The Tallest of Two Dwarfs

On a discussion on the 5Live Board today about the rights and wrongs of the Diana:Death in A Tunnel programme on Channel 4, there was a moment where the subject drifted off topic. One of the boards resident posters raised the point that the Apprentice is actually 'better' than Big Brother.

How so?

They are both similar in their aims, i.e to make somebody famous for fifteen minutes whilst showing their rivals to be complete arseholes.

Both programmes start with thousands of people sending in audition tapes, these thousands are reduced to a few dozen for the actual programme. They then perform a series of tasks over a number of weeks and the number of contestants gets reduced until there are two who are left to fight it out for the numero uno position.

Both programmes have, in the past, seen obvious examples of bullying, sexism, implied and overt racism - the only difference as far as I can see is that watching the Apprentice is somehow seen as worthy because it's on the BBC and features mainly middle class, business types rather than rough as dogs, trailer trash.