Young Apprentice 2011 Semi Finals: Lord Sugar Fires Four Candidates after Popcorn task

Lord sugar popcornsFour candidates had their hopes of making the finals of this year’s Young Apprentice series dashed after Lord Sugar showed them the door. Harry Hitchens, Harry Maxwell, Haya Al Dlame and Lizzie Magee were all fired in a brutal boardroom axe.

Lord Sugar had warned the six remaining candidates that only two of them would make it through to next week’s final.

In today’s task the candidates had to design and pitch a new brand of popcorn to the retail trade, and win as much orders as possible.

After the teams developed and pitched their new brands of popcorn, it was back to the boardroom to find out the results.

Atomic received 10,000 orders from the cinema chain, 50,000 from the airline and 30,000 from the supermarket chain giving them a total of 90,000 orders

Kinetic received 15,000 orders from the cinema chain, 0 from the airline and 100,000 from the supermarket chain giving them a total of 115,000 orders

Lord Sugar offers the losing team – Harry M,, Harry H and Lizzie – with words of advice, saying: “Well guys in life someone wins and someone loses but it’s not all bad news.
“Harry M in all the years I’ve been working in this boardroom I’ve never met someone as unlucky as you because you did not deserve to not have a win under your belt.

“Lizzie you are straightforward, honest and you say it how it is, so don’t ever change because that’s what I like to do too.

“Harry H you’ve been an all round great performer, you made some great negotiations and I’m sorry that we’re parting in this way. It’s been a pleasure working with you and I wish you the best for the future.” (We had tipped Harry H to win this series!)

Lord Sugar gave the fired candidates his personal business card and urged them to keep in touch before turning his attentions to the winning team, who had to also lose one member.

Lord Sugar wanted to know who the weakest link was. Without hesitation, PM James said: “If I could pick someone who we could have probably done the task without that would have to be Haya” but Haya hit back: “He didn’t even give me a chance to pitch and that’s the only reason.”

But when Zara concurred that Haya was the weakest link it seemed the odds were already stacked against her before Lord Sugar gave each of them a chance to plead their case before giving his verdict.

Lord Sugar explained: “Haya you do seem to be determined, you’re not afraid to take risks but I haven’t seen any creativity.


“James it’s your way or no way and I wonder whether a leopard will change its spots.

“Zara, you’re one of the most eloquent speakers I’ve come across in this boardroom. My only concern is whether you’re going to dirty your hands or not.”

Concluding, Lord Sugar said: “It’s such a tough decision with three great people here. Haya I’m really, really sorry to say this but I’m going to ask you to leave the process.”

It means James McCullagh will go head to head with Zara Brownless in next week’s final.

2 thoughts on “Young Apprentice 2011 Semi Finals: Lord Sugar Fires Four Candidates after Popcorn task

  1. Haya should have been in the final. She is great, honest and clever at making decisions. In the final the whole idea of the game that zara created and won the task with was actually Haya’s idea. I think she should have been given a chance to be in the final and i am sure if she was, she would have won.

  2. The wrong team lost, the wrong team got fired, the wrong people are in the final.

    This was a stupid idea of sorting out who goes into the final..

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