by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Thursday, 13th November 2008 - (4) comments - Business comment

It’s a familiar format: a gaggle of businesspeople are thrown together to meet a series of challenges. But the entrepreneurs on this show have already made their millions. They’re being forced to start from scratch with no money and no help in unfamiliar territory. RB’s already hooked.

Hooray! There’s a new business show on the tellybox. And this time the contestants are entrepreneurs!

The premise is simple: 12 established entrepreneurs, most of them millionaires in their own right, are dumped in a new country every week with only a few pounds to their name. The challenge: to make more money than the other participants.

The winners each week get to keep the combined earnings from the group and fly home until finally there is only one millionaire, shamed and alone, having failed to beat his or her rivals.

It’s cruel but it’s simply marvellous. If you missed the first installment, catch up on The Last Millionaire this instant!

Last night’s episode introduced the young tycoons. It was great to see Lianne Miller, founder of Young and Pure, who featured in our April edition of Real Business, among the contestants.

The millionaires quickly paired off and prepared to face their first challenge: Istanbul.

Istanbul is a buzzy, young city. The average age of its 12 million population is only 23. So, unsurprisingly, most of the entrepreneurs decided to throw a party for the young and trendy Turks.

At the end of the challenge, the biggest losers were Dimple Sthankiya and Nathalie Hayward. Sthankiya, a yoga entrepreneur, and music agency founder Hayward spent so much time arguing that they not only failed to make any cash running their two simultaneous parties, they also made a loss of 105 lira.

The overall winners: marketing guru and ball-breaker Jaqueline Doherty and brewing tycoon James Watt were the feuding Scots who somehow managed to make 1,220 lira in five days. They took a 4,000 lira pot back home, leaving the other entrepreneurs to stew over their next assignment.

But the most hilarious pair of the programme were Carl Pihl and Jason Graham. They did fairly well, making 950 lira with their underground rave. But a high point was when the two party-animals blagged entry to a high profile event to dance the night away with Kate Moss. These two will definitely name-drop and bullsh*t their way through the series.

I can guarantee next week’s programme will bring fireworks galore. The teams are heading for Berlin: pairs will be broken; tempers will rise; and Germany will not know what’s hit it.

Tune in to BBC 3 next Wedesday at 9pm for your entrepreneurial fix.

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