{"id":403716,"date":"2026-04-17T17:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403716\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T17:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:05:12","slug":"the-apprentice-winner-karishma-was-best-candidate-lord-sugars-picked-in-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403716\/","title":{"rendered":"The Apprentice winner Karishma was best candidate Lord Sugar\u2019s picked in 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Let\u2019s be honest \u2013 no Apprentice 2026 candidate stood a chance against Karishma Vijay, arguably the best contestant the BBC<\/a> show has ever had.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old beauty brand owner <\/a>secured Lord Sugar<\/a>\u2019s \u00a3250,000 investment for her skincare business, which she launched after discovering a \u201ccure\u201d for her acne \u2013 and it was glaringly inevitable from week one that she would win the series. In all 20 years of the show, there has not been a contestant who has exuded such likeability, justifiable confidence, and, believe it or not, common sense.<\/p>\n

Not even her finale rival Pascha Myhill, whose evolution throughout the series was a joy to watch, could rival Karishma. Pascha \u2013 the show\u2019s youngest contestant at 21 \u2013\u00a0was seeking investment for her recruitment business and, in the last episode, nailed a pitch to a room filled with business experts, which, by her own admission, she would not have been able to do at the start of the competition. Kudos to her.<\/p>\n

\"KarishmaKarishma Vijay aced this year\u2019s series of \u2018The Apprentice\u2019 (BBC)<\/p>\n

But while Pascha had the journey element on her side, Karishma hit her stride from the outset. Whenever Lord Sugar briefed the candidates on the weekly tasks, she would digest the information, scan it like a business RoboCop, and by the time she went to chat with her team, she knew exactly what they should do. When it came to performing the tasks, Karishma would never retreat to the background and would be the first one to suggest workarounds to obstacles that tripped others up.<\/p>\n

It felt as if Karishma had studied every series of The Apprentice<\/a> and followed a guidebook on how to succeed on the show \u2013 but here\u2019s the catch: she\u2019s never seen it before. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve gone and done it after not having watched the show, I feel like that\u2019s so cheeky,\u201d she said after winning.<\/p>\n

Karishma was that rare Apprentice candidate \u2013 someone whose pieces to camera came across as confident as opposed to arrogant, perhaps because she had the know-how to back it up. And in her final pitch, she had the crowd of experts in stitches. (The pun-loving Sugar called her \u201ca stand-up comedian\u201d.) In fact, the applause was so rapturous it felt like she might get a standing ovation. \u201cHonestly, I think I\u2019ll buy whatever she\u2019s selling,\u201d one expert told Sugar after. <\/p>\n

The Apprentice has faced criticism for feeling increasingly irrelevant in recent years, and starring a cast of doofuses, but Karishma \u2013 a genuinely talented businesswoman \u2013\u00a0felt like a good rebuttal. If the show can find more candidates like her, then those claims should fall away. \u201cI feel really proud because when I came into this, I felt like a small fish,\u201d Karishma said at the end of the show, a cheeky grin creeping onto her face. \u201cI\u2019m not a small fish no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viewers are in huge agreement over Karishma\u2019s victory, taking to social media to declare her \u201ca very worthy winner\u201d of The Apprentice and \u201cthe best candidate in the HISTORY of the show\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell done, Karishma\u2026 a well-deserved win,\u201d one commenter wrote, while another echoed: \u201cI\u2019ve been rooting for Karishma since the beginning. What an excellent winner and probably the best Apprentice series in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaschaPascha Myhill faced Karishma Vijay in \u2018The Apprentice\u2019 final (BBC)<\/p>\n

One comment read: \u201cLord Sugar knows ball. Karishma was a breath of fresh air throughout. Loved her as a person and her business looked phenomenal. Her business pitch was one of the very best ever seen on #TheApprentice. She was head and shoulders above absolutely all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who has watched all 20 seasons of The Apprentice, I can confidently say that Karishma [is] not just the best winner, but best candidate in the history of the show. There\u2019s no contest. There has never been someone as talented, creative and intelligent as her,\u201d another fan commented.<\/p>\n

Even the cynics were converted, with one saying: \u201cI normally watch The Apprentice to take the p*** out of a bunch of wannabes who should be nowhere near business. Karishma was undoubtedly the best candidate I\u2019ve seen in the 20 years of the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hats off to Karishma for raising the bar \u2013 and bringing worth back to an ailing, long-running format. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-403716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}