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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Jessica Sansome

BBC The Apprentice viewers say they've been 'robbed' after late-stage double firing

Lord Alan Sugar whittled down his six remaining candidates in another dramatic episode of The Apprentice on Thursday night - ahead of the much-anticipated interview stages.

The 16th series of the BBC reality show started back in January and after starting with 16 candidates, the businessman is now left with just four potential partners after a late-stage double firing.

During the latest episode, the candidates were once again summoned early and were whisked off to the child-sized city of KidZania in West London where they were tasked with creating a new baby food.

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It involved the two teams coming up with their healthy, new dish before making it themselves, and coming up with the branding before pitching it to two major retailers - Ocado and The Food Warehouse.

Aaron Willis led his team and was sent to the kitchen where he came up with 'Moroccan Medley' dish that was later panned by the consumers and the retailers due to its stodgy texture.

Meanwhile, Harpreet Kaur took on the role of project manager and developed a Salmon and Spinach coconut curry which went down well with its tasters. However, the branding caused them major problems as the logo made their brand name appear to say 'First Time Dies' instead of 'First Time Foodies'.

Aaron, Kathryn and Brittany in the boardroom (BBC/Naked)

In the end, though, both teams ended on a level playing field as the unimpressed retailers placed no orders for either product leaving Lord Sugar with an unusual decision and having to bring back all six candidates to the boardroom.

But there wasn't much chance for Aaron to plead his case as he took full responsibility for the product leading to Lord Sugar firing him almost instantly.

And breaking with Apprentice tradition, Lord Sugar felt he had been forced into axing another candidate despite the show usually seeing five people make it through to the interview stages where their business plans and CV's are thoroughly scrutinized.

So as well as Aaron, Akeem Bundu-Kamara was also given the boot after Lord Sugar branded both teams products 'c**p'. This leaves the businessman with an all-female line-up.

But viewers were soon flocking to Twitter to have their say over the decision to fire Akeem and Aaron.

@icouldberuna tweeted: "AARON WAS ROBBED HE GOT FIRED FOR NOT KNOWING HOW TO MAKE BABY FOOD, RIDICULOUS, lord sugar E X P L A I N."

Akeem, Steff and Harpreet (BBC/Naked)

"I just don’t like this. Aaron was robbed. Kathryn shouldn’t be there. #TheApprentice," @melissakimduah said.

@AdamSamue1 commented: "We've been robbed of Akeem in the interviews ffs #TheApprentice."

"We’ve been robbed of akeem at interviews #theapprentice," @graceexcx agreed.

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