The BEST episodes of The Apprentice (UK) season 7
Every episode of The Apprentice (UK) season 7, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Apprentice (UK) season 7!
British reality competition that sees young entrepreneurs compete in several business tasks, attempting to survive the weekly firings in order to become the business partner of one of the most successful businessmen.
#1 - Flip It
Season 7 - Episode 10 - Aired 7/6/2011
Called to a north London wholesale warehouse, the teams are met by a nostalgic Lord Sugar, who tells the teams that it was from places like this that he started out buying low to sell high. He gives both teams a pallet carrying 250 pounds' worth of wholesale goods. They must find out what sells best, then re-invest in those products. It is a simple exercise in following the money and increasing sales. The pallets contain cheap nodding dogs, pricey pressure washers, duvet sets, cut-price sunglasses, brollies, watches and more. The prospects for the task look good, and there are quick volunteers for the team leader roles. They have the whole of London to sell to: street markets, houses door-to-door, offices and maps to help find more. The trick is to match the products to the potential market, but some get it badly wrong, taking tacky stuff to snobby areas, or high-priced goods to East End pound shops. For some selling comes naturally, but for others it's a humiliating struggle. In the battle to sell, the teams start to forget the challenge. One team wantonly under-invests, while the other returns to buy an even wider range of products. Arguments about how best to accumulate cash spilt the candidates, leaving both teams in disarray. Lord Sugar nurses hopes for high returns, but in the boardroom they are dashed by dismal results. Turning on the losers, he vents his fury on their performance - particularly their logistics - and the backstabbing begins. In the end there is little to choose between the final three, then the decision is made and an emotional loser hears the words "You're fired!".
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#2 - Freemium Magazine Launch
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/15/2011
The teams are called to gleaming offices in Fleet Street, home to London's oldest newspaper district. Lord Sugar informs the candidates they'll be creating and publishing a free magazine. But first he shuffles the teams, appointing the project managers. Free magazines earn money by selling advertising, but advertisers only buy space in titles with a surefire market. As such, the teams must choose a hit subject, produce appropriate editorial content and convince advertisers they will reach a big audience. As Karren keeps notes, one team is led downmarket by their editor with a low-brow lads' magazine. The other team, accompanied by 67-year old Nick, goes for the oldies market, and on the way comes up with some patronising names (causing raised eyebrows from Nick!). But despite some research with sprightly over-sixties, it soon descends into stereotypes. Karren winces as the lads' mag embraces innuendo and photoshoots get racy. Spot research on the street sends signals that the lads' mag may be off-course, but the magazine editor continues to push the boundaries. At the pitches, one team doesn't know what it's selling, while both teams fail to negotiate until it is almost too late. In the boardroom the final ad sales surprise Lord Sugar, leaving the losing team bickering in a blame game. But when the final page is turned, the end words are: "You're fired!".
#3 - How to Get Hired
Season 7 - Episode 13 - Aired 7/15/2011
With just days to go before Lord Sugar announces his new business partner in The Apprentice, comedian and frustrated fan Dara O Briain shares his theories on how to become a winning candidate. Using evidence from Series 7, Dara analyses the common mistakes candidates make, as well as the clever tactics that keep them in the running.
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#4 - Fast Food Chain
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/13/2011
At a shopping mall in the City of London, Lord Sugar points out to the teams the wide range of successful fast-food chains and tells them to invent their own outlet, develop a unique cuisine, open it to the public and pitch the concept to him and experts from the fast-food industry. The teams get two brand new sites in the centre of the West End to turn into protoype fast-food outlets. One team goes for Mexican meals, the other for British pie and mash. Both teams split - one half to cook, the other to make the branding match the concept. The Mexican restaurant gets called Caracas because it sounds like maracas, while the pies get named after historic Britains; except that, once the branding has been done, Nick casts doubt on the British credentials of Christopher Columbus. When the restaurants open to the public the customers wait for fajitas and nachos to emerge from the kitchen - cold! Pies, mash and gravy served piping hot in cardboard boxes causes a rethink on presentation, and by the time the two-hour trial run is over there is plenty to fix before Lord Sugar turns up. The teams pitch to the experts who mark both business concepts out of ten in four crucial categories: customer service, the meal, branding, and whether the idea could work on the high street. Marks are revealed in the boardroom. The winners go straight to the final. The losers face the firing line, and their concept gets shredded. In the end, Lord Sugar places his order: "You're fired!".
