It's a long, long way from Dr Bill to king of the Apprentice hill. Last Monday, the finale of the TV3 reality show, The Apprentice, was played out. There was a winner and a runner-up, but, in keeping with a trend in reality TV, the real champ was the taskmaster, Dr Bill Cullen.

Reality TV thrives on the concept of a journey. The contestant enters the arena raw and green. His or her character is developed as they advance through the series. Flaws are exposed, and even exploited. It is all part of the journey for the viewers, and particularly the advertisers.

With The Apprentice, it was the heartless judge, the man who would decide, who underwent a journey. When he started out in the series two seasons ago, he was lodged in the public consciousness as Dr Bill, a creation of the disc jockey Tom Dunne.

Dr Bill was a folksy character who wrote a book about his beautiful life, in which he paid tribute to his beautiful legs and frequently began his soliloquies with "boys, oh boys". The invention came on foot of Cullen's highly successful autobiography, It's A Long Way from Penny Apples, tracking his rise from an impoverished childhood in inner-city Dublin to multi-millionaire status.

His self-portrayal, both between the book's covers, and in numerous interviews, was of an evangelical businessman, a rare species in dear old cynical Ireland.

He spoke of how he rose each morning at 5am, looked in the mirror and declared, "you're terrific". With such an introduction, his day began, before he sallied forth to assure and all sundry that they also were terrific, and capable of reaching new heights in business and in life.

Then along came The Apprentice, a show in which Dr Bill would be detailed to tell the contestants that they were anything but terrific. Many had doubts that he was up to stepping into the shoes of obnoxious Donald Trump, or the abrasive Alan Sugar, both of whom had excelled in the role in their respective countries.

The doctor indicated that his approach might be more bedside manner than the 'in-your-face' style of Trump and Sugar.

"We're going to do it differently," he said after being introduced as the boss for the first series. "We don't have to say, 'you're fired'. We might say instead, 'you're barney-bracked' or you're 'Donald-Ducked'. We want to show an Irish version of the thing."

As it turned out, Dr Bill was wide of the mark. The franchise demanded that the catchline be "You're fired", and not even Cullen was in a position to tamper with that.

The boy done well in the first series, but it was a steep learning curve. True to his background as a successful businessman, he was willing to look and learn.

"Bill didn't see the first series until it was actually aired," said the show's executive producer, Larry Bass. "By the time the second series came around he had the benefit of experience. He saw that he would have to sharpen his pencil."

And so he did. By the time the second series finished last Monday, Cullen had grown into the role of tough taskmaster. Dr Bill was dead and buried. His contributions to the programme had become authoritative and authentic, rarely allowing the scowl to fall from his face and constantly in search of some business acumen, like a man looking for gold in a copper mine.

Of course the new persona was no more real than the old Dr Bill, but reality TV is all about manufacturing a reality for the fabricated medium of TV.

If Cullen was a success, the same could hardly be said about the quality of contestant. Before the series began, Bill declared that "We're going to get a quality of people that we've never seen before on one of these shows. These Irish guys, most of them are warriors, you know."

Few who followed the series detected the hidden brilliance allegedly on display. Despite the best exhortations of the doctor, the contestants appeared to be devoid of any innovation in pursuing the tasks set out.

Bass doesn't agree that the standard was shy of fair-to-middling. "All of the contestants brought different qualities to the show," he says. "The standard of the tasks was higher this year and remember, they have only 24 hours to perform them."

As is increasingly the case in reality TV shows, the contestants are side issues as a reality is created for the taskmaster or judge. Bill was the real star of the show.

For TV3 and Bass's Shinawil production company, the second series was a roaring success. Viewing figures were up by 43% and cross media link-ins with radio station Newstalk and the Daily Mail pumped hype up into the stratosphere.

Add in the after-show programme You're Fired and the new all-round media reality package was complete. Boys, oh boys, but it sure is all a long way from penny apples.