Episode 6 The Apprentice: You're Fired

This is my boardroom. This is my money.

The product sucks!

You screwed it up.

Who's the waste of space?

You're fired! You're fired!

You are...fired.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Good evening and welcome to The Apprentice: You're Fired.

With six tasks completed, we're now at the halfway mark

in Lord Sugar's search for his business partners.

Ten candidates draw closer to his £250,000 investment.

With the help of unseen footage, we'll be sorting through

the leftovers of the street food challenge, plus we'll be seeing why,

if you want to get this party started, just invite Lord Sugar.

MUSIC PLAYS

Guys.

Hello.

ALL: Hi!

-Ain't no party like a Lord Sugar party!

-LAUGHTER

As ever, we've a flavoursome panel to grill this week's candidate -

chef and entrepreneur Gino D'Acampo,

restaurant critic Tracey MacLeod and comedian Fred MacAulay.

-Welcome to You're Fired!

-APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Tonight's task of creating a dish to sell on the streets of Edinburgh

left one candidate in a stew.

Katie, I'm afraid to say that

having been in this position for the third time,

I'm not convinced, and so Katie, you're fired.

Please welcome Katie Wright.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Katie. All of my notes are about interviewing Adam. Why...?

..Are you possibly even here?

I think Lord Sugar might have been sick and tired of seeing my face.

Your face was around, and then, you know,

you got pinned on the football thing.

-Oops.

-Yeah.

We'll go through all that stuff.

Let's just see how it all ended for you.

Relive the moment where it all went wrong.

So where did you go to start selling them?

We went to the Rangers and Hearts game.

BAGPIPES PLAY

LAUGHTER

Whose idea was it to go to the football location?

I'm happy for that to fall on my head, if the football is a bad idea.

I pushed it. To be honest, I championed that.

-On what basis?

-You'd be a fool not to go for the football.

-And how much were they?

-I'm thinking more like £7.99.

I know that's probably going to make me look awful.

-They don't pay that for a striker there.

-LAUGHTER

He listened to you, and the information you gave him was wrong.

-I gave him lots of information.

-don't want to hear any more.

-It was very tight. But you attend football matches.

-I do, yes.

At a chintzy West London club, by any chance?

-Yes, Fulham, yes.

-Delightful. With burgers at £6?

-I can't remember specifically, but it's not £2.99.

-No, it's not.

Nor is it £7.99 for a bowl of pasta.

Well, I thought that we had the sales ability to be able to do that,

and I thought that if we started high we might be able to go down rather than the other way.

You did actually start high, and then tried to get a little bit more out of it.

I suppose, yes, I was trying to bleed it a little bit dry, maybe.

-That's another thing. Gino, you run your own food business.

-Yes.

-How do you think Katie did in the task?

-You know what?

I think nothing wrong with going to a football match, by the way,

selling meatballs and pasta.

I think it's OK. You can do that.

Not at £5.99.

Or £7.99.

Or even £7.99.

That was a bit too much.

You know, I think if you can produce a product

that costs no more than 50p

then you're going to have to sell it cheap.

You know, it's very rarely that you find someone who comes up with

a product that costs 50p and they sell it for £8.

Not at a football match.

So...I think you'd have done really well if it was £2.50, £2.99,

you sell it a lot. It's called impulse buy.

If somebody's got £2.50 in the pocket, "I'll buy it,

"if I don't like it I'll throw it away."

But you'd have sold much more.

-What time of the day was this at?

-It was at the wrong time of day.

-I can't remember, exactly.

-Was it a morning game rather than an afternoon game?

-It was.

That's the difficulty in selling food, people have to be a little bit hungry.

Yeah. But both teams are going, "Want some dinner?"

And people are going, "I have just rolled out. Breakfast, maybe."

We were hoping that people might go to the pub

and then they might fancy a bit of carbohydrate.

-Tracey, what did you think?

