Fired The Apprentice stars blast show bosses for ‘blindsiding’ them with ‘brutal’ interviews as they miss out on place in BBC final

The fired The Apprentice stars have blasted the BBC show for ‘blindsiding’ them with their ‘brutal’ interviews after missing out on a place in the final on Thursday. 

This week’s episode saw the remaining five entrepreneurs pull out all the stops to try and impress Mike Soutar, Claudine Collins, Linda Plant and Claude Littner with their business plans. 

But it was Amber-Rose Badrudin, Chisola Chitambala and Jordan Dargan who were sent home by Lord Alan Sugar after completing interviews with them.

So this means that Anisa Khan and Dean Franklin will battle it out for his £250,000 investment next week. 

Over the past 18 years, since the show has been on our screens, it has been made very clear that the interview process is extremely difficult and the hardest part of the competition. 

And in an exclusive chat with MailOnline, the trio revealed exactly how hard it was, with Amber-Rose saying: ‘I think I can speak for all of the all of the others when I say, I think we went in pretty confident to be honest.

‘We were all kind of like we’re gonna be fine. 

‘Like, you know, it’s just the interviews that we’re going to smash it.

‘And I think as soon as they started, we were all like “Okay, this is a lot more challenging than we we anticipated…”

‘I think after we all did our first initial interview, we understood how difficult it would be, and how they really do go through your business plan with a fine tooth comb.

‘They bring up stuff that you can’t even prepare, because in your head you’re probably preparing, you’re thinking of potential answers, potential questions, but when you go in, you’re sometimes kind of blindsided, especially with that first interview. 

‘Definitely, definitely challenging, I think even more so than what comes across on TV, if I’m honest.’

Chisola added: ‘I went in there knowing that these are gonna be tough. 

‘Like from day one, I was saying this is gonna be really hard. But I think what I would say they definitely are more challenging than what you see on TV…

‘Because as well on TV, you only see a snippet, and they are really grilling us for 30 minutes, and you see maybe a couple of minutes or maybe five minutes…

‘And they’ve been going at us for a very long time. 

‘So they’re tough. They’re tough.’ 

And Jordan joked: ‘I was like “It’ll be fine guys. They’ll be great.”

‘And then I came down and I was like “Yeah it was fine”…

‘And then you saw it on TV how it actually went.’

They also lifted the lid on why they think that Lord Sugar decided that they were not the business partner for him. 

Convenience store owner Amber-Rose wanted his expertise to open up her own Bubble Tea shops – and she thinks that they didn’t understand the market.

She told us: ‘I have what it takes to be the final so that that’s not kind of wavered, despite the fact that I’ve been fired. 

‘I think for me, it was quite crystal clear, to be honest with you, from you know how the interviews went, that the interviewers didn’t really buy into my business. 

‘I don’t think that they completely kind of grasped what bubble tea was. I think that there was just a little bit of a gap there.

‘And I think when it comes to business, it’s really important that everybody’s on board. 

‘I wouldn’t have wanted to be in a position where Lord sugar didn’t know what bubble tea was, didn’t like it, and then was like, “Oh, I’ll give it a go”. 

‘I would have much rather him really, really, really feel like he was investing in something he truly believed in.’ 

Chisola’s business plan is a match making app for entrepreneurs and investors to connect to secure investment. 

The owner of a virtual assistant company believes that she didn’t get the partnership with Lord Sugar because of her idea. 

She explained: ‘I came in with a concept, and it wasn’t my it’s not my business. It’s not what I’m running currently.

‘And when I applied for the show, I didn’t tell anyone, didn’t tell my business partner, I didn’t tell anyone at all. 

‘And so I couldn’t apply with my business knowing that hadn’t told my business partner. 

‘So, you know, very quickly, I came up with a concept of something that I thought was a problem. 

‘And I think, you know, going in in front of the interviewers, I didn’t have any experience in apps. 

‘I didn’t have any experience in what it was I was trying to go into. So I actually think it was very fair. 

‘And again, you know, Lord sugar spoke about, spoke about, you know, how intelligent I am, etc. So again, it wasn’t anything about me as a person. It was more my idea.’ 

And animation entrepreneur Jordan thinks it’s because Lord Sugar wants a bit of an easier life. 

Jordan said: ‘I think as the show goes on, and obviously Lord Sugar is getting a bit older, he wants safer bets. He wants things that are already function. 

‘He wants machines that are already gone, instead of having to put in that work that, you know, this person’s right down here. Let’s bring them up. 

‘And ultimately, I think both Anisa and Dean have have flourishing businesses that are doing very well.

‘I think where the two girls have had at the time, concepts my business was pretty much me, and he’s got two amazing entrepreneurs, I’m sure the both of them will do phenomenal in the final.’