Donal O’Donoghue talks to Bill Cullen ahead of the new season of the reality TV show, The Apprentice
“Are these the best young business brains in the country?” says Bill Cullen. “Well they are the best of the lot that applied and sent in their CVs.”
The Apprentice, the bloodiest reality TV show in the land, returns this Monday to TV3 for a fourth season. Bill Cullen, aided and abetted by his firing squad (Jackie Lavin and Brian Purcell), will separate the spoofers from the doers over the twelve weeks. “You’re fired!” will once again become the catchword of water coolers every Tuesday morning. And it was all launched this afternoon in Dublin city centre with a special screening of episode one. We are sworn to secrecy on that – I don’t want Bill Cullen on my tail! – but the three judges did let slip a few details.
“There’s a twist this year,” says the kingmaker Cullen. And the twist is this: the winner becomes Cullen’s business partner (with a 50 per cent interest). They also get to pocket €100,000 along with a start-up package worth €100,000. Otherwise the story is the same: sixteen ambitious business people are set a number of tasks – beginning with making a sandwich! - in the hope of making it to the top of the tree in 12 TV weeks. Along the way there’s cross-dressing, sky-diving and lots of finger-pointing. “It’s all about passion,” says Cullen, looking like he might just explode at any moment because he has so much passion.
Again sixteen contenders revel in bitching, back-stabbing and blubbering. There are smart cookies, double-crossers and a few tulips. “Oh yes, there are a few tulips again this time, the pressure is intense and we have a walk-out,” says Cullen’s right-hand man, Brian Purcell. “The tasks are edgier, more complicated and ultimately more difficult.” It is also a show featuring the youngest-ever apprentice and the heat is on from the opening episode. “They are trying to second-guess Bill this year and that just freaks him out,” says Purcell. “They reckon they know what we’re thinking based on shows they have seen and so they try to tick the boxes to keep Jackie and myself happy.”
But Bill is far from happy. He shakes his head and waves his hands. It seems some of the wannabe business moguls believed they had worked out how to win. “Not only have these guys seen the previous shows but they have recorded them and gone over them in detail,” he says, as if they could. “They have seen three series so they know what to say when I ask: ‘tell me why I shouldn’t bleeding fire you?’ So they give me all the stuff about passion and being a warrior and being the best and all that. So they try and get me on the back foot so I have to say, ‘Come here you! There’s what you did, so why shouldn’t I call you a gobshite for what you have done. But it is much harder and they are fighting for something totally different. It’s not just a job. It’s their future, their dreams.”
But some are never going to make those dreams because they went about it all the wrong way. At least that’s the word according to BC. “They were out to win individually rather than getting the team over the line,” he says, shaking his head sadly. “Maybe they lost out by trying to get themselves in.”
Already one of the contestants has caught his eye: “a fascinating character” says tight-lipped Bill.
Stay tuned: it’s going to be a very bumpy twelve weeks.