-I think it's a shame that Katie is here.

She made one big mistake,

which was to stake her entire reputation on that football match.

But, you know, there were other mistakes made by other people.

The decision to go off on the bus

and miss that crucial lunchtime market was another big decision,

so although Katie selling gourmet food - not that it was THAT gourmet -

outside a Hearts-Rangers football match, possibly the worst place

in Britain to try and sell it, you know, I feel sorry that you're here.

-Thank you.

-Fred.

Katie, I don't think you needed to worry about the football supporters

not having been for a pint, even though it was a 12.30 kick-off.

-LAUGHTER

-I think the fundamental error,

selling food to a football crowd in Scotland on the way to the match,

is that they were going to need both hands,

and that means they would have to put the drink down.

Not that I want to stereotype the Scots.

But I think that was the problem.

Katie, before we dissect this task,

let's look back over your Apprentice journey.

Most of which took place in the boardroom.

It's a difficult decision to make in this first task.

Bilyana, you are fired.

Katie, this is the second time you've been sat in this last three.

I don't know whether there's some kind of message

coming to me already about you.

Michael, you're fired.

Katie, having been in this position a third time,

you're fired.

How expressive is your face?

I think my forehead was holding a conversation of its own,

I didn't even realise, but it's there and it's chatting away!

I'm watching it going, "Sssh!" There's no need for that.

But you weren't bottling stuff up, you weren't going,

"Hide the pain, hide the nerves."

You were like rocking, praying - I don't know if you're religious,

but you're there weeping,

there's practically rosary beads going through your fingers.

"Why?"

My friends always told me I wore my heart on my face

but I just didn't quite believe them.

The level to which. Oh, take it from the nation, man, yeah.

We were going on a journey with you every time.

We were like, "Oh, why, why does it have to be me?"

"Oh, it's not me. Oh, OK."

-I can't lie, anyway.

-Yeah. Do you think there was a hex sign on you?

Do you think there was like a target on you, where they thought,

"If we bring her in, he's going to be, 'I've seen you before.' "

Yeah. I think I had a very strange little gameplan which was that

I decided after the first week that...

My humour is very, I suppose, self-defeating, and I went back

after the first boardroom and I was like, "Guys, don't worry!

"If we lose a task, just bring me back in - Lord Sugar is gunning for me!"

And yeah, I don't know why I did that. Looking back on it... LAUGHTER

Looking back on it, I'm thinking, "Duh."

She was in so often, do you think it was going to be inevitable?

I think the reason that Katie was in so often

was you put yourself up for things. You were a participator.

And I think for that reason, you were kind of high impact,

and you were taken in. I really admire the fact

that despite being in the losing team the first two weeks,

you were transferred to the boys' team

and you put yourself up as team leader.

And it took a real confidence to do that,

and I thought you were a great role model for women in business.

You were human as well as being effective

and I think the fact you've gone out so early

doesn't reflect your potential.

Thank you.

APPLAUSE

It's great the way you lost the first two tasks,

went to the winning team and then they lost the task.

That was great!

On this task, Stephen had a very interesting week.

He thought he had cracked it with the bus idea.

-That's a task winner, that.

-Yeah.

-High-fives all round.

We've got a strategy.

OK, everybody, thank you for taking the time to listen to us today.

Blimey!

Can we tempt you with any meatballs?

OK.

Oh, shit!

Don't panic, though, don't panic.

Let's do it. Phoenix!

-Flight of the Phoenix, come on.

-Just in time. No!

-It's shut.

-Steve?

-Hello?

-We need you to drag us some customers in.

We missed the last bus.

'Don't panic.'

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

How long did the optimism last?

How long did the, "This is a task winner"...?

I mean, how far into your pitch?

-Was that the point where you went, "This is actually stupid. This is ridiculous."

-Yeah.

It just took a long time to get back on the bus and travel round,

and then we weren't getting anyone and off the bus

cos they'd already eaten lunch, you know, it became quite apparent.

