Social Media Reveals Public Favourite for BBC’s The Apprentice

Tonight Lord Sugar will utter the words every contestant who enters The Apprentice wishes to hear: “you’re hired!”

For the past 12 weeks, candidates have been competing to become Lord Sugar’s business partner, with many failing to live up to expectations.

From creating a dating site to sourcing products in Dubai, the candidates have been pushed to their limits till only two were left.

The first all-female final will see either bakery enthusiast Luisa Zissman or NHS doctor Leah Totton win the £250,000 investment after an inevitable boardroom showdown.

Ultimately, the final decision is down to Alan, but who does the public want to win?

Boardroom Buzz

As expected, Twitter was the most popular online platform for conversation on The Apprentice.

Last week’s interview episode generated the biggest reaction from viewers, with thousands of online mentions of the show, as people took to Twitter to express their opinions when the final two were revealed.

Weekly peaks were seen each Wednesday when the show was aired across all sites.

The volume of discussion regarding the finalists has remained fairly level throughout the series with both women experiencing peaks in conversation depending on their actions in the weekly episodes.

Initially, Luisa received the most reaction from the public, as in the first 2 weeks of the series she had 59% of Apprentice chatter in comparison to the other finalist, Leah, who had 41%.

This could be down to her outspoken attitude which regularly saw Lusia in heated discussion during tasks and in the boardroom.

Looking over the series as a whole, Luisa narrowly comes out on top with 53%, as Leah scopes 47% of online conversation, showing that there is little between the two business women heading into the final round.

However, the volume of discussion surrounding the finalist does not necessarily show who is the people’s favourite to win.To figure this out we took the buzz from each contestant and looked at their association with the notion of winning.

The People’s Favourite

When it comes down to who will win The Apprentice, the public have already decided who they want to see walk out the boardroom victorious.

It seems that baking beats botox (the competing business ideas) in the battle of the business plans, with Luisa receiving the backing of the viewers.

68% want to see Lusia win, and only 32% are backing Doctor Leah.

The plan presented by Leah to Lord Sugar caused the businessman to question the morality of cosmetic surgery clinics and creating a sizable profit from other people’s insecurities.

Lord Sugar who is a prolific Tweeter took to the site during last week’s show to air his thoughts about Leah’s business, calling it ‘risky’.

This is echoed by other Twitter users who do not condone plastic surgery and were shocked to see Leah tell her interviewer that he needed both botox and fillers.

What’s interesting in listening to social media conversation about TV shows is that it can often have an impact upon the show itself. We have previously correctly predicted the likes of the X Factor and Britain’s got talent, as well as more serious predictions regarding the American and London Mayoral elections.

Though The Apprentice is not decided by a public vote, analysing this data can still prove insightful. Earlier this year we managed to predict 15/18 of the Oscar winners, beating other analysts and hypothesisers in the process.

So, it is Luisa who the public want Lord Sugar to go into partnership with tonight, but whether the tweeting public get to have it their way remains up to Sir Alan himself. The final is aired tonight, so check back tomorrow to see if we have predicted it right!