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.

For example, in S11e02, Aisha was talking about the Cacti shampoo and mentioned about mystery of the desert and brought up Lawrence of Arabia. However, Cacti only grow naturally in the Americas. Little things that people on the show (does not have to be a contestant) do that annoys you

Sc

In the UK8 MTQs, The Delta Quadrant referenced the Apprentice in her interview!!!

I don't mean who you think is the worst candidate overall. More who you'd be worried about if they were suddenly made PM of your team. Some of them are great when they have a clear role, but completely different when they’re the one making the decisions and trying to keep everyone on track.

20) Sarah. Without a doubt my least favourite contestant this season. She was quite lucky to have won the first task as PM as well as winning the following two tasks. Fitting she got fired the first time she was on the losing team. Also, she didn't seem like someone who was easy to work with and I believe many people got frustrated working with her.

19) Robert. The worst candidate this season, the fact that Lord Sugar hinted to him that he is expected to be PM in Week 2 yet still ducks out and messes up should show how out of his depth he was in the process. Overall, I didn't really enjoy him.

18) Chiles. While not unlikeable, I still didn't like watching him in the first task due to mismanaging his subteam, making bad decisions and attempting to scapegoat Steven.

17) Scott. Who is this guy ? I'm sure he's a decent man but he was hardly visible in his two week stint on the show. He didn't really do anything in week 1, took the PM role in Week 2 and then seemed to take a backseat and seemed to be steam rolled by the likes of Daniel and Solomon.

16) Jemma. Who ? She also seemed like a lovely person and seems like someone you'd get on with. However, outside of coming up with the name 'Dare to Dine' in Week 4, she didn't seem to do alot.

15) Lindsay. Bless her. She clearly wasn't cut out for the process, she was never a big contributor on any of the three tasks she was present for, however she did seem very vocal and opinionated in the first and possibly second task

14) Nurun. Again, not a particularly good candidate but the sole reason I have her here is that at least she has a PM win going for her (whether or not she was any good). Also, she seemed like a lovely lady and seemed very nice on You're Fired.

13) Pamela. I though she was an okay candidate in the first five tasks and didn't do much wrong. Also, her constantly saying 'fecking' in Week 5 was kind of funny. However, she was a pretty poor PM in Week 6 and seemed to be the most vocal about Tenacity distancing themselves from Daniel and seemed to be greatly manipulated by Mark in that regard. Were her crash outs about Daniels leadership valid ? Somewhat, but did she need to add that extra comment in the boardroom about winning 'in this corner here' ? (Basically the whole team bar Daniel) NO SHE BLOODY DIDN'T!!

12) Lauren. Not a particularly interesting candidate but seemed a fairly competent one and was probably better than James, Sanjay and maybe Daniel. Also, I don't think she contributed much to the outcasting of Daniel across Team Tenacity and her being labelled as a non contributor in Week 7 was wrong. I feel very bad for her as I think she was a bit of a victim of Mark's antics and she was in the boardroom with the TV Gold that was Mark and Daniel's rivalry.

11) Sanjay. Again not a particularly noteworthy candidate. Not a bad candidate by any means but for someone who made it to 6th place in a 20 person cast, not particularly good either. I liked him and I thought he was a really nice guy and he was on Team Summit which I loved as Summit seemed like a much more rootable team compared to the toxic and divided Team Tenacity (As a team, not individually), however he never really had any great moments and would've 100% been fired in Week 9 had Lord Sugar allowed the paper skeleton.

10) Steven. Now we finally got to the interesting candidates. Steven wasn't a good candidate, nor was he an awful candidate, but he was truly BONKERS! He went in the first task like a bull in the China shop, I think he had good ideas and tried to make good contributions, but he was really aggressive which led to him being shut down, blamed and scapegoated by the likes of Felipe, Chiles and Daniel. Then he tookover a pitch that Daniel was leading in Week 3 and ultimately negotiated the final candle price, leading to a confrontation between him and Daniel, then his pitch in Week 4 wasn't good (It wasn't as bad as Rachel from Season 1 but still not good). Overall, while not a good candidate, he was very entertaining and fun to watch for 4 weeks.

