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'The Apprentice' Sends Home THREE Candidates As Lord Sugar Rightly Tires Of Collective Ineptitude

APPRENTICE: Boardroom Bloodbath Only Right After Collective Ineptitude
Caroline Frost
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Not one but three candidates exited ‘The Apprentice’ boardroom this week, as Lord Sugar quite rightly tired of the collective ineptitude revealed to him by this week’s task.

Both teams were challenged to run a two-day odd-job business, something that should have been easy pickings for project managers Elle and Brett, a construction operations exec and a builder, respectively - well, you’d have thought so, anyway.

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Blank faces all round... as we'd seen throughout the two-day task

Brett made a game go of things, being saved by a) his sub-team charming a lady into inexplicably parting with her cash to have her garden tidied, and b) his rivals being so bad, they looked like actors in a early 1980s sitcom - you remember the sort, where a wonky shelf was the punchline before the commercial break, and… you’ll never believe it… they only went and got paint on the wrong sign. Yep, there’s a reason those shows aren’t around any more. No one’s that stupid. And yet…

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To her credit, Elle didn't try to blame anyone but herself for the failure of her team

So, to the boardroom, where Elle quite rightly was despatched before she even had the chance to bring anyone back in with her. To her credit, she accepted all the blame, but you have to wonder… isn’t this pretty much exactly what she does for a living?

But Lord Sugar wasn’t done. Despite Mergim’s impassioned account of his life’s hard journey to Lord Sugar’s door, he was soon going back through it, too.

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A wonky shelf did for Mergim's chances

And still Lord Sugar didn’t rest, bringing up the finger again to get rid of April - which was a surprise. Yes, she was rubbish, but no more than David who, it turned out, couldn’t actually use a tape measure.

All of which brings us to the night’s even more surprising revelation - the impressive focus and know-how of Joseph, who stepped into the vacuum left by the tottering Elle, and was so masterful that even alpha-male Richard couldn’t make this about him, and instead joined the others in genuflecting to the one person in the room who knew what he was doing.

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... and April was off too!

From the others, we saw indecision, blank faces, confusion over basic arithmetic, and the chance of any of them showing flashes of brilliance before this series is over about as likely as anything staying put on Mergim's wonky shelf.

'The Apprentice' continues on Wednesday evenings at 9pm on BBC One. Who do YOU think is looking on track to be crowned this year's successful Apprentice?

The Apprentice 2015: Celebrity Lookalikes
Aisha Kasim(01 of36)
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Age: 26Business inspiration: Victoria BeckhamSample quote: "Pressure makes diamonds. It's something I respond well to, I think it's go hard or go home." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
This is going to be easy... Rebecca Ferguson(02 of36)
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April Jackson(03 of36)
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Age: 26Business inspiration: Skinny Girl Cocktails' Bethenny FrankelSample quote: "I'm Jamaican. We come first, we win on the track and we will win in the boardroom." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Imagine Leona Lewis unsmiling... in a board meeting(04 of36)
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Brett Butler-Smythe(05 of36)
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Age: 28Sample quote: "I pride myself on not having any negative or bad traits about myself, they're all good, they're all positive." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Brett shares the piercing gaze of Good Cop actor Mark Womack(06 of36)
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Charleine Wain(07 of36)
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Age 31:Sample quote: "I would describe myself as very determined, ambitious, and I always want to show that women can succeed in business." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Mamma Mia, it's uncanny... Amanda Seyfried(08 of36)
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Dan Callaghan(09 of36)
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Age: 23Business inspiration: Amazon's Jeff BezosSample quote: "I'm just a generally all round quite entertaining person, I think. A lot of people laugh at me." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Will Dan be toasting victory like (a young) Shane Ritchie?(10 of36)
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David Stevenson(11 of36)
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Age: 25Business inspiration: Elon MuskSample quote: "Me and Lord Sugar will work together because you've got age and beauty and those two go hand in hand all the time. Sugar's got the age and I certainly am beautiful." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Strictly speaking, not identical, but the same baby face as Jay McGuinness(12 of36)
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Elle Stevenson(13 of36)
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Age: 21Business inspiration: Taylor SwiftSample quote: "I hate anything mediocre - I can't be middle. I hate being the person that comes second... I've never been the person that comes second. I'd rather be the one who fell over at the start of the race and never make it to the finish line." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Imagine Nigella unsmiling... (14 of36)
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Gary Poulton(15 of36)
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Age: 34Sample quote: "I look like the nice, easy going, laidback Brummie but once I start doing my business, people know I'm the real deal." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Is Gary as funky as hitmeister Mark Ronson?(16 of36)
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Jenny Garbis(17 of36)
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Age: 23Business inspiration: Emma Watson's 'He For She' campaignSample quote: "You will see my name in lights - Jenny Garbis, don't forget that. That's going to be a global name. That's going to be an entrepreneur everyone looks up to." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
As long as Lord Sugar doesn't have cold feet about Jenny... ho ho ho(18 of36)
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Joseph Valente(19 of36)
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Age: 25Role model: Hugh HefnerSample quote: "I am the definition of success, I'm a godfather of business and I'm here to make Lord Sugar a lot of money." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
If in doubt, Joseph, cry! It worked so well for Rylan(20 of36)
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Mergim Butaja(21 of36)
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Age: 23Sample quote: "Why am I a worthy business partner for Lord Sugar? I'd be a challenge to him. Everyone he's met probably sucks up to him. I won't. I'll tell him like it is." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
TV's Rav Wilding(22 of36)
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Natalie Dean(23 of36)
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Age: 25Business inspiration: Liv Garfield, the CEO of Severn TrentSample quote: "If I set my mind to something, I won't quit until I have done it." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Girl meets Girl, everyone's favourite Jordie lass Denise Welsh(24 of36)
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Sam Curry(25 of36)
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Age: 23Business inspiration: Richard BransonSample quote: "I'm an interesting mix between happy go lucky and adventurous and then quite logical and sensible. It's a strange combination." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Can't go on looking like(ish) David Tennant... (26 of36)
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Richard Woods(27 of36)
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Age: 31Business inspiration: Richard BransonSample quote: "I'm a Swiss army knife of bouncy skills, business skills, enthusiasm, I've got everything highly-tuned and highly-chiselled." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Hopefully better luck than England rugby captain Chris Robshaw(28 of36)
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Ruth Whiteley(29 of36)
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Age: 47Sample quote: "Lord Sugar might think I'm a bit gushing, he might find me over-zealous, but I think he'll think I'm great." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
And Grayson Perry thought he was a one-off?(30 of36)
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Scott Saunders(31 of36)
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Age: 27Sample quote: "People do say to me they've never met anyone like me." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Add a few (thousand) pounds, and it's Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson(32 of36)
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Selina Waterman-Smith(33 of36)
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Age: 31Sample quote: "I am strong-minded; I do like to be the leader." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Billboard Queen Meghan Trainor(34 of36)
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Vana Koutsomitis(35 of36)
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Age: 27Business inspiration: Ashton KutcherSample quote: "I believe this is a marathon and if you have stamina and if you do things with integrity, morals and direction, you can get where you want to go." (credit:Jim Marks/Boundless)
Add a few pompoms, and she's the spitting image of Miss Price!(36 of36)
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