The Apprentice (British series 6)

Series 6 of The Apprentice (UK), a British reality television series, was broadcast in the UK during 2010 on BBC One, from 6 October to 19 December;[1] due to the 2010 General Election, which Alan Sugar had political ties with following his appointment as a Lord within the House of Lords,[2] the BBC postponed the series' broadcast until Autumn of that year to avoid a potential conflict of interest from the broadcaster.[3]

The Apprentice
Season 6
Promo group shot of Alan Sugar, Nick Hewer, and Karren Brady standing before the candidates for series 6
Starring	Alan Sugar Nick Hewer Karren Brady
Country of origin	UK
No. of episodes	14
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	6 October – 19 December 2010
Series chronology

The sixth series is last to offer a six-figure job as a prize, before this particular area of the programme's format was changed for subsequent series at the request of Sugar. It is also the first series to feature Karren Brady as Margaret Mountford's successor to the role of Sugar's aide in the programme, after her initial appearance in this role for the first series of Young Apprentice. Despite announcing the previous year she was leaving the programme,[4] Mountford retained a role within The Apprentice by taking over Brady's role as an interviewer in the Interviews stage.[1] Alongside the standard twelve episodes, two specials were aired alongside this series – "The Final Five" on 9 December; and "Why I Fired Them" on 16 December.

Sixteen candidates took part in the sixth series, with Stella English becoming the overall winner, though she later caused controversy for the programme following her win that led to significant changes to the format of The Apprentice in later series. Excluding the specials, the series averaged around 7.87 million viewers during its broadcast.

Series overview

Upon receiving applications from potential participants, production staff held regional auditions and interviews throughout July 2009, followed by a second round of interviews and assessments in London to determine the final selection of sixteen candidates.[5] Prior to work beginning on the series, Alan Sugar was required to appoint a successor to Margaret Mountford, following her decision to quit her role in the show earlier that year, leading to Karren Brady, one of his interviewers, agreeing to the offer of becoming his new aide on the show. Her appointment was given a trial run during the production and broadcast of the first series of Young Apprentice, before it was finalised. Meanwhile, Mountford agreed to remain on the show, despite her educational studies, taking over Brady's role as an interviewer in the Interviews stage.

Filming for the sixth series began in Autumn 2009, with the intention of the episodes being ready for broadcast in March 2010. However, the announcement that a General Election would be taking place in May of that year, meant that the broadcaster had to postpone the series until the start of October, due to Sugar's then-official ties with the Labour government at the time.[3] In a statement made about the postponement of the sixth series, Sugar revealed that running it during the General Election would have been a risk to the broadcaster's "impartiality" in political matters, due in part to his recent appointment as a Lord in the House of Lords earlier that year;[2] candidates taking part were advised that during filming Sugar was to no longer be referred by to by them as "Sir Alan", but "Lord Sugar" because of his new appointment.

The change towards an Autumn schedule for the programme resulted in the production team seeking to compensate viewers for the delay. This led to them arranging for the formation of a two-hour special to end the series on, focused on a crossover episode between The Apprentice and its sister show, The Apprentice: You're Fired!, on BBC One. As part of its production, the episode's format was devised to begin with a short intro by the active host for You're Fired, introducing the special and what was to come, before leading on into the main feature – the series finale of the main show – and then immediately followed by the sister show's segment of discussions and interviews, with subsequent repeats being entirely composed of the main show's series finale only. Production staff later decided to create subsequent crossover finales of the two episodes in future series, after finding the crossover format to be appealing with viewers.

