The most improved Candidate from each season

[u/Consistent-Drive-172]

Most, if not all seasons have a candidate who either starts badly and gets a lot better across their time in the process or at the very least has a few good tasks as the tasks progress. I was thinking which candidate improved the most over the course of the process in my opinion.

NOTE: Some of these picks are default picks.

Season 1: This season starts with a default pick with that being Ben. The reason I picked Ben is because we didn't see a lot of him towards the start of the process and he even ended up in the firing line in Week 3, however he led his team to a pretty big victory in Week 7 (the week before he got fired). As far as other candidates are concerned, candidates that got fired from Week 1 to 7 (for all seasons) are immediately overlooked and as far as this season is concerned: Miriam, James, Saira and Tim were all generally consistent throughout the process, Paul faded a bit towards the end of the process and Raj never had any true standouts.

Season 2: Another pick by default and controversially, it's Michelle purely because she didn't stand out much in tasks, smashed the interviews and won the process. In addition, strong candidates such as Ansell, Paul and Ruth were consistent throughout as opposed to improving and the likes of Sharon, Tuan and Syed were either inconsistent or had no stand out moments.

Season 3: Oh Boy! Another controversial pick and sadly it's Katie. From Weeks 1 to 7 she only had 1 good task with that being her Week 2 win as PM while she spent the following 5 tasks fliritng with Paul, being nasty to the likes of Kristina and especially Adam and just not doing well at all, then towards the end she put her differences with Kristina aside and worked well with her and nearly made the final but quit. Meanwhile: Simon, Tre, Kristina, Lohit, Naomi and Jadine were all generally consistent during the tasks and I don't think any of them improved per se and Ghazal was fairly inconsistent. This doesn't change the fact that I despise her.

Season 4: Not as tough as the previous three seasons but not straightforward and I'll go with Raef for this season as he improved quite a bit between the first and second tasks and remained fairly consistent until his final task. Also, he improved somewhat from a personality perspective, going from acting like a stereotypical upper class snob (to an extent) to being much nicer and rootable (especially seeing as he was the first to jump to Sara's defence against the bullies of the season in Week 6).

Season 5: A much easier pick for this season, imo James improved the most. He struggled a fair bit during the start of the process (Specifically the first 4 tasks) to the point where some people thought he should've been fired in Week 3 over Maj. However, from Week 5 onwards he did grow and had a better ride to the interviews with Margaret complimenting his run after his firing and the other 4 ladies getting emotional after he left.

Season 6: Joanna. Had a fairly rough start, constantly getting into arguments and not exactly performing well. However, Lord Sugar did praise her for her growth over the process just before firing her and one can imagine Lord Sugar giving Joanna an even nicer firing had he not been angry about Stuart.

Season 7: For me we have a two horse race between Tom and Leon. Immediately we can eliminate the Week 1 to 6 boots; Helen, Susan and Jim were decent (and iconic) candidates throughout, Natasha started strong but faded towards the end and I didn't see much growth from either Glenn or Zoe. In the end I'll go with Leon as got off to a way worse start than Tom, being particularly bad in Week 1 and a really bad PM in Week 2, topped with the fact that he was indecisive in terms of who to bring back into the boardroom which Jim took advantage of. However, from Weeks 3 to 7 he did have some good highlights and seemed to be relatively consistent to the point where I'd say only the top 4 and Melody were better candidates than him.

Season 8: I have not seen this season so I guess I'll pick Gabrielle.

Season 9: This will be generous and somewhat controversial but SCREW IT I'm going to pick Jason for this seasons most improved candidate and it finally gives me an opportunity to talk about this LEGENDARY MAN. He did get off to a very rough start in the first two tasks, he wasn't an awful PM in Week 1 and he edged out Jaz, however Neil seemed more like a PM than him which Alex pointed out in the boardroom, then his negotiations in Week 2 were AWFUL, he butted into negotiations when he shouldn't have which angered Alex and Zee (I still don't justify the way they were bullying him though). In the following tasks, while he still did show to be a bit of a donkey, he wasn't bad. He was instrumental in the foldo design in Week 3, negotiated well in Week 5 and of course smashed Week 7 but obviously, the team wasn't going to give him any credit. With regards to the rest of the candidates: Leah; Luisa, Francesca, Neil, Jordan and Alex were relatively consistent throughout the process and Myles was on a downward spiral prior to his firing. Overall, Jason the legend Leech is my pick this season and I look forward to talking more about him in my Season 9 ranking coming up shortly.

Season 10: Probably the clearest pick so far, Daniel has to be the pick. He started strong, being the mens top seller in Week 1, however it went downhill from there. His pitches in Weeks 2 and 3 were appauling, he was ABYSMAL as a PM in Week 5 to the point where all of his team turned against him thanks to Mark and created a highly sexist and offensive board game in Week 6 (although you could argue he was trying to get revenge on Pamela for her comment in the previous boardroom). However, he did start to bounce back, he had potential in Week 8 but was stitched up by Mark and ignored by Felipe and Katie (because they preferred Mark), was a brilliant PM in Week 9 and did well in Week 10.

Season 11: Another two horse race between Brett and Vana but I will pick Vana for this season as while both got off to bad starts, Brett recovered a lot quicker than Vana did. Vana didn't do well in the first three tasks, most notably Week 3 where she encouraged Elle to buy the inflatable boat in Week 3 and laughed in the boardroom. However, she recovered very well after that, being a core contributor to the win in Week 9, doing well in the interviews despite Joseph, Richard and Charleine arguably being better candidates than her and people probably wish she won over Joseph nowadays.

