The Appeal of 'The Apprentice'

Written by SuenMike Wednesday, 24 November 2010 00:00

It’s Tuesday evening and I’m disappointed that it isn’t Wednesday because that’s when ‘The Apprentice’ is on.   A part of me wants to race through the next 24 hours to see the next episode.

Pathetic?  Yes, I agree.  What’s happened to me?  I’m not exactly sure.

I avoided the program like the plague for many a year. I thought the whole country was crazy.   I couldn’t believe a spin-off program was formed during which a panel interviewed the person who was the latest to be fired.  It’s filmed before a live audience of at least 200.  Oh yes, I love watching that too now.

I’m not exactly sure what sucks a person in to watching it.  Certainly it’s not the tasks.   The tasks they perform are rather stupid but are backed up with a fair amount of cash to give them credibility.  Mr Sugar’s people have done a lot of networking in order to place the contestants in real life scenarios, i.e. shopping malls, ad agencies, food production lines, etc.  There’s got to be a significant finances (or product placement) greasing the wheels to make this machine go. 

The contestants themselves are also dressed to the nines.  They wear some beautiful business clothing, and one should also mention some of the beautiful women contestants.  One man commented on the Guardian website that he was certainly going to watch the show because of the “eye-candy” on display.

No one can argue that there’s not any superficiality to the show.  By God – to judge someone after one task is pretty ridiculous. 

So I come back to my main question – why is it so watchable?  I think it’s because that there is some real thinking going on.   Smart people are on display in the real world.  Brains are engaged.  That’s interesting.  Of course there’s competitiveness to it so the audience is lured in to a base curiosity about who wins.  But there’s also a nod to skill, cleverness, eagerness, and teamwork.   Lord Sugar and his partners leave their mark by making astute observations, and Lord Sugar always steals the show.    I hate to admit it but it’s hard not being impressed by the man.