Apprentice hopeful Joy Stefanicki has denied that she was fired because she took a back seat. The unemployed marketing and PR director became the second candidate to be axed by Lord Alan Sugar last night.
She said she was fired because she didn't shout loudly enough. She said: "It's come across that I didn't particularly participate. The truth is that I didn't participate in the madness.
"I did participate but it probably didn't make such good television. I wasn't prepared to do it in a way that discredited myself."
She added: "I think that when you go on a show like this you have to be aware of what you are doing. I would have been naive if I didn't realise it was entertainment and business."
She said: "I was disappointed that the person who shouted the most loudly wins. That did have something to do with entertainment as well as business."
Stefanicki was fired after her team - the girls led by Laura Moore - failed to make a single sale of their product, a book stand for the beach.
Lord Sugar told Stefanicki: "There are people that come into this process who think they can just step back, don't say anything and don't do anything. They think if they don't put their head on the chopping block they'll escape. They do not escape."
He told her: "I haven't seen anything from you and neither have my two colleagues. Joy - you're fired!"
She said: "I was surprised. I didn't expect to be as intimidated by him as I was. I think part of that is that he has the celebrity angle now and because he is Lord Sugar."