Gino, what did you make of this plan?

The worst plan I ever seen, to be honest with you.

LAUGHTER

If people are on an open bus, they want to enjoy the town,

they want to see the buildings...

You pop out with a kind of a pizza thing,

trying to sell meatballs.

LAUGHTER

You know what? If I was there,

I would have thrown all three of you out the bus.

From the top!

LAUGHTER

You know, you are a beautiful woman.

I would have used you in the football.

LAUGHTER

At the game!

-Yes!

-But, erm, the food plan for those tour buses...

do ever people step off and go,

"I need food from a van now."

No, I don't think so, even with the people coming up and trying to sell them on the top deck of the bus,

that was never going to work dressed as you were because, again, without stereotyping the Scots

there was a lot of people gave up drink that day.

"Did you just see a four-foot pizza going past?"

LAUGHTER

"That's it, no more for me. I'm done."

Tracey, not a great plan?

I mean, from a marketing point of view,

it was a disaster from start to finish.

I mean, street food is the most happening food movement

in the country at the moment

but it seemed like you'd cooked it all in advance and you were just heating it up

and that isn't really the spirit of what street food is about

and certainly not the spirit of the gourmet task that you were set.

It missed the smell as well. You know, street food is about smell. That's what it is, you know?

The only thing you had to do was to get a frying pan, fry a little bit of rosemary,

fry a little bit of fresh Italian herbs

to get people around you excited about this little van selling food.

You know, what you prepared,

I can imagine it didn't have any smell around.

It was just a bunch of people trying to sell meatballs.

The most interesting thing I felt about Stephen wasn't that,

but just how slippery he was in the boardroom.

What happened, I'm not the man to carry on things that aren't working

and I quickly made a decision. I said, "Adam, I'm going to go and sell at the front."

Sack off this bus tour and all that now.

THEY TALK OVER EACH OTHER

-You've got two researchers...

-Four quid for a burger, that's what you're spending.

Tell the truth. At a football game,

-it doesn't take Einstein...

-I'm telling the truth.

Just a quick one. Katie believes you should be going at a higher price.

-7.99.

-We're going to get our heads kicked in if we try for that.

And we move on, yeah?

LAUGHTER

Now, is he guilty of rewriting history a bit here?

I think so. I think Stephen was playing a very good game. I do.

Yeah, basically of, "None of this happened.

"I was the one who made all the decisions." He wasn't, though.

No, well, obviously, he was heading up the sub-team

but yeah, he was very good at summarising

and very good at pointing the blame, I suppose, and he did it very well

and, you know, I didn't play the game well and I'm sat here

and he obviously did,

so it depends which side you come from, really.

Yes. Now, the politics of it, was that more obvious in this

than we've seen in a few weeks?

That was the most startling example,

Stephen saying that he was going for a lower price when, in fact,

we'd actually seen him passing on the information that he thought it should go for higher.

But he's done it before.

He was the one who really should have taken the blame

for the misspelling of Bellissimo.

He was completely, "That was my idea," and then found out in the most embarrassing of circumstances,

while actually pitching it to a potential buyer,

he kind of came out and went, "Yeah, yeah, we'll have to look at that."

He didn't actually say, "I made a mistake," because he never does,

he always deflects it.

As I recall, he picked up the bottle of Bellissimo and stared at it really hard

and went, "You! Why do you do this to me!

"There was an L there, I'm sure, a minute ago,"

as if that would cure it in some way. Can we fault him for being political?

No, he's in there to win like everybody else

but I think what we did see this week was a very clear case of boardroom manoeuvring,

because as Adam's thinking about who might he bring back in,

I don't know how many times Stephen's suggested "Azhar".

"While you're thinking about it..."

-COUGHS:

-"..Azhar."

"Azhar, you missed that,

"you did nothing. Azhar!"