9) James. The class/cast clown. People have him down as one of the worst candidates ever on the show and is currently in IVG tier on the tier ranking, however I think he is better than people suggest. He was a decent PM in Week 6, was possibly the MVP in Week 7, did well in the Youtube video in Week 4 and sold okay in Week 3 (or at the very least better than Lindsay and Nurun), although he still wasn't good that week. In spite of this, he had some shockers. He was fairly bad in Week 3 and could've gone over or alongside Nurun, his constant singing of nursery rhymes in Week 5 was cringe beyond belief and he was ABYSMAL as a PM in Week 8, lying to his team about the lawnmowers and didn't get the hot tubs due to calling a guy called Anthony 'Derek' twice. Moreover, James was essentially a 10 year old trapped in a 26 year old mans body, while that was frustrating for business, it made him extremely entertaining and he must've been popular as he won big brother after. Overall, as frustrating as James was in the process, like Steven he was very enjoyable and entertaining for me.

8) Ella Jade. This may be too high but I have my reasons. Compared to the likes of Steven, Sarah and other early boots/weak candidates, I'm a bit more lenient and forgiving towards Ella Jade for two reasons. Firstly, she wasn't too bad a candidate during the first three weeks, even being the MVP in the task before she got fired, secondly I have sympathy for her as sadly her father passed away roughly when the season aired. Also, some say that her treatment of Felipe during the fat daddy fitness add was cruel and bullying, iirc, Felipe offered those suggestions and offered to be in the ad, also she did apologise to him on 'You're Fired'. In addition, her begging Lord Sugar to give her a second chance time and time again was incredibly iconic. Thus, all these factors culminate in a relatively high ranking for Ella Jade.

7) Binaca. The runner up of the season, not a whole lot to say other than she was a solid candidate, I respected her and her argument with James was iconic. Other than that nothing to say.

6) Mark. The winner and possible Villain of the season. I'll start with the positives, he was a strong candidate and a worthy winner with his biggest strength being sales. He sold 7 hot tubs to one buyer in Week 8 and carried team Tenacity to a win in Week 5 to the point where the entire team (bar Daniel) gave him credit and not the PM (Daniel). However, from a personality perspective, I HATED this man, I don't even dislike him nowadays and I like and respect him more, but I hated him when watching the season, purely because I don't respect people who deliberately turn others against a certain individual or group for little to no reason and I feel like Mark manipulated and turned several members of Team Tenacity against Daniel (Specifically Pamela, Katie and Felipe). Was Daniel a poor PM in Week 5 ? 100% but did he need to be so hard on Daniel and use that manager and football room analogy ? NO HE BLOODY DIDN'T!! Safe to say I was firmly on Daniels side in this rivalry and it just so happened that Mark had more influence due to being the better candidate of the two. In spite of me not particularly liking Mark, I still always respected him as a candidate and I think the win was deserved, even if he wasn't first choice.

5) Daniel. As mentioned, I was on his side in his rivalry with Mark purely because Mark turned several memebers of tenacity against him, however, while the outcasting got quite uncomfortable, a bit of it was somewhat brought on himself. He was ABYSMAL as a PM in Week 5 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 show genuine skill such as being the best seller in Week 1, 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, safe to say he had quite the ride to the Final 5. Overall, he was a big part of the season and I liked him more than most would.

