First paragraph to put the episode into context
Junior Apprentice is a British reality TV show in which ten candidates compete in a series of business related challenges set by Lord Alan Sugar in the hopes of winning a cash prize of £25, 000. The young entrepreneurs are all aged from 16 to 17 and have some experience of running a business or working within one. In this transcript from episode 1, the candidates are split into two teams – Instinct, the boys group and Revolution, the girls group. Both teams are given the task of selling £500 worth of cheese on a market of their choice. The ending result of this task was a profit from Revolution but a loss from Instinct which meant that three of the boys were brought into the boardroom to face Lord Sugar. Rhys, Tim and Jordan (project manager) attempt to defend themselves in order to give them a better chance of continuing in the competition.
When the candidates enter the boardroom, Lord Sugar addresses the boys as ‘gentlemen’ which shows he is treating them as equals. As soon as Lord Sugar ends with the question ‘What went wrong?’ Adam immediately suggests that others are to blame for the location. In doing this he is planting the blame onto another member of the team to distract attention from anything he has done wrong during the task. Arjun and Rhys also try to place blame anywhere but on themselves.
Following on from the three points that went wrong, Arjun and Jordan quickly attack Rhys by mentioning his name when they talk about the negatives of the task.
Apart from the small attack at the beginning, Arjun remains quiet and acts in a very professional manner to stop any attention being drawn to him. Rhys decides to defend himself from the attacks by saying ‘I don’t feel that I pushed it too much’ to point out to Lord Sugar that he had simply suggested the location, not chosen the location. This defensiveness leads to an argument between Jordan and Rhys. They then