Reality Star Omarosa Leaves Trump Staff

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who gained a  reputation as bombastic and temperamental even before the President was seen that way, has left the White House staff.  It's in dispute as to whether she had quit or was fired.  Reports are that she was fired by Trump Chief Of Staff General Kelly and had to be escorted off the grounds by the Secret Service. 
Even though Omarosa is reportedly worked for Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House, her behavior on various reality shows such as The Apprentice, which Trump hosted, made it difficult for her to be taken seriously. 

Finalists Chosen For This Season's Apprentice

Brandy Kuentzel and Clint Robertson are this year's final two candidates to compete for The Apprentice. Liza, the last of the final three was fired at the beginning of this week's episode. Trump said that although he had faith in Liza, none of the other candidates did.

As in every season, each finalist has a separate final task to complete. Brandy, who won the first task gets the first pick, which is whether to chose her team or chose the task. Apparently there are some people she would not want to work with again, she picks her team. She has to pick amongst the fired contestants that Donald marches out so she picks Liza, Stephanie, and Anand. It is a surprise to see Anand, who was caught cheating in a previous episode, but he says that he wants a chance to redeem himself. Clint is lucky to get Steuart, to whom he is tight with, along with Mahsa and Poppy.

Since Brandy picked her team, Clint gets to pick the task, which will be putting on a dinner with a live performance of Liza Minnelli. Clint is from Texas and picked that task to show that he can excel in something that is not his forte. That leaves Brandy to put on a celebrity golf tournament at Trump National. Brandy knows little or nothing about Golf. The strange thing about that is that there is usually some related golf task in each season of The Apprentice. Her ace in the hole, surprisingly is Liza, who we find out, was on the Kenyan Women's Golf Team at one time.

The usual series of missteps that are inherent in the final task take place, leaving a great cliffhanger for the finale.

The Apprentice--Steuart Walks The Plank

Trump walks into the suite while the candidates are celebrating. First thing he does is redo the teams. Brandy is put with Liza. Clint and Steuart remain teammates. It is now Men vs Women again.

In this week's task, the teams will fly by helicopter to West Chester, Pennsylvania to the QVC studios. They will pick a product and then try to sell it on the shopping channel, the team that makes the most profit wins.

Steuart and Clint plan strategy on the chopper. They will pretend to go for selling watches and then pick purses, which can sell for a higher mark-up. Liza is project manager for the women, her only plan is too let Brandy present. Brandy, has had success in the past as a presenter. Steuart will present for the men.

The Men's strategy goes as planned, they give the Women the choice of product, while they choose the time slot. Women will sell watches, the Men will sell purses. The Women are comfortable with that decision. Their presentation seems rocky because Liza is overwhelmed as a director.

The surprise is that the Women win. After a mostly friendly boardroom, Steuart is fired.

The Apprentice: Weak Player Trips Contender

It has been pretty clear throughout this season that the women's team does not work well with Liza, it seams that she has squeaked by this season through team wins and weaker players, her teammate Stephanie is very capable and qualified, but impatient and cannot seem to own up to her own errors. On the other team, Clint and Steuart work well together but cannot seem to find synergy with Brandy, the only woman on that team.

This week's task is to do a 30 second TV commercial for AT and T and FloTV a system that allows TV streaming on a cell phone.

Stephanie is project manager for Fortitude, while Steuart is PM for Octane.

Stephanie begins by rejecting all of Liza's ideas, preferring to make her a "go-fer". Her concept is to shoot in a sports stadium, however Liza cannot secure filming rights for any ball field. She tries the idea of a back drop, which also does not work. The final idea is a board meeting where a boss complains about the lack of enthusiasm amongst his workers. One of the workers, watching his favorite team score on Flo TV stands up and cheers to the delight of his boss.

Although Steuart is Octane's PM, Clint take charge right away, setting up a potential problem for Steuart later, should he go "head to head" with Clint in the final. Clint gets to be in the commercial as someone who is left out of everything until he gets Flo TV. Their commercial includes a shot at the AT and T store.

Octane wins, Stephanie and Liza go back to the board room. Donald, Jr says that the only energy Liza shows is in the boardroom, however, Trump hated Stephanie's idea and fires her with a warning to Liza that he does not like her performance either

The Apprentice: Whose Got A Ticket To Ride?

The men are looking to regroup after a disasterous presentation last week, presenting a fashion show. The task this week is for teams to set up a pedicab business in New York. Anyone who lives in or near a city were pedicabs are employed, know that they are used primarily by tourists, mostly for fun, rather than a basic need of transportation.

Kelly, who thinks her team made her look like a weak player, steps up to run the women's team. Anand, who has been under the radar all season, will be PM for the men.

The Men's gimmick is to dress like gladiators with swords and promote the cabs as chariots. Wacky David seems to be a unifying factor on the team, they all want him gone. The men set up outside of Trump Tower.

