In television there is a theory that you start with your best episodes to hook the viewer and finish with your next-best episodes to leave them wanting more. That way you can hide your weaker bits in the middle and no-one will remember them. Due to the eviction process it is not possible to juggle the running order of The Apprentice, but last night's task, which which the teams had to create a fitness machine in about twenty minutes, was one of the shallowest shows yet.

I wouldn't say The Apprentice is hurtling downhill fast, but it both felt like self-parody and was hard to get really involved in. Sir Alan (is it me or is he getting thinner each week?) did that annoying thing of mixing up the teams, which takes away the boys v girls aspect. Instead we just had some random bickering. Flat-faced Debra shouted a bit (but not as much as in the trailers for next week), while baby-faced Pub Landlord lookalike James, ostensibly a team leader, was so low-key he must have left the much-discussed success in his spit somewhere else.

Instead it was down to self-loving flabby hunk Ben to grab the limelight. His first idea was for some sex-based piece of home exercise equipment. When that idea landed on stony ground his team ended up with the Home Multi-Tone, which did everything and nothing for under £30. The boffins went off and made it and returned the next morning with something black that looked suspiciously like a hollowed-out guitar amplifier.

It was, of course, rubbish, though John Lewis ordered a few just for a laugh. The only exercise this was going to give anyone was carrying it around to the local charity shop. Was it only me that saw the advert that said "we're doomed" in the shop window where they went to get their posters printed?

Meanwhile Debra's team came up with the Body Rocka, which sounded dreadful and looked like a cross between a toilet seat and a white plastic sombrero. It was going to replace the multi-selling Swiss Ball. It was going to be the ipod of the fitness world they announced. Why didn't they just go the whole hog and call it the ibod?

I didn't see any exercise experts in give their verdicts on its usefulness, but John Lewis ordered thousands of them (presumably now languishing in their lavatory/Mexican hat department). So James' team lost, Majid got the boot for being nice and dull and Debra's team had a private gig with Katherine Jenkins, when they were probably hoping for a trip round Silverstone in helicopters or something.

And talking of Silverstone, what was all that flannel in the intro about Lee Valley Athletics Centre being one of the greatest sports venues in the country? What about Wembley, Wimbledon, Royal Birkdale, Twickenham, Lords, the bowling green in my park? It's a bit like saying that Portobello Lofts, where the contestants live and run around in the pants when Sir Alan rings, is one of the greatest apartment blocks in the country...