The Apprentice candidates faced a major shock when Lord Sugar dismissed three of them following an intense boardroom showdown.

Thursday's episode (March 5) of the popular series saw Megan Ruiter, Carrington Saunders and Andrea Cooper all receiving their marching orders in an unexpected triple elimination.

Megan confessed she was "absolutely devastated" about her departure from theBBC programme, whilst Carrington remarked: "I can say it didn't hurt as much because it wasn't just me getting fired. So, it was more of a 'wow' moment opposed to something that was entirely sad. It wasn't until a few days later in when the sadness kicked in."

Andrea acknowledged it was "a terrible task" for her but noted: "I'm not saying I was surprised because by my calculations, it could have possibly been a triple firing that week. But if there were only going to be one or two fired, I didn't think that it should have been me."

The instalment saw the hopefuls travel to Egypt to organise corporate away days for paying customers, reports the Mirror.

One group ventured into the desert for a dune expedition, whilst the other embarked on a lagoon excursion, which proved far from plain sailing.

Megan took on the role of project manager overseeing the lagoon excursion, having claimed she'd organised 25 corporate events previously. However, she came under fire after overseeing her team's £290 loss, which resulted from clients demanding a 50% refund due to undercooked and cold food, as well as a kayaking session that left them dining in soaked clothing.

Lord Sugar described it as amongst the worst corporate hospitality performances he'd witnessed, subsequently writing on X (formerly Twitter): "I've seen some kitchen disasters in my time on The Apprentice, but this one takes some beating. 'Unbelievable' is the word."

The businessman summoned Megan back into the boardroom for her performance as project manager, and she was accompanied by Carrington following her serving of the undercooked potato wedges. Andrea also found herself facing the axe after clashing with Kieran McCartney during an otherwise successful negotiation.

The three candidates all battled to remain in the competition, but Lord Sugar remained unmoved, announcing there would be an unusual triple firing as he dismissed all three of them.

"This is a b***** disaster," he said. "An absolute disaster. One of the worst performances in corporate hospitality. So you can put that in your CV next."

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The Apprentice airs on the BBC