"Hmm, I wonder if Azhar's worth bringing back in."

LAUGHTER

Do you admire the machinations of it, the Machiavellian intent?

No, I don't. I don't like people like that, sorry.

I have businesses with business partner...

You know, when you're in a boardroom,

the one thing that you want to hear is the truth,

right, because then you can do something about it.

The last thing you should hear is people telling you stories

or make up stories or trying to cover themselves,

because at that point, business-wise, there is nothing you can do about it

-because you don't know where you are. So, Katie, I like you.

-Thank you.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

You truly have meatballs

-and I like that.

-I think, Gino, while you were saying to Katie that you liked her,

her forehead was saying, "I like you."

LAUGHTER

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Let us move on from Stephen to the one who got away,

a choreographer one week and a gourmet chef the next.

This is quality food. I don't want any junk served up here.

I keep coming back to pasta, it's cheap.

-It's a cheap meat.

-Cheap?

-It's cheap, but...

-LAUGHTER

-Cheap, cheap, cheap.

-Cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap.

Cheap rubbish.

Where is the gourmet side of this?

You had to try them, they were beautiful. Really, really nice.

I've seen things like that at the zoo in the elephant pen on the floor,

so I don't know how you can tell me that is quality stuff.

I'm your number-one candidate.

-Ah. I'm perfect.

-LAUGHTER

-I know what I'm doing, you won't have to baby-sit me.

-You don't know what you're doing!

It was completely out of control. You didn't even know what was going on!

You've got away with it on a borderline here.

Now, you supply meals to supermarkets.

How does that margin work? Is there any sort of rule of thumb

for how much a meal should cost for what you're putting into it?

See, when we're supplying it in the supermarket,

of course there is a lot of ingredients that go into a meal,

but usually the rule is, it's five-to-one. So you spend 50p,

you charge people £2.50. It's as simple as that.

It depends, some of the ready meals, they change.

Adam, I don't get that because you had a fantastic idea about the meatball and about the pasta.

That is already an inexpensive meal.

How can you make something inexpensive cheap?

-LAUGHTER

-You know?

I mean, rosemary. Matteo, the Italian, was chopping up fresh rosemary

and he was thinking, "How can we cheapen rosemary to use it? Dry rosemary!"

-LAUGHTER

-I mean, you know,

that's the worst thing ever that you can do to food

because, you know, Italian food is not expensive

so do the best you can and flog it.

Sorry, I was going to say, the other thing he did with an ingredient was

he got the pork, but really fatty pork,

"As little pork as we possibly can!"

At least he didn't go the full way and bulk it up with corned beef!

LAUGHTER

It was, you know, like school dinners, "Slop 'em out,"

-that was a phrase that got used.

-Yeah!

Yeah, for Adam, meatballs were fine, but raw fish?

Not so much on the raw fish.

Definitely rule out Japanese.

No, whoa! Don't rule out Japanese.

Sushi and bento's been massively popular.

If I see Japanese, I'm going think sushi, I'm going to think raw fish. Who eats sushi?

LAUGHTER

He's grown up on this chicken cat curry, whatever it is.

I've no idea what he means, to be honest.

Who eats sushi out of this table?

LAUGHTER

I can't think of anyone in their right mind

that would want Japanese food.

LAUGHTER

Well, for a start, the Japanese.

They're tremendously fond of Japanese food,

they're really taken with it.

I think chicken katsu curry

rather than chicken cat curry.

Well, katsu curry, try not to say that in Italian because it means something completely different!

-Really!

-Yes. "Cazzo" means penis.

-LAUGHTER

-So if you're having a curry made of penis,

well, good luck to you!

Spicy!

But such small portions.

LAUGHTER

No!

No!

Katie, you've had your moments with Adam, both good and bad, but we do think

he has a bit of a glad eye for someone.

Katie, my little London matey.

You're my little matey Katie.

I don't think we're close enough yet for you to see the crap

that comes off the bottom of my feet!

