You're Barney Bracked!

Would I love to be a contestant on ‘The Apprentice’? Yes! Would I really take a chance and possibly destroy my career all for a few weeks on a moderately successful TV show? No!

Let’s face it. We live in a very small country. Producing a show like ‘The Apprentice’ is going to be a tough job when you’ve only got a talent pool of 4 million (including kids and OAP’s). What is as worrying is that applicants were running the risk of hitting the self destruct button on their careers if things went bad for them on the TV show. The UK version is different in that they have a myriad of media outlets coupled with a very diverse range of industries to subsume failed candidates. We in Ireland don’t have that and my worry for Avril, Ronan, Orla and the others eliminated thus far is that they will struggle in the long term to establish credibility having been associated with something that is nothing more than a 60 minute game show.

I will admit that there will be the initial whiff of celebrity from the candidates, but long term it may do more harm than good for all but the winner and one or two others. That’s a hell of a risk to take on a programme beamed to a small island with a population no bigger than Manchester.

On another Apprentice related note – have these people every heard of the concept of ‘self awareness’. To date I’ve seen people go in to the boardroom and tell Bill Cullen that they worked their hind legs off on a task when the cameras have shown something completely different. Surely it would be better to put your hands up and say that you were sorry and that the task didn’t really suit you and that you would try harder next time. Obviously not!

Finally, I love the way they all refer to Bill Cullen as ‘Bill’, as in ‘thanks Bill, sorry Bill etc etc’. It reminds me of teenagers who are finally old enough to call their friends father by his first name. It’s kind of thrill to do so and you keep on waiting to be corrected. Strange, the things that get me...