Yahoo News 'The Apprentice' angers viewers after candidate is fired for being 'emotional'
Last night’s episode of The Apprentice (17 October) saw Lord Sugar fire candidate Frank Brooks – but some viewers took issue with reason for his sacking.
After losing a doughnut-selling task and being one of three candidates to be brought back into the boardroom, Brooks was described by Lord Sugar as being “a bit emotional”. The business tycoon criticised him for not “keeping a level head” and not “leaving emotion out” of the task.
Some viewers saw the use of the word ’emotional’ as problematic, arguing that it implies men who are in touch with their feelings are at a disadvantage in the process.
Have they ever fired a woman solely for being “too emotional”? At a time where men are being encouraged to show their emotions, bit backwards to suggest the entire failure of the task was because Frank got flustered. Tom threw him under the bus & Sugar fell for it. #TheApprentice
— Laura (@cheesy_badgers) October 17, 2018
Why is everyone on #TheApprentice calling #Frank ‘emotional’? That’s a normal response when feeling under pressure. We’re facing a crisis in #mentalhealth in men who don’t deal with their emotions, which can lead to #suicide. @tombunday you showed as much emotion as a tree 🌲
— Addy Raja (@addyfilms) October 18, 2018
Disappointing that Frank got fired for being 'emotional'. Being able to express emotion in the workplace can be a powerful asset. #emotions #TheApprentice
— Kelly Hayward (@kelly_bron) October 17, 2018
For the task, the teams were shaken up and the gender divide was brought to and end. Their first surprisingly difficult challenge was to come up with team names.
After brief consideration was given to ‘Imperium’ and ‘Impetus’, the first team eventually settled on Camilla’s suggestion of ‘Typhoon’.
The other team went for the creative name ‘Collaborative’, which eventually came back to haunt them when the failed the challenge and ended up shouting at each other in the boardroom. “You’re about as collaborative as nitro and glycerine.”
Kayode Damali impressed Lord Sugar’s right-hand-man Claude Littner, putting his personal speaker skills to use as he helped team Typhoon to victory by selling the most amount of doughnuts.
But for Brooks, it seems losing his cool while frying 300 doughnuts was enough for Lord Sugar to send him home.
In an interview with The Independent, Brooks claimed that he felt he “made Lord Sugar uneasy”.
“I think perhaps Lord Sugar felt uneasy about me as a character, about being a little hot-headed at times,” he said. “It looked like I don’t work well under pressure but I certainly like to think I do. It was a pressurised environment. Making doughnuts is not a thing you do every day. I couldn’t have prepared myself for it.”
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