At a breakfast briefing this morning, Alan Sugar's right hand man and PR advisor Nick Hewer gave all the gossip on the hit TV show The Apprentice. Here's a few tid-bits you might be interested in.
1. Topshop owner Philip Green and Virgin boss Richard Branson were considered by the BBC in the early days to host the TV show. Alan Sugar ended up kidnapping about seven people from the BBC production team for a weekend, taking them to his fancy home in Marbella, Spain, to talk them into giving him the part. It obviously worked.
2. Nick and Margaret - both famous for their quizzical facial expressions and eyebrow raising - do not know who Sugar is going to fire until he says the magic words "You're Fired". They tell Sugar who they think should go before the boardroom until they're blue in the face, but he might not listen.
3. The 16 candidates do not meet each other until they first step into the boardroom. They stay in 16 separate hotels prior to the show beginning.
4. Sugar and the team have no scripts for the boardroom.
5. Each episode is edited from 100 hours of footage to one hour.
6. Next year the series will run for 16 episodes, four of which will be the 'junior apprentice'. The team are concerned the show won't be as entertaining as Sugar won't be able to shout at the 16-year-olds in the kids' version - they won't be 'fired' as such and when they are asked to leave, they will be accompanied out of the boardroom and will receive counselling as to how they have done.
7. Nick never intended to appear on the show - only when the BBC production team and Sugar pushed him did he consider it. Sugar said to Nick that if he didnt take up the show "he had no balls".
8. Candidates on The Apprentice have a ten minute phone call each week to their family/ friends, which is monitored by production staff. That's it.
9. Bra tycoon Michelle Moane and Birmingham City FC manager Karren Brady are unlikely to replace Margaret when she leaves the series next year, as they "don't have enough weight" when they speak.
10. Ann Widdecombe MP would be a good replacement to Margaret, Nick believes.
Each of the ten points above were said by Nick Hewer. See also Sir Alan's thoughts, according to Nick, on the HR function: Sugar has little respect for HR, it seems.
Comments (1)
For perpetuating the myth of business people as all mean and cut-throat I'd like to fire the show ;-)
All the best from Brighton,
Mark
http://integrationtraining.blogspot.com/
Posted by Stress Training Mark | June 10, 2009 1:43 PM
Posted on June 10, 2009 13:43