Idiots in danger of tarnishing TV gold

It’s 10pm in the Apprentice house and two contestants have just been fired. It could almost be Big Brother, writes Maria Cusine.

The Apprentice is the one reality programme which has a unique selling point; it’s not a game show with a prize, more one long interview with the promise of a top flight job at the end of it.

We’re led to believe the show’s contestants are all educated people and have left behind their high-flying well-paid careers in a bid to land the £100,000 job for Sir Alan Sugar.

So why do they come across as such a bunch of idiots?

Apparently they were picked from 20,000 people who applied to go on the show. If these are the best, I’d hate to see the others.

Unless of course they were picked to make entertaining television. If that’s the case, well done BBC, your plan’s worked - but only in the short term.

Because The Apprentice should be a world away from Big Brother, with its housemates consisting of a bunch of not-so-clever wannabes who sit around all day moaning.

Instead in recent weeks we’ve seen more and more of The Apprentice stars bitching and backstabbing and you could almost be back on C4 with the BB housemates. You start to wonder if some of them are just after fame rather than their dream job.

And if they’re not having a go at one another they are making a fool of themselves by their lack of knowledge over the most basic of things.

Last night Sir Alan was less than impressed to hear that half-Jewish contestant Michael Sophocles believed a “kosher chicken” - one of the items on a bartering shopping list - was a chicken that had been blessed by a Muslim shopkeeper to “make it halal”. Can anyone with such lofty ambitions really be so stupid? They are driving Sugar round the bend which, admittedly, is a big part of the entertainment.

We had the show’s first double sacking last night, as Sir Alan dispensed with Jenny Celerier and Jennifer Maguire. One went for being hopelessly unable to lead a team, the other for messing up Sir Alan’s kosher chicken instructions.

Oh and redhead Jenny even attempted to bribe a shopkeeper into scuppering her rival team’s chances.

But the pair were unrepentant, saying after the show: “We made Apprentice history - there has never been a double firing before.”

Then they headed off for a night out in London, pursued by the tabloids and photographed leaving nightclubs like sad C-list wanabes - not the thrusting young executives the beeb used to showcase in earlier series. So maybe they were only there for their 15 minutes in the spotlight after all?

But despite fears that it’s turning into a more sophisticated Big Brother, millions will tune in next Wednesday to see the next instalment.

Yes the contestants may all appear clueless, yes we may want to throttle every one of them, but it’s compelling viewing . . . if only to witness Sir Alan’s ranting and the aghast expressions of his sidekicks Margaret and Nick.