Lord Alan Sugar thinks reality TV shows prey on the "dead meat" of ‘The Apprentice’.
The multimillionaire businessman isn’t surprised when he sees the losers of the show – such as last year’s rejects Jessica Cunningham and Karthik Nagesan – sign up to the likes of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ after their 10 weeks on television screens because their moment in the limelight is simply a "flurry" that will pass.
Speaking at the screening of the new series of ‘The Apprentice’ and Q&A, held at London’s Soho Hotel, Lord Sugar said: "It does happen and I think the fact of the matter is they have a little flurry afterwards and they just kind of fizzle out.
"The thing is when you appear on a television programme and you’re an ordinary member of the public – as they are – and then you see yourself on the television for up to 11 weeks and you’re walking around the supermarket and people start recognising you and their parents start recognising you and now you become a bit of a centre of attraction, there’s kind of withdrawal symptoms as when the programme stops, it’s like they do like all that, being recognised and stuff.
"If they’re a character, the producers of other programmes will pick them up and choose them – like a bit of dead meat – they just use them, play with them and chuck them out."
But Lord Sugar’s aide Baroness Karren Brady doesn’t think the contestants sign up to ‘The Apprentice’ in order to get on television as they all want a thriving business.
She explained: "When they come on this show, they all want to win. They don’t come in to be on a reality TV show – they want what all those ex-winners have got: a thriving business, a future, most of them, this programme has changed their lives and that’s what they want. But when they don’t win that, they have to do something else."
Although he’s aware what former contestants sign up to other reality TV shows afterwards, the 70-year-old business magnate doesn’t watch them on screen.
He quipped: "Claude [Littner, his other aide] does though."
‘The Apprentice’ will return to screens on October 4 at 9pm on the BBC.
Lord Alan Sugar: Celebrity Big Brother prey on ‘dead meat’