For the candidates who took part, the first task saw the men name their team Synergy, while the women named their team Apollo. Prior to the start of filming for the second episode, Raleigh Addington was forced to drop out of the show after a member of his family was badly injured while on active duty in the British armed forces.[6] His departure meant that Sugar could not perform a multiple firing outside of the Interviews stage. Of those who remained, Stella English would become the eventual winner, whereupon she remained in Sugar's employment until issues began to surface in May 2011, whilst working for his company Viglen. Complaining to her employer that she required a new role, as the existing one made her work like a "glorified PA" for Sugar,[7] she would retain such comments for a year until her contract was up, whereupon it would not be renewed. After unsuccessfully suing Sugar,[8][9] she would later face financial difficulties, before eventually securing work with crowdfunding TV channel Crowd Box TV.[10]

Candidates

Candidate	Background	Age	Result
Stella English	Head of Business Management	30	Winner
Chris Bates	Investment Banker	24	Runner-up
Jamie Lester	Overseas Property Developer	28	Fired after Interviews stage
Joanna Riley	Cleaning Company Owner	25
Stuart Baggs	Telecoms Entrepreneur	21
Liz Locke	Investment Banker	24	Fired after tenth task
Laura Moore	Business Development Manager	22	Fired after ninth task
Christopher Farrell	Mortgage Broker	28	Fired after eighth task
Sandeesh Samra	Recruitment Consultant	26	Fired after seventh task
Alex Epstein	Unemployed Head of Communications	26	Fired after sixth task
Paloma Vivanco	Senior Marketing Manager	29	Fired after fifth task
Melissa Cohen	Food Business Manager	27	Fired after fourth task
Shibby Robati	Surgeon and Business Owner	27	Fired after third task
Joy Stefanicki	Marketing Director	31	Fired after second task
Raleigh Addington	Unemployed Graduate	22	Quit prior to the second task
Dan Harris	Sales Director	34	Fired after first task

Performance chart

Candidate	Task Number
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Stella	IN	WIN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	BR	BR	IN	HIRED
Chris	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	BR	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	RUNNER-UP
Jamie	IN	IN	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	BR	WIN	IN	FIRED
Joanna	WIN	BR	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Stuart	BR	IN	IN	BR	IN	IN	WIN	IN	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Liz	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	BR	IN	LOSE	FIRED
Laura	IN	LOSE	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	FIRED
Christopher	IN	IN	IN	IN	IN	WIN	IN	FIRED
Sandeesh	IN	IN	BR	IN	BR	BR	FIRED
Alex	BR	IN	IN	IN	BR	FIRED
Paloma	IN	IN	BR	IN	FIRED
Melissa	IN	IN	WIN	FIRED
Shibby	IN	IN	FIRED
Joy	IN	FIRED
Raleigh	IN	LEFT
Dan	FIRED

Key:

  The candidate won this series of The Apprentice.

  The candidate was the runner-up.

  The candidate won as project manager on his/her team, for this task.

  The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team, for this task.

  The candidate was on the winning team for this task / they passed the Interviews stage.

  The candidate was on the losing team for this task.

  The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task.

  The candidate was fired in this task.

  The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.

  The candidate left the competition prior to this task.

