Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 7 of December , 2008 at 4:25 pm
… will be revealed tomorrow night on TV3 after the final episode airs. Here’s the preview of the show.
UPDATE : Delighted that Brenda won. Said it a few weeks back that she is who I would hire for her direct, no nonsense approach.
Brenda and Nicky have to run a charity event and “present their charity in a novel and interesting way”.
Bill speaks of the great journey the candidates have been on. It’s one of the most overused phrases on reality tv and really grinds my gears. I suppose for some of them, it was a journey.
It was also a journey for the live blog too. Major hat tip to Anthony, Darragh, Darren, Deborah, Gavan and Ciara and Lottie (best blog name ever) who all hosted a live blog over the weeks and kept it going. And a big hat tip to Ian as well for doing the reviews when he could too.
I’m still rooting for Brenda to win. All will be revealed tomorrow at 9pm on TV3.
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Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 9 of November , 2008 at 4:59 pm
This week’s live blog of the Apprentice takes place at Darren’s with kick off just before the show starts. I’m not going to see it or the show tomorrow night unfortunately, but the live blogs are always good craic.
The reactions to Joanna’s departure from the Apprentice on Monday have divided people into two camps. Some thought she provided great entertainment and the show will miss her departure. Others couldn’t stand the sight of her and are glad she’s gone.
From what little I know about her background, she seems to fit the category of a person who has made money from her previous business venture and doesn’t really need to work. Entering the Apprentice was just something to do for a laugh and put something else on her CV. She played her part well in the show and reckons her career will go from strength to strength from here on out. I’d love to wish her good luck, but the recorded sequence of her departing from the show and gloating and laughing manically prevents me from doing that. I stuck it up on YouTube if you want to go look at it. That, and another video of Joanna making a presentation, have garnered some “interesting” comments.
Bill’s right hand man on the show is winning outside the boardroom in show jumping. Tally ho Brian
Jennifer Maguire and Bill are the best of buddies now. Apparantly she doesn’t even have a TV to watch the show, and heads over to her ma’s to watch it. Then it’s in to Ray D’arcy to have a chat about it the next day.
We get more of an insight into the candidates this week, which is why I am always sad for the person who is fired on week one. They are generally not remembered. For those of you who cannot remember who was fired already it was David Neary.
Launching a video game should be easy, or so I thought, especially in this world of modern technology & games we should know everything there is to know. If in doubt though Fight Club must never be used as the 6 lads proved last night, they suffered a knockout punch of their own by using Adidas branding when launching an EA Game. I’m sure Adidas was only delighted of course but the man from EA wasn’t best pleased.
The lads just cocked it up again, there were just too many mistakes, from Stuart being controlling, bitching, & Derek with his Adidas signs which doomed him into getting fired. Mark (the team leader last week), was yet again a high performer even though he was only in the boardroom by default, for taking Ronan in last week.
Mark is certainly the candidate I would tip to win because he is hard working and focused so far. He’s just been let down by the others.
It’s tough when up against feisty girls who never give up as they made it 2 wins out of 2 before the shuffle up next week which well really make or break the candidates.
Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 28 of September , 2008 at 5:52 pm
The first show in the season pulled in 237,000 for TV3. The Herald said on Thursday that:
“New figures show that the Bill Cullen-fronted show, which is expected to be the station’s greatest success story, only scored half as many viewers as Who Do You Think You Are? on RTE.”
The RTE1 programme took 471,000 viewers. A comment during the live blog last week pointed out that RTE shifted the start of Raw from 9.00 to 9.55 and showed an old CSI instead. They are repeating that this week, which is perhaps a sign that RTE know they won’t win on ratings in a head to head with The Apprentice. No doubt the viewing figure will be watched closely to see if the interest is sustained over the remaing 11 weeks.
Live Blog of this weeks episode is happenig over at Deborah’s place, so keep an eye out there and join in the discussion.
The house where the Apprentice Candidates were holed up for the duration of the filming is a closely guarded secret. The Herald (again). got a good look at the plush surrounding.
