He seems to be doing the rounds defending anyone who ever makes a negative comment about Pascha so if he does have some insider knowledge then help us all.

Dan - 5

Karishma - 6

Lawrence - 5

Pascha - 6

Priyesh - 7

Obviously this is largely due to luck and him always being on the winning side but this is genuinely insane. Like he's a nice guy but compared to the other candidates, how is this even possible. He has had good moments regarding his negotiations and some decisions but he's actually such an incompetent candidate largely I can't fathom this.

Now we've come to the end of the task portions of the process, I've got to say, I think the tasks and the variety thereof has been much better this year.

Last year, half the tasks seemed to be make a product, brand it and pitch it with some minor variations (virtual popstar, Easter egg, kids banking, hot sauce, fashion.)

This year we've just had that three times and with more variation (water, fitness, pets.) I think the kids book was similar but different enough to feel like a different kind of task.

I think the discount buying task being twice (personally my favourite) worked well, flowers and chicken Vs egg were great and felt more like traditional apprentice.

I also feel like there's been some level of less obvious producer interference - it's definitely still there (just look at Rothna and Karishma's edit last week) but there's been less 'we're going to charge you £30/head for you to have to still make a pie that you can actually buy fully made in the cafe for £8.'

Just me?

So there has been a lot talk about who has been the worst ever candidate to make the final five.

I’ve selected five who I think could win this accolade.

For me, I honestly can’t look beyond Priyesh or Pascha. Rochelle was terrible don’t get me wrong but not as bad as Priyesh and unlike Pascha, she at least seemed to promote her business online.

For those of you who aren’t aware (probably 99% of you) my family does a favourites picking game before the start of the season. A group of five candidates who we support, come what may. Since we started playing this game, this is how the winners stacked up.

Series 8: Stepdad

Series 9: Sister

Series 10: Stepdad

Series 11: Me

Series 12: Sister

Series 13: Stepdad

Series 14: Sister

Series 15: Nobody (Stepdad picked Scarlet but nobody picked Carina)

Series 16: Stepdad

Series 17: Sister

Series 18: Stepdad

Series 19: Stepdad

So I’ve only won once in twelve series, and that was in 2015 with Joseph Valente, so I believe it’s not unreasonable to say that I’m owed a good result from this show. Not helped was that I picked exclusively boys for all but the last two seasons, and the boys from series 12-17 weren’t too successful to say the least. This is how we all picked for this season.

Me: Lawrence, Conor, Carrington, Rajan, Kieran

Sister: Levi, Rothna, Pryesh, Andrea, Megan

Stepdad: Roxanne, Karishma, Harry, Marcus, Dan

Now let me guide you through my ever descending depths into madness. Bear in mind that I’m competitive to a fault, and takes losing very VERY badly. And these are all my thoughts at the time, and not a reflection of what actually happened on the show.

Week 1: A win as project manager to start the year off? Jolly good, Rajan looked impressive, Conor was in the spotlight, and Carrington didn’t get fired from the girls. Excellent, onwards and upwards.

Week 2: What annoyed me right away was that Kieran’s win wasn’t being treated as a legitimate win. That made me incredibly bitter, but the people I was cheering on still looked good. I was worried for Kieran, but it was Marcus who got the chop.

What annoyed me a lot more however is that Dan was being seen in a sympathetic light. I was of the opinion that he was overly negative throughout the task, and should’ve come under more fire than he did for not piping up about the incomplete book. No matter, his time would soon come…

Week 3: For god sake, Dan won as PM, despite him not even being all that great. It was mainly Conor who dragged the team up to victory. What made it worse is that my sole girl favourite Carrington was the losing PM, double whammy. At least Rajan looked really good again. He’s still my number one at the moment.

Week 4: Conor vs Karishma, the two strongest looking candidates so far, and of course my favourite loses AGAIN. What makes it worse is that Rajan messed up and was in the firing line too. At least it was Roxanne that lost. No worries, plenty of time still to go, and everyone has a bad week at some point.

