The latest series of The Apprentice kicked off on TV3 last night and 32-year-old wannabe Cahal Heapes became the first candidate to be fired by Bill Cullen
Heapes lost his place on the show after a calamitous performance as project manager for the girls, including his nemesis Tara Lee.
The two groups were trying to sell hotel vouchers for the Carlton Hotel in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and Dundrum Town Centre.
Frustrated in his attempts to sell and with pressure mounting, Heapes sealed his fate when he dropped a cup on the foot of a passer-by.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Heapes says he took on the project manager’s role reluctantly and feels he was set up by the contestants.
"I'm convinced that the decision had been made up by one or two people ahead of the show that I should be project manager on the first task," he insists, "It had been mentioned in the hotel about two days beforehand they said it has to be a sales guy to lead the first task. They said it more or less has to be you."
And as for the boardroom performance, he says Cullen was orchestrating drama. "It became clear pretty quickly in the boardroom that the show is not a business programme, it's a TV programme," he says.
"Bill would ask three questions three times until he got the answer he or the cameras wanted and he was being deliberately provocative in the way he asked the questions."
Cahal has returned to his job in perfume distribution - which he admits he never fully left. "I said in the closing sequence that I had quit my job, but that was my debut acting performance. I had an arrangement to go back to work afterwards."
