The fourth series of British reality television programme The Apprentice was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, from 26 March to 11 June 2008. Over 20,000 applications were submitted,"The Apprentice – Let the boardroom battle commence!", BBC Press Office, 18 March 2008 with the fourth series being the only one to date to feature more than two finalists moving forward beyond the Interviews stage. Alongside the standard twelve episodes, four specials were aired that year – "The Worst Decisions Ever" on 3 April; "Motor Mouths" on 18 April; "The Final Five" on 2 June; and "Why I Fired Them" on 8 June.
Sixteen candidates took part in the fourth series, with Lee McQueen eventually winning. Excluding the specials, the series averaged around 7.29 million viewers during its broadcast.
Series overview Applications opened in late spring 2007, towards the end of the third series' broadcast. The number of applications topped 20,000, leading to auditions and interviews being conducted regionally across London, Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol during the first two weeks of July. Once the sixteen candidates for the series were finalised, filming took place between September and October 2007. Although no major changes were made to the programme's format, the fourth series saw the introduction of another of Alan Sugar's close business associates, Karren Brady, as a fourth member of the interviewing panel, prior to her future role as Sugar's aide.
For the first task, the men named their team Renaissance, while the women named their team Alpha. Series winner, Lee McQueen, went on to initially work for Sugar's company AMSHOLD, and then for AMSCREEN as development director, under the employment of Sugar's son, Simon Sugar. He would eventually leave in 2010 to establish his own recruitment agency.
Candidates Candidate Background Age Result Lee McQueen Recruitment Sales Manager 30 Winner Claire Young Senior Retail Buyer 29 Runner-up Helene Speight Global Pricing Leader 32 Fired in the Final Alex Wotherspoon Regional Sales Manager 24 Lucinda Ledgerwood Risk Manager 31 Fired after Interviews stage Michael Sophocles Telesales Executive 24 Fired after tenth task Raef Bjayou Entrepreneur 27 Fired after ninth task Sara Dhada International Car Trader 25 Fired after eighth task Jennifer Maguire Marketing Consultant 27 Fired after seventh task Jenny Celerier Sales Manager 36 Kevin Shaw Bank Manager 24 Fired after sixth task Lindi Mngaza Business Liaison Manager 22 Fired after fifth task Simon Smith Senior Satellite Television Engineer35 Fired after fourth task Ian Stringer Software Sales Manager 26 Fired after third task Shazia Wahab Mosaic Artist and Company Director 35 Fired after second task Nicholas de Lacy-Brown Trainee Barrister, Artist and Property Developer 24 Fired after first task
Performance chart Candidate Task Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Lee LOSS IN LOSS IN LOSS IN WIN IN IN WIN IN HIRED Claire WIN LOSS IN BR WIN BR BR IN BR BR IN RUNNER-UP Helene IN LOSS IN WIN LOSS IN IN LOSE LOSS BR IN FIRED Alex LOSE IN LOSS BR IN LOSS LOSS LOSS WIN IN IN FIRED Lucinda IN BR IN IN LOSE IN IN WIN IN IN FIRED Michael LOSS IN LOSS LOSS IN WIN BR BR BR FIRED Raef BR WIN LOSS IN LOSS IN IN IN FIRED Sara IN LOSS WIN LOSS IN BR IN FIRED Jennifer IN LOSS IN IN BR IN FIRED Jenny IN LOSE IN LOSS IN LOSS FIRED Kevin LOSS IN BR IN IN FIRED Lindi IN LOSS IN IN FIRED Simon LOSS IN BR FIRED Ian LOSS IN FIRED Shazia IN FIRED Nicholas FIRED
Key: The candidate won this series of The Apprentice. The candidate was the runner-up. The candidate won as project manager on his/her team, for this task. The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team, for this task. The candidate was on the winning team for this task / they passed the Interviews stage. The candidate was on the losing team for this task. The candidate was brought to the final boardroom for this task. The candidate was fired in this task. The candidate lost as project manager for this task and was fired.
Episodes
Ratings Official episode viewing figures are from BARB.
Episodeno. Airdate Viewers(millions) BBC Oneweekly ranking 1 26 March 2008 6.73 8 2 2 April 2008 6.73 9 3 9 April 2008 7.32 6 4 16 April 2008 7.43 5 5 23 April 2008 7.85 5 6 30 April 2008 7.28 5 7 7 May 2008 7.17 5 8 14 May 2008 7.11 6 9 21 May 2008 5.73 9 10 28 May 2008 6.84 6 11 4 June 2008 7.94 4 12 11 June 2008 9.29 1
Specials
Episode Airdate Viewers(millions) BBC Two/Oneweekly ranking The Worst Decisions Ever 3 April 2008 2.07 15 Motor Mouths 18 April 2008 1.73 25 The Final Five 2 June 2008 Why I Fired Them 8 June 2008
References
External links