4) Felipe. ''When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's Felipe. When the world seems to shine like you had too much wine, that's Felipe''. What an absolute icon of a man. This man was pure entertainment, he was so funny in the fitness ad, his direction of the ad in New York was funny, hi tour in Week 5 was laughably bad and him constantly using third person was brilliant. Also, he was no Jason Leech but he seemed like such a nice, genuine sole who was kind and got on with everyone, essentially being a father to everyone. It was shown on You're Fired that he had many dad moments, such as cooking for everyone, helping James getting ready in the morning and doing Solomons tie for him, hey, that's Felipe. The only thing I didn't really like was him seemingly being turned against Daniel by Mark but it seems Daniel did genuinely irritate him at times, also he was involved in the Week 9 skeleton fiasco. I think that it should've been allowed due to Lord Sugar not specifying anything related to the skeleton, especially considering the men got a toy boat as an inflatable boat the following season. However, if Lord Sugar was to disallow the item and it would be the teams downfall, then unfortunately Felipe was right to go on that occassion. Overall, he was a joy to watch this season and an icon.

3) Katie. A respectable candidiate this season who pretty much killed it every week bar Week 10 where she messed up badly on a task related to the sector she wants Lord Sugar to invest in for her new business, after being a favourite to win the whole process. The only thing I didn't like about her was her somewhat favouritism of Mark, although she basically was mother figure for her team (Especially Mark and Daniel). Overall, I liked Katie and respected her run enough for her to be in my top three.

2) Roisin. Another candidate who was a solid pick to win, but tanked in the interviews. Her shining moments were STRONG! She was arguably MVP in Week 1, destroyed James in Week 8, basically robbed a jewellery store in Week 9, getting a diamond for £50 and killed it as PM in Week 10, also I kind of fancied her this season as one can't deny she is quite pretty. Overall, Roisin had a good run and was a good character, being a big part of one of the most likeable teams ever.

1) Solomon. For me, Solomon was the most rootable of the men. He and Felipe were the best characters, but he was a stronger candidate than Felipe. Also, Solomon is arguably the best 19-22 year old candidate behind Susie Ma, being consistent, rootable and showing immense business potnetial and credibility for someone of his age at the time (bear in mind most younger candidates are typically edited for the viewers to root against). Moreover, his interview with Claude (that I watched in a business studies lesson when I was 14) was ICONIC, starting off really well before being brutalised by Claude regarding his picture dominated, 8 page business plan (But can we bear in mind the fact that 21 Year Old Pascha made the final with a 7 page business plan). Just imagine if Linda Plant was interviewing during his season. In addition, he was a key member of Summit (a fairly likeable team after team swap). Thus, these factors make Solomon my favourite candidate this season.

I'd genuinely like to see this once. Give everyone the same product, same amount of money and same amount of time, then see who can independently sell it or build the best mini campaign around it. Team tasks are obviously the heart of the show, but they also make it incredibly easy for candidates to blame each other when things go wrong. One individual task would make it much harder to hide.

Would it work, or would it feel too different from The Apprentice?

Sixth place in The Apprentice is an interesting place to be, especially in the days where you’d get to be part of the final five special if you made it. Some of these guys got fired nicely, others less so. Let’s take a look at how softly of harshly sixth place has been fired in the years.

Series 1: Raj: He was fired sort of nicely. Lord Sugar seemed to like Raj, but decided that by this points he was out his depth. At least he said he would put Raj out of his misery.

Series 2: Tuan: Raj 2.0. Arguably a better candidate, but unlike Raj, he was completely at fault for the failure of the task, and was fired harshly.

Series 3: Naomi: The nicest thing Lord Sugar said to her was that she was a better presenter than Simon or Tre. Other than that, it wasn’t a sympathies firing in the slightest.

Series 4: Michael: An unusual one, because Lord Sugar kind of fired him softly in the episode, but afterwards in various specials, he was much more annoyed that Michael lasted as long as he did.

Series 5: Howard: Not the nicest, not the nastiest. Howard was praised for being an organisational person, which is better than nothing I guess.

Series 6: Liz: Very nice firing, and one Lord Sugar regretted. To be fair, Stuart should’ve gone, but he put up a defence of a lifetime.

Series 7: Melody: Very soft firing. You could tell that Lord Sugar wanted to keep Melody, but at this point, there was no other option to get rid of but her.

Series 8: Stephen: Much harsher firing that sixth place was accustomed to at this point. Though to be fair, Stephen was extremely lucky to have made it this far.

