There was a shocking end to Wednesday's Apprentice as Lord Sugar fired three of his candidates after the losing team failed to impress in a YouTube video challenge.
Fired Apprentice candidate Steven Ugoalah has now revealed he was too proud to beg for another chance to stay on the show.
Viewers saw the 29-year-old social worker get the pointy finger treatment by Lord Sugar in a shock triple elimination, along with project manager Ella Jade Bitton and Sarah Dales.
Steven, from Canada, found himself in the boardroom in week four after Team Tenacity (previously the ‘girls team’) failed to create their own video channel to go live on YouTube, and was chosen by Ella Jade to face Sugar alongside Sarah. Despite defending his passion, Lord Sugar told him he was a 'lost cause'.
Steven argued his case, but wasn’t going to beg (BBC/PA)
“I would have loved to stay longer and persuade him to keep me. It was unfortunate but you can see, I didn’t say anything bad or do anything like that. I was gracious and I said thank you,” he said.
Steven, who is now a property consultant and is hoping to become a millionaire in four years’ time, hoped he would not have been eliminated so soon from the BBC show.
“I have so much more to give, but there were so many things I learned. I did put my piece forward, but he didn’t like what I was offering,” he said.
Going, going, gone! Lord Sugar decided none of the candidates were up to the job and got rid of all three (BBC/PA)
Steven admitted to feeling ignored by his team-mates, who included Pamela Uddin, Felipe Alviar-Baquero and Lauren Riley, and denied claims that he is 'negative and not a team player'.
“I felt members of the group ignored my ideas. I did have good ideas but, because it is a competition… I think after the first week with the T-shirts, people didn’t want to listen,” he said.
Ugoalah’s team-mate Sarah, a former PA and hypnotherapist, admitted she was 'shocked' to leave The Apprentice.
Lord Sugar wasn’t impressed with ‘timekeeper’ Sarah (BBC/PA)
“I did my best. I was prepared for it, but I was still shocked to leave,” she said.
The 32-year-old from London, who has now set up dating website Harley Introductions, was given her orders after being named ‘timekeeper’ for the task. Sugar told her: “There is no smoke without fire. Why they always make you the timekeeper is because people don’t have much confidence in you…”
She said: “I have learnt it is hard to work in huge groups and the importance of listening to each other and participating. The team didn’t like the way I managed, even though I had a strategy.”
PM is always a tough role, but it didn’t pan out for Ella Jade (BBC/PA)
Their team leader Bitton did not appear on BBC2′s You’re Fired with host Dara O Briain, following her father’s death.
A spokesman for the show said: “Due to a family bereavement, Ella Jade was unable to appear on You’re Fired. Her father passed away suddenly. His support for her on The Apprentice meant the world to her. Our thoughts are with Ella Jade and her family.”
