Category: reality tv

Sir Alan Sugar returned for another round in the boardroom in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 1. The guys quickly got divided into two sides, which remained the theme throughout the boardroom as well. Ultimately, Nicholas sunk himself through pricing errors, and being pompous in his defense didn’t help him any, so he was the first person to go home.

The teams get a video message from Sir Alan, who tells them they’ll start their own laundry business. They must pitch to get as much dirty laundry as possible, watch it, and return it cleaned.

Raef offers to be project manager for the boys, hoping to redeem himself from last week. Lee’s concerned Raef’s not a natural leader, and Ian’s concerned that Raef’s different than a lot of them. Still split down the middle I see.

Jenny steps up to be the PM for the girls. She seems to have more support than Raef does.

Simon has worked with some laundry equipment in the past, and to go along with that, the guys grab all of the ironing equipment in the house.

Jenny wants to prove she’s a salesperson, so she drones on and on for the first hour talking about sales. Sara’s getting tired of her. Margaret notices Jenny’s taking charge but has her favorites. As with the boys, some cliques are starting to form.

Half of Raef’s team will go door-to-door to hunt for dirty laundry. A few miles away, the girls are also doing the same thing.

The other half of the teams will be meeting businesses and go head-to-head to compete for the business. A large hotel is first. The guys call a laundry business to figure out what to charge. The girls just guess. The job is 1000 pieces of laundry. The manager normally pays £200. The girls bid £4.99 per item for a total of £4,999. On the contrary, the boys price it at £556. Still too expensive but a lot better than the girls. The manager is willing to negotiate, and the guys’ idea of negotiating is merely accepting his price of £200. Show a backbone and try to make a counteroffer at least.

In addition to this deal, the other guys are having some luck knocking on doors, but the girls are having no luck there, so they head to various businesses instead. This strategy works for them.

Sir Alan’s sending them to a fishmonger. The job should cost about £60. The girls bid £10, which they up to 15 when he asks for ironing as well. He repeatedly tries to let them know (not in so many words) that they’re screwing themselves on this deal, but they don’t listen. The boys go in at £49.50 and have no interest in matching the girls.

The girls who were working with the businesses Sir Alan set meetings up with head out selling, but the boys who were going door-to-door are instructed by Raef to head back to the laundromat and start work on the hotel project. They warn the other guys there’s a lot of stuff to do there. Every sheet (of which there are 500) takes four people to feed through the industrial strength presser.

Jen and Lucinda get into a spat. Well, Lucinda gets into a spat while Jen tries to get a word in edgewise anyway.

Simon begs Raef for help. Raef’s in no particular hurry to get back. They want to make sure they get some coffee first. He doesn’t get what the big deal is but admits it’s going to be close when he finally does show up.

At 8pm, half the girls are back at the laundry. Their big concern is making sure the right people get the right things because unlike the boys with their massive hotel order, the girls have lots of smaller orders. The rest of the team has had good success in selling to businesses, but the problem is that they’re cutting it very close. With the 2am deadline looming, they’re down to just two hours by the time they do finally make their appearance. They’ve got a plan. Beat the boys home and grab the irons. Too bad the guys already grabbed them a long time ago.

Here’s the real flaw in this plan. Shazia was the one who came up with the idea to head back, so she left. The other girls were behind and have no idea what’s up with her labelling system that was used to keep the different customers’ items where they should be.

Now it’s Jen’s turn to snap back at Lucinda. She tells her she’s absolutely thoroughly disappointed with her behavior. Excellent motivational leadership. She uses the word stupid more than once. Lucinda tries to defend herself. Jenny doesn’t want to hear it. She would rather continue to tear into hear. Lucinda wants to discuss it in the morning. Jenny still doesn’t want to hear it. She uses the word stupid more than once again and calls Lucinda a fungus that’s destroying the team. Someone else steps in to defend Lucinda, who by this point is crying. I want Jenny fired right now. I don’t care who wins or loses this task. This woman quite clearly is incapable of being a leader.

Lucinda oversleeps, perhaps intentionally, missing the meeting the next morning. Jenny picks up right where she left off. Being a bitch.

The guys kept the irons the whole night but didn’t even use them.

At 8:30, the guys leave. The girls are still ironing for another hour. Next they have to figure out what belongs to whom.

Hoping to maximize profits, the girls aim to get some tips. The fishmonger willingly gives them a £10 tip. They’re able to get a couple other tips as well, but there’s a problem. One they should have seen coming a mile away. They’re not going to get tips from people who are missing some of their clothes. Worse yet, if they’re unable to deliver the clothes as they were given to them, they will face fines.

The girls are mixed on Jenny’s performance, but the boys are firmly behind Raef. The girls earned £195.55 profit and were fined £50 for the lost clothing. The boys earned £328.00.

Jenny’s “delighted” to be going back to the boardroom because it will allow her to get rid of what she considers weaker links.

Sir Alan questions the lack of common sense on the ridiculous hotel offer. On the opposite end of the spectrum was the underbilling on the fish shop. Margaret and Sir Alan are unimpressed with Randi’s idea of asking for tips. Shazia takes the heat on the lost clothing.

Now it’s time to beat the dead horse some more. Jenny returns to attacking Lucinda.

Then it becomes a free-for-all in which everybody tries to talk over everybody else. It’s clear they spent too much time arguing rather than executing their plan.

Jenny is bringing Lucinda and Shazia back with her into the boardroom.

Lucinda says she shouldn’t be fired because she can motivate and work within teams.

Jenny’s asked a simple question with a simple answer. Where did Shazia go wrong in the task? Rather than just saying she went home when she should have stayed and helped sort the laundry, Jenny’s response is that Shazia lied, complained, manipulated other people, and didn’t deliver on the tasks that were allocated. Aside from being a dumb, long-winded answer, is any of this actually true?

Jenny has the same plan as she had during the task. Keep talking and expect other people to shut up. Margaret’s clearly getting a headache.

Both Shazia and Lucinda want Jenny gone. That makes three of us. Jenny wants both of them gone because they have an attitude and an inability to contribute anything of any value.

After Sir Alan gives a speech about how it’s not a good thing to have people who violently hate each other on the same team, he fires Shazia for her mistake. While I normally would agree, Jenny’s utter inability as a manager is so blatant that there’s no need for her to still be around, let alone in an environment in which she will be lashing out in this manner again in the future. He leaves both of them with a warning: act more professional in the future.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 3.