SALES director Dan Harris became the first candidate to be voted off The Apprentice last night - and admitted having to watch most of the show from behind a pillow.

Harris, 34, aggressively led the men’s team in the first challenge - making and selling sausages - but upset his colleagues and Lord Sugar with his leadership style.

After watching the show, he said: “I spent most of the time watching that episode behind a pillow. Cringeworthy moments on it, certainly.

“I think I took quite a strong leadership style, I don’t know if you picked up on that.”

As project manager of the losing team Harris found himself up in front of Lord Sugar.

He named team-mates Stuart Baggs, from the Isle of Man, and Alex Epstein, from Manchester, as his partners to potentially face the chop.

But his small contribution to the team’s sales efforts did little to impress Lord Sugar.

And his attempt to defend himself by saying his “focus” was on leading the team did not convince the Hackney-born businessman.

Baggs and Epstein did not escape entirely unscathed with Lord Sugar criticising their sales efforts and reprimanding Baggs for his “ridiculous statements’’ in the boardroom.

But in the end the buck stopped with Harris and Lord Sugar told him: “You had your chance and you blew it. Dan, you’re fired.’’