We have our two 2023 finalists! <\/p>
It\u2019s the episode we\u2019ve all been waiting for \u2013\u00a0The Apprentice<\/a> 2023 finally reached the interview stage of the competition tonight on BBC One and it lived up to its brutal reputation.<\/p>\n The five semi-finalists\u2019 business plans were picked apart by Lord Sugar\u2019s trusted advisors \u2013 including Claude Littner<\/a>, who returned for the episode \u2013 delivering some of the most cringeworthy moments of the whole season.<\/p>\n If you missed tonight\u2019s episode, then RadioTimes.com<\/a> is here to catch you up with the latest Apprentice 2023 recap.<\/p> Episode 11 began with the five remaining candidates \u2013 Victoria Goulbourne<\/a>, Marnie Swindells<\/a>, Rochelle Anthony<\/a>, Dani Donovan<\/a> and Megan Hornby<\/a> \u2013 preparing to go through their business plans, some of which appear to be more thought through than others.<\/p>\n The next day, the line-up headed to meet Lord Sugar\u2019s advisors: Claude Littner, Mike Soutar, Linda Plant and Karren Brady, all of whom had read through the business plans and were armed with criticism.<\/p>\n First up was Dani, who was hoping Lord Sugar would invest in her hair extensions business and said that losing \u201chas never been an option\u201d for her, however she was quickly humbled by Claude Littner. The businessman promptly called her out for not knowing the difference between sales and profit, before Linda Plant categorically told her that her business had no unique selling point.<\/p>\n Later on, Dani\u2019s interview with Mike Soutar got a bit hairy, with the Scottish entrepreneur taking an issue with the confidentiality agreement featured in her business plan. \u201cThere\u2019s something in this business plan that\u2019s put me in a really bad mood,\u201d he told her, before Dani admitted that she\u2019d forgotten to take it out of the business plan template.<\/p>\n He then said that her \u00a310,000 budget for marketing her company across the world was \u201ccompletely unrealistic\u201d, and by the time Dani reached Karren Brady, she began to well up, telling her that her website features no products because she \u201cdidn\u2019t think [she\u2019d] get this far.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Victoria\u2019s pick n mix business, the air stewardess\u2019 interviews got off to a savage start, with Linda in leopard print saying there was no gap in the market for sweet kiosks and that she should consider returning to the airline. Ouch!<\/p>\n Moving onto Claude, Victoria was made aware of various mistakes in her business plan when it came to the numbers, while Karren said that she hadn\u2019t included any staff costs, adding: \u201cWho\u2019s going to be working these kiosks? The tooth fairy?\u201d After silently accepting a tissue off Karren to wipe her tears, Victoria visited Mike, who pointed out the 33 spelling mistakes in her plan and clarified that she couldn\u2019t consider herself to be \u201cself-taught\u201d as she had in fact been at school. \u201cI\u2019m not an expert when it comes to English language,\u201d Victoria said when confronted with her business plan errors.<\/p>\n The experts didn\u2019t have much to say about Megan\u2019s business plan \u2013 for a dessert shop that became a cocktail bar in the evening \u2013 as it was just 14 pages long with \u201cno depth\u201d and \u201cno substance\u201d, according to Karren (or rather Baroness Brady after the business exec told Megan that only her friends can call her Karren).<\/p>\n Moving onto Claude, Megan\u2019s plan was obliterated by the former aide to Lord Sugar, with him saying: \u201cThese numbers are meaningless. You\u2019ve shot yourself in the foot here. This is hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n Marnie\u2019s business hopes for a boxing gym were received more warmly by the experts, however they were quick to point out that central London is packed with boxing gyms, while Karren was concerned by Marnie\u2019s various funding grants being contingent on a signed property lease which she currently didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Linda wasn\u2019t impressed by Marnie\u2019s lack of experience when it came to running a gym and her plans not to pay her trainers but instead give them access to the gym in exchange for their services. \u201cYou have not convinced me today that your business in its present form is in any way investable,\u201d she said to an annoyed-looking Marnie.<\/p>\n Lastly, it was time for a rinse and repeat of Rochelle\u2019s hair salon business and immediately Claude noted that her numbers didn\u2019t make for \u201cgreat reading\u201d, criticising her over-optimistic jump in turnover from \u00a3150,000 to over a million pounds. \u201cYou\u2019ve done something that just seems not ambitious but reckless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mike then pointed out that Rochelle had incorrectly estimated how much space she would need for her salon before Karren said that her plans to open a salon in Belgravia would cost her a lot more than she\u2019s budgeted for.<\/p>\n Back in the boardroom with Lord Sugar, the business boss spoke to the semi-finalists after consulting with his interviewers, revealing that it would be Marnie and Rochelle going through to next week\u2019s final.<\/p>\n The Apprentice continues on BBC One and\u00a0<\/strong>BBC iPlayer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0next Thursday at 9pm. If you\u2019re looking for more to watch, check out our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and<\/strong>\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0or visit our dedicated\u00a0<\/strong>Entertainment<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only \u00a31 with delivery to your home\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>The Radio Times Podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n We have our two 2023 finalists! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31169,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/03\/the-apprentice-2023-recap-what-happened-in-the-semi-final.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"We have our two 2023 finalists!","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/31168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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