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#5 - Rubbish
Season 7 - Episode 6 - Aired 6/8/2011
Alan Sugar calls the candidates to a rubbish dump, and challenges them to form junk-collection businesses. One half of each team has to haul the rubbish themselves while the others offer quotes on big clearances. Profits prove hard to come by with Cockney scrap dealers and quick-witted builders giving them a run for their money, and one project manager is reduced to tears by the grueling work.
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#6 - Biscuit
Season 7 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/29/2011
The candidates are enjoying their day off when Lord Sugar turns up at the door. Suddenly it's down to work after he tells them to make, brand and pitch a new type of upmarket biscuit. Project managers get picked (in one case reluctantly) and then it's time for the teams to split up, with half off to a biscuit development lab in Swansea. The teams have two days to get the baking done and packaging designed. In Wales there are sharp elbows in evidence in one team as two of the candidates vie to get their idea made, whilst the other team goes straight for an after-school treat. The ultra-competitive team's focus group munches its way through lots of crunchy offers without a favourite emerging. No-one likes ideas suggested by fellow team members and in the end the decision is a compromise. On the other team, the branding for kids ends up losing precision and no-one can understand its selling point. Hard work in the development lab produces professional looking biscuits. Packaging is equally impressive but the names and invented straplines make for confusing pitch rehearsals and plenty of backstabbing. At the pitches one team tries to create a mini-drama, changing the script twice and still failing to communicate the idea. In the end both teams stumble through pitches that are as crumbly as their biscuits. The hard-nosed buyers from some of Britain's biggest supermarkets appear not to bite. They report back to Lord Sugar who reveals the outcome in the boardroom - the result is a shock to Lord Sugar and to both teams. On the losing team the culprit is uncovered. After some spirited defence and a few regrets it's a close call...then - 'You're fired!'.
#7 - Create, Brand and Launch a Pet Food
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/1/2011
In a pre-recorded briefing via a giant screen flanked by Karren and Nick, Lord Sugar has called the candidates to an advertising agency. Their task will be to create, brand and pitch a new pet food. But before they start Nick has a message from the boss - once again he picks the team leaders. One team chooses dogs, the other cats. Both teams split - one half to Lincolnshire to create the food, the other half staying at the agency to name and brand the product. Supported by Britain's biggest pet food manufacturer it looks like a breeze, but soon the teams are making some fateful decisions, sweeping aside advice from pet-loving focus groups and inventing product names so leftfield that even teammates can't understand them. Professional packaging for their products restores confidence momentarily, but the next job - to make commercials - plunges the teams into more confusion as they try to get creative. Animal auditions prove tricky and casting a male voice for a sexy female cat puts an actor on the spot. As the results are pitched to pet food experts and ad-men, optimism turns to cold reality. Analysis is fed back to Lord Sugar and the boardroom battle begins. No amount of barking or begging can save the doomed when it comes to the master's fateful command - 'You're fired'.
#8 - £250 Business Start Up
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/10/2011
The stakes are raised higher than ever in this series of The Apprentice, as this time there is no six-figure salary job on offer. Instead, the sixteen candidates are vying for one life changing opportunity: £250,000 investment to start their own company, with Lord Sugar as their business partner. Lord Sugar wastes no time showing the candidates he means business, using the first task to challenge his potential partners' entrepreneurial skills. Each team are given £250 to invest in fresh fruit and vegetables, and Lord Sugar makes it clear that he expects a high return. Packed off to New Covent Garden Market, the teams race to buy the best produce at the cheapest price and set to work adding value to their haul by making juices, fruit salads and soups, and pasta to tempt London's hungry workforce. With the pressure on to exploit both the lucrative breakfast and lunch trade, it's not long before the tension rises and the blame game begins. The highly competitive candidates desperately attempt to sell their stock, bring back the highest return and avoid the firing line in the boardroom. But for one candidate, business dreams are crushed as they are the first to hear the dreaded words 'You're fired'.
#9 - Mobile Phone Application
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 5/11/2011
An early morning delivery sends the candidates into the fast-paced world of technology. Lord Sugar challenges the teams to think big and go global as they must design, launch and promote a new mobile phone application. In the battle for downloads, the teams must create a mobile app and pitch it to three influential technology websites to become 'App of the Day', as well as attempt to convince a huge crowd of bloggers and software experts at a major gaming fair to support the application and increase downloads. With their apps downloadable for 24 hours, a dramatic result leads to a fierce boardroom battle, and one more candidate faces Lord Sugar's immortal words: 'You're fired'.
