"Apprentice" finalists rule out TV careers

LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) ''The Apprentice'' finalists say they are about to buck the trend and refuse a possible TV career if they are not hired by Sir Alan Sugar.

Previous contestants who have fallen at the final hurdle, such as Ruth Badger and Saira Khan, have gone on to host their own TV shows.

But the latest finalists are clear they do not want a career in front of the cameras if are fired in Wednesday's final.

Kristina Grimes, who swore as she tried to generate sales on a shopping channel for one of the tasks, is adamant a TV career does not beckon. Her rival for the 100,000-pound-a-year job, Simon Ambrose, said he would only consider a job behind the lens.

The Mensa member from London provided one of the funniest moments of the BBC series when he screwed on trampoline legs at crotch level during the same sales task.

''I have learnt I should not be a TV presenter, and am also not suited to putting together exercise tools on live TV,'' he said.

The pair, who have had various job offers, are focused on becoming The Apprentice and questioned the motives of some of the other contestants who appeared on the show.

The pair turned on Katie Hopkins, the ruthless alpha female who last week sensationally gave up her chance of a place in the final to stay in her lucrative job with the Met Office in Exeter.

Ambrose, 27, said: ''The thing with Katie is that you have got to question the motivation. With that kind of money and living in Exeter, why would she want to compete for the job?'' Since her departure, Hopkins has discovered that she has been fired from her real-life job.

Grimes, 36, from Harrogate, said previous winner Michelle Dewberry had a warped idea of The Apprentice and sought the ''limelight elsewhere'' shortly after joining Sugar's company.

''That is incredibly disappointing because for me ... it is about the business programme, not the reality TV thing. We both came on this to get an opportunity to further our careers ...

and when people make a mockery of it I take it personally,'' she said.

Grimes, a pharmaceutical sales manager, who was a teenage single mother, describes herself as a leader, who will ''bring in the money'' for Sugar.

Ambrose, a Cambridge graduate and ex-investment banker, who can spot a real diamond from a fake from his time in a discount jewellers, said Sugar had a ''rough stone with me, which if he wants to polish, maybe I'll sparkle''.

They will be judged on the final task, designing an iconic building on London's South Bank.

Ambrose, who bribed his team with a trip to Barcelona if they won, presented the ''Wave'' building, which Sugar said people would either love or hate.

Grimes was forced to redesign her building after experts branded it as coming straight from the pages of Mussolini's book of architecture.

The pair partly put their survival in the boardroom down to staying calm when tears and tantrums were flowing.

Unseen by viewers were the packed bags: male and female contestants ready to walk out of the series because of the pressure and emotional stress.

''We were probably the two who kept their head on their shoulders the best whereas a lot of people around us were losing theirs,'' Ambrose said.

* Grimes and Ambrose compete for the chance to be hired by Sugar in the final of the show on Wednesday at 9 p.m. on BBC 1.

REUTERS ARB RK0913