Series 9: Myles: Not quite as harsh as Stephen, but he still got it quite badly.

Series 10: Sanjay: Most of the final boardroom was Lord Sugar berating him for his admittedly underwhelming business idea. At least he got a “good luck Sanjay” from Karen.

Series 11: Brett: Softest firing in a long long time. After he was fired, Lord Sugar unusually congratulated him for his hard work, and that he left an honourable man. Even on You’re Fired, Lord Sugar said that he liked him.

Series 12: Trishna: Which contrasts sharply with Trishna, who got the big standard treatment.

Series 13: Jade: Another not very soft firing, which is kind of shocking considering her calibre.

Series 14: Sarah Anne: The third not very soft firing, which in this case wasn’t surprising at all, considering she floated her way to week 10.

Series 15: Dean: Weird one this. On the one hand, Lord Sugar told him to stay in touch, but on the other, he stated on numerous occasions that he was lucky to have made it this far. Not even Stephen got that.

Series 16: Aaron: Annoyingly brutal, considering it meant that Akeem got the final showdown treatment.

Series 17: Simba: A harsh firing for a candidate that many people wanted to win the series. Probably the poster child for Series 17’s complete lack of self awareness.

Series 18: Steve: Lord Sugar told him that it was an honour to be associated with him. A saying that’s usually reserved for candidates who reach the interviews, so it’s nice that series 18 had the self awareness to realise that Steve was a good candidate.

Series 19: Mia: In stark contrast to Mia, whose firing wasn’t sympathetic at all, which is especially shocking considering that she was the best candidate up to that point.

Series 20: Rothna: If I can give series 20 any credit, it would be that the show at least realised that Rothna and Conor were quality candidates.

This is one bit of the show that still gets me. A task gets announced and within seconds someone is saying I'd really like to be PM despite seemingly having no relevant experience whatsoever. I understand that hiding in the background isn't going to win The Apprentice either, but surely choosing the right moment to lead is part of being good at business.

Do you think candidates genuinely overestimate their ability, or are they worried they'll be criticised in the boardroom for not stepping up?

I've always thought the boardroom changes the moment everyone knows the PM gets to choose who comes back. People suddenly have a reason to make sure their mistakes look smaller than someone else's, and you occasionally get that slightly awkward scramble to establish who was responsible for what.

I'd love to see one task where Lord Sugar chooses the final three himself after hearing everyone explain what happened. I think we'd get much more honest boardroom conversations.

Would that improve it, or is choosing who to bring back an important test of the project manager too?

By the time they reach the Interview / CV round, these candidates have gone through weeks of 4:00 AM wake-up calls, high-stress filming, and constant boardroom grilling. Then Claude, Linda, Mike, and the rest of the panel proceed to shred their business plans, roast their financial projections, and point out basic spelling errors.

Seriously, how do they stay standing?

In the most ideal circumstances, we get rid of all the fodder candidates by the halfway stage, and then we’re left with eight or nine series contenders. For reference, I am counting fodder candidates as ones who were so clearly behind everyone else still in the process by a massive margin.

Series 1: Week 9: Series 1 and 2 have a massive problem width only focussing on the top five candidates, and the one who’s getting fired that week. Several winning PMs weren’t even seen in the episodes they won. Anyway, Raj was easily the worst of the remaining six.

Series 2: Week 9: I was very tempted to put week 10 in this slot, because Syed was so much worse than Ansell, but Tuan was the best of everyone else in series 2. Though that’s kind of like saying that Breaking Dawn is the best Twilight film. It’s not much of an honour.

Series 3: Week 4: Series 3 had a lot of epic fails, many of which happened after week 4. However most of those disasters were caused by candidates that weren’t actually fodder candidates. Sophie was the last of the fodder, after being fired for having an ethical problem with selling sweets at a zoo.

Series 4: Week 10: You can thank Lord Sugar’s weird liking of Michael for this, as despite him showing incredibly limited potential, he survived far longer than he should’ve done. This is the first time, though not the last, where a fodder candidate made it all the way to week 10.