The women run into problems right away when two of the members fail their riding tests including PM Kelly. That seems to be when she lost her team. She does not like the location that is picked (Wall Street) , but says nothing and seems to fade into the background. The women's team decide to sell sex appeal, calling their team "babes on bikes". When Eric Trump comes to check on the team, Kelly points out a couple of team members that she thinks have been doing well, this angers the other players as they all seem to have a "me first" attitude.

When the teams come back to the boardroom, Clint immediately calls out David for his bizarre behaviour. Everyone on the men's team backs him up, but Trump says the men have won and he cannot fire someone from the winning team. Of course, most viewers know that he could and would had he wanted to. The women have lost badly and everyone points a finger at Liza. Liza didn't do much this week, but Kelly thinks that she threw her under the bus on last week's task. She also fingers Stephanie for picking a bad location, Trump agrees that it is a terrible location, but thinks that Kelly was a poor leader. He fires her.

The Apprentice:The Men Pop Back

This week's task was to promote Popcorn. According to Trump, 17 billion quarts a year are sold. Popcorn, Indiana sells the product in stores and this week's task was for each team to create a viral video to promote the brand. .

The women come up with what seems to me to be a lame idea, showing people in a health club eating popcorn while they work out. It looks to me like an invitation to choke to death.

The men on the other hand, come up with an idea that can at least attract attention, they stage a popcorn fight in the middle of Manhattan. David, the weekly problem child for the men, winds up sitting another task out, this one due to his breaking a tooth.

After two losses in a row, the men win this task. Clint is the winning project manager. Mahsa, the angry DA, is the loser. She picks Tyana and Liza to go into the boardroom with her. Tyana did not get on board with Mahsa's idea. Ultimately, it was the losing idea, but Trump thinks that she has lost favor with the team and fires her.

The Apprentice Goes To The Dogs

This week's task is to set up a day care and spa for dogs. This was a problem for Mahsa because she is terrified of dogs Judging by the fact that Donald Trump did not come to see either team, my guess is that she was not the only one not comfortable around the furry friends. For the past couple weeks, James (above) has been called out in the boardroom. He is always clueless and shocked when that happens. When he steps up to be PM, you already know the results. The toughest part of running Octane is David. I don't know what is up with him, but he is the wild card. It is clear that he will be fired sometime, just not right away. After a couple of shout out sessions, James tells David to go back to the suite to spend the days watching game shows, soaps and perhaps old reruns of "The Apprentice". It is the first time that I can remember a PM firing a candidate on a task.
The Women of Fortitude have problems of their own. They won a task after throwing Liza under the bus and she cannot let it go. Furthermore, Tyana (the PM) and Mahsa, who got along so well in the first task are now bitter enemies. There is absolutely no cohesion in the women's camp either.
The judge of the competition is Celebrity Dog Trainer Caesar Milan. Why he would want to put his name on this is beyond me. Perhaps he is graduating to training people, because these candidates are a bigger mess then any dog would be.
The women win. The men lose for the second week in a row. James picks David (of course) and Wade to stay in the boardroom. Firing David would be way too easy, it is clear that although James is smart, he could never lead the team and he is fired. David will return to wreak havoc next week.

Former Apprentice Candidate James Sun

Seattle area resident James Sun looked up until the very end, like the winner of Apprentice 6. Especially with talk that Donald Trump would be building in the region. However, Sun was not picked and nothing has been heard, since on Trump developing here. I got this piece from the Seattle Times.

Another Season Of Celebrity Apprentice

Celebrity Apprentice starts tonight,and although I liked the idea of unknown contestants fighting for a job with the Trump Organization, the celebrity version where they compete for personal charities has become more popular than the origninal version.

Back From The Dead: The Apprentice

The Apprentice will return to NBC next month, the question is, will it's audience return as well? The once successful franchise is bringing back "lightning rod" Omarosa for this coming Celebrity Apprentice

Around The Blogosphere: The Apprentice Returns

In her excellent blog "No Deep Thoughts, my friend from Texas, PJ, announces the return of "The Apprentice" What was in it's initial run, a pretty slick show, has gradually degenerated into just another show that hung around a little too long. If you were disgusted by the gimmickry in the LA version of the show, you haven't seen nothing yet .

Donald Trump Quits The Apprentice

It comes as no surprise but The Apprentice is officially no more. Sources say the Donald Trump, who turned "your fired" into probably pop culture's favorite phrase, announced Friday that he will not do another Apprentice. The show, originated by Survivor's Mark Burnett, took off in it's first season, due in part with good looking, intelligent, but somewhat dysfunctional candidates, and what seemed like hard headed but fair Trump exec's like Caroline and George. Candidate Omarosa, who seemed to have the ability to create a fight from nothing and the tough love of "The Donald" seemed to rocket the show in the ratings. Successive seasons showed a real ratings decrease, along with the revelations of possible financial problems in the Trump Organization.
It has indeed been a pleasure for me to blog the last three seasons of the Apprentice. No doubt, new material on the Apprentice and candidates will continue.

