The Apprentice 2015: Lauren Riley’s Ep.3 insider view

Lawyer, founder of The Link App, and former-The Apprentice star (series 10) Lauren Riley, provides an insider’s view on the third episode of the new series.

Ok, so this episode was a combination of two of my favourite parts of The Apprentice – the abroad part and the scavenger hunt. Essentially the task is the most simple: find everything on the list for the cheapest price. The team that doesn’t gets penalised a penalty of £50 plus the retail price of the items they missed. The most obvious thing to me would therefore be to secure the most expensive items first, with the idea if you run out of time you will incur less in penalties. It is surprising how often you run out of time in TV land while carting an eight-man production crew around with you! Anyway no one seemed to cotton onto that as a strategy.

They kept the boys versus girls format, which is obviously a production decision based on the fact a nice amount of tension was being displayed among the girls.

If you didn’t see the episode *spoiler alert*, to cut a long story short, lack of organisation on the girls team and some hasty decisions cost them in the end. One thing that’s key in business is planning, particularly when it comes to logistics. I realise it’s a high pressured situation and time wasn’t on their side but a deep breath and some more thought would probably have stood them in better stead.

The boys team celebrated heavily at every deal, it would have been highly embarrassing had they not won, but they did and convincingly too.

One controversy in this episode for me was the rubber dingy vs the real dingy. Now, I think the boys team used their initiative and it paid off as Lord Sugar praised them in the boardroom. However I see no distinction between that and the ‘skeletongate’ scenario that saw Felipe fired in 2014. It is just proof that if your card is already pre-marked then you are gone, in my opinion.

I have to admit I was much more engaged by this episode, dare I even say I slightly enjoyed it? You are starting to see peoples characters come out – both the good and the bad.

Elle got some respect from me on this task. She didn’t do everything right but she owned up to that. The problem for her is she’s young and doesn;t seem to be able to inspire the confidence of her teammates, and for that reason I don’t think she will make it all the way.

Joseph’s ‘pretty ladies in France’ comment would have earned him an earful from me if I was in ear-shot. However I think he’s the sort of cheeky chappy Lord Sugar will see something of himself in (even if he doesn’t, someone will definitely use that line) and he will provide entertainment which all too often is the BBCs primary objective.

Gary and Charlene each secured a good deal, it’s not about standing out the loudest but consistently contributing, so they are doing well so far.

Jenny who was fired this week had to go, not necessarily for the performance in the task though. There were a few that could have gone on that basis, but it was the claim that she would do better by herself than with the team – shortly followed by failure to deliver – that sealed her fate.

It’s hard to work out if Selina is being picked on or she really isn’t pleasant like her teammates say. One aside she made right at the end seemed to suggest we were going to find out pretty soon though!

Things are beginning to hot up which I’m pleased about I was starting to think I’d have to read the paper the next day and blog about that as the first two episodes were rather dull.

For more of my opinions on The Apprentice and more, head over to my YouTube channel where I post regular video reviews.

For more insight and information on Lauren, visit her website – www.laurenriley.co.uk – or interact with her on Twitter @misslaurenriley

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