Episodes

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Original air date	UK viewers (millions) [11]
71	1	"Bangers"[12]	6 October 2010	7.65
Lord Sugar's begins a new hunt for an apprentice for 2010 amongst sixteen new candidates. Their first task sees them manufacturing a new brand of unique sausage, and then selling their creation upon the streets of London. The women opt making gourmet sausages with a high meat content, selling well and managing their costs, despite a slow start and some members causing issues. The men opt for making cheap sausages, but receive less sales due to weak salespeople and a difficult team leader, while being unable to control their costs. An assessment of profits reveals that the women manage to create a well-received product, leaving the men to face criticism of their performance on the task. Amongst the losing team, Dan Harris becomes the first to be fired for demonstrating poor sales skills, and for the negative feedback he was given over his leadership skills.
72	2	"Beach Accessory"[13]	13 October 2010	8.10
For their next task, each team find themselves creating a new beach accessory, before pitching it to three retailers in hopes of securing orders for their creation. Synergy opt for a specially designed towel and pillow set that can store drinks and keep them cool, yet while they receive some orders, their design is criticised while one member proves to be a poor pitcher. Apollo opt for a specially designed stand to hold books in, yet receive no orders due to the leader refusing an exclusivity deal, despite the retailers mostly approving of their concept's design, while facing problems for constant in-fighting amongst the team. In the boardroom, Synergy is credited for their good performance, while Lord Sugar berates the lack of co-operation amongst Apollo. Amongst the losing team, Joy Stefanicki is fired after demonstrating a lack of contributions and presence over the past two tasks, and for displaying no assertiveness. Notes: Prior to recording for this episode's task, Raleigh Addington was forced to leave the programme due to an emergency family matter. The nature of the matter was later revealed on You're Fired! following this episode's broadcast.[6]
73	3	"Bakery"[14]	20 October 2010	7.53
Candidates face the challenge of producing an array of baked goods, with each team selling their range of products to clients and passing trade within London. Synergy manage production of their products efficiently and make good sales, despite problems being caused by one member and their client less satisfied with receiving poor quality products. Apollo manage good sales but face a mountain of issues, including an up-sell on their client's deal that results in them giving compensation for failing to deliver on the agreed quantity of products, poor communication amongst the team, and a problematic member in the production operation. Synergy win the task from their exceptional performance, leaving Apollo to face scrutiny over their mistakes. While two members Of the final three are questioned over their attitude, Shibby Robati finds himself dismissed for his poor leadership and communications skills, and supplying an unnecessary compensation to their client.
74	4	"Selling to Trade"[15]	27 October 2010	6.49
Both teams find themselves having to look over a selection of inventions, with each choosing those they believe will be a success and pitching them to retailers. Apollo choose to pitch a temperature-sensitive baby outfit and a slimming T-shirt, securing plenty of orders thanks to an excellent pitcher, despite one arrangement being later disallowed per the task's rules and in-fighting amongst some members. Synergy choose to pitch a gardening tool and a shower head, but face considerable issues with pitching due to a problematic member, while each retailer gave a problem towards their choices that leave the team receiving few orders. Apollo secure victory from having strong salespeople in the team, leaving Synergy to be criticised for their weak performance. Of the final three, Melissa Cohen is ejected from the process over her poor pitches in the task, her attitude to the team's leader, and failing to demonstrate any sales skills.
75	5	"Fashion"[16]	3 November 2010	8.20
Each team find themselves represent an up-and-coming designer, selling their respective choice's line of new clothing within a retail space at Trafford Centre, Manchester. Synergy represent a designer with a line of reasonably-priced clothing, managing good sales from their choice, despite delays in opening their store and creating an unattractive retail space. Apollo represent a designer with a line of high-value "recycled" clothing, yet despite making good sales and utilising a promotional opportunity to attract customers, their performance is compounded by mistakes from a problematic member. A totalling of sale figures soon reveal that Synergy's efforts were efficient, leaving Apollo to criticism on their execution of the task. Of the final three, Paloma Vivanco is fired, despite the good feedback on her performance, for displaying a hostile attitude in the boardroom, and for making aggressive accusations against the other two members and manipulating one of them into being a scapegoat.
76	6	"Advertising"[17]	10 November 2010	7.56
Given a blank bottle of kitchen cleaner, each team is tasked to create a unique brand for it, complete with a promotional campaign, and pitch their concept to industry experts. Apollo devise a brand involving a Terminator-styled child using the product to clean up kitchens, yet while their advert and pitch are praised, the team face criticism over the inappropriate message of their brand and bottle design, along with demonstrating none of cleaner's key features. Synergy devise a brand involving a woman gaining eight arms from using the product, receiving good feedback on their campaign and bottle design, yet face criticism over the sexist nature and poor design of their advert. Feedback from the experts soon leaves Lord Sugar deeming Synergy's concept the best, leaving Apollo to be criticised over their contributions. Amongst the losing team, Alex Epstein is dismissed for his poor leadership and his refusal to acknowledge his team's campaign was entirely flawed.
77	7	"DVD"[18]	17 November 2010	7.71