Andrea Roche will make a guest appearance and the show bosses hope she will add “some glamour” to the mix.
Bill’s lookee-likee, Mark O’Rourke is getting great encouragement from his mates on his Bebo page. Latest comment is classic – reproduced verbatim below.
“alright mark seen that you where on the apprentice thingy you’ve come a long way from selling crack to kids to selling 5 banana’s for 50 on moore street you should of fit right in with the big gay head on ya lol.(maybe not since the place is flooded with them imports and tiddley winks)
Sure I’m only jokin about the big gay head thing but them kids will never be right after that dodgy batch.
Anywho a big congrats from the Kelly’s in Oz and we hope ya do well”
There’s no mistaking, this version of the Apprentice is uniquely Irish
So here we have it then, the adventures of Ireland’s answer to Sir Alan Sugar. The search for his apprentice has begun. Week one, task one and naturally when you have 7 men and 7 women, its Boys vs Girls.
Where better to start than the place Bill grew up; on Moore Street selling fruit. €350 for each team, and profit is expected to be made ‘and I am not talking about Moses’ quips Bill.
Ooooh hello? This is new, ahh its Ireland & its TV3….the ad-breaks, no less than 3 of course, but it gives anyone who can’t sit still for an hour a chance to pop the kettle on, which I didn’t do.
Right, team names & project managers are what we need now. The boys go for Dynamo & it is Mark (who sounds like he smokes 40-a-day) from Dublin to lead the lads. Brave man! The ladies come up with Pheonix and its a very confident Joanna who leads them. Lads being lads try to get one up on the girls by raiding the house of all the fruit, a little bit sneaky, but thats the cut throat world of business for ya !
Something that made me chuckle was the sign the boys had for their stand ‘fruits from the suits’ - these boys are well up for it !!
Mark certainly sounded at home on Moore Street while the rest of the troops went off selling to hairdressers. Got fruit to sell? I know, let’s go to the hairdressers!
The task forced me to ask the question ‘what is the price of fruit today?’ €20 to €30 for a box sounds a bit Irish (excuse the pun).
4.30pm, boardroom time, and who do we see? Bill’s very own Francis. Its the girls who win the task, be it by only €15.03, leaving the lads feeling dejected and one of them to be fired. Like the UK show, three people aren’t safe and they are Mark, David & Ronan.
David was without doubt the weakest during the task for me was told by Cullen ‘he lost the plot’ and became the first candidate to hear the famous words ” YOU’RE FIRED”
Joanna stood out as someone who is very strong leader and a good candidate for the job, I also like Mark’s spirit through the task giving it 110%.
I can see Bill is going to be great with the quotes and we will probably fill a blog with his wise words by the end of the series.
So, 13 candidates remain, Bill Cullen’s search for his apprentice has begun. Cue the bitchiness next week!
So far, so similar to the BBC version in terms of the type of candidate up for the job. Sales, marketing and PR qualifications feature heavily.
Standout quote for me has to be from Avril Daly, a 24 year old recruitment consultant from Cork.
Her quote “The amount of money I have and earn decides my status in society” would make for a very interesting debate but it’s definitely not my philosophy.
I’m going out on a total limb to suggest the winner of the Apprentice will be Mark O’Rourke from Dublin. He looks like a young Bill Cullen, talks like Bill and that will probably appeal to him. I’m saying this having not seen a single episode of course, but there’s no harm in making a wild assed guess
The red tops are going to find it very easy to find embarassing photographs of the candidates. Several of them have bebo accounts which are open for all to view.
Ian Walsh (above) is going to be reviewing tomorrow’s Apprentice, so stay tuned to this channel for the review. Thanks Ian, looking forward to reading what you think!
le craic is a blog based in ireland which will feature various items that take my fancy. the "i" in question is me, aj o flaherty - an irishman. although the blog is based in ireland, it is not specifically and exclusively about ireland, so everyone is welcome here. thanks for dropping by, hope you enjoy your visit.
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