to listen to them, and did only a small percentage of the work load.
• Notes: After the firing, Lord Sugar commented that he had seriously considered firing Stuart because of the ridiculous boasts he made in the final boardroom. However, Sugar took offence to Dan's laid-back demeanour in the boardroom, considering it a sign of cockiness, and this proved a major factor in him being fired over Stuart.

Week 2: Beach Accessory

• Left: Raleigh did not appear at the pre-task briefing, and before announcing the task, Lord Sugar informed the teams that Raleigh decided to leave the show after 'an emergency family matter', which was later revealed on the You're Fired! programme to be that his older brother had been badly injured by a bomb while serving with the Army in Afghanistan.
• Project managers: Laura (Apollo) and Stella (Synergy)
• Shuffle: In order to even out the team numbers following Raleigh's departure, Stella was moved to Synergy and assigned to be the team leader by Lord Sugar.
• Task: Design a new beach accessory and pitch it to three retailers.
• Result: Synergy designed a towel and pillow set, suggested by Jamie and Christopher that would keep drinks cool. Apollo, however, struggled for ideas and at the last minute, went with a book stand that was aggressively pushed by Joanna. At the pitches, Apollo's book-stand was praised by the 3 retailers and Boots showed a real passion for it, they wanted exclusivity. Laura, though, declined as she didn't want to commit to such an agreement. Synergy's product, on the other hand, wasn't that liked by Boots or WorldDutyFree and Chris's dull presentation didn't help either. Luckily, KIT2FIT praised it and were the only retailers to order from Synergy, ordering 100 units. On the other hand, Apollo, despite their product being praised, didn't gain a single order from any of the retailers, with them refusing Boot's exclusivity costing them dearly.
• Winner: Synergy
• Reward: An evening at a golf club with a professional teacher
• Brought into the boardroom: Joanna, Joy (initially Sandeesh),and Laura
• Fired: Joy, for not contributing significantly to either of the tasks
• Notes: Lord Sugar named this as the worst defeat in the show's history (there had been one occasion on Junior Apprentice where a team earned zero orders, but never on the main show) though he did express some sympathy towards Laura for dealing with an "unmanageable" team; this was noticeable, as during an earlier argument in the challenge, Laura had to be calmed down by Joy after leaving the room they were practising the pitch nearly in tears. Laura initially chose to bring back Joanna and Sandeesh, which led to a massive argument among the members of Apollo. This argument was eventually broken up by Lord Sugar, before Karren berated the Apollo team members for setting a bad example to potential businesswomen. After that, Laura chose to bring in Joanna and Joy. Following Joy's departure, Lord Sugar warned Joanna that if she ever behaved in such a disruptive fashion again, she would be fired.

Week 3: Bakery

• Project managers: Shibby (Apollo) and Melissa (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Shibby and Chris to Apollo, Joanna and Melissa to Synergy.
• Task: The candidates had to bake and sell an array of bakery goods on the streets of London. They also had to sell their products to business clients.
• Result: Apollo began the task by overestimating their capabilities, agreeing to deliver 1,900 baked products to a four star hotel. Meanwhile, Synergy were lambasted by the same hotel for disrespectful behaviour (caused by their issues with cost and pricing, which Melissa had not given any thought to) but ultimately secured a deal with a chain of coffee shops after Alex stepped in to rescue the negotiations. Synergy's production line excelled under Christopher's direction, while Apollo's line was handicapped by Sandeesh ignoring Shibby's directions and acting confrontationally towards him. Both teams failed to meet their client's demands, with Apollo having to pay £130 worth of compensation after they only delivered 16 of the promised 1,900 products, and Synergy only obtained half their expected price after the muffins they offered were deemed to be of too low quality. Both teams then took to the streets of London, where Apollo excelled, whilst one half of Synergy struggled under Melissa's poor management. Ultimately, at the board room, Apollo's higher overall production costs and the compensation given to the hotel were enough to hand Synergy their second consecutive victory.
• Winner: Synergy
• Reward: Dinner at a restaurant specialising in Eastern cuisine, followed by entertainment provided by Arabian Dancers.
• Brought into the boardroom: Shibby, Paloma and Sandeesh
• Fired: Shibby for unnecessarily offering the compensation, giving poor sales pitches, and poor overall leadership.
• Notes: Lord Sugar appeared to be strongly considering firing Sandeesh, for her lack of effort, with Paloma and Shibby being praised for their sales abilities (although Lord Sugar also noted that Shibby had not demonstrated any skills outside of selling). Ultimately, Sandeesh's point about not having yet been given the opportunity to "sparkle," changed Lord Sugar's mind, and he fired Shibby. Melissa's PM skills were heavily criticised by the panel and her team mates, despite her win, implying that she would have been fired had her team lost. Christopher, Alex and Stuart received more credit for the win from the rest of the team, Nick Hewer and the You're Fired panel, Christopher for running the kitchen, which Nick described as 'brilliant military precision' Stuart for his outstanding sales figures on the market and Alex for jumping in during Melissa's poor pitch to clinch a lucrative deal.

