The Apprentice: Lord Sugar eliminates TWO candidates in a brutal firing

Virgin Radio

10 Mar 2022, 22:01

It was a shocking episode tonight as Lord Sugar decided to fire not one candidate but two, and we said goodbye to Aaron Willis and Akeem Bundu-Kamara.

During the penultimate episode before the all-important interview stage, the pressure was on for the candidates to impress Lord Sugar and his aides.

This week they visited KidZania in London and were tasked with making a new healthy baby food product.

After a shake-up to the teams, it was decided that Aaron and Harpreet would be project managers as they set off to create and brand their new product.

However, it was quite a disaster for both teams, and neither managed to impress Lord Sugar or the clients.

Aaron’s team faced criticism that their product was bland and too stodgy for babies, and Aaron also came under fire for not giving a clear brief at the start.

Meanwhile, in Harpreet’s team, the candidates came under fire for an unfortunate logo mishap.

Their product was supposed to be called “First time foodies”, but when they swapped the two o’s in ‘foodies’ for pictures, it looked like it was called “First time Dies”- which is not great when you’re trying to sell a baby product.

Due to these slip up’s, both teams failed to get any sales from the retailers meaning they were all brought back into the boardroom to face Lord Sugar.

In the end, it was Aaron and Akeem that bore the brunt of their team’s failures in a shock double-firing.

Speaking in a Q&A for Virgin Radio and other press, Aaron revealed he felt like his time was up and respected the decision.

He said: “I’m actually quite at peace with it because I do think it was my time [to go]. It was one of those moments where I felt I’d peaked, and I’d rather have been fired for something which was justified, so I’ve got no complaints!

“At the end of the day, I messed it up, so I can’t really argue with that!”

As well as being project manager, Aaron was in charge of creating the recipe for the baby food, which was criticised for being bland and the main reason his team failed to secure sales- but he joked he was quite a good cook at home.

He added: “Although I’ve never made baby food before and that’s obviously quite a critical factor, really! I just had this vision in my mind of how I would have cooked it for the family at home, but it turns out it’s not that easy…”

Akeem, however, wasn’t as ‘at peace’ with the decision as Aaron seemed to be.

When asked how he felt about the double-elimination, he said: “Feeling extremely gutted as you can imagine! To technically make the final five, but not to make it to the interview stage, well, it’s unfortunate but I feel like I've done well.

“Two wins as PM so, I’ve definitely got things to be proud of and now it’s all about advancing with my business.”

He also said that he didn’t think it was a fair decision to fire him and explained: “I feel like my business, and the way I approach business, is very different to others and is why I would have been a perfect business partner for Lord Sugar.

“But, at the end of the day, he made the decision not to invest in me and my business and that’s his prerogative. I would rather have a strong yes off somebody who wants it, rather than a half-hearted yes.”

Despite their brutal elimination, Aaron and Akeem say they will be watching the rest of the show, and both have their money on the same person to win.

Aaron revealed: “I think I’d put my money on Kathryn to win. I was good mates with Kathryn in the house. We didn’t actually work together much during the process, but I’m really rooting for her.

“She just seemed to be on the ball – all the girls were to be fair, they’re all really intelligent. But, Kathryn just has the edge for me, she’s been so calm and collected throughout.”

Akeem also said: “As for a winner, I think Steff has a great business plan, so it will be interesting to see how she does next week - and I’ve always thought Kathryn exudes a lot of confidence, so I can’t wait to see how far she gets.”

The Apprentice airs Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One.