She's lovely, absolutely lovely.

And she's dead funny as well.

Speed dating is really popular at the moment.

Have a bit of pizza.

Er, thanks, Adam.

She's really funny. She's a nice girl.

# Love lift us up where we belong... #

LAUGHTER

Absolutely lovely.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING

Did you notice him with his little torch for you? Did you notice him having a bit of a crush?

No, I just... We got on really well as friends.

-Good, good. You're a happily married lady.

-Yes.

I want you to brace yourself now because we hear now from Lord Sugar

and your former competitors, including the love-struck Adam.

Katie had been in the losing team four times.

She was that close to leaving in the first task.

On this particular occasion, she made a fatal error

in directing people

to this football venue.

She was adamant that the football would work.

I think she needs to stop talking as much and listen more.

She has certain views and ideas about what we should do

which are well off the mark and have no grounding.

I think that she was...deluded, really.

This was the last chance, as far as I was concerned.

I'd given her enough opportunity to prove herself. She didn't,

and that's why I fired Katie.

AUDIENCE: Aw!

-I thought they were harsh words, especially from Adam.

-I thought he loved me.

A minute ago he did. Now, deluded! What is your reaction?

I don't think that is true or fair.

I don't take away any responsibility on my part for the football.

I think I have made that clear. There was a lot of finger-pointing.

I don't think it's fair that my contributions were never valid.

You have a multi-million-pound food manufacturing industry.

-What is the key to success?

-Success is easy.

I call it the TLT. Tight, loose, tight.

I know it sounds strange.

But that is how people should approach business, especially when they are in charge.

Tight - you have an idea, make sure everybody is with you.

Make sure you express it. Make sure everybody understands your idea.

Loose. Let them go. Everybody does whatever they have to do.

But then tight comes back again.

You need to make sure at the end that everybody did

what you said that they had to do.

What has happened with you guys - tight at the beginning, yes.

The project manager, you do this, that.

Loose, everybody does everything, and that is the end.

Nobody tightened at the end of the project.

Again, I think it is a shame that you're gone because you would have been a great business partner.

-Thank you.

-If I can have your number after...

LAUGHTER

-You did say...

-I am talking about business here!

So well! And then the mask slipped.

-I am looking for a quarter of a million pound investment actually.

-We'll exchange the number later.

Just remember - tight, loose.

LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE

-I am learning all the time.

-It is a masterclass.

Jenna was a project manager on the winning team for the first time

and she squeaked home with a win of £21.74.

Was this win because of the way she tried to lure the customers to her Scottish stew?

Amongst a crowd I can use my charm. Excuse me, sir, come on in.

Come on in. Have a smell. Come and have a smell. Smell it.

-I know you are tempted.

-She has got the "come hither" look.

The thing is, I can always catch the eye of someone I can get to come in.

You just have to watch. Excuse me, sir.

Hello.

-First person.

-I am all right, thanks.

These are the two things we could say about Jenna.

Firstly, she picked quality ingredients and tried to make gourmet food.

She put twice as much into the cost of the beef than your team

put into everything.

-But also, sold the smell.

-Jenna got it. She was impressive this week.

She said at the beginning, "I'm not a food person,

"I'm not interested in food,"

yet she still made the right call in terms of quality ingredients and doing more of a gourmet product.

She did create a sizzle around the stall.

She had the cliche of the piper

and at one point someone was doing a Highland fling as well.

But all these things, if you are trying to attract people's eye

as they walk past, they work.

She did create impact. She had an impressive week.

I had not noticed her up to this point.

But I think she's one of those quiet people that maybe come up on the inside.

Sometimes, personally I do not know if anybody else is the same, but I have been walking along

and I thought, "I do not need anything to eat - oh, there's somebody dancing!

"I must have some stew."

"They are dancing directly in front of the place that sells the stew

"so I must now weave my way through the dancing to get to the stew."

