Max England has become the latest candidate to be fired by Lord Sugar on The Apprentice after the annual live TV shopping task.
As project manager, Max opted to take charge of the TV gallery control room with Dean Franklin, leaving Amber-Rose Badrudin and Chisola Chitambala to do the on-screen selling.
A combination of poor product selection - including a picnic blanket and expensive LED hand mittens - and Max's cautious approach with price dropping led to them selling 32 products for a total of £1,305.68.
The other team, headed up by Liam Snellin, snatched the victory with 37 products and sales of £1,529.63 - in the process giving teammate Jordan Dargan a record of seven out of nine wins, the best among all of the candidates.
In the boardroom, Lord Sugar's choice cam down to Max or Dean - and although he pointed out Dean's poor record of being in the bottom three for the last three tasks in a row, ultimately he lay the blame at Max's door.
"Max hasn't impressed me very much," he said. "Max made quite a lot of mistakes, picking the wrong things, picking things that he liked.
"Max, I'm going to hold you accountable and responsible for the failure of this task. It is regretful, but you're fired."
Speaking in the taxi afterwards, Max said: "I'm absolutely gutted to be leaving the process at this stage, but I'm glad that I put myself right out there and didn't sit on the fence. So overall, I can hold my head up high."
The Apprentice continues next Thursday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer with a task that requires the candidates to launch an environmentally-conscious sustainable fashion brand.
Neil Wilkes
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