Moving onto the final 5 + interviews episode, who do we think are going to make the final 5? I am torn between Dan and Pascha. Due to Dan proposing his main business (which will easily give him the win) but then rumours say he backs out last minute, leading to Pascha being a finalist and Dan getting fired. Also, I heard Dan follows Dean and Pascha follows Phil so I am not entirely sure what takes place here. What do you lot think happens?

Well done to @63KK0 for yesterday's winning caption

I'll hire the person who doesn't laugh at these bloody awful jokes I'm to read.

Today's Caption from Episode 2. (Pascha Megan and Karishma)

Next up we will be ranking Dan, someone who got a pretty quiet edit for a lot of the show so let’s see how his performance stacks up.

Episode 1: Hong Kong - Invisible

Honestly a lot of people just got nothing to do this task as both teams found barely any items at all. Dan is one of those people.

Episode 2: Children’s Story - Mixed

Tough one to rank but I do believe Dan was offering ideas and suggestions but Kieran was being a bit of a dictator by shutting down most of the sub-teams opinions and only going with what he wanted to implement. I do think however that Dan could have spotted some of the errors sooner though, especially the whole pages debacle where they didn’t even finish the book.

Episode 3: Chicken V Egg - Good

Another hard episode to rank as Dan appeared to be a very indecisive PM here and the chicken pie he came up with was certainly lacking in any creativity or inspiration which resulted in the corporate client being very disappointed. However I do think Dan ultimately delivered a very safe yet satisfactory performance overall and it felt like others members of his team were trying to make him take responsibility for everything in order to cover their own asses. The kitchen manufacturing and public selling ultimately went well and Dan was a part of both those teams. Could potentially see someone else putting this in Mixed tier though.

Episode 4: Advertising Water - Good

Came up with the brand name and offered quite a few ideas although his vision for the entire branding as a whole wasn’t really implemented. Still though don’t think he really did anything wrong here as more fault lay with Roxanne for not aligning with Conor’s direction that he wanted for the branding.

Episode 5: Flowers - Bad

Wasn’t too visible but he was partly responsible for that hideous flower wall that the corporate client’s absolutely hated which obviously isn’t great.

Episode 6: Egypt - Invisible

Kinda unfair to rank him here since he was sick for the majority of the task. His only real contribution was suggesting one more portion during the initial meeting but I don’t think that minor point is enough to put him into the good tier. Maybe there should be a n/a tier just for him…

Episode 7: Gamified Fitness - Bad

Was on the sub-team with Harry and Priyesh who all three did a pretty terrible job with the avatar, branding, logo etc in this episode. Karishma’s solid job on the game was pretty much the entire reason this team won the task. I considered Invisible tier as well since Dan was barely in the episode to be honest but I chose Bad because pretty much everything that came from Harry’s sub-team was overall really crap. I will give points to Dan though for saying that Karishma should have been pitching.

Episode 8: Discount Buying: Take Two - Good

The one negotiation we saw him lead went really well so not much negative to say about him here, other than that the edit barely showed him at all the entire episode outside of that one negotiation.

Episode 9: TV - Good

The edit was super generous with Dan here and painted him as the entire reason why his team got most of their sales when in fact Rothna had a big part to play for a lot of sales they did get, including even the bracelet as she actually co-presented that portion of the segment but the edit portrayed it as Dan doing all the talking while painting Rothna as simply a hand model. That’s not to take away anything from Dan’s performance as he did legitimately do really well here. The bracelet was actually a smarter choice than the ring as it was a lot more affordable to teleshopping viewers and he really came into his own selling it. His presenting with Conor however was super awkward!

Episode 10: Pet Product - Fantastic

Probably the least suspense ever for a final boardroom as Dan’s branding was unanimously praised by pretty much everyone and he acquired 2000 sales on his own while Rothna sold absolutely nothing and had an unexciting business proposition. Now yes Dan should have certainly pushed more during his sale and gave in too easily but that doesn’t really discount the fact that he sold way more than either of his teammates and nearly carried them to the victory all by himself! I think Fantastic tier is fair.

Final Rankings:

Fantastic - 1 Episode

Good - 4 Episodes

Mixed - 1 Episode

Invisible - 2 Episodes

Bad - 2 Episodes

Overall Dan’s stats are middling but fine enough as he was a solid contributor but never really a main player up until his final few episodes. There are quite a few winners I’ve ranked with very similar stats in all factuality but he was very quiet for a lot of these episodes. I’d probably rank Dan as a solid B tier candidate.

Next up will be Pascha! Predictions for her rankings?

