The Apprentice - Why I Fired Them

The Apprentice - Why I Fired Them was a look back over the series by Sir Alan Sugar, explaining his reasons for firing the people he did through the series.

One surprise - he admitted that he got it wrong with Michael Sophocoles and should have fired him earlier! And the reason he hadn't fired him was because Michael reminded him of himself as a young man, and it took weeks and weeks to get through to Sir Alan that Michael wasn't anything like him and had no talent at all.

I think this is the key to the firings - unlike the viewer who is judging mainly on the tasks (and sometimes the evidence accumulated over many tasks), Sir Alan also goes by whether he personally likes the candidate or not. If he likes you, you get chances even when you don't deserve them. If he doesn't like you for some reason - and therefore can't imagine giving you a job - he takes the first opportunity he can to get rid of you. No second chances for Shazia, Sara or Raef.

The only person he admitted to regretting firing was Lucinda. He acknowledged that she was very intelligent and if she could settle down would run a division for him incredibly well. But he doubted she would ever settle.

The final is on Wednesday, and we have four finalists. From the comments Sir Alan made in this penultimate show, I think it's between Alex and Lee, with Alex having the edge. Of the four I personally think Claire is the best - but Sir Alan has a history of rejecting "brash" women - he even labelled gentle Sara as "brash" in this series. Saira Khan, The Badger, and Kristina Grimes all fell at the final hurdle in previous series because of their brashness.

Of the three previous winners of this programme, only one, Simon Ambrose appears to be still working for Sir Alan.