Eagle eyed viewers of The Apprentice have spotted one glaring flaw in the BBC reality series where Lord Alan Sugar must pick one business partner to invest £250,000 in.

Tonight’s (March 16) episode featured the semi-final round of interviews, and in glorious Apprentice fashion each of the five remaining candidates had their business plans ripped apart by Lord Sugar’s advisors, which included Claude Littner, Karren Brady – who brought two candidates to tears, Leeds’ own Linda Plant and Mike Soutar .

But viewers noticed one major nagging problem at this stage – if the business plan is no good then why are these candidates even in the process? Fans took to social media, tweeting their reactions to this one major flaw.

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The format of the show was changed in 2011 to incorporate the business plan element and the investment instead of a job, and fans have been complaining about it ever since.

Keir Harding said: “I genuinely don’t understand why The Apprentice would put people through weeks of tasks just to reveal that they had a business plan that could never be invested in. Seems purely for the entertainment value of them being ripped apart at the end. A bit mean.

“And maybe that’s okay if it’s part of really interrogating a business plan that has potential. If from day one it was obvious they could never win why keep them there?”

Ashley Spink said: “The Apprentice allowing unsubstantial and flawed business plans into the interview stages has always baffled me. Granted it’s for TV purposes (I hope) but it actually makes a mockery of the process. Get serious from the start.”

Mark Scales said: “All these business plans are s***. Britains finest business brains. Nah.”

Jonathan Weinberg said: “Next year could we please just have a 2hr episode at the start of @bbcapprentice where they go through all the business plans – and then the candidates who are left would be the strongest ones to actually fight it out seriously.”

Andrew Jazzie said: “I appreciate that they know what they’ve signed up for and the opportunity it provides. There are more holes in these business plans than in a teabag but…do we really need to see candidates being brought to tears?”

PhiI Roberts said: “TheApprentice amazes me! They spend weeks taking the p*** out of how stupid they all are, dedicate an hour to ripping their business plans to shreds, branding them all worthless, and then give one of them £250k.”

Jordan (@jordanxtyr) said: “If all of their business plans are so s***, why are any of them in this process to begin with?”

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