The Bitch Is Back

So, the US Apprentice is back on our screens. And although it's not as good as the UK one, (there's no-one remotely like Ruth Badger for starters) there's still plenty of comic mileage to be had in the various Donald Trump wigs, staged business deals and unashamed self-promotion that runs through the show. It also has a genuinely great character in Carolyn, Trump's right-hand woman, who seems to do nothing but bitch, glare icily and agree with everything Trump says ad nauseam. Apparently, she was told "You're Fired" herself last week. I'm sure the show will suffer as a result.

The contestants, however, are truly abhorrent. Obnoxious, big headed, no sense of self-awareness, they're the kind of characters you really didn't think existed outside films like Wall Street. I suppose working with Trump is the perfect come-uppance for them really. They're also totally and utterly incompetent.

Just in the first two episodes, we've had someone have a nervous breakdown over the fact she had to work in a motel reception for just two days, someone spend nearly half their budget on replacing toilets in a restoration task, and a marketing executive whose brilliant idea to attract people to try a new Burger King burger was to stand outside the restaurant with some kind of cardboard box with a hole in the side, for people to try and chuck a ping-pong ball into.

They make people like the UK's Syed, Paul "bullshitter" Tulip and the woman, whose name I can't remember, who gave the pitch for kitten calendars, the most cringeworthy bit of TV I've seen all year, look like business geniuses. It's all very entertaining. Just wish it wasn't on at the ungodly time of 11.20pm.