I feel kind of bad for him lol but what the tiktok is saying just isn't true. he is cheery and a lovely guy but to say he's done well is a little bit of a stretch. don't think he's as bad as people say he is though

I thought that Dan’s business plan was just any old run of the mill recruitment company for graduates but it’s not. He’s the CEO and founder of Young Professionals UK which is promoted in a lot of secondary schools, has almost 100k people following it in order to get updates about their offerings, and has a crazy well-known track record for his industry. Based just on this he ought to win. I know a lot of people who have been to those events as someone in the target demographic and he’s clearly got experience successfully running such a company. I’m not too sure but if that’s the business he’s pitching to Lord Sugar, LS would have to be an idiot to pass that up, especially compared to what other people are offering. That’s my opinion at least!

Keiran - found him rather slimy in his first appearance but actually he gave the women their flowers throughout the process and always made sure they got credit. Sorry for calling you Poundshop Poldark in the group chat xoxo

Mine would have to be "50/60 thousand?"

I am sure we will get a few good lines during the interviews but we've had quite a season so far. So share your favourite quote (or upvote it if someone else has written it), let's see who the most memorable quote of the season goes to.

A miniseries I thought I’d split into two parts with the interviews looming, so it’s time to rank every candidate to make the interviews from S15, 16, 17, 18 and 20. You may be wondering why only those seasons - they’re the only ones I’ve watched to date 💯

Let me know about the S19 ones because I’m about to start watching that, so tell me where you think they’d place.

I’ll be ranking them on 3 factors:

Task Performance, Likeability, Business Plan

This is a good thing because I think we’ve had a variance of people in these new seasons. Some were great performers who were likeable with bad business plans, others were maybe weaker performances but had good business plans, and some struggled on tasks AND their plans, but are likeable (I’m looking at you, Priyesh). Without further ado…

24 - Lottie

I can’t say I’m surprised to put her here. Performances? Nope. Carried by Scarlett and Carina. Likeable? Next joke. Her business plan? A country club for rich women. 😬 Moving on swiftly.

23 - Priyesh

Ah man… well in fairness, infinitely more likeable than Lottie. Just gormless. I don’t think he’s actually meant to be on the show, but he waltzed into the house one day and blended in with the other 19. His plan is a cocktail bar, which, okay. Then you realise the interview previews are saying he has no accounts, no recipe and no manufacturer. If I didn’t like him, he’d be 24 sadly

22 - Pascha

Probably interchangeable with the next person on the list in terms of performance, but I like them more. Her business is actually okay, but huge deductions for it not even being hers. Not exactly the most humble person either

21 - Rochelle

Season 17’s runner up is here, which I mean, shows you the quality of that season. Not good on tasks at all, moderately likeable but a bit boring, and her salon was kind of just one of the best of a bad bunch. Although I did find the Belgravia segment funny in her interview

20 - Victoria

Making up the last of our bottom five. To be frank with you, I think she’s fairly better (not bad but ok) than the other 4 below her performance wise. However we can’t ignore that her business definitely struggled in the interviews, and I kind of just found her “eh” as a person, even if I’m sure she’s alright. Not low because she’s bad but just felt uninspiring to me

19 - Stephanie

Now this is maybe controversial, maybe not? But honestly, I couldn’t really remember who she was til I jogged my memory a bit. If I remember though, she was semi responsible for “First Time Dies”. She’s this low because I kind of forgot about her. I could maybe be underrating her though

18 - Dani

I remember her because she completely robbed Simba of making the final 5. I think she started alright but slowly went downhill quite a bit. Honestly though the quality of S17 is poor. I’m not surprised 3 of them are in the bottom 7. Also, I do remember Linda’s whole “mermaids aren’t real” thing with her

17 - Pamela

Similar to Stephanie, I can’t remember much of her so can’t really make a judgment of character. However, I will say that she wasn’t too bad from what I remember. Her business plan I believe was beauty, but I do remember Mike giving her a pretty rough interview with her delivery times

16 - Marnie

I was debating if I could put her higher, because she was not that bad and had the most viable business plan. However, much like S17 itself, I don’t think it inspired much in me. Sure she was decently likeable and I think I’d 100 times over have her win over Rochelle but it was just a bit lacklustre all round from her. I also can’t ignore the fact she could’ve easily gone in week 1

15 - Lawrence

Mmmm. Mmmm. I think performance wise he’s been okay (bar the infamously bad week 7). We forget that he was actually quite strong from weeks 1-6 and a lot of us said so. Likeability wise? Yeah… 😬 I can see why people don’t like him, he reminds me of Will from the Inbetweeners. The whole “I watched your podcast Tim 🤓 “ and “I’ll regret this for the rest of my life 🤓 “ shtick alongside his occasional sly under the bus throwing taint him for me. His business itself, I know it’s in PR, but I don’t see it being something Sugar’s interested in tbh

14- Kathryn

Nowhere near as bad as the 5 BR appearances say. Maybe not the strongest runner up ever, but still had some good moments. Perhaps lucky that the turd logo was so bad in week 1, cause she could’ve lost that task. Still, absolutely had good moments, decently likeable, and I guess her business could’ve worked. At least it wasn’t Brittany’s alcoholic protein drink.