Each team is tasked with creating a unique greenscreen film experience, enticing shoppers within Westfield London to order DVDs of what they offer, while ensuring the quality is satisfactory to secure sales. Apollo focus on offering a "racing" experience and enjoy good sales, yet face issues from a difficult team leader, blunders in editing on some of their orders, and some customers not returning to acquire their purchases. Synergy focus mainly on a "driving" experience, after the initial choice fails to draw in customers, but face issues from an overspend on blank DVDs, lack of pricing strategy, and disorganisation over job allocations amongst the team. Apollo manage to achieve a significant profit when performances are reviewed in the boardroom, leaving questions to be raised over Synergy's execution of the task. Of the final three, Sandeesh Samra finds herself fired for her disorganised leadership that contributed to her team's loss, and her overall track record in the process.
78	8	"Crisps"[19]	24 November 2010	8.07
Finding new markets abroad for British crisp-makers is the basis of the next task, as each team creates their own flavours to sell to customers within Hamburg. Apollo create two new British flavours to sell to German customers, with their creations being well-received and achieving considerable orders throughout the task, despite one order being done on the basis of a trial run. Synergy create two new German flavours to sell, yet make fewer sales due to blunders with negotiations that include selling to those not in a position to make purchases, along with making few appointments within the city, and voiding a potential order due to rescheduling an appointment for this. Apollo receive praise for their good sales figures, leaving Synergy to be questioned over the mistakes they made. Amongst the losing team, Christopher Farrell is fired for causing the voided order, alongside criticism over his lack of presence in tasks and failing to demonstrate any worthwhile skills throughout the process.
79	9	"Discount Buying"[20]	1 December 2010	7.53
Lord Sugar gives both teams a new list of ten items he wants, tasking them to find each one at a bargain price. Synergy opt to source items while on the move, managing to secure seven items with good negotiations, despite differing techniques over their bargain hunting, their strategy almost backfiring, and nearly getting lost on the hunt for two of their purchases. Apollo opt to research where to find each item before heading out, securing all of the required items, but failed to make proper negotiations and received a fine for finishing after the task's deadline. Synergy's performance manages to ensure their total spend was kept low, leaving Apollo to face accusations of failing to seek out discounts for their purchases. Amongst the final three, Laura Moore is ejected from the process for contributing to an overspend on one of the items and for a consistently weak performance throughout tasks.
80	10	"London Tours"[21]	8 December 2010	8.14
Tourism is the basis of the next task, as each team are tasked to create a unique tour experience for London's tourists to partake in for one day, with each receiving an open-top bus for them to use. Synergy opt for a tour with a haunted theme, securing good sales and providing a satisfactory service to customers, despite making a slight mistake on a deal with a tourist office and not securing anyone for their second tour. Apollo opt for a tour aimed at visiting sites in the city's East End, yet the good customs they receive is countered by a poor quality service that fails to provide interest on their subject matters and the team getting their tourists lost, along with failing to secure any tourists for their third tour. In the boardroom, Apollo find their sales were less than those of Synergy, leaving its members under scrutiny for their execution of the task. Amongst the losing team, Liz Locke is dismissed for her declining performance in tasks and for demonstrating nothing exceptional to Lord Sugar.
81	SP–1	"The Final Five"[22]	9 December 2010	N/A
As this year's series of The Apprentice draws closer to its finale, this special episode takes a look at profiling the true story behind the five remaining candidates. Discussing their backgrounds, experiences, personality, and strengths and weaknesses, are a selection of each candidate's friends, family and colleagues, as well as Lord Sugar's aides, Nick Hewer and Karren Brady.
82	11	"Interviews"[23]	15 December 2010	8.77
After facing ten tasks as teams, the five remaining candidates now compete as individuals in their next task – a series of tough, gruelling interviews with four of Lord Sugar's most trusted associates. Each member faces scrutiny over their backgrounds, work experience and performance within the process when questioned by the interviewers. Feedback to Sir Alan, alongside observations by his aides, leaves him deciding to fire Stuart Baggs for lying throughout the process and on his CV, Joanna Riley for her lack of basic business principles, and Jamie Lester for his weak CV and low appeal. Of the remaining two, Stella English is deemed a strong candidate based on positive feedback from interviewers, while Chris Bates is praised for his academic skills that deemed him a candidate with plenty to offer.
83	SP–2	"Why I Fired Them"[24]	16 December 2010	N/A
As the final looms, Lord Sugar takes a look back to the tasks he set for this year's series of The Apprentice. From selling new sausages and lines of clothing, to the debacle over a cleaning product's branding and selling British crisp to a foreign market, he relives all of the mistakes, doomed decisions, and other notable events that occurred during the process, and provides his reasons behind each firing he made amongst the candidates for the process, which ultimately whittle them down to the two finalists for this series.
84	12	"The Final"[25]	19 December 2010	8.63
After facing a multitude of business tasks and a tough interview, the two finalists now face one more challenge – helped by old friends, each finalist must come up with a new brand of premium alcoholic drink, complete with a marketing campaign, and pitch their concept to a group of experts. Chris opts for a new form of rum-based spirit, earning praise for its taste and its bottle's design, but faces criticism over its advertising and the drink's unappealing appearance. Stella opts for a new brand of bourbon whiskey aimed at female customers, receiving compliments for creating an appealing promotional campaign, but faces questions over the drink's strong taste. Reviewing their performances and the feedback from experts, Lord Sugar deems Stella English to be his new apprentice for 2010 for providing an attractive marketing campaign, along with demonstrating good business experience and knowledge, leaving Chris Bates to finish as runner-up due to the flaws in his drink's concept and for being the weaker of the two finalists. Notes: When this episode was first broadcast, it originally formed part of a two-hour crossover special with the programme's sister show, The Apprentice: You're Fired. After the crossover special, the episode was broadcast separately in subsequent repeats.

