Eagle-eyed The Apprentice fans call out easy-to-miss blunder outside famous BBC boardroom

EAGLE-EYED fans of The Apprentice have called out a funny and easy-to-miss recurring blunder they’ve spotted outside the famous BBC boardroom. 

Each week, viewers have been given a glimpse at Lord Sugar’s receptionist’s computer screen, and every week, they’ve seen her working on the same thing. 

The reality programme follows Lord Sugar and a new crop of contestants and they undertake a series of business-related tasks in the hope of becoming the winner. The successful candidate walks away with a £250k investment from the business tycoon. 

Each week, Lord Sugar, 76, picks the teams and sets them challenges. After working on their projects, the two teams nervously wait outside the boardroom to meet Lord Sugar. He likes to discuss the progress of their projects with both teams together, before he hones in on the three leaders. 

Before each meeting, the receptionist tells the candidates, “you can go through to the boardroom now.” And each time she does, the camera takes a glimpse at her computer screen. 

During Week 1 she was working on a regular spreadsheet, but in Week 2, it was a new spreadsheet complete with colourful graphs and a pie chart. 

Some fans have been keeping a close eye on the computer screen, and one noticed that it hadn’t changed between Weeks 2 and 5 as the receptionist was still working on the same spreadsheet. 

Pointing out the funny blunder on X, formerly Twitter, last week one BBC fan said: “The receptionist on The Apprentice is such a perfectionist – she’s still working on the exact same chart from last week!”

When it was more of the same this week, they added: “Bad news for fans of productivity! Good news for eagle-eyed spreadsheet fans. The receptionist on The Apprentice is – for the fourth week running – still working on the same Excel worksheet.”

Commenting on the blunder, one fan joked: “Well, she does have to manage the candidates in reception after all, no easy task!”

Another viewer said they think it’s all an act. “I’m starting to think one step further… that this receptionist is, in fact, not a receptionist at all”

But one viewer believes it’s entirely plausible. “I’ve been working on the same spreadsheet at work for 4 weeks now, I get it,” they said.

However, another fan suggested that the screen is actually blank, and the receptionist isn’t working on a spreadsheet at all. “It’s a chart of the contestants finishing positions added in post,” they posited.

Whatever the case, many fans of The Apprentice are waiting eagerly to see what will appear on the screen next week.

What happened on The Apprentice this week?

This week, Lord Sugar challenged the candidates to create a new Formula E team. 

Team Nexus and Team Supream competed against each other to create the best brand and secure sponsorship for the team. 

In the end, Nexus came out ahead, with Supream being led down by their pitch and branding. 

Virdi was in charge of branding, which was not executed well, but it was Onyeka who found herself on the chopping block. 

Afterward, Onyeka admitted she was “surprised” to be the team member that was fired by Lord Sugar. 

“To have the opportunity to be on that platform is amazing. It was quite surprising to get that goodbye from Lord Sugar – to have him acknowledge my intelligence on national television is definitely a plus,” Onyeka said. 

But fans were fuming at Lord Sugar’s decision to let Onyeka go, saying it’s Virdi who deserved to be fired. 

“Wrong decision on The Apprentice this week. Yes, Onyeka stumbled, but not one other person was shown to explain the ethos well and Virdi seems to have more lives than a cat,” one viewer raged. 

“I’ve actually had enough. Virdi is such an idiot. This guy can’t do anything right, and he has the easiest jobs to do every week, yet he still f***s it up, fire him man,” a second viewer fumed.

Another said they plan to “boycott The Apprentice over that firing.”

The Apprentice continues on Thursday at 9pm on BBC One.