The Celebrity Apprentice has sparked a fix row online after one of its stars was accused of having an ‘unfair advantage’ over his competitors.
Airing on Monday and Tuesday night this week, the special saw a group of celebs flown to Lapland by Lord Sugar to create and market their own special Christmas cookie.
They were split into two teams and after coming up with their own respective concepts for the biscuits, they had to create an advert to sell them.
With all proceeds going to Children In Need, the ultimate winner was decided on based on real-world sales of the treats in the likes of ASDA and Tesco.
However, many viewers raised their eyebrows with professional musician and JLS star JB Gill, 39, suggested that his team create a jingle to sell their bubblegum gingerbread biscuit, Gary the Penguin.
Taking to Reddit to discuss the show, a fan blasted: ‘It’s kind of cheating having JB on your team for this.’
The Celebrity Apprentice has sparked a fix row online after one of its stars was accused of having an ‘unfair advantage’ over his competitors
Many viewers raised their eyebrows with professional musician and JLS star JB Gill, 39, suggested that his team create a jingle to sell their bubblegum gingerbread biscuit
Taking to Reddit to discuss the show, a fan blasted: ‘It’s kind of cheating having JB on your team for this’
Another viewer claimed that the team – or at the very least JB – should have been instantly disqualified after he called his musician friend Tom Grennan for a second opinion
In response to this, another viewer claimed that the team – or at the very least JB – should have been instantly disqualified after he called his musician friend Tom Grennan for a second opinion.
Another viewer: ‘Calling Tom Grennan should be an instant disqualification.’
A third viewer admitted of the task: ‘surely jb should be reasonably good at this [sic].’
JB proved his musical know-how in the task too and quickly took the lead over his teammates, which included businessman Tom Skinner, 34, and comedian Shazia Mirza, 50.
News of the apparent fix comes after some viewers said they were ‘gutted’ by the result of the show.
Team leader Rob Rinder was fired from Celebrity Apprentice on Tuesday night – despite calling on his hoard of showbiz pals to flog his Christmas biscuit.
And the TV presenter, 47, went to extra lengths to secure the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Robbie Williams to promote Jolly McTrouble – a Santa-shaped biscuit consisting of butter toffee, vanilla and Christmas pudding flavoured icing.
Tasked with being project manager, Rob managed to draw in 200,000 units himself with his hard sales approach.
Rob Rinder was fired from Celebrity Apprentice on Tuesday night – despite calling on his hoard of showbiz pals to flog his Christmas biscuit
The TV presenter, 47, went to extra lengths to secure the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman and Robbie Williams to promote Jolly McTrouble
During his pitch, Rob reeled off numerous clips of Benedict, Piers Morgan and Olivia all saying the catchline – and investors looked impressed.
Lord Sugar’s business advisor Karren Brady revealed all seven retailers made orders as well as others Rob pulled in, which brought their order total to 355,500 units.
But Mike Soutar announced Gary The Penguin managed to secure the win after gaining orders from all seven retailers plus an additional investor, which brought their total to 452,000.
Karren told Lord Sugar the failure of the Jolly McTrouble team was because they had no real plan.
The business mogul said: ‘The thing is that the TV advert is good, the actual product is ok. You had all the elements of success. But you didn’t succeed.’
Trying to fight for his place in the boardroom, Rob said: ‘Jolly McTrouble is going to be on the shelf. I have to say, it’s a beautiful product. As people will discover, it’ll outsell the other one.’
Mike Soutar announced Gary The Penguin managed to secure the win after gaining orders from all seven retailers plus an additional investor, bringing their total to 452,000
Viewers wrote on X: ‘Gutted Lord Sugar sacked Rob #CelebrityApprentice’; ‘Jake was given praise for the ad, kadeena single handedly did the biscuits…Rob you are fired’
AJ didn’t hold back as she jokingly said teammate Jake was as useless as a ‘pen with no ink’ and the failure of the task was down to Rob.
Rob brought Kadeena and Jack back for the firing round, but it was ultimately the barrister who was sent packing.
Lord Sugar said: ‘You admit yourself you gave the team no clear direction and so despite the fact that you did a tremendous job in selling over 300,000 units and I do acknowledge that. So it is with regret, you’re fired.’
Viewers wrote on X: ‘Gutted Lord Sugar sacked Rob #CelebrityApprentice’
‘Jake was given praise for the ad, kadeena single handedly did the biscuits…Rob you are fired’;
‘Not gonna lie, I was enjoying this mini series of #celebrityapprentice #TheApprentice – I wish it were longer’.
However, Angela Scanlon, 42, revealed in an interview with the Metro that prior experience isn’t necessarily always an advantage on The Apprentice.
She hit out at her Celebrity Apprentice teammate Thomas Skinner, who initially rose to fame on the show, and claimed that his performance on the show was ‘sub-standard’.
However, Angela Scanlon, 42, revealed in an interview with the Metro that prior experience isn’t necessarily always an advantage on The Apprentice
She hit out at her Celebrity Apprentice teammate Thomas Skinner, who initially rose to fame on the show, and claimed that his performance on the show was ‘sub-standard’
The Celebrity Apprentice came to an end last night but it is available to stream on BBC iPlayer
TV presenter Angela, 42, said that her team was initially delighted to have Thomas as a member.
She said: ‘We were plucky enough about that. We referred to him as our golden goose from the get-go.’
However, his ‘great’ performance took a turn when he was tasked with directing the TV advert for the biscuits. She brutally admitted: ‘I will say, it was sub-standard.’
Angela’s team – which was led by JLS star JB Gill – also included Matt Morsia, and Sarah Hadland and they came up with an unusual concept for their biscuit after Lord Sugar encouraged the celebrities to think outside the box.
Gary the Penguin, as the team’s biscuit was named, is made from a bizarre combination of bubblegum, lemon and black pepper – all wrapped up into a very unusual gingerbread biscuit.
She admitted: ‘We were encouraged to push the boat out and create something unusual. I think we stuck to the brief.’
Celebrity barrister Rob Rinder’s team, who ultimately lost, featuring AJ Odudu, Charlie Hedges, Eddie Kadi, Jake Wood, Kadeena Cox and Rob Rinder, meanwhile, created Jolly McTrouble, the aforementioned gingerbread biscuit with a vanilla and Christmas pudding flavoured festive icing.
The Celebrity Apprentice is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.co.uk ’