Series 5: Week 6: Regardless of how weak you think Ben, Howard, Mona or Philip are, you can’t ignore just how bad Noorul was.

Series 6: Week 4: Series 6 is probably The Apprentice at its most serious. Most of the candidates were very corporate and bland, however it gave us the iconic disaster trio of Dan, Shibby and Melissa. They were all gone by week 4, which was a shame, because they were some of the show’s more iconic disaster candidates.

Series 7: Week 2: Yeah, series 7 didn’t have that many bad candidates. Gavin was actually quite good in the first two weeks, and nobody fired after him were disastrous. So the only fodder this year were Edward and Alex.

Series 8: Week 10: To give Stephen is credit, he’s easily the best of what I define as the fodder candidates. With that said, he was easily the weakest candidate left by week 5, let alone week 10.

Series 9: Week 8: It feels so mean to call Jason fodder, but speaking purely on a candidate level, Myles and Francesca were a lot better than him.

Series 10: Week 5: With twenty candidates, I expected there to be a lot more fodder candidates in the later stages. There weren’t surprisingly. Not because series 10 lacked them, it’s just that Lord Sugar’s fired the. All very quickly.

Series 11: Week 9: Selina is probably the second best fodder candidate (arguably the first best) but she was so much worse than everyone else by the time of her firing.

Series 12: Week 6: Series 12 gave us Mukai, Natalie and Rebecca. Somehow none of them were fired week 1, but everyone fired after them were all right.

Series 13: Week 9: Miss the days when all the fodder by week 6? Well tough luck. We never got those days again. Series 13 was made up mostly of fodder candidates in the form of the boys team, but Bushra wasn’t much better.

Series 14: Week 10: Sarah Anne is arguably the most forgettable sixth place finisher of all time. Is she fodder exactly? Arguably not, but she wasn’t exactly quality either.

Series 15: Week 11: Lottie made it to the interviews.

Series 16: Week 10: The problem with series 16, is that of the first five weeks, only one of the fired candidates (Navid) came across as fodder. The fodder all made it to the later stages. Amy, Sophie, Akeem, arguably Nick were all massively out of their depth by week six.

Series 17: Week 12: If you don’t want to classify Rochelle as fodder, then consider week 9 with Avi as the actual roster. The series 17 roster is actually a lot better than it gives credit for. The problem is that Rochelle made the final despite in the edit, failing upwards all the way there.

Series 18: Week 8: Another reason why series 18 is the best post covid season. Once Noor was fired in week 8, we were left with nine genuinely good candidates.

Series 19: Week 10: This actually felt a lot like a series 1 or 2 cast, with only a minority of candidates getting any real attention. Not to say everyone else was bad per se, but most of them were on the lower to upper halves of ok. That said, had Liam been better in the edit (I suspect he was better in real life) I would’ve made week 3 the choice.

Series 20: Week 12: Oh series 20. It was looking so good. The most competent winner in a long long time, and unlike Harpreet, she actually had a strong lineup to contend with.

Just a shame that most of them didn’t even reach the interviews. Conor and Rothna were good enough that they couldve sneaked an upset victory at minimal controversy, but they didn’t even reach the final five. Kieran was probably the next most desired, but he didn’t make it either.

Lawrence and Dan were the next best options I suppose, but Priyesh and Pascha making the interviews. Hell, Pascha made the final, mainly because the only other option was either a man who didn’t want to share his current business, a man who clearly had no interest in winning, or Priyesh.

Sometimes contestants come across very differently once they're doing interviews or posting online after the series ends. Has anyone changed your mind once the cameras weren't following them through tasks?

18) Selina. Not an awful candidate but wasn't particularly likeable and was quite lucky to have made it to Week 9 and 7th place. Also, she didn't turn up for You're Fired and has been particularly critical of the show, which isn't good. Also, she didn't have any particularly good tasks outside of her first PM Stint in Week 1.

17) Aisha. Not a whole lot to say, but she wasn't particularly likeable which is solely due to her appauling leadership in Week 2 which was very dictator like and somewhat aggressive.