Week 4: Selling to Trade

• Project managers: Chris (Apollo) and Jamie (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Alex moves to Apollo.
• Task: The teams each had to choose two products and sell them to trade customers. The team that makes the largest amount of money wins.
• Result: Apollo chose a temperature-sensitive baby outfit and a slimming t-shirt, and Synergy went with a gardening tool and a shower head, although they asked for the baby outfit but were rejected, arguably because Stuart irritated the salespeople. Both teams aimed mainly for larger retailers, but Synergy had trouble due to one of Lord Sugar's pre-set appointments being with Debenhams, who did not sell the type of products Synergy were offering, as well as not being able to offer a satisfactory price to a major plumbing store. Melissa annoyed the prospective buyers by constantly repeating herself during her pitches, and then angrily refused to listen to Jamie's criticism. One of their deals was also invalidated by Lord Sugar, since they agreed to a lower price than what the manufacturer had set. Apollo had better luck with the major retailers, all of whom bought some of their products, and also sold well to the smaller stores. However, a major spat arose between Paloma, Laura and Sandeesh over who should take credit for an exclusivity deal with one shop. Ultimately it did not matter, as Lord Sugar threw out their sales due to the exclusivity agreement violating the task rules. Synergy sold £76,518.90 worth of products, while Apollo sold £122,625.60, the two biggest sales figures in the show's history.
• Winner: Apollo
• Reward: Day at a spa.
• Brought into the boardroom: Jamie, Stuart and Melissa
• Fired: Melissa, for her bad attitude and failure to demonstrate the sales skills which she claimed to possess.
• Notes: Jamie appeared to be on the verge of being fired, as Lord Sugar considered his lack of control over the sub-team to be the primary factor behind Synergy's defeat, but Melissa ultimately went due to failing both as a leader in the previous task and as a salesperson in this one. Afterwards, she angrily accused Jamie and Stuart of ganging up on her, refused to shake hands with them and told them to "save your skin and come out of my face".
• Criticism The show drew criticism from viewers after it was revealed that orders placed in the programme were not genuine.

Week 5: Fashion

• Project managers: Paloma (Apollo) and Liz (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Liz moved to Synergy and Stuart moved to Apollo.
• Task: The teams had to sell designer clothes in the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
• Result: Both teams wanted to sell designer female dresses from the same brand, Licorice, although Synergy was ultimately awarded the opportunity by the designer, as they'd deemed Apollo the inappropriate figures to represent their products. Apollo instead went with a high-priced brand that sold recycled clothes. On the sales day, due to Alex's prior rush to select locations, Apollo found themselves with a poor site for their promotional stand (more than 10 minutes' walk from their store). Alex compounded this mistake by scaring away customers, and irritating Paloma with what she considered to be unimportant issues, but ultimately somewhat redeemed himself by securing a television advert that would continuously play in the food court. Synergy had an uninviting store, opened 45 minutes late, and did not appear to respond to Apollo's television advert, but had a critical advantage in that their products were more reasonably priced and easier to sell. This ultimately proved decisive, and they beat Apollo by £500. When asked who to bring back, Paloma instantly chose Alex, but admitted trouble in choosing the second person, as everyone pulled their weight on the day and did well, but chose Sandeesh on past performance.
• Winner: Synergy
• Reward: A day in a VIP box at a racecourse.
• Brought into the boardroom: Paloma, Sandeesh and Alex
• Fired: Paloma, as she'd "talked her way out" of the boardroom with too much hostility.
• Notes: Lord Sugar did not initially appear to be considering firing Paloma based on the task, since her team-mates and Karren were quite positive about her overall leadership. Instead, he lambasted Sandeesh for her lack of contribution in the prior tasks, and her (and Paloma's) questionable claim that Alex's poor choice for the promotional stand single-handedly cost the team victory. Alex's multiple mistakes, lack of focus, and "irritant" personality (although Nick disagreed with Paloma on this matter) also gave reason for Lord Sugar to fire him. Before Lord Sugar could make his final decision, Paloma wanted to "say one last thing," and subsequently attacked both Sandeesh's and Alex's working backgrounds. This prompted Lord Sugar to finally lose his patience and tell Alex that while he sounded like a disaster, Sugar felt he had been set up as the lackey and said he would get another chance, before turning on Paloma and firing her. After the firing, he felt there was something wrong with him that day, as he told Alex "you, purported as useless" and Sandeesh "you, purported as doing naff all".

