Celebrity Apprentice

Rylan Clark grimaced with embarrassment after being drafted in to present Thomas Skinner’s terrible Christmas biscuit advert on Celebrity Apprentice. 

Amused viewers watched the TV presenter, 37, almost lost for words after he was called upon to present Gary The Penguin to retail investors on Tuesday night’s show. 

The second part of the Celebrity spin-off series kicked off with the two teams working on promotional material, market research and perfecting their pitches. 

Rob Rinder, AJ Odudu, Jake Wood, Kadeena Cox, Charlie Hedges and Eddie Kadi were in team Jolly McTrouble – a Santa-shaped biscuit consisting of butter toffee, vanilla and Christmas pudding flavoured festive icing.

While Angela Scanlon,  project manager JB Gill, Matt Morsia, Sarah Hadland, Shazia Mirza and Thomas Skinner were in Gary the Penguin – a penguin-shaped biscuit that combines gingerbread with a blend of lemon, bubble-gum and white pepper.

Sarah said she was lost for words after watching the advert created by Gladiator’s Matt, Shazia and Thomas. 

Their market feedback group were just as surprised by the advert with one asking why Gary the Penguin, played by Tom, was eating himself. 

The team then greeted Rylan to make the pitch, who couldn’t believe his eyes after watching the nonsensical ad. 

Viewers wrote on X: ‘Rylan lies “I would invest”‘; ‘Considering he’s not even a contestant, in that brief cameo Rylan Clark has blown everybody else of the water.’

‘Rylan introducing that video, I might never recover’; ‘Rylan embarrassed with Gary the penguin, his face introducing the ad’;

‘Even Rylan can’t put a positive spin of that’. 

In the boardroom, Lord Alan Sugar said: ‘That is diabolical. Your advert sucks. End of story. It doesn’t tell me about the product at all’.  

Over on the other team, project manager Rob managed to draw in thousands of units – and his celebrity pals. 

Benedict Cumberbatch, Piers Morgan, Olivia Colman and Robbie Williams all provided messages to promote Jolly McTrouble.

Lord Alan Sugar joked of using Piers: ‘If ever Piers promoted a biscuit, it should be a Jammie Dodger’. 

Lord Sugar’s business advisor Karren Brady revealed all seven retailers made orders as well as others Rob pulled in bringing their order total to 355,500 units. 

Mike Soutar announced Gary The Penguin managed to secure the win after gaining orders from all seven retailers plus an additional, bring their total to 452,000. 

Back in the boardroom, Karren told Lord Sugar the team had no real plan. 

He said: ‘The thing is that the TV advert is good, the actual product is ok. You had all the elements of success. But you didn’t succeed.’

AJ didn’t hold back in the boardroom, saying teammate Jake was as useless as a ‘pen with no ink’ and the failure of the task was down to Rob. 

Rob brought Kadeena and Jack back for the firing round, but it was ultimately the barrister who was fired. 

Lord Sugar said: ‘You admit yourself you gave the team no clear direction and so despite the fact that you did a tremendous job in selling over 300,000 units and I do acknowledge that. So it is with regret, you’re fired’.