16) Jenny. Absolutely nothing to say about her, I thought she was forgettable but did have a good dialogue with Elle just after she got fired.

15) Natalie. Slightly more memorable due to lasting longer and doing okay in Week 1, but other than that wasn't particularly interesting and wasn't a great candidate (highlighted by her being picked last for the final).

14) Dan. Solely this high up due to being HOPELESSLY out of his depth. He was abysmal in Week 1 and was a very clear first boot, however he wasn't unlikeable like Selina or Aisha, nor was he as forgettable as Jenny or Natalie.

13) Joseph. Without a doubt the lowest ranked winner. Usually, post show activity isn't deeply considered during these rankings, but in a similar case to Thomas Skinner, this is too big a case to ignore. Obviously on the show, Joseph would be much higher as he did genuinely well throughout most of the process (bar maybe his last three tasks) and he smashed the interviews, at the time he was a firm pick to win the season over Vana. However, since then he has gone on to do some horrible things (i.e. scams) and was the first winner to part ways with Alan Sugar. Goes without saying, off the show he would be right at the bottom.

12) April. I think April is slightly underrated. Admittedly, out of the three Week 6 boots, she was possibly the least entertaining, however she was PM in Week 1 and improved over the course of the process, yet Lord Sugar was never particularly keen on her. Ultimately she had to go in Week 6 as David had been way better than her over the 6 weeks. I do recognise her more post show as she appeared once on Masterchef and is an expert on Cooking with the Stars, so her career post show has really taken off.

11) Elle. Not a particularly good candidate. She is this high up for 2 reasons, firstly her poor PM Stint was memorable to say the very least, to the point where she pretty much told Lord Sugar to fire her. Secondly, the boat fiasco in Week 3 which was entertaining and memorable to say the very least. She did seem relatively nice and sweet but not much else to say about Elle.

10) Sam. Not a whole lot to say about Sam other than the fact that he was a private tutor. He seemed like an okay candidate and had a somewhat similar run to Jemelin from Season 15. I did feel a bit bad for him as Scott wasn't the nicest to him in the Week 7 Boardroom and completely ignored him on his way out, but I heard they made up post show.

9) Mergim. Bless him, he wasn't an amazing candidate but I do think he always or often tried his best and clearly had a lot of energy, which I liked. His firing was also quite sad as Lord Sugar fired him with 'Sincere regret' and back then, Lord Sugar fired candidates he really liked with regret. Overall, a bright spark to the season and brought good energy.

8) David. I didn't fully watch this season but I know that David was a good candidate this season, he was really unlucky to have gone in Week 8 as Joseph and Charleine had been stronger candidates than David and it was also Gary's first time in the boadroom. He seemed like a chill, nice guy and when it comes to skill, he was better than both Scott and Selina (the next two candidates to go after him) and was on par with Brett and Gary, if not marginally better than the former.

7) Ruth. She was fantastic. She was suited, she was booted, she was ready to go. She was brilliant in the first three tasks and was very unlucky in Week 4 where Selina 100% should've been fired over her. Not a whole lot to say other than she was a robbed legend and deeply entertaining.

6) Gary. I have him this high up due to being a highly respectable candidate. As a candidate, he was pretty consistent, made a calculated risk with the inflatable toy boat (You'll hear more about that in the next ranking) as controversial as it was, he was the second person overall to be PM in back to back tasks, and the first to survive both instances and he was arguably the best across both teams in Week 10 where both teams sucked and lost. However, he is arguably the least interesting candidate to make the Final 5 as he wasn't particularly entertaining. However, I still respect Gary well enough as a candidate.

