The Apprentice viewers ‘boycott’ series as Lord Sugar ‘gets it wrong again’ with firing after record-breaking episode
BBC viewers have vowed to “boycott” The Apprentice after Lord Alan Sugar made “the wrong choice” in firing Onyeka Nweze this week.
Onyeka was sent home after she made a mistake during her presentation, but viewers were left raging, as they believed Virdi Singh Mazaria was the obvious choice to be fired.
The Challenge
During last night’s episode of The Apprentice, Lord Sugar, 76, challenged the candidates to create a new Formula E team.
“Formula E has grown to become the first all-electric motorsport world championship. So for your task, I want you to launch a new Formula E team. You need to create a brand, host a launch event, and secure sponsorship with potential partners,” Lord Sugar explained.
“The team that secures the most money will win, and on the losing team, at least one of you will be fired,” he warned.
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Lord Sugar then divided the teams up equally, moving Flo Edwards and Paul Midha from Team Nexus over to Team Supream.
Paul then took on the role of project manager for the team, while Tre Lowe took the lead on the other side.
The result
This week’s episode of The Apprentice saw the candidates secure a record-breaking £38.7 million in sponsorship.
But, of course, that wasn’t enough to stop Lord Sugar from firing one unlucky contestant.
In this case, it was a member of Team Supream, who lost the challenge because of their muddled pitch and poor branding.
Project manager Paul brought team members Onyeka and Virdi back for the final meeting, where they were scolded by Karren Brady. She criticised the team for losing money through their pitch.
Onyeka admitted she had “stumbled” during the pitch, but Paul quickly piled on by pointing out that the team’s message wasn’t clearly communicated with the audience because of her blunder.
Virdi had been in charge of branding, which was not executed well, but ultimately it was Onyeka who found herself on the chopping block.
“It is with regret that you’re fired,” Sugar told an emotional Onyeka, who left the room in silence.
Afterward, Onyeka admitted she was “surprised” to be the team member that was fired.
“To have the opportunity to be on that platform is amazing. It was quite surprising to get that goodbye from Lord Sugar – to have him acknowledge my intelligence on national television is definitely a plus,” Onyeka said after her exit.
“During the sponsorship pitches, the majority of the feedback we were getting was that we couldn’t be sponsored because they didn’t like the brand, the logo or the colour of the car. Me and Paul were on the same sub-team, so I thought he’d acknowledge that.
It was quite surprising to get that goodbye from Lord Sugar.
Onyeka Nweze
“It was one of the hardest pitches I’ve had to do. I don’t have difficulty speaking to people that I don’t know about stuff I know, but this was a completely different area. It was really hard to get my point across about stuff I learnt 10 minutes ago,” she explained.
Who is left in The Apprentice?
Those lucky enough to be still in with a chance of winning the £250K investment into their business are:
- Flo Edwards, recruitment consultant
- Foluso Falade, project manager
- Maura Rath, yoga company owner
- Noor Bouziane, sales executive
- Dr Paul Midha, dental group owner
- Phil Turner, pie company owner
- Rachel Woolford, boutique fitness studio owner
- Raj Chohan, mortgage broker
- Sam Saadet, pre and post-natal fitness coach
- Steve Darken, management consultant
- Tre Lowe, music and wellness entrepreneur
- Virdi Singh Mazaria, music producer
The candidates who have been fired so far on series 18 are:
- Onyeka Nweze, chartered company secretary - WEEK FIVE
- Jack Davies, recruitment director - WEEK FOUR
- Amina Khan, pharmacist and business owner - WEEK FOUR
- Dr Asif Munaf, wellness brand owner - WEEK THREE
- Paul Bowen, pie company director - WEEK TWO
- Oliver Medforth, sales executive - WEEK ONE
Fans how vowed to ‘boycott’ the series after Onyeka was fired
BBC viewers took to social media following the final meeting, voicing their anger about the result.
They made it clear that they believed music producer Virdi should have been the one to leave The Apprentice, as he’s had a few near misses in the boardroom already.
“Wrong decision on The Apprentice this week. Yes, Onyeka stumbled but not one other person was shown to explain the ethos well and Virdi seems to have more lives than a cat,” one viewer fumed on X, formerly Twitter.
“I’ve actually had enough. Virdi is such an idiot. This guy can’t do anything right, and he has the easiest jobs to do every week, yet he still f***s it up, fire him man,” agreed a second viewer.
“Boycotting The Apprentice over that firing,” a third declared.
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While a fourth moaned: “How on earth is Virdi staying in this process, he should have been out on week one!”
A fifth added: “Not only did Virdi not go home this week, it looks as if he’s ‘directing’ again next week!”