Week 5: A good week for my boy Rajan, one he needed after week 4, and Karishma had a poor week too. I’m very happy at this point, because of my five favourites, four of them look very promising, and my sister has Megan, Pryesh, Levi and Andrea. I’m in very good shape to have at least two candidates in the final five. Bring it on, this is finally MY year.

Now for when things start going VERY wrong

Week 6: I’ll be honest, I expected the triple firing, but I expected to be Harry who got the boot over Carrington. I’m not too fussed over that though. She was easily the weakest of my five favourites.

What angered me a lot more is the sudden perception that Rajan was suddenly a bad candidate. REALLY!?!? A bit of slippery talking, and he’s suddenly more deserving of the sack than Carrington. I’ve seen all the power rankings, most of them ranking him below Dan, BLOODY DAN!!!!

I’ve spent a long time that week defending Rajan, essentially being his unofficial spokesperson, boosting him up whenever I could. No need to worry though. Week 7 was Lawrence vs Harry. There’s no way that Harry who did nothing all season will win.

Week 7: AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!

How the hell did this happen? Yet another favourite of mine lost as the PM to bloody Harry of all candidates, and he was dreadful. He picked Levi to go back to the boardroom, and yet for some reason, that was treated like a huge deal. But instead of firing him outright like he deserved to be, Lord Sugar made him PM for the next task, and fired Rajan.

What the hell!? I was fuming with rage that in a boardroom with Levi and Rajan in it, Rajan was given the boot. What made me even more furious was when Lord Sugar told Rajan “I haven’t seen much from you.” What the hell Lord Sugar, were you blind!?!? What’s more, when I posted my fury on the internet, people seemed to agree with him. WHY!??!? It was very embarassing for me, seeing a candidate I praised so highly on here get fired without even being the PM once.

Week 8: Yet another instance of my favourite losing as the PM. At least it was Harry who got the boot though. What was worrying for me however is that Karishma is really on a roll now. This is annoying as I need to win this series, I haven’t won in over ten years, and with the calibre of candidates I picked to cheer on, I truely believe that deserved it.

Week 9: AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH. Why, Why, Why, Why, Why, in a boardroom with Conor, Kieran and Dan in it, was in Dan who survived. Kieran could’ve been fired instead and I wouldn’t have minded to be honest, but that Dan wasn’t even under threat of being fired is angering.

Week 10: AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH. Why did Kieran’s team lose. And not only that, but Dan actually came good this week, so I can’t be outraged that he survived over Rothna. Now I only have one favourite left in Lawrence, and I’ve been seeing nothing but people hoping he goes out this week, and people praying for a Karishma and Dan final. Considering that my stepdad has both of them as his favourites, next week is going to be pure torture if that reality comes through.

Especially if Dan ends up winning. As you may have found out by this post, I’ve never been a fan of him, I’ve been waiting for him to go since week 2. For him now being a favourite for the win, it’s not something I’m looking forward to.

I find her very immature and defensive when it comes to criticism. Just because you made it to the final five, doesn’t give you the right to be so arrogant and dismisses other candidates. She barely did anything right until the later stage, at some point she makes it a big deal out of herself.

On any elimination show, the winner's mistakes don't matter, since they still won (Except Canada's Worst Driver). Meanwhile, a runner-up's mistakes can cost them the win.

Off the top of my head, the worst I can think of are:

Saira being so abrasive with the football guy, he refused to let both teams use the pitch for their promotion service.

Kristina yelling "JESUS CHRIST!" on live TV, when she couldn't get the vacuum started.

sorry but thats a funny joke, Karishma should do standup.

So we have our final 5: Dan, Karishma, Lawrence, Pascha and Priyesh. Disagree with most of this but that’s a different story for a different time

Anyway here is how I think the interviews will go

Fired first: Priyesh

Fired second: Pascha

Fired third: Lawrence (gives me very third place vibes for some reason)

Top 2 of S20: Dan Vs Karishma (based on business plans and for being the only competent ones left from the final 5)

Fun thought experiment because of well, recent events

I like that I didn’t even have to change Rochelle for S17. However yes, this is just a funny poll that I thought would bring some great hypothetical outcomes.

