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.
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Well it seems to me that the honeymoon period is over, the gloves are off so let the bitching begin. And who is the bitching aimed towards? Joanna. She is feisty, she is a “warrior” and even describes herself as a control freak. Shane added she’s a ‘wagon face’ for good measure. Wagon face or not, she is the one who is a threat to everyone.
This week’s task was a deceptively simple one. Make a 45 second TV commercial for the Elysian high spec Cork city apartment. Yes , the ELYSIAN, and not ESSIENCE as project manager Stuart failed to say the name correctly in his pitch to the O’Flynn Group. It certainly shows why he is the ‘only candidate to win a task yet’, now that’s a bad omen if ever I saw one.
Mark really summed up team Dynamo’s ad as ‘a cheap porn movie’ which featured a couple having a pillow fight in bed together, but it was something that paid off for them and won them the task.
In the boardoom Bill immediately dismissed Shane saying there was no valid reason for him to be there, and there wasn’t. Stuart was told by Bill he’s staying because he’s a fighter, therefore Orla had to take the walk of shame and it was a justified result because I felt she should have gone last week.
We are now getting to see what the candidates are really made of.
Next week I want to see Sarah and Shane more, so hopefully they will be the project leaders and get their chance to shine. Joanna is likely to be in the final, as she is such a strong candidate in my opinion.
And here for your pleasure, is the winning ad featuring Paddy O’Dea as the voiceover man.
Week 4 Catchup Review
Maybe it is because I was sick while reviewing this weeks show but everything seemed to annoy me about the episode.
First off I didn’t get the whole concept of the task at hand and to be fair neither did both of the teams. Joanna who made a total ‘balls’ of her speech, justified herself by saying that she didn’t ‘hide in the long grass’ but someone who did emerge from Joanna’s so called ‘long grass’ this week was Brenda who proved to be an immediate success as the team leader of Dynamo and was the main reason they won the task.
Now the two teams are at two apiece, for me it should have been Phoenix team leader Orla who should have been fired as she was a total under-performer in the task. But a week can make a big difference as Avril who was hailed a feisty ‘warrior’ last week, became the first female to be fired.
The boardroom scene of Orla, Joanna & Avril shouting their heads off at each other really ruined the show but, being three women what would you expect. Bitching! It was a total turn off and cringe worthy moment for me and I hope not to see it again too soon.
Writing by aj@lecraic on Monday, 20 of October , 2008 at 1:06 pm
* This weeks live blog of the show is being hosted by Anthony McGuinness. Be sure to tune in to the show and to the live blog as the combination makes for great entertainment.
* Brian Purcell (I call him Lurch), had a bit of snigger about Ronan Whitty joining Ryanair. When ‘de herdald’ asked him what he thought about Michael O’Leary hiring Cullen’s reject, he laughed and said:
“We hadn’t thought of it like that. It’s funny. We only found out in the last few days the he had that job.”
Ryanair got a dig back sauing “Ronan’s had enough messing about on TV, how he’ll be getting real-world experience with Ryanair, Europe’s most financially secure airline”.
Most financially secure, but for how long is what I wonder..
* Last week’s evictee, Avril Daly, gets commiserated on her bebo page.
“you were shafted girl i would to slap them other two bitches in the face that Bill Cullen is a joke you are better off out of it keep the chin up everyone knows you were shafted . PS you are hot as well.”
+ someone points out on Ray Foley’s blog that Avril seems to be wearing a footlocker uniform. She was also given 12 out 15 – obviously a Foley show thing. Out of 10 isn’t enough like. There must be a story behind that.
* Declan Cashin has a great separated at birth post. I still think Mark is the image of Bill.
* Beaut.ie is the most uber focused blog in Ireland. Their take on last weeks episode.
* For your enjoyment, I put together the many faces of Joanna during her toe curling presentations last week. She is quite scary. If she wins this thing I will leave the country.
Mr. Potato Head. DO YOU. DO YOU. DO YOU. Masterclass in presentation by Mark O’Rourke.
TV3 Tonight, 9pm. They are off to Cork to make a porn flick or something. Be there or be a saddo watching Who do you think you are..
Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 12 of October , 2008 at 2:05 pm
This week’s live blog of the Apprentice is being hosted by Every Day is Election Day – so make sure to tune in to the show and the live blog at 9pm tomorrow!
Viewing figures for the show are going up. Monday’s show pulled in 276,000 viewers which is up from the 237,000 that tuned in the first week. Considering it is up against the 9 O’Clock news on RTE1, that’s good going.
The BCI received a complaint about product placement following Monday’s show. Don’t know the rules about product placement but this seems like the action of a crankypants.
Someone wrote a letter to the Herald on Tuesday but I think they are naive to think the producers would offer a chance to someone that hadn’t some sort of business background already under their belt.
“I had been looking forward to watching The Apprentice, but was under the impression that the candidates (like Bill Cullen) would come from humble backgrounds.
So I was disappointed to discover that most of them had attended college and already had well-paid jobs.
Surely this rather defeats the purpose of offering a chance to someone?”
After 2 wins by the girls at team Pheonix and 2 men fired, its time for a bit of a mix up this week a mixture of guys and girls on each team. Exciting stuff ! Avril steps up to the mark to lead team Phoenix and Shane for team Dynamo. With the teams and project managers in place, the task is revealed to be managing a branch of Supermacs : O’Connell Street (Dublin) and Eyre Square (Galway). The objective of the task : maximise profit.
Any logical person would say ‘oh without a doubt the O’Connell Street branch will win’, but that wasn’t the case at all. Team Phoenix were very, very poor and lost by almost €1000. They were literally like headless chickens and had no master plan. Team Dynamo put some effort in and had Galway celebs on hand to create some buzz in the form of county hurler Joe Canning & the Galway Rose. Paddy O’ Dea gave a motivational speech to the staff in Galway at the start of the day, and it was they who were the real stars.
In the boardroom it proved to be third time unlucky for Ronan as he was fired for his poor performance. Bill gave Avril a chance because she was a ‘warrior’ and fought. They were all infected with the phrase. The word hasn’t been used so much since Braveheart was filmed. At the end of the shakedown, Ronan became the third candidate and the third male to be fired. This was one of my favourite episodes so far in the series.
There was a great quote from Fiona Looney in the Daily Mail - ‘If there’s a ballroom dancing task anytime soon, the girls are in trouble’.
Writing by aj@lecraic on Sunday, 5 of October , 2008 at 5:17 pm
This week’s live blog of the Apprentice is happening over at The National Lottie – be sure to fire up the browser and join in with the commentary!
Don’t forget to check back here for the review by Ian Walsh as well.
Brian Purcell, the really serious looking right hand man of Cúchulainn, reckons that the eventual winner of the €100,000 job will become a hangman.
Cúchulainn reckons the bank bailout package will all come good in the end and he should know as he’s lived through rough times since he became a multi-millionaire. He’s gone through 5 recessions and we should just work our way out of it. Where the jobs will come from isn’t specified
“He [the Taoiseach] seems to have ticked all the boxes and has done it over a period of time. They didn’t rush into the panic station that the crisis was creating. They stood back and took a good view; and from what I can see, they’ve ticked the boxes. I’m sure that something will come up that we weren’t aware of, but overall it’s a tremendous package which gives great comfort to the banks and to the people they’re going to try to borrow for. There is money out there, whether it’s in Dubai or Russia or China. There’s lots of money out there, and I think this is going to stabilise the economy”.
The latest candidate to be fired, Derek Ramsey, has a go at the producers, the other candidates and the universe for what he perceives as unfair portrayal on the show. Thems the breaks Derek – you must have known that the bad tv people would edit things that might not make you look good.
Didn’t know Ronan Whitty was of Whitford House Hotel fame. Wexford People report he is now working for Aer Lingus, so he obviously doesn’t win then?
It was rumoured but it seems to be coming – an Irish Dragons’ Den - also produced by Shinawil and to be fronted by Richard Curran.
UK Apprentice is getting an airing in the US on CNBC – wonder will TV3’s version get seen overseas as well?
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
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.