Week 6: Advertising

• Project managers: Alex (Apollo) and Christopher (Synergy)
• Task: The teams had to create an advertising campaign for a brand of kitchen cleaner
• Result: Apollo branded their cleaner "Germinator," and made an advert featuring a young boy called the Germinator who used his detergent to clean up kitchens. Synergy's cleaner was called "Octi-Kleen," and their campaign centred around the idea of making it seem as if whoever used the cleaner had eight hands instead of two. Both campaigns were felt to be quite poor, and Synergy's advert in particular was accused by both the advertising executives and Lord Sugar of being sexist; however, their campaign did at least make the key points the agency wanted. Apollo's campaign, despite a better-realized advert and a good pitch by Sandeesh, was felt to be a total failure in getting across the key features of the product, as well as having an unattractive bottle and carrying what was considered an even more inappropriate message (children using cleaning chemicals) than Synergy's advert. As a result, Synergy were named the winners.
• Winner: Synergy
• Reward: A private karaoke night.
• Brought into the boardroom: Alex, Chris and Sandeesh
• Fired: Alex, for poor leadership, and bringing Sandeesh back into the boardroom without a valid reason
• Notes: Despite the general feeling that Laura had been the least effective contributor to the task, Alex decided to bring back Sandeesh based on her prior track record in the competition. Lord Sugar decided that this was not a valid reason however, and sent her back to the house partway through the final boardroom, leaving Alex and Chris facing dismissal.

Week 7: DVD

• Project managers: Stuart (Apollo) and Sandeesh (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Chris and Sandeesh to Synergy. Joanna and Stella to Apollo
• Task: To create and sell greenscreen film experiences to shoppers in London
• Result: Apollo shot footage at Brands Hatch to create a racing experience video. Despite Stuart's abrasive leadership and lack of organization, their stand enjoyed good custom, though sales were hurt by the fact that some of the DVDs were incorrectly edited, and had to be sold at a discount, while a number of customers failed to return to collect and pay for their DVDs. Synergy initially chose to theme their video around a skiing experience. However, this failed to attract customers, and halfway through the day they changed their strategy, instead selling their own driving experience video for a lower price. They were also held up at the start of the day after Sandeesh decided to swap Liz and Chris, who had originally been trained to use the editing equipment, with Jamie and Christopher, delaying the team's start by an hour while they were given the required training. This, combined with a severe overspend on blank DVDs and the lack of a clear pricing strategy, cost Synergy victory, and Apollo won by £40.
• Winner: Apollo
• Reward: Champagne tasting session.
• Brought into the boardroom: Sandeesh, Chris and Liz.
• Fired: Sandeesh, for not organizing her team properly, lacking a pricing strategy, and for not bringing Jamie back into the boardroom.
• Notes: Jamie was accused of not contributing to the task by both Karren and the other members of Synergy. However, Sandeesh, despite having criticised Jamie herself, chose not to bring him back because she considered the salespeople, Chris and Liz, to be responsible for the task's failure. This also marks the third consecutive week in a row that the project manager was fired.

Week 8: Crisps

• Project managers: Stella (Apollo) and Chris (Synergy)
• Task: To create new crisp flavours and sell them in the city of Hamburg
• Result: In addition to selling to independent retailers, the teams had two major clients set up by Lord Sugar, and were allowed to set up their own sales appointment. Christopher on Synergy arranged a 9AM appointment with a major chain of hotels, but later changed his mind and rearranged it for 1PM. As a result, Apollo were able to grab the 9AM appointment and managed a large sale, so when Synergy met with the hotel at 1PM, they were no longer interested in buying anything. Apollo also did better in the face-to-face sales, partly due to a better reaction to their flavours, and partly because the Synergy members got fewer appointments and also wasted their time talking to people who were not in a position to buy anything. Both teams didn't fair well at Karstadt, as they wanted to trial the crisps: Apollo had an order of €135 worth, compared to Synergy's €68. Apollo gained an order of €7,455 worth of crisps for Mike's Sandwich, while Synergy thrashed them with €14,289 worth. However, Synergy only gained €3,638 from their "door-to-door" sales, giving them a total of €17,995. Apollo, meanwhile, came in strong, with €11,737, giving them a total of €19,327 and winning them the task.
• Winner: Apollo
• Reward: Spending spree at a top fashion designer.
• Brought into the boardroom: Chris, Christopher and Jamie.
• Fired: Christopher, for throwing away a critical sales appointment, and for being too much of a "backroom man" for Lord Sugar's liking.
• Notes: Chris and Jamie were both told that they were on a final warning, for their poor overall record in the competition. The majority of the You're Fired audience, combined with the panel, disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision to fire Christopher; while it was widely agreed (including by Christopher himself) that he had made the biggest individual mistake in the task, the general consensus was that Chris or Jamie would have been more deserving of being fired due to their poor record (as Lord Sugar himself pointed out when warning them).