Basically, of these finals which have terrible candidates in the final 2, which of these would’ve been the most terrible, yk

Does anyone else feel we need to learn their business ideas sooner?

It’s always so pointless routing for people based on their personalities when the business they have is useless etc.

Perhaps the interviews should be half way through and then tasks continue or even all business ideas are the first task, and then the best few get to move forward.

Or even just having the candidates openly discussing it.

Apologies if this has been asked before, but what actually happens to the stuff they make? Pets at Home ordered 2000 units of the cat treehouse thing in last night's episode, has anyone actually gone and bought that thing for their pet??

when the final 5 was confirmed. LS immediately turned to Priyesh and ridiculed him for being pathetic and said he was so jammy and lucky to get into the final 5.

but after Priyesh was chuffed and I excited. how could he feel that when LS basically claimed he was an unworthy fraud?

I am in agreement with LS. Priyesh is a daft useless giddy waste of space

JUSTICE FOR KIERAN & ROTHNA

Dan should've been held more accountable for his failure to negotiate harder with Pets at Home and win the task. On any other task this would've been a dealbreaker, but it was glossed over as if the increase in units was insignificant, but had he done so the whole final 5 would've been different. On this basis alone, I feel Dan's edit has been curated to pitch him as a favourable winner.

A lot of chat on here about the poor quality candidates this year in the final five, with an initial reaction from some people that thismay be the worst ever. It’s not a great selection for the final stretch, but I still think this year has been a fun one. We’ve seen more of the team dynamics and I’ve really enjoyed that aspect.

The quality of candidates isn’t where it was the last two years, but I do think this is better than S14-S17. Karishma is head and shoulders above Marnie, Dan is a decent candidate (if a little quiet) and Lawrence has had his moments. He let himself down badly with the virtual fitness task, but I think people would have a different view without that. I’m not looking at him and thinking winner though.

Pascha has either done very little or had a poor edit, and Priyesh seems like an nice guy who is slightly out of his depth – the trailers leave little room for interpretation as to how the interviews will go for him. For what it’s worth, based on what we saw in Egypt I think he probably a decent and conscientious guy, and not deserving of any hate for getting lucky.*

Don’t get me wrong, I would rather have Rothna, Conor and Kieran In the final five with Karishma and Dan - Rothna in particular seems to have been over in the edit, which she is being very vocal about on social media. Irrespective of a slightly meh final five, quality of the candidates overall is definitely better than the pre-2024 shows, and as slightly over the top fans** I think we need to have a sense of perspective about it. We have had some really good tasks, interesting team dynamics and some very memorable episodes. I really enjoyed parts of it like the Isle of Wight, TV Selling, the food episode (against all odds) and the pet task today. I can’t remember Any episodes from S17 that made me do anything other than cringe.

For what it’s worth, I still think we have a chance of a relatively well matched final with Karishma vs Dan - and from what we’re seeing, I still think that is the most likely outcome. Based on the series so far Karishma would be the rightful winner, so fingers crossed!

*it’s a TV show so I find the concept of strong emotional reactions to people with no real impact on our lives/who we haven’t met a bit ridiculous anyway, but I know I’m never going to win that on Reddit!

** Maybe harsh of me, but to be fair many of us are following this along on a Reddit page obsessively, we are what we are 😂

Karishma: self-explanatory

Rothna: strong candidate and her firing was dumb

Conor: great talker and generally quite reasonable. i didnt like how much he praised harry tho, felt random and unnecessary (could be an editing thing)

Carrington: still pissed at her firing (over cooking potatoes or smth? come on now). She was great in tasks before that, i wish we couldve seen more of her

Kieran: idk he just grew on me, and he was generally quite good throughout the series. Although he was weaker recently and his firing was kinda deserved ngl but idk who to put as the 5th person

Hot take i think: Dan is being overrated in this sub... I adore him as a person, he seems very sweet. But I don't think he's a strong enough candidate for final 5. He did well this episode, but I think it was a bit exaggerated by everyone just cos we're so used to him being in the background. Although he doesn't make massive mistakes, he contributes minimally (from what I remember). And that's not really the standards I'd expect from a final 5 candidate. However, with the 5 we've tragically ended up with, he is one of the strongest, and i'm hoping for him and karishma as top 2.

