BBC Knowledge is finally bringing the UK version of The Apprentice to Hong Kong (Mondays at 9.20 pm starting tonight).  I have mentioned this version of the show once or twice before (notably here), and I have to say that I prefer it to the Trump original (much more on The Apprentice here).  The US…

A few weeks ago, Donald Trump announced that he was quitting The Apprentice, apparently in response to NBC’s reluctance to go-ahead with a new series. Now it seems (Reuters) that both Trump and NBC have changed their minds.  NBC (which never formally cancelled the show) wants to go-ahead with season 7 (and possibly season 8 as well), and Trump is…

The third season of the UK version of The Apprentice has come to an end, accompanied by a fair degree of controversy.  Naughty old Sir Alan picked the wrong candidate – allegedly.  It’s clear that Donald Trump regarded the original US version of the show as a way of promoting himself and his companies, whereas…

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.  I just watched the final ever episode of The Apprentice. How could it go so wrong? Well, just for starters there were too many gimmicks, they “fixed” things that weren’t broken, and they ended up making it into just another reality show. There was not much wrong with having a “final 2” and giving each of them an…

Donald Trump was not impressed when one contestant on Series 6 announced that he wanted to quit rather than hang around and probably get fired.  Apparently Trump doesn’t like quitters. Except that when NBC’s Autumn schedule was announced and The Apprentice was nowhere to be seen, Donald Trump quit the show before he could be…

Just for a change, I’ve been watching the UK version of The Apprentice. Undoubtedly the biggest difference between the two is that Trump is a natural showman and seems to be totally comfortable doing "his" show, whereas Alan Sugar is a "hired hand" who is playing a role.  Trump relishes the power he has, and…

The problem with the final task in The Apprentice is that by this stage we (normally) already know who’s going to win, and it’s quite a challenge for that person to make such a big mess that it makes any difference. Tana did manage it in series three – she looked the most likely winner…

The fifth season of The Apprentice has now finished its run on TVB Pearl.  As usual, the final task was split over two shows (though thankfully this time the second part was only 90 minutes).    First, though, there was week 13, in which Roxanne and Allie were both fired for their hopeless performance.  The…

It never ceases to amaze me the way that contestants on The Apprentice "over-think" the tasks they are given. The classic example was when they were asked to promote a product in a sports store and one team put on a great event but actually reduced the sales of the product compared to a normal…