Controversy

Behaviour of Stella English after Filming

Following the sixth series conclusion, production staff became concerned with the behaviour of Stella English after she had won the contest. A few days after winning a job under Alan Sugar, English quit her post after deeming it to be "a sham" employment. Shortly after her resignation, she complained against her former employer's response to her decision and subsequently attempted to sue him for constructive dismissal. Both Sugar and the producers disapproved of the negative media attention that English brought about after her case was dismissed, and agreed during a meeting that the format of The Apprentice could not continue for the next series. As a result, the format underwent a complete revamp before production began on the seventh series.[26][9]

Ratings

Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.[11]

Episode no.	Airdate	Viewers (millions)	BBC One weekly ranking
1	6 October 2010	7.65	7
2	13 October 2010	8.10	7
3	20 October 2010	7.53	8
4	27 October 2010	6.49	10
5	3 November 2010	8.20	7
6	10 November 2010	7.56	9
7	17 November 2010	7.71	7
8	24 November 2010	8.07	6
9	1 December 2010	7.53	8
10	8 December 2010	8.14	7
11	15 December 2010	8.77	9
12	19 December 2010	8.63	10

References

1. "The Apprentice series six: introduction" (Press release). BBC Press Office. 28 September 2010.
2. Karren Brady: 'I love The Apprentice, it's one of the best experiences of my life' The Observer, 28 February 2010
3. "Apprentice delayed until summer". BBC News. 10 November 2009.
4. Daniel Kilkelly (6 June 2009). "Margaret Mountford quits 'The Apprentice'". Digital Spy.
5. "The Workings of the Apprentice". BBC.
6. "Apprentice contender Raleigh quits". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
7. Jefferies, Mark (28 May 2011). "The Apprentice winner Stella English demands a new job from Lord Alan Sugar – and gets it". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
8. "Apprentice winner Stella English loses case against Lord Sugar". The Guardian. London. 12 April 2012.
9. Judd, Terri (12 April 2013). "'Tantamount to blackmail': Apprentice winner Stella English is the loser over dismissal claim". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
10. "Apprentice winners through the years – and where they are now". Daily Star. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
11. "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
12. "Bangers, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
13. "Beach Accessory, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
14. "Bakery, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
15. "Selling to Trade, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
16. "Fashion, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
17. "Advertising, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
18. "DVD, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
19. "Crisps, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
20. "Discount Buying, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
21. "London Tours, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
22. "The Final Five, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
23. "Interviews, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
24. "Why I Fired Them, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
25. "The Final, Series 6, The Apprentice – BBC One".
26. Claire Hodgson (26 September 2013). "The rise and fall of The Apprentice's Stella English". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 26 September 2013.

External links

• The Apprentice at BBC Online