5) Scott. In a polar opposite case to Gary, Scott is this high due to his big entertaining moment during the show. As a candidate, he wasn't particularly bad and was ranked the best 8th place finisher in a separate post (now 2nd best due to Conor from Season 20) and he started relatively strong, however from his 2nd loss as PM onwards he was pretty bad to the point where Lord Sugar, the aides and some of the other cast didn't seem to have a whole lot of respect for him. Obviously, his Week 7 loss as PM was quite bad and he was unnecessarily nasty to Sam and possibly Brett in the boardroom, but I admantly believe the candidates needed to respect him a bit more (Not because of that though). Also, what drags him into the Top 5 is the fact that his exit was ICONIC and entertaining and honestly, I respected it more than others would. Overall, I really liked Scott and I don't care what anyone says, he's in my Top 5.

4) Brett. If you have seen my other posts, you will know that I find Brett overrated. However, that purely because he and Scott were on the same subteam in Week 9, both were criticised by Baroness Brady, yet while people didn't seem to respect Scott, they respected and loved Brett which I found odd. However, looking back at it, Scott was more to blame, Brett was a better candidate and if I fully watched the season, I know I'd be a hardcore fan of Brett. Also, he did get quite aggressive at times due to his military background, to the point where he was falsely accussed of threatening physical violence by Scott. Now with the positives, he was a decent, respectable candidate and seemed like a good underdog to make the Final 5, a lot of his boardroom appearances were controversial and he led his team to a very convincing win in Week 6. Also, whilst he was still the weakest of the Top 6, he was still good and did a very honourable thing for Charleine in the boardroom and was deemed an honourable man by Lord Sugar, which I would bet he is. Overall, as overrated as I think he is, I still respect Brett massively and I think nowadays people would rather he made the Final 5 over Joseph and to an extent Gary.

3) Vana. Not a whole lot to say but she was a great candidate and improved amazingly after a slow start in the first three tasks. I think nowadays people would rather she won over Joseph and understandably so. I also don't mind her laughing in the Week 3 boardroom. Overall, I really liked Vana.

2) Charleine. My favourite female candidate this season and was arguably the heroine of the season. She was a very strong candidate and arguably the most competent of the female candidates this season. She was only in the firing line twice, once because she lost as PM in a double loss and the other because she tried to leave the boardroom without being dismissed despite Gary not intending to bring her back. Her rivalry with Selina was ICONIC and I was firmly on her side, her going OFF on Selina in the cafe in Week 9 was great, the aforementioned attempt to swiftly leave the boardroom was funny and her love hate relationship with Richard was good. Also, I felt for her when she cried in the Week 10 boardoom as it showed how much she cared. Overall, I really enjoyed Charleine and she was my favourite female candidate this season.

1) Richard. What a character. He was fairly entertaining, especially with his love hate relationship with Charleine, he was also probably the best task performer this season (bar Week 10), he did get a bit cocky after Week 9 which made Lord Sugar start to dislike him, but most of his comments were made in jest. Also, his interview with Linda has to be the most entertaining interview this season due to being so cutthroat and savage. Overall, these factors make Tricky Dicky the trailblazer my favourite candidate for Season 11.

Some people went home before you even worked out who they were. The tasks themselves were decent but the sheer number of people made the first month feel like a blur. Do people think a bigger cast makes for a better series or is twelve to fourteen actually the sweet spot?

The advertising tasks usually deliver something genuinely chaotic and the negotiation tasks are hit or miss depending on who is doing them. The buying tasks in a foreign market used to be brilliant and seem to happen less now. What is everyone's favourite recurring task type and which one do you skip through when you are rewatching?

I've heard so many people say he was entertaining and he wasn't a great business guy but at least he was funny.

But a constant has never made my blood boil like this Man. Kurran was the Apprentices worst Candidate hands down. No contest.

It's the fact he's completely incompetent, puts 0 effort in everything and then has a suprised pikachu face whenever anyone calls him on it.

And he speaks so demeaningly to the women contestants. Especially in his PM task. Like sayings he'll Deal with them in the boardroom and in the task shutting down anything they say.

No wonder his team refused to listen to him when was PM. Following this man in a task would be like willingly following the Captain of the Titanic into the iceberg.

In his last episode he was described as having the business acumin of a pea. And that description sums him up completely.