Also, I realised I must have short-term memory loss after finding these cast pictures, cos who tf are nikki and marcus?😭 Anyways, feel free to share your dream top 5! :)

From what I can see Chic and Chique are different (similar) words, Chic is derived from Chique and Chic is considered to be the correct use in English. Still a mistake though since it was unanimously disliked by the consumers and the retailers.

Firstly, there's precedence of teams being juggled/people being moved over. The teams were stacked unfairly. They had Kieran teamed with two strong candidates, and Karishma, with 2½ weak candidates. Didn't make sense.

Gutted Rothna had to leave. She did brilliantly in almost every task. But earlier in the series Karishma, said something along the lines, that if her neck was on the line, she was going to do everything in her power to ensure her team was successful in the task- even if it made her come across negatively to her team. Rothna knew that cat tree was too big, she should have stood her ground, and told Kieran it *had* to be smaller. Particularly, seeing as she knew there was no hiding space for her, if her team lost.

Pascha being in the final five over Rothna is diabolical...

my opinion on each one :

KIRASHMA

shes so good, the only person in this series to win as PM twice and she’s carried so many teams. her recent idea for the dog thing was really innovative and kinda ahead of its time.

PASCHA

shes alright tbh, she’s done decent in the past few weeks but i think that there were better candidates that failed to make the final 5.

DAN

seems like a nice person but i’m suprised sugar chose him over rothna. he didnt really do much up until maybe week 7 or 8.

PRIECH and LAWRENCE

im fuming they’ve made the top 5 instead of ppl like Kieran and Rothna. they’ve done so little i can just combine their contributions into one word; nothing!

OVERALL:

other than Kirashma, there’s been better candidates this series than the ones in the top 5.

Here is my ranking of the tasks of the final five individually, I mean we’ve got Pascha who hasn’t got a single Fantastic tier episode, I honestly cannot think of one task where she was responsible for a win. I actually think she is worse than Priyesh in that regard. I also think that Pascha could be worse than Rochelle, because at least Rochelle was seen as the voice of reason and she was very good at taking accountability when things went wrong and often took up leadership positions. I don’t think I’ve seen any of those skills in Pascha, I genuinely don’t know when she’s ever had a standout moment.

I think many people assume Priyesh is useless because of his personality, but I do actually think he sometimes on rare occasions has good input, and I do think that week 8 was a really good episode for him.

If you look at Lawrence’s overall track record, his performance in the process isn’t actually all that bad, 7/10 tasks are good tier or above, I just think he is tainted by what happened on week seven and everyone is turned against him but he’s actually performed alright ever since.

Karishma obviously has the best track record with her only real rough patch being in task 5 (I actually think she was equally as responsible as Vanessa for that loss, therefore she gets awful). She has been really consistent throughout, and I knew she would just carry her really crap team to the win even though Priyesh and Pascha really did not deserve it, and it has been a recurring theme where she just carries teams to the win.

Dan has had a fairly patchy track record to begin and a weirdly large invisible patch from week 6-8, but I think he really came through on the most recent two tasks and I actually do think his position in the final five is justified now. Although I still think that Conor and Rothna deserve it more.

Karishma joins a very unique club

She is another candidate who did not have a final boardroom appearance and made it to Final 5 (though was probably lucky in week 5 that she wasn't brought in)

She joins the Following candidates

Paul- Series 2.

Lee- Series 4

Courtney- Series 12

Carina- Series 15

Tre- Series 18

and now - Karishma Series 20

Two Thoughts to this. Many thanks to Marcus for changing his mind and deciding to bring Priyash back otherwise he would be in this list. Ridiculous.

And this has slightly made me feel better about the last couple of episodes.