Nick Hewer claims Apprentice bosses back blonde women

Former Apprentice adviser Nick Hewer has shockingly claimed that TV bosses previously tried to keep a female candidate on the show because she was blonde.

The 72-year-old TV presenter was Lord Alan Sugar’s right hand man for 10 years and let slip in a recent interview that producers once wanted a candidate with golden locks (not Selina Waterman-Smith pictured above, who competed on the series after Nick left) to be kept in the process.

Nick did not say who the ‘Apprentice’ hopeful was, but told The Sun newspaper: “I say to him, ‘Oh, by the way Alan, the blonde: he or she is as thick as a fridge door, and I urge you with every fibre of your being, get rid of them, because they’re going to let you down.

“And the producers will say, ‘Do you think you could find it in your heart to not get rid of the blonde just yet?’

“He will say, ‘The blonde will go when the blonde deserves to go.’ ”

However, Nick also thinks women who wear “black pencil skirts” won’t stand out from the crowd and therefore have less of a chance at getting selected.

Speaking about how candidates are selected based on their looks, he said: “There was a time when all the young ladies who came on wore black pencil skirts and very high heels, with their hair done up in a chignon. If you’ve got 16 in an hour, you think, ‘What are their names?’ I suspect that the producers go for different looks or people that can be differentiated visually – that would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

The ‘Countdown’ host – who was replaced on the show by Claude Littner in 2015 – added candidates must put something “outrageous” on their CV to get noticed though the show has released a statement and denied all of his claims.

They said: “All firing decisions throughout ‘The Apprentice’ are down to Lord Sugar’s own judgement, and solely based on his opinion about who he believes should be fired after every task.

“‘The Apprentice’ is a serious business reality series; the winner will be in partnership with Lord Sugar and therefore needs to have therelevant credentials.

“References are checked for business and education credentials and abusiness consultant is involved at audition stages. In addition to this, Lord Sugar sees the CVs during final selection process. To say that candidates are chosen purely for their looks or single lines ontheir CV is not true.”