Week 9: Discount Buying

• Project managers: Liz (Apollo) and Jamie (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Liz moved to Apollo and Stuart moved to Synergy.
• Task: To buy ten items from a list in the space of ten hours.
• Result: Apollo, in the 10 hour space, got all 10, whilst Synergy got only 7. However, Apollo paid over double for some of the items than Synergy and paid well over £200 for white truffles, as well as gaining a £50 fine for arriving late back at the boardroom: their total was nearly £1100. Synergy, despite getting good discounts on the 7 items, were fined £511.50 for the missing 3 items. However, because of the low discounts, they spent only £1020.50 and won the task by £74. Lord Sugar later stated that Synergy, despite not getting the other 3 items, won overall because "the girls were pathetic at negotiation".
• Winner: Synergy (by £74 with all team fines and by £535 without all team fines).
• Reward: Weekend trip to Paris
• Brought into the boardroom: Liz, Laura and Stella
• Fired: Laura, for misidentifying the price of the truffles, for being a generally unimpressive performer throughout the series, and for her record breaking failure in Week 2.
• Notes: The expressed, general consensus of the remaining candidates towards Stella was one of hostility with Liz, Chris, Laura and Stuart being at the fore of this front. Although Lord Sugar agreed that Stella tended to be "wooden," he indicated that he let this pass this due to her employment history in a Japanese investment bank, in which the cultural atmosphere demands such an attitude. Lord Sugar was also impressed by her impressive boardroom defence, but still made the point that the position he was offering required a less 'corporate' persona. Subsequent to Laura's firing, both Chris Bates and Liz Locke expressed an intense loathing attitude towards Stella, with the latter citing "Laura will be missed."

Week 10: London Tours

• Project managers: Stuart (Apollo) and Joanna (Synergy)
• Shuffle: Stuart moved to Apollo and Joanna moved to Synergy.
• Task: To sell the London 'tour experience' to the general public.
• Result: Apollo created an "East End" tour, while Synergy went with a "Ghosts and Ghouls" theme. The teams were allowed to negotiate with the Trafalgar Square tourist office for the right to have their tickets sold, and they ultimately went with Synergy after Chris offered them 20% of their total profits, as opposed to the 25% on tickets sold at the office that Stuart offered. Jamie on Synergy did well as a tour guide, engaging the customers with his horror stories, while Stella on Apollo got lost in the East End and struggled to hold the customers' interest. Both teams had good custom for their first tours, but Apollo's second tour and Synergy's third each had almost no customers. Apollo sold £825 worth of tickets, and Synergy made a final profit of £1,097.
• Winner: Synergy
• Reward: Trip to Jersey, learning how to catch oysters, and then a meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant.
• Brought into the boardroom: Stuart, Stella, and Liz
• Fired: Liz, with regret, for failing to display qualities aside from sales.
• Notes: Lord Sugar contemplated firing either Stuart or Liz as he felt Stella has been "steady" throughout the tasks, and had taken on board Nick's constructive criticism about her corporate persona. Lord Sugar was inclined to fire Stuart due to consistently bad, spitfire attitude and noted that he sold less than half the tickets that Liz sold despite claims that he was a fantastic salesman. However, he eventually decided to fire Liz instead, for he felt that although Stuart's pleas were immature and naive, he could take risks with the business. The majority of the You're Fired audience, combined with the panel, disagreed with Lord Sugar's decision. Lord Sugar himself later regretted his decision, as in episode 11 he said to Stuart that he was annoyed with himself that he gave a chance to Stuart instead of Liz.