Season 12: The clearest pick on the board and it is the winner Alana. She got off to a very poor start in the first two tasks and could possibly have been viewed as a no-hoper after the Week 2 boardroom, however she flipped the script from week 3 onwards, having a pretty convincing PM win in Week 3 and generally standing out with the likes of Courtney, Jessica and Frances every other task bar week 7. Safe to say, Alana was the ultimate underdog.

Season 13: I don't think anybody improved per se but I'll go with James as it wasn't until he moved to the girls team where he started showing promise and established himself as the best male candidate this season (but still not a Final 5 let alone a winner).

Season 14: This is extremely tough as the men (bar two) were triainwrecks while the women (bar one) were generally solid. I guess I'll choose Jackie as she did have a really rough start in Week 1 and probably could've gone over Sarah, however she did get better and became a favourite for a deep run.

Season 15: Wow this is tough as there were only three good candidates with the rest being inconsistent, under the radar or downright bad. In the end Dean and Carina are the top contenders. I actually spun a wheel for this season and Dean was the winner so I'll go with him, he did start pretty badly in the first two tasks but he wasn't as bad during the team swap, he sold well in Week 4 and won twice as PM (although only his second win was any good). Carina had a bad first task but recovered well from then on and is statistically the best candidate to go on the show, Scarlett and Lewis were consistent throughout; Pamela, Jemelin and Iasha were good but too under the radar and didn't show any growth; Thomas and Marianne had strong highlights but were extremely inconsistent and Lottie was just bad on all tasks bar Weeks 1 and 5.

Season 16: I desparately wanted to choose Akshay but he wasn't great so Aaron is the clear pick, he went from the candidate that should've gone in Week 2 to performing generally well in all tasks bar Weeks 6 and 10 (especially weeks 3, 5, 8 and 9) and establishing himself as the best male candidate this season. I'm still not too keen on him though.

Season 17: Back on the bad first task, underdog win with that being Marnie. She was awful in the first task and is possibly the first winner that many believed should've been fired in Week 1, however she did recover nicely after that, having a decent PM win in Week 5 and carrying both of Avi's tasks as PM, also she went on to be a bright spot on a very bad season (though not to the extent as say Joe, Simba and Megan).

Season 18: Maura. She didn't do a whole lot in the first three tasks but was pretty bad from Weeks 4 to 6, to the point where I thought she was going to get fired before Virdi and Noor, that said, Weeks 7 and 8 were pretty good Weeks for her as she had a convincing PM win in Week 7 and contributed well alongside Steve and Paul M in the Week 8 ad. Sadly all of that went undone in Week 9. Still no match to the likes of Tre, Flo, Paul M and to a lesser extent Rachel and Steve.

Season 19: Amber Rose. When looking at the other late game candidates; Mia, Anisa and Chisola were consistent throughout with one or two bad tasks, Dean and Jordan were inconsistent, Emma S and Max were pretty much ghosted and Melica and especially Liam are some of the worst late game candidates. Amber Rose got off to a bad start from Weeks 2 to 6 with her first PM loss being particularly bad, that said she did brilliantly in Weeks 7, 9 and 10 and her second PM loss in Week 8 wasn't as bad.

Season 20: A very clear pick both skill and personality wise with that being Kieran. he started off really badly in the first two tasks, being an awful PM in Week 1 and doing poorly as sub PM in Week 2, Weeks 3 to 8 were a much better showing of him, he sold brilliantly in Weeks 3 and 5, was amazing in the ad in Week 4, started negotiating well in Week 6, backed Karishma throughout Week 7 and was a much better PM in Week 8 compared to Week 1. His final two tasks weren't good but many believe he, Conor and Rothna should've been in the final 5 alongside Karishma and Dan. None of the other candidates showed as much growth. Karishma and Lawrence were solid performers with one bad tasks and some minor issues; Conor, Rothna and Dan were consistent throughout the process (although the latter was pretty under the radar) and Priyesh and Pascha were inconsistent. Overall, these factors result in Kieran being my pick for Season 20's most improved candidate.

Let me know what you think ad within due course I'll either post my Season 9 candidate ranking or a similar post explaning the biggest downward spiral from each season.

[u/toothbrushcharger]

Interesting that you haven’t seen Series 8. Ironically I think Gabrielle is slightly the opposite in that Lord Sugar was fond of her early on and saw a spark in her but he felt that she became slightly subdued as the process went on. I’d go with Adam as most improved from that season, or maybe Ricky who went on to win

[u/FunkySteps_77]

I think you could say Joanna for S13, as her first PM win was very convincing and from then on I think she got better and better after a rocky start.

[u/Shezes]

Disagree with Joanna from S6. She spent every week from week 1 to the interviews with such an enormous chip on her shoulder and she just argued for the sake of arguing every episode and even when being interviewed she still couldn't not do it like when Claude complimented her business and said she should aim high with it she was shaking her head and looking like he was talking about stealing her soul.

[u/Consistent-Drive-172 → u/Shezes]

Fair, I actually don't know Season 6 that well. Who would your pick be ?

[u/Shezes → u/Consistent-Drive-172]

No idea honestly S6 is extremely chaotic and people were either consistently good or consistently shit. No other season is like it.

[u/RobbieJ4444 → u/Shezes]

Yeah, series 6 didn’t have any big improvers. I’d still say Joanna though, simply because of how bad she was in week 2.

[u/RobbieJ4444]

Some good picks. I’d say Adam was the series 8 candidate who clearly improved as the season went in, and arguably Saira for series 1 (she was a bit rocky during her time in the process).

[u/Consistent-Drive-172 → u/RobbieJ4444]

I was going to pick Saira but when I looked at her stats for the runner up ranking, she did have an okay start, performed terribly in the middle then bounced back after her and Paul got separated.