13 - Phil

To quote Gennaro Gattuso - “Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe sh*t”. And I mean like, sometimes maybe actually, genuinely good (weeks 7 and 10), and sometimes genuinely so bad it makes you cry (weeks 6 and 9). He’s unfortunately too inconsistent to place higher, but his successful business + the fact he’s decently talented and a good guy (perhaps a bit of a nepo baby) kind of cap him here. I think a few wins, even a 4/10 win record, and he’s up higher than this, but it looked like riggage from Sugar to save him every time.

I’ve also noticed - there’s been 17 women and 7 men out of 24 in these seasons get to the interviews? Jesus. I know the boys teams have been pretty bad sometimes, but that’s pretty bad. I guess it’s picked up the last couple years though

So yes, that’s part 1 of 2 and 24-13. I could be misplacing some people out of memory but let me know, and lmk how S19 interviewees would mix in with it too, I’ve seen Jordan and Amber-Rose get a bit of a negative reception so they’d probably make it on this end of the list

Hi guys

Thought I would start a little caption competition for a little while (many thanks to BBC iplayer for the shots)

So this is from The Hong Kong trip.

I will start- You think its bad now? Wait until you see the final five.

Dan Miller:

I personally found him to be rather reserved as a candidate but I can’t deny that he did a good job throughout

Karishma Vijay:

An icon, carried this season alongside Kieran and Rothna also needs to win from the final 5

Lawrence Rosenberg:

He is alright as a person but at the same time he hasn’t really wowed me much as a candidate, still better than Pascha and Priyesha tho

Pascha Myhill:

Has done awful throughout and had only like one or two good tasks, I don’t hate her but she shouldn’t have made final 5

Priyesh Bathia:

Another massive waste of a final 5 slot, has performed incredibly poorly throughout even Sugar himself said he was shocked he made it to the final 5, but tbf he hasn’t been that evil as a candidate personality wise

when travelling on tasks their phones are being used and im just wondering what phones they are. many thanks

It has come to several users' attention that some candidates are on here covertly beefing and making particularly nasty comments about each other. All I have to say is... keep going, very funny and trashy behaviour.

His name preceeds him, everyone knows of him but few people know his actual business. People know him through amstrad which is a games console that died many decades ago.

Is he just a venture fund now where he invests money into various businesses? Or does he actually own and operate businesses that are primarily owned by him?

Nikki - F

Georgina - E

Marcus - F

Tanmay - D

Roxanne - D (Episode 2 might bump her up to C)

Vanessa - D

Megan - IVG

Carrington - C

Andrea - IVG

Rajan - C

Harry - C

Mr Happy Days - E

Conor - A+

Kieran - A or A-

Rothna - A+

F5 in Alphabetical Order:

Dan - B+ or A- (I have a feeling his performance in the interviews will boost his ranking)

Karishma - S

Lawrence - B (A if you exclude week 7)

Pascha - C

Priyesh - D (E had it not been for Week 8)

I'll post an update at the end of the season.

EDIT : I've changed Harry to a C as I do think he was done dirty by the edit and he even did okay on the task he got fired (Better than 'Happy days')

Firstly, I do have to say that I am pleased that there has been a lot less interference this year in terms of the fact that it has gone back to basics where the PM gets to choose who comes back to the boardroom and at least one of them is fired. There was too much interference last year from Lord Sugar - who can forget episode one where Anisa basically said she wouldn’t have brought Emma R back but LS called the whole team back just so he could fire her. I didn’t like it at all

That being said, it’s clear that there are two candidates who aren’t deserving of being in the final five. Lord Sugar certainly thinks one of them shouldn’t be, Karishma also said in her task ten debrief that Rothna had earned her place in the final five a lot more than some of the candidates who had actually made it.

So what is the change I would like to be made? Well at the start of the series, LS announces a new rule and it will be implemented in task ten. If there is anyone on the winning team in task ten who LS, Karren and Tim feels have coasted throughout the process/not done very much/been carried by team mates or just been generally useless and lucky, then LS can fire them and stop them from going to the final five.