Week 11: Interviews — Semi-finals

• Semi-finalists: Chris, Jamie, Joanna, Stella, Stuart
• Task: The five remaining candidates must undergo a series of interviews by four of Lord Sugar's business colleagues, Margaret Mountford, Bordan Tkachuk, Claude Littner and Alan Watts.
• Result: Stella received the best overall reports from the interviewers, with her only major weakness being that the interviewers felt that she was more suited to a corporate environment than Lord Sugar's organization, though Nick and Karren noted that she had been trying to break out of this mould during the tasks. Joanna also got generally good reports, but attention was called to her relative lack of business knowledge, and the interviewers felt that she was giving up on her fledgling cleaning company too easily. Chris was deemed to be the most academically gifted of the candidates, but his ability to focus was called into question, and he was also accused of being a "quitter". Stuart received a lot of criticism for his arrogance and for lying on his CV (claiming to own a fully licensed telecommunications company, when in fact he only owned an ISP, which has no regulatory requirements beyond an easily obtainable £350 licence), though the interviewers noted that he was the only candidate with a technology background. Jamie got the worst reports from the interviewers; despite a background that would have been suited to Lord Sugar's property holdings, he was accused of being boring, unable to own up to his mistakes, and a poor long-term planner. In the boardroom, Stuart was immediately fired by an outraged Lord Sugar, who realized that he had used the lie on his CV to ensure his survival at Liz's expense in the previous week. He also told Stuart that his executives thought that he was "full of shit". Joanna was the next to leave, as Lord Sugar felt that she needed to let her cleaning company grow and develop, though he gave Joanna words of encouragement for doing so well despite her relative inexperience. Stella's strong interview and boardroom responses ensured that Lord Sugar make her the first finalist. Jamie was the last candidate to be fired; Lord Sugar felt that Jamie had the least to offer out of the final three candidates, and his aides said that Jamie lacked confidence. Chris therefore progressed to the final with Stella.
• Fired:
  • Stuart, for lying his way throughout the entire process, as well in his CV, which resulted in Liz being fired the episode before.
  • Joanna, with regret, for her lack of business knowledge and for her inexperience (to emphasize on the point that she was fired with regret, and was a special candidate in the series, a softer version of background music was played during her walk of shame, as was the case for Syed Ahmed in Series 2).
  • Jamie, for being opportunistic, blaming others, and having lacklustre confidence.
• Notes: This episode saw the return to the show of Margaret Mountford as one of the four interviewers. She was previously one of Lord Sugar's boardroom advisers for the first five series of the show. The episode was also the second time in Apprentice (UK) history that Sir Alan has regretted firing a previous candidate, the first being Miriam of Series 1, and the second being Liz Locke of this series. This is also the second time that Lord Sugar has fired a candidate solely because of their dishonesty, the first being Jennifer "Jenny" Celerier of Series 4.

Week 12: The Final

• Finalists: Chris and Stella.
• Team Members to help the Finalists:
  • Chris with Jamie, Liz, Shibby and Alex
  • Stella with Joanna, Christopher, Paloma and Melissa
• Task: Create and launch a new alcoholic drink.
• Result: Stella's team decided to create a brand of bourbon that would appeal to female customers (the drink being a traditionally male one), and named their drink "Urbon." While the drink was felt to have a rather overpowering taste, Stella added that she had been forced to rely on Christopher and Melissa for the taste testing, since she does not drink spirits. Chris's team on the other hand created a rum and pomegranate based spirit called "Prism," which was packaged in a pyramid-shaped bottle. While Prism was deemed to taste better than Urbon, the pink colour of the drink (stemming from Liz and Shibby ignoring Chris's instructions to make the drink clear) was felt to be unappealing, and their television advert was deemed to be very poor, stemming from Chris wasting too much time getting the right opening shots. No overall winner was named in the task, but Stella's drink was considered to be a generally solid product with mass-market appeal, the only drawback being the strength of the taste, while Chris's drink was more daring and attention-grabbing, but also more likely to polarize customers.
• Runner-Up: Chris, for his comparative inexperience, and for making a number of questionable decisions in the final task.
• Hired: Stella, for having a generally more impressive track record, both in her pre-Apprentice career and in the series itself compared to Chris.

Ratings

Episode Viewing figures from Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).

Episode No.	Airdate	Total Viewers	BBC One Weekly Ranking
1	6 October 2010	7,650,000	7
2	13 October 2010	8,100,000	7
3	20 October 2010	7,530,000	8
4	27 October 2010	6,490,000	10
5	3 November 2010	8,200,000	7
6	10 November 2010	7,560,000	9
7	17 November 2010	7,710,000	7
8	24 November 2010	8,070,000	6
9	1 December 2010	7,530,000	8
10	8 December 2010	8,140,000	7
11	15 December 2010	8,770,000	9
12	19 December 2010	8,630,000	10

See also

• Junior Apprentice
• The Apprentice USA

External links

• The Apprentice (UK series six) at BBC Online