★★★★★ 0/5

The Apprentice Australia

If this is television's idea of the ultimate job interview, I'd be advising everybody, including the boss, not to give up their day jobs just yet.

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markbThere are a couple of moments in The Apprentice Australia where businessman Mark Bouris buzzes his secretary in his foyer to tell her to send in his 12 candidates, all vying for the opportunity to be employed.

The young blonde lady looks up from her laptop on which she has been quietly tapping away and gives the waiting dozen the directive. Around the slick reception room everything looks fake. Behind her desk there are no drawers, cabinets, paperwork or anything remotely real. I’m not even convinced she’s even entering anything on her laptop (indeed, whether it is even plugged in).

In the Bouris board room it’s the same story. Here’s an enormous room with an even more enormous boardroom table. It’s so big a camera can fly over the table. The windows look phony too. If this is reality TV, so far there isn’t much reality yet.

But onto the content…

The point of the show, created by Mark Burnett, is for ambitious strangers to prove they have what it takes to win a $200,000 salaried position in Bouris’ Yellow Brick Road project. I don’t quite recall hearing what the company does, but everyone seems keen to meet this Wizard. As with the Donald Trump original each of the contestants travel is driven towards Bouris’ office. As a narrator sets the scene, Sydney does its best to look as wealthy (and important) as New York City. It doesn’t quite get there.

Bouris greets his 12 contenders and lays down the ground rules. In his first appearance he talks the talk, and off-screen he very probably walks the walk. Given I’d never particularly heard of him prior to the show being commissioned it’s hard to say. What is clear in this first appearance is that he is no Trump. Or Alan Sugar, either.

The teams are divided into male and female groups and sent to their mansion, a very impressive clifftop abode, overlooking the Pacific. As we hear more from the contestants they are determined, hungry and competitive. The youngest is 19, the eldest 54. Most are mid-20 to mid-30s. While culturally they are predominantly Anglo-Saxon, at least they don’t all look like catwalk or menswear models.

After they settle on names for their teams, Bouris assigns them their first task: to work as gardeners and raise as much money as they can in two days. Teams quickly strategise and head out to commission a mix of both corporate and residential work. Watched over by two of Bouris’ closest advisors, they quote on jobs and knuckle down to work.

With such a labour intensive challenge, it seems a somewhat unfair first task, but the women are determined.

As the format decrees, the pressure of the challenge begins to crack alliances. Personalities clash, individuals complain and some belittle one another as they race against the clock.

When the groups front up later to Bouris, he hears their excuses and takes counsel from his advisors. Listening to excuses he is abrupt with his patience. The camerawork and music do their best to amplify the drama, and magnify the canyons between success stories and failures.

FremantleMedia Australia has an exemplary track record with adaptations of international formats: MasterChef Australia, So You Think You Can Dance Australia, Project Runway Australia etc. Yet again they have shown they know how to package a reality format that looks like a Rolls Royce.  Despite Nine’s earnest ads, thankfully they haven’t taken the show down the road of worthy contestants. This does stay true to its Burnett format (it even has Eden Gaha as a consulting producer).

At least this is a vast improvement on homeMADE and Australia’s Perfect Couple. But in a recession it remains to be seen whether Nine has timed this to the mood of the country. Everywhere else we’re being told ‘nice’ is in, backstabbing is out. 

The other concern is Bouris himself. Most of his lines feel like they have been written for him. Trump was a man who improvised with passion. Alan Sugar had fire. Bouris has a flat delivery that feels unconvincing. Instead of giving the impression of puppetmaster he appears manipulated, uneasy with the theatre of the game. A New York drawl and a Cockney swagger run rings around a flat Australian drone.

And will the contestants ever match the defiant personality of someone like The Apprentice‘s bitchy Omarosa? Probably not, but there are a few who might go down in flames trying, which could be part of the fun of this most ambitious series.

If this is television’s idea of the ultimate job interview, I’d be advising everybody, including the boss, not to give up their day jobs just yet.

The Apprentice Australia works best on the ground with its contenders in challenges, than in front of an ‘acting’ CEO in an even faker boardroom.

3_starsThe Apprentice Australia airs 9:30pm Mondays on Nine.

63 Responses

  1. i’ll be watching, looks like a good production.
    but i don’t expect it to rate at all. ep1 starts at 9:30, which i’m sure will be overlapped a lot by FF and GNW. and runs til 11:00. and the advertising does not do it any justice at all. i’ll predict less than 750k for the premier and lower every week.

  2. Mark Bouris compared to Donald Trump?… Haha!! Considering Mark Bouris was head of a failed Mortgage Broking company (Wizard) that doesn’t exist anymore because it had to be sold off to Aussie Home Loans, GE-Money and CBA… it makes you wonder why anyone would compete to “learn” anything from him??.. “The Dodgy Apprentice” is probably a more suited title to this series.

  3. I think Nine are already worried about this show. It is screening on Go! at the same time as on Nine / NineHD. Nine obviously must want as little competition as possible.

  4. The US version has done a couple seasons of celeb Apprentice.
    A self made Aus female business person (instead of someone who inherited their money) as a judge (I can think of a couple) would be admirable, but most women in this area are private.

    Since they blatantly advertise themselves in their ads, Gerry Harvey and John Symonds (Aussie Home Loans) would be suitable candidates as judges, for future seasons, if Nine wisely decided to keep the judges fresh.

  5. It’s the first ep of the series so any host is bound to be a bit bumpy but overall this looks pretty slick & from what I know about bouris he seems like a pretty good choice. I’ll be watching on Monday.

  8. Interestingly this show will be Simulcast on GO! at the same time/day it is on nine. Which to me seems to be a bit of a waste of Go!, i mean 9HD if I had digital I’d choose to watch it on 9 (better pic quality) or (even better pic quality)

  14. The US apprentice didn’t work here, The UK apprentice didn’t work here, so I see no reason to assume a local Apprentice will work here (remember Australian Survivor).

  15. Too late Nine!! This should have been done a few years ago when Packer still had a stake in the network… He should have been the CEO on this show.

    But now, some unknown – they could have used Eddie FFS!!

  16. The problem with the Don Trump US version (that had declining Aus ratings after its 2nd season and then got taken off), is the same as the Aus version if it rates really well, which is to be fresh and interesting, it needs a new business person for each season instead of the same one (which is easier said than done, as most multi-millionaire and/or billionaire business people are boring, uncharismatic, not photogenic, ultra private and don’t want to be celebs, even with the free money can’t buy publicity offered to their business).

    Even Richard Branson flopped with his Apprentice-ish reality show on Fox, that lasted only 1 season. An Aus version with the late Kerry Packer (if he had looked after his health much better) would’ve been awesome.

  18. i am interested in this, i think contentwise it will be good, but every time i see an ad i am turned off a bit more.

    i still think 9:30 is a mistake. it is PG, and has had a big promotion. much more suited to 8:30.

  21. From what I’ve seen of the ads, Bouris is laughably uncharismatic. And he certainly sounds as if his lines are being whispered to him through his tiny headset (if not for an autocue). -.-

  23. Mark said in an article I read that he would not be a Trump or Sugar, because he is not like that. I have heard of Mark many times before, and I would prefer a natural presentation over some over exadurated and fake style – which Australia don’t respond to (Jules Lund or that guy from HomeMade). I can’t think of anyone, but maybe Paker (but boring), that could do this role while being fairly inviting. Mark is certainly qualified.

  24. I am actually looking forward to this show, but mainly from sociological perspective. How different will our apprentices be from those in America and Britain and what does that say for business culture in Australia.

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