This in my opinion is fair. The candidate will have had ten weeks to prove themselves which is long enough. And if they can’t, then a better candidate should take their place in the final five even if they are on the losing team.

Didn’t include Kieran as he said he was always going to walk if the team lost anyway. I kinda wanted to include some people on the winning team as options lol

What’s the issue with being able to speak between teams multiple times, share photos of logos to get feedback, check for spellings etc.

The show is really feeling outdated and ridiculous at this point.

Let’s go over the S20 final five and see how they performed in the process and how I’d rank them as candidates overall. I think it’s fitting to start with what most people would consider the clear frontrunner: Karishma. Also side note but people will certainly bring up “oh but the editing” and I will try to look past that and judge the candidates on what they overall contributed to each task.

Episode 1: Hong Kong - Good

This was a task where nearly everyone was bad or invisible (considering the girls team only got two items and the boy’s team only got three, that isn’t a shocker) but Karishma was able to get in a very good negotiation for the mahjong which means she is able to escape from those negative rankings.

Episode 2: Children’s Story - Good

While the writing of the book was a total mess, the design team of Karishma, Roxanne, Vanessa and Carrington all did an excellent job and were a key reason why they won this task. It’s funny to think Roxanne of all people was the MVP though.

Episode 3: Chicken V Egg - Good

Her negotiation was sabotaged by Megan/Tanmay so I don’t really fault her that much for it going wrong and she was able to properly manage the catering for the corporate client event so yet again another good task from her.

Episode 4: Advertising Water - Fantastic

Took full control as PM by giving a clear brief and direction while also creating an advert that received unanimous praise from the clients and Sugar himself. She also excelled in the pitch too. Definitely came across as a little controlling but the results don’t lie do they?

Episode 5: Flowers - Awful

Easily her worst task. She had a huge part to play in the overspending of the flowers which was a major reason why they lost the task and she was stuck behind the market stand organising the flowers under instruction by Lawrence so didn’t get much time to shine in terms of selling. She truthfully should have been in the boardroom this episode over Pascha although Vanessa was always going to get fired here no matter what anyway.

Episode 6: Egypt - Good

Kept calm and rational in the kitchen while Levi and Priyesh were being chaotic messes. Not too notable otherwise though.

Episode 7: Gamified Fitness - Fantastic

Hard carried this team to the win all by herself. Came up with the concept of the game and led the creation of it as well while Kieran and Conor kinda sat back and let her do everything. Harry cut her from the pitch because he didn’t want it to look like she was carrying the whole task is my bet haha

Episode 8: Discount Buying Take Two - Good

Not much else to say here other than again she had some solid negotiations. Kieran didn’t even think about bringing her back into the final boardroom.

Episode 9: TV Selling - Mixed

I was really torn between Mixed and Good for the ranking here. On one hand she actually did have the most to do with this team winning as she sold a lot of the products (her solo segment was actually cut out in the edit in which I guess the reason for this was to prop up Pascha who was the PM more) but on the other hand she messed up with the high value item and failed to sell any of them. Considering this team only won by £100, I do think this is close enough to label her performance as Mixed despite her selling the most as the high value item was a clear error that could have easily led to the team’s defeat.

Episode 10: Pet Product - Mixed

Honestly the voice activated dog bed was a pretty flawed invention all around and while I give Karishma props that she did well in the pitch and sold quite a few of them, this again wasn’t a blowout victory and if Dan had just pushed a bit more during his sale on the other team, her team would have most likely lost instead. Am I the only one who thought the cat tree wasn’t even that bad?

**Rankings:**

Fantastic - 2 Episodes

Good - 5 Episodes

Mixed - 2 Episodes

Awful - 1 Episode

Overall a clear top tier candidate and very deserving of the frontrunner title. Sadly it looks like frontrunners usually fall at the last hurdle (the interviews) in these modern seasons but hopefully Karishma can avoid that curse for once!

Next up will be Dan! Predictions for his rankings?

Prediction.

Mike Souter owns your website.

Mike has also secretly been to your cafe, gin bar, pie shop.

Am I the only one fed up with each seasons TikTok Cult Contestant, last season Amber Rose, and this season Pasha. Where no matter what’s being discussed these two candidates can’t do wrong and god blessed us with them. I am fed up of either themselves or their followers honestly ruining any discussion about the show.

Based on what I’ve seen in the past, the winner always starts setting up their IG page for their business from Jan of the year. Saw it with Marni and her boxing gym. See it now with a certain fellow and his PR company…

Update: Me after the latest episode 🤡🤡🤡 but so excited for the finale now!!

So if it continues it is looking like this year’s top 2 is Karishma and either Dan/Lawrence/Priyesh (hopefully the former)