The best reality TV show on the box returns next week in the slick shape of The Apprentice (28 Mar), with Sir Alan Sugar looking to employ another young go-getter.
It's the "difficult third series" for the show and the producers are hoping to answer criticisms of last year's show. For while Apprentice 2 was entertaining and amusing, it was clear some candidate's had wandering eyes for post-Apprentice stardom...
Winner Michelle Dewberry immediately courted controversy with a romance and miscarriage with fellow candidate Sayid, leaving her £100k prize job and later checking into Celebrity Scissorhands. Sayid himself enrolled in the execrable Cirque de Celebrite, while runner-up Ruth "The Badger" Badger was a judge on a short-lived business series.
Compare those fame-hungry series 2 candidates with those of series 1. Do you even remember who was in series 1? Well, eventual winner Tim Campbell has worked with Sir Alan for a few years until just recently going his own way with a male grooming business (with Big Al's blessing).
So series 3 hopes to get back to series 1 business-only mentality. It will be difficult, because a successful TV show, no matter how high-brow, will always entice people hoping to exploit their fifteen minutes of fame -- particularly as the changes of actually winning are 14:1. Sir Alan apparently only agreed to a third series on the condition that starry-eyed candidates wouldn't be participating.
It remains to be seen how the third series will pan out of course, but it's sure to be just as entertaining and revealing as usual. The candidates facing the wrath of Sir Alan in the board room this year are as follows:
The girls...
Ghazil Asif, 23: business development manager from Glasgow and the youngest ever candidate.
Gerri Blackwood, 33: transport development manager from Woking who refused a job with MI5 to be on the show.
Kristina Grimes, 36: "ruthless single mother" from Harrogate.
Jadine Johnson, 27: financial advisor from Harrow who left university to look after he daughter.
Kate Hopkins, 31: global brand consultant from Devon, single mother and self-proclaimed "alpha female".
Dr Sophie Kain, 32: PhD in theoretical physics and works as a scientist for a design firm in Gwent.
Naomi Lay, 26: Sales manager from London who used to charge her parents for removing caterpillars from the garden.
Natalie Wood, 29: Essex housewife and mother who recently lost six stone in weight.
And the boys...
Simon Ambrose, 27: Internet entrepreneur and former investment banker from London who speaks six languages.
Tre Azam, 27: Marketing consultant from Essex who once worked at his family's electronics factor at the age of 10.
Paul Callaghan, 27: Ex-soldier who served in Iraq.
Ifti Chaudhri, 33: Company boss from Egham and former policeman with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Adam Hosker, 27: Car salesman from a single-parent family in Blackburn.
Andy Jackson, 36: Scottish car salesman who sold firewood on his estate at the age of 5.
Lohit Kalburgi, 25: London telecoms boss from the Middle East who once started a tea towel firm at the age of 16.
Rory Laing, 27: Bankrupt entrepreneur from Bristol who used to employ 700 staff, including Kate Middleton.
So there you have it -- The Apprentice 3: Big Business not Big Brother.
We hope.