#10 - Discount Buying for the Savoy
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 5/18/2011
The candidates are called to meet Lord Sugar at London's famous Savoy Hotel to be briefed on their next task. Following a 220 million pound refurbishment, the hotel requires a number of last-minute items prior to its grand reopening. The business hopefuls have nine hours to source ten products, and their powers of negotiation are pushed to the limit as they attempt to track down everything on the hotel's unusual shopping list and purchase them at the lowest possible price. Nick and Karren watch on as the candidates get increasingly desperate in their attempts to find quality items at bargain prices. With the deadline looming, tension reaches fever pitch as last-minute deals are struck. Both teams are faced with a dash to the Savoy to have their purchases inspected by the scrupulous eye of the hotel's general manager. Missing or incorrect items are subject to penalty fines, and this leads to a dramatic result in the boardroom. The losing team gets a grilling from Lord Sugar, and the blame game begins before one of the remaining candidates hears the fateful words: "You're fired!".
#11 - Beauty Treatments
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/25/2011
Lord Sugar gathers the candidates under the statue of Aphrodite at the British Museum, and reveals their next task: to set-up beauty treatment businesses in Birmingham. At the briefing, he re-balances the teams and personally appoints the project managers. The British beauty industry is worth 14 billion pounds annually, with the best margins in hands-on treatments, so Lord Sugar demands both teams offer these and sell cosmetic products off the back of them. After a choice of professional treatments have been offered to the teams, followed by a short wrangle over total body spray tan, the teams choose two treatments each and get down to some hands-on training. But one of the boys feels that touchy-feely beauty challenges his masculinity, and could worry his girlfriend. Under the watchful eye of Nick and Karren, the teams take their choices to Birmingham. One team goes for the city centre, while the other chooses an out-of-town mall. From now on it's a race to capture customers and get them into the treatment rooms. Products turn out to be easier to shift than getting the public to strip off, but in a desperate struggle to make money, juggling jobs and slashing prices puts profits at risk. In the boardroom the battle to survive gets ugly, until Lord Sugar calls it to order and declares: "You're Fired!".
#12 - Paris
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/22/2011
The venue for the candidates' latest briefing is St Pancras International. With the next Eurostar about to leave, there is just time for Lord Sugar to brief and re-balance the personnel, and then it's off to Paris for half of each team. The others must stay back and choose some new British designs to sell to the French. It is a classic export task, with Lord Sugar on the lookout for proven ability to do business abroad. While the candidates in Paris arrange sales appointments for tomorrow, the London-based groups are treated to quirky products by entrepeneurs wanting a slice of the French market. There's everything from toys to top-end bikes. It is immediately clear that some of Lord Sugar's budding business partners know very little about the French, and even less about what they will buy. To help, he sets them up with a major French retailer, but the teams must fix all the other pitches. Street-based research gets lost in translation. Candidates struggle to describe in stuttering franglais items they haven't seen, while one candidate proves fluent in French, yet hopeless at diplomacy. When the teams regroup in Paris, the selected products look less attractive than they sounded. Squabbles ignite, but selling must begin. Paris retailers, baffled by the stumbling pitches, prove tough customers. Lord Sugar's top-end French chain store is characteristically stoney-faced. Back in the boardroom the teams are subjected to more hard-faced stares, this time from Lord Sugar on hearing that someone decided to employ a playground game to decide who would pitch. And one team discovers it picked a winning product with some blockbusting sales figures. But the losers face an inquisition and then the verbal guillotine: "You're fired!".
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#13 - The Final Five
Season 7 - Episode 11 - Aired 7/7/2011
As this year's series of The Apprentice draws to a close and the tension mounts, this programme profiles the remaining five candidates. Revealing the true stories behind their super-confident egos, we discover what really makes these budding business men and women tick. Family, friends and former bosses, along with Lord Sugar's trusted aides Nick Hewer and Karren Brady, discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the final five personalities as they vie for the prize of a quarter-million pound investment and a partnership with Lord Sugar.
#14 - The Final
Season 7 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/17/2011
After eleven tasks, it's finally time for Lord Sugar to choose his business partner. The four finalists each have to face a gruelling interview process on their own. There is nowhere to hide as each of them is grilled by four of Lord Sugar's trusted business colleagues and advisors. Each candidate will also have their business ideas tested to destruction, as their plans for their business with Lord Sugar are put under the microscope. It's the ultimate test of character, as every aspect of their personal and professional lives is scrutinised and judged by the influential interviewers. After they have made their assessments, Lord Sugar's four advisors feed back their opinions and explain their verdicts to him in the boardroom. As the candidates take their turn to plead their case, three will have their dreams shattered as Lord Sugar delivers his final ruling on who will become his business partner.