Apprentice Wannabe Michelle

Michelle Sorro, who earned Donald Trumps scorn for quitting the Apprentice, is in the process of writing a book telling her side of what happened. Her blog makes for interesting reading.

The Appretice Finale: Stefani Schaeffer Last Apprentice?

She was a surprise but by no means a long shot. Stefani Schaeffer (a California attorney) did not serve as project manager during the entire season and yet she was hired by Donald Trump. Seattle's James Sun who's high voltage style charmed some and annoyed many others was runner up. Sun had directed the Arrow team to 2 victories. Usually the final show involves the last two standing contestants, this year, there were 4 finalists, although Frank and Nicole, both visibly nervous, were gone fast.
Stefani, usually under the radar, served the team as "den mother" quietly filling team needs. She seemed to compliment the hard charging James in several tasks. Stefani, much more animated and outgoing last night than she had been most of the season, told Trump she could see herself hiring James to work for her someday.
Because of this year's format change that allows PMs to work until the team loses, Stefani, as mentioned above did not get her chance to serve . She will be working on a Trump resort project in the Dominican Republic.
The show which made "your fired" a pop culture catch phrase has been rapidly declining in ratings and no mention was made of future programs. This season, shot in LA, was the first to be done anywhere but New York. The final was broadcast live from the Hollywood Bowl.

The Apprentice: Bye Bye Surya

Suryea never was a good fit for Arrow. Perhaps that is why they started winning when he came on board. His presence unified the team. The teams had to come up with a halftime promotion at an LA Galaxy Soccer game for GNC, a company who's vitamins and supplements are commonly sold at health food stores and gyms. We never find out who the Galaxy is playing and most of the viewers probably don't care.

Neither presentation was truly inspirational, but Surya thinks that his team's was just great. Wrong again. Everyone knows that Surya will be fired. He is. Surya, I have one piece of advise, if you want to feel part of the team, don't talk to the opposing team that you just switch from.

The Apprentice: Arrow Takes Back The Mansion

I have to wonder if the reason they always skip the week after Arrow wins because that is the only way they can stay in the mansion. Probably not but once again we will have to wait 2 weeks for the next episode.
The candidates meet Trump at the airport, about to fly out for business on his own jet (he must not have seen Al Gore's movie), he introduces the candidates to executives from Priceline.com
the executives will be supervising the task which consists of sending the candidates to shopping malls to sign them up for the latest promotion something about naming you own hotel price.
Aimee is in her second week as PM for Kinetic, her team seems to feel that they won the task in spite of her. Suryea takes over as PM for Arrow, he is still the square peg, James seems to think that he takes himself too seriously, maybe that's why he is called Suryea (sorry). The Arrow team shows it's energy and wins the task.
Arrow is rewarded, Nicole gets hurt and it seems like the Rebecca incident all over again, will she quit or go through the task on crutches? Rebecca was the candidate who broke her leg in a reward while playing Ice Hockey, she would have been a co-Apprentice had the winner let her aboard. This was not the case with Nicole, she only had a jellyfish sting. She undoubtedly was treated with lotion and was back so she continued her romance with Tim, they connect with a kiss that would make the viewer aware that there was more to the story off camera.
Meanwhile Kinetic arrives at the boardroom, Donald Trump Jr is sitting in today. Daddy Trump of course says what a good job he is doing. I never hear Donald say that about his other employees. In the biggest non surprise of the season, Aimee is fired.

Apprentice: Arrow Stages Coup d'Etat

It was "Viva La Revolution" on the Apprentice tonight as the Arrow team was able to finally gather it's resources and win a task and send Kenetic out to tent city.
The show began with Trump calling the teams, like he does in every show, it's time to even things out. Arrow decides it wants Suryea, a dead serious focused player.
The task this week is to create and market a new menu entree for El Pollo Loco, a drive through Mexican Restaurant.
Kenetic has Marisa(pictured above), an excitable, somewhat creative lady who has somehow alienate her team much like Michelle did to Arrow. Marisa does marketing and gets frustrated because her ideas get vetoed consistently by Project Manager Heidi. Arrow pulls together, gets out their signs and balloons, and more importantly sends an outside sales force to hustle business. Arrow wins the task. The new member Suryea contributes very little except may a little more discipline, he does however get to stay in the mansion. Arrow's reward an afternoon at Malibu Beach to hear Andrea Bocelli, they then get treated to a fireworks display. Smug as ever, Kenetic packs up to move to the tents, they continue to degrade the other team for their cleaning habits. The boardroom is pretty clear cut. Marisa talks about her ideas, but does not know when to shut up. It becomes clear there is something wrong with her as far as she comes across as a 5 year old who needs a bathroom pass. Trump fires Marisa, while Heidi and Amy put their noses up and head to their new quarters.