That is how Scottish country dancing was born.

Put food beyond some people and you have to weave through.

There is something I have noticed about the boys generally in The Apprentice

and I think you have as well, Katie.

You both shake hands so much.

It's like every time we see each other we have to shake hands.

-Shake hands, guys.

-I am all... That is not forcing it.

-Constantly high-fiving.

-I thought it was time-wasting.

-It's a weird form of male thing, is it?

Most of the time it is insecurity.

When they do that they are trying to establish who is the most powerful one.

Some of them, they really squeeze your hands -

you will not be able to use a pen any more for about ten minutes.

Some of them, they put two hands - so they shake hands

and they put the left one just to say,

"I am the one that is in control of this".

It becomes like a lion thing. A lot of men do that.

Women, because of the perfectly...

LAUGHTER

Women, because they are perfectly-created creatures,

they do not have to do that because they are more secure than men are.

-So instead of shaking hands, what should I do?

-We will talk later.

-OK.

-Now is not the right time.

-We will move on to the vote.

It is almost pointless to ask this question.

Do you think Lord Sugar was right to fire Katie?

I thought he was absolutely wrong because in a business partner,

you are also looking for somebody that comes up with new ideas,

crazy ideas, somebody most importantly that has the meatballs to tell you when they're wrong,

so there is something you can do about it.

Who should have gone instead?

-Adam.

-Adam?

-Yeah.

Tracey, who do you think?

I think Katie was unfortunate to take the blame

for what was a team failure.

-I would rather have seen Adam or Stephen go.

-Fred?

-Yes.

Katie should still be in it. No doubt about that. Adam should have gone.

We are about to see a sea of green out there like the Celtic end at a football match.

Let's throw to the audience. If you agree with Lord Sugar, hold up "fired".

If you disagree and think Katie should still be in the process, hold up "hired".

-Wow.

-Hey.

-Thank you.

-That definitely is hired.

Well done. We have to give you a gift. The only gift we could send you home with,

because I think you wore it so well. This is the actual...

APPLAUSE

Thank you.

Aw! However...

It comes with a special instruction.

I don't know if yourself and your husband are dinner party-type people...

-No.

-..if you throw a lot of parties.

If you ever do have people over you have to walk in in that and go,

-"Guess what I am cooking for you tonight."

-Deal.

They will go, "Pizza." You will go, "No, lamb tagine, what kind of idiot are you?"

You made it to the halfway point. Here are your highlights.

I would call myself the blonde assassin. People underestimate me.

It means I can blow them out of the water.

Underneath the blonde exterior there is a lot going on.

I'm always thinking.

You can put your feet up when you are in the bath.

I stumbled across magic.

Shake it off, guys. Shake it all away.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having fun.

You can't squeeze another meatball in.

I'm a little bit weird.

I'm trending!

-She is extremely down-to-earth.

-She is a pleasure to be around.

She is a complete nutter.

Little bit of this. Just looking to have a good time in life.

-Ladies and gentlemen, Katie Wright.

-APPLAUSE

That is it for tonight. Thank you to all of my guests.

Katie will be on BBC Breakfast tomorrow morning

and also on BBC Radio Scotland with Fred MacAulay.

If you want more laughs, go to our website

for this week's funny bits from Matt Edmondson.

Next week, the teams have to smell what sells,

but who will be left with a bloody nose?

There is something that sells and something that doesn't sell.

-Your back's hurting?

-Killing me.

-I have got a cure for that.

Free haircuts for life.

-That's risky.

-I wouldn't buy that myself.

-You're moaning all the time.

-We can get to the walls. We can get to the side.

-Have you seen the hot-water bottles?

-Oh, no.

-Where is everybody?

-Beard trimmers?

-How hard can it be?

Shameful.

It makes your hand a little bit browner.

-Done it?

-Lovely jubbly.

See you same time next week. Good night.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd