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Mark

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  • Arch-Enemy: With Daniel, albeit in a fairly friendly way for the most part. There were a lot of snipes between the two in the boardroom, but otherwise they never demonstrated the utter contempt that a lot of past candidates have.
  • The Bus Came Back: His appearance in Series 13, episode 1.
  • Dark Horse Victory: Almost no-one predicted he would even make the final, let alone win it. Katie and Roisin were considered the overwhelming favourites for much of the season, but crashed and burned in the last regular task and interview round respectively. Then, in the final just about everyone in the country predicted that Bianca would walk it, but she herself messed up, leaving Mark to claim victory.
  • Epic Fail: His pitch to Tesco in the Week 10 task, which only avoided being the worst in the show's history by virtue of the fact that he didn't quote irrelevant facts about cats and then talk over the buyers, or rant about how not buying their trifles was just as bad as the US not caring about pollution.
  • Running Gag: His use of football analogies, which Daniel memorably turned back on him in Week 6.

Bianca

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  • Artistic License – Geography: Nearly sank her team in Week 6 by offering exclusivity in Westminster to a small shop for just a few units, not realizing that "Westminster" is actually a fairly significant chunk of central London, not just the area immediately around the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Fortunately, between Solomon getting the idea to refocus on online retailers and the other team doing an all-around horrible job, they still won.
    • What makes this even more strange is that Bianca, at the time, was from London.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Bizarrely, she seemed to turn into this for Robert of all people during the finale, as her obsession with making the tights she proposed to sell a high-ticket luxury item and refusing to listen to the feedback of her team played a big part in her defeat.
  • It's All About Me: Openly told the members of her team (bar Katie) that she wasn't interested in even listening to their opinions when producing the advertising materials for her business in the finale. On top of that, she completely ignored the market research the rest of the team did, just because it didn't fit with her preconceived ideas about the product.

Daniel

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  • Always Someone Better: Mark sold more stuff than Daniel in the series, and then made it to the final over him. Daniel ended up on Bianca's team in the finale, and said that at least this way he could indirectly beat Mark. In the end however, he couldn't even do that.
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: He didn't get that much respect in general until the latter stages of the competition, but it was really pronounced in Week 5, when the team won despite his poor leadership, and everyone else distanced themselves from him.
    • Took a Level in Kindness: Started the process like many previous candidates as a case of saying "I'm a selling machine", but as time went on Lord Sugar felt he had done this as before firing him, Sugar told him that he was a better man than he was when he started the process.
  • One-Hit Wonder: Was the men's top salesman in the first task, but other than that, he never truly demonstrated the sales skills he claimed to possess.
  • Sore Loser: Granted, he left in a good mood on the actual show like some other candidates, but he became one of a few candidates to slam the show. Which is why Danny from Series 13, accused him of being this.

Roisin

"James, I think you want to show you're really decisive just to show Lord Sugar you're decisive, when you're not actually making sound, informed decisions. It's about the way you treat people as well, and you have not managed any of us at all. I really admire your passion and enthusiasm, and I wanted to be directed in the right way, but to be honest, as long as we've been on the same team, I, bar the Big Dawg name, I don't see your contribution, and I am one of the most consistent contributors in here, and you've brought me in here even though we sold the same [number of] lawnmowers".
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  • The Ace: Appeared to be this for the ten weeks of the actual competition, as outside of some pricing slip-ups in Week 3 (and even that wasn't really why her team lost) she didn't put a single foot wrong, and after Katie got fired in Week 10 she was considered certain to win. It all went wrong in the interviews however.
  • Artistic License – Economics: If she shot herself in the foot with her business plan, then her claim that using up the whole £250,000 investment in two months didn't matter because the banks would happily lend her millions of pounds put a bullet in her other foot for good measure. Lord Sugar pointed out that if it were that easy to get such large loans from banks, then no-one would need his investment prize.
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Neil from the previous year, in that she was considered the frontrunner and favourite to win (much more so than he was, in fact), but self-destructed in the interview round by offering a horrible business plan and refusing to alter it in any way, shape or form.

Solomon

Claude Littner: "I've told you how pleased I was, with your CV then I looked at the proposal that you're pitching for Lord Sugar. And frankly...it's a bloody disgrace. It's a bloody disgrace!"
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  • The Exit Is That Way: After receiving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from Claude Littner about his flimsy business plan, Claude simply told him to get out of the interview; after unsuccessfully trying to plead his case, Solomon eventually left...but ended up heading for the window and it was up to Claude to point him to the proper way out.
  • Get Out!: How Claude ended their interview.
  • Ignored Expert: In Week 2 he suggested an idea that at the very least was better than what the men eventually ended up producing, and may even have won the task. Unfortunately, it was voted down in favour of an idea that turned out to be totally infeasible.
  • The Scapegoat: Scott tried to turn him into this during the second task. While Solomon was at fault insomuch as he didn't push harder for his idea to be used, he did have a point in that his background (in online media) wasn't really related to the task's wearable technology theme.
  • Tragic Mistake: A credible candidate all-around, but clearly hadn't put the slightest bit of thought into his business plan, resulting in Claude furiously throwing him out of the interview, and Lord Sugar firing him almost immediately.

Sanjay

Lord Sugar: "Sanjay, Sanjay Sanjay. I think you are deluded into thinking this will ever make any money."
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  • Dark and Troubled Past: Following his dismissal from the show, he was reported to have received homophobic abuse during his time on the show, primarily on Twitter, and complained about "outdated attitudes" from other candidates regarding the matter. He was also revealed to have been attacked at university for his sexuality, and had been forced to move schools as a result of bullying against him when he was eight years old, which included being nicknamed "Sad-Gay Sod Smith".
  • The Generic Guy: Coasted through to the last regular task by virtue of just being generally average and occasionally ineffectual, while others would get fired for being outright bad.
  • Straight Gay: Is gay but doesn't have much flamboyant mannerisms, if any.

Katie

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  • The Ace: During the actual tasks she looked like this as much as, if not more than Roisin was. The first time she did anything wrong wasn't until Week 9, when she received a slightly dubious fine for not cutting some rope, and even then she was only in the boardroom because Daniel had even less reason to bring back Mark.
  • Broken Ace: In the Week 10 task she not only presided over a fairly significant loss as project manager, but cheerfully produced a saffron trifle that tasted terrible and would have had to have been priced at about £7 to break even. The wheels completely came off in the boardroom when she admitted that she didn't actually know anything about running a restaurant and would hire someone else to oversee the actual business, causing Lord Sugar to point out that Katie would only be a middleman, and that he could just invest in whoever would run the actual business.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: When making trifles in Week 10 she essentially just threw in ingredients at random without thinking of how much they cost or what they'd taste like. Either she's a shockingly inept cook, or she got arrogant enough to think that the team could sell tons of trifles even if they tasted bad.
  • Team Mum: Lord Sugar called her this almost word-for-word in Week 9, when he agreed that then-project manager Felipe had nothing to do with his team's victory the previous week and that Katie deserved 95% of the credit (the remaining 5% being Mark's salesmanship).

Felipe

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  • Butt-Monkey: In the "Fat Daddy" commercial in Week 4. Note that it was actually his concept, but Ella Jade executed it so horribly that it ended up looking like two Drill Sergeant Nasties were torturing him.
  • Funny Foreigner: Originally from Columbia and viewers saw him as this owing to his habit of referring to himself in third person in Confession Cam edits.
  • Graceful Loser: Unlike Daniel, post show, Felipe left in a good mood and it continued far beyond the show; On You're Fired, he replied on his firing that "These things happen" and the following year, while Daniel labelled Lord Sugar's decision to accept the dinghy but not the skeleton as a joke, Felipe merely replied that The Apprentice was "merely a TV show.".
  • Rules Lawyer: In the Week 9 task he bought a flat-packed cardboard skeleton, then tried to argue in the boardroom that this technically fit the brief of what Lord Sugar asked them to buy. Sugar disagreed, hit the team with a massive fine that caused them to lose, and then fired Felipe. Note that Felipe is actually a fairly literal example of this trope, given that he's a lawyer by trade.
  • Third-Person Person: Referred to himself in third person on many occasions; usually in the Confession Cam edits.
    • In the Honest Subtitles, this is the only way he refers to himself.
    Felipe: "This hat bag is confusing Felipe. But Felipe will pretend he loves it.""

James

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  • Accidental Misnaming: Got the name of a product manufacturer wrong over and over again while trying to persuade him to let the team sell his products at a country show. Naturally, the manufacturer quickly told James to go to hell.
  • Blatant Lies: After the aforementioned incident, he told the rest of the team that he'd chosen not to take that particular product. Naturally, they were all pretty livid when the actual truth came out,
  • One-Hit Wonder: Was pretty dreadful in the first few tasks, designing what Lord Sugar deemed the worst product in the show's history in Week 2, nearly getting fired for behaving like an arrogant jerk in Week 3, and then doing the same thing again in Week 5. In Week 6, he actually improved a lot and led his team to a resounding win despite Bianca nearly screwing them over royally. But the wheels came off completely in Week 8, and he was fired.invoked
  • Pet the Dog: Despite otherwise behaving like an arrogant jerk throughout Week 3, he took a moment to comfort Lindsay when she committed Suicide by Cop in that week's initial boardroom.
  • The Runner-Up Takes It All: So far he's had the highest media profile of this season's candidates, including an appearance on Celebrity Big Brother where he went on to win the competition.

Lauren

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  • Bystander Syndrome: Did very little of note on most of the tasks, and eventually Lord Sugar accused her of hiding and fired her for it.
  • Not So Above It All: While the viewer might get the impression that she was unjustly passed over for project manager on the New York task thanks to Mark lying about his knowledge of the city, Lauren herself had similarly exaggerated her own knowledge, as she admitted on You're Fired.
  • One-Hit Wonder: The one time she did particularly well was leading her team on a guided tour of Blenheim Palace, coming across as very knowledgeable and engaging (as opposed to Felipe's incredibly dull tour of Oxford, and Jemma's trainwreck of a tour of Hever Castle on the other team). Unfortunately for her, this wasn't really the sort of thing that Lord Sugar was interested in when it comes to potential business partners.invoked

Pamela

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  • Dark and Troubled Past: Like Sanjay, Pamela was reported as having suffered bullying as a child because of her Pakistani heritage and her stammar. Her mother, in an interview with the Sunday Mirror, revealed that the bullying began after she split from her Pakistani father during her toddler years and moved from Germany to Waterford, Ireland, adding that this caused Pamela to be unable to read until she was 12.
  • Jerkass: Not as bad as a lot of other examples, but she treated Daniel like dirt in Weeks 5 and 6, and didn't treat Lauren much better in the Week 6 boardroom.
  • Misaimed Fandom: Thought the "Relationship Game" was a brilliant idea, despite Mark reporting that the focus groups weren't going for it. Why she then assigned Daniel (who she thought was a complete idiot) to write the questions is beyond explanation, however.invoked

Jemma

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  • Dumb Blonde: She didn't come across as this most of the time, just quiet. But then in her guided tour of Hever Castle, she came across like someone whose only knowledge of the Tudor family was from a few high school history lessons that she had barely paid any attention to.
  • Out of Focus: Got no attention during her time in the process whatsoever, largely down to the larger number of candidates this year (there was fourteen in Series 1 till 2 and from Series 3 to 9, there were sixteen. This year, there were twenty.)
  • Tempting Fate: In her resume she claimed to be the "girl who always nearly wins." As Lord Sugar immediately pointed out, that's really not the sort of thing you want to be saying in a competition like this one.
  • Understatement: She claimed that Anne Boleyn was executed by her husband Henry VIII because they "grew apart." Which is kind of putting it lightly, since she was executed for adultery and treason.

Ella Jade

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  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Repeatedly begged for a second chance, even after being fired. It didn't work.
  • The Determinator: She had to be told she was fired three times before she stopped pleading.
  • Never My Fault: Refused to believe that her horrible direction of the team's "Fat Daddy" advert had anything to do with her loss in Week 4.
  • One-Hit Wonder: Was the top salesperson on her team in Week 3, but crashed and burned as project manager the following week, leading to her being fired.invoked
  • Twelfth Place Takes It All: Was the last victim in the show's triple firing and while Mark has done well since the series ended, Ella Jade has joined him as the head of a multi million pound interior design business with clients such as the Saudi royal family and Jennifer Lopez.

Sarah

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  • Captain Oblivious: There's probably been no other candidate in the UK version who's so completely lacked any self-awareness of how well they've done.
  • Dumb Blonde: Far more an outright example than Jemma was. In particular, while project managing the first task she tried to split her team up at random (rather than asking who was experienced in sales), and then tried to sell some cleaning products worth maybe £20-30 to London Zoo for £200. Later on, in the boardroom where she was fired, she revealed that her expertise in dating sites (which she wanted to set up with the investment) was just having signed up for free trials at one or two sites, and that she otherwise didn't know anything about how to actually operate one.
  • Genre Blind: Tried to push the "sex sells" strategy on her team in Week 1, clearly not knowing that the women's team had nearly been disqualified for using that strategy in the first task of Season 2. It would double up as Wrong Genre Savvy, as Donald Trump actually promotes that strategy (within certain guidelines) on his version, had she ever actually watched it.
  • The Load: After somehow winning as project manager on the first task, she did absolutely nothing of any note on the two that followed, other than occasionally waste the time of sub-team leaders. In Week 4, she finally made an impact... by uploading an all-important video to YouTube with no description whatsoever.

Steven

"I have been helping! Had we gone to Goddard's which was five minutes walk from that T-Shirt shop, this wouldn't have happened!"
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  • Big "SHUT UP!": Lord Sugar gave him one in the first boardroom:
    Lord Sugar: "Steven, may I respectfully say to you "SHUT UP!""
  • The Friend Nobody Likes: Was almost brought back into the boardroom on the very first task, purely on the basis of how difficult he was to work with. Things didn't get much better from there.
  • No Indoor Voice
  • No Social Skills: He tended to talk over everyone at every opportunity, including Lord Sugar himself. Initially Sugar didn't much hold this against Steven, but his failure to improve along with blowing a pitch in Week 4 got him fired.
  • Logic Bomb: "I have an amazing idea for Lord Sugar that's going to make him a fortune and is going to change the world. I'm not arrogant, 'cause what I'm saying is all true." Okay....
  • The Scapegoat: Chiles tried to turn him into this in the first task, just because he tended to argue a bit. Lord Sugar didn't buy into it, and warned project manager Felipe not to bring him back.
    • In fact, Felipe, Daniel and Scott also tried to make him this.
  • Wall of Blather: The reason for his firing. Karren also felt that people ignored Steven because he took so long to get to the point he was going to make.

Nurun

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  • Artistic License – Physics: When designing a jacket with an integrated solar-powered battery charger, she told the designers to put the solar panels inside the jacket, so that they wouldn't be noticeable. The designers ignored her and stuck them on the outside anyway, much to her confusion.
  • Nice Girl: She had a nice enough personality, but really wasn't cut out for this show. Like Sarah, she fluked her way to a win when she was project manager, and got fired as soon as her team lost.

Lindsay

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  • Badass Decay: Was never a badass to begin with, but as Lord Sugar stated on You're Fired, all the energy she had earlier in the process seemed to evaporate quickly.
  • Bystander Syndrome: Alongside Sarah, Karren accused her of this in Week 2 after the girl's Instant-Win Condition owing to the boy's Epic Fail of a product.
  • Cant Keep Up: Self confessed on You're Fired where she admitted she tried to keep up with the rest of the candidate's but just didn't have the confidence that they (and many others before and after them) all possess.
  • Suicide by Cop: When her team lost in Week 3, Mark and Karren accused her of having not contributed much of anything throughout the season until that point. Much to the shock of everyone there, Lindsay immediately admitted that they were right, she had performed horribly throughout the show, and that she should be fired. Lord Sugar quickly granted her wish, before carrying on as usual.

Scott

Karren Brady: "Scott, if you spent less time covering your arse and more time answering questions, we might get some names for Lord Sugar!"
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  • Bystander Syndrome: A rare case of someone managing to get fired for doing this while being the project manager. After the team blew off his initial idea (which, to be fair, wasn't as impractical as the one they initially tried to go with) he refused to contribute anything more, even telling Robert to lead the sub-team that the two were on. Lord Sugar didn't take kindly to this at all.
    • He was further accused of this in the first task.
  • In-Series Nickname: He wanted it to be "The Wolf of Wall Street," but Lord Sugar thought that "The Poodle of Petticoat Lane" would be more appropriate.
  • Never My Fault: Lord Sugar's comment during his deliberations was that he passed the buck as if it was a grenade.

Robert

Nick Hewer: "You need to be a very brave man to actually ignore pretty clear instructions from Lord Sugar. But my word, Robert shirked responsibility within seconds!"
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  • Complexity Addiction: His downfall. Week 1 had him insist on making gourmet hot dogs, which wasted time and probably would have made less money than just making regular hot dogs. Week 2 had him refuse to take the role of project manager as he wanted to make luxury clothing, which resulted in his firing.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Insisted that just selling normal hot dogs wouldn't stand out in London, and that they needed to top them with expensive, organic ingredients and sell them in Shoreditch. Something that might have worked better had the resulting hot dogs not turned out to taste awful.
  • Schmuck Bait: In the Week 2 task briefing, Lord Sugar said that while he wasn't going to appoint specific team leaders, he thought Robert should do the job for the men. When Robert immediately blew the job off with a dismissive explanation that he only wanted to deal with extreme luxury goods that would be sold in the most exclusive stores, Sugar fired him right after the task result was announced.
  • Too Dumb to Live: It takes a very brave man to ignore instructions from Lord Sugar and sure enough, Robert was brave to shirk responsibility but was this trope in the eyes of Lord Sugar. Pretty much as soon as the men lost, Sugar fired him on the spot without even waiting to bring him back.

Chiles

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  • Celebrity Resemblance: Looks a bit like Patrick Stewart and in a ranking by The Telegraph of the candidates from this series, his future career was listed as being "A cheap Patrick Stewart lookalike."
  • Disappointed in You: Lord Sugar admitted he was disappointed to be firing Chiles, as he felt that he had a lot of potential since he set up a number of businesses on his own.
  • Never My Fault: Tried to scapegoat Steven for the week 1 task, even though Steven had correctly tried to point out Chile's biggest mistakes. Nick outright called him out on this.
  • Skewed Priorities: Chose to prioritize the selling of cheap stuff such as potatoes and cleaning supplies rather than t-shirts that had a combined RRP of approximately £500.

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