Since When is Juggling a Talent?

You know, I heard not-so-great things about the premiere of America’s Got Talent. But still, I was kind of bummed that I missed it. I mean, with Regis AND David Hasseloff, how could you go wrong? So thank goodness that NBC had the good sense to re-run the premiere tonight. Thank goodness indeed.

Now, the concept itself has done before – it’s a cross between American Idol and the gong show. They use the same format as Idol (3 judges, one cute girl, one Brit…) and with buzzers if they’re really bad. And with the “talent” it seems like a much larger version of Letterman’s stupid human tricks. But I LOVE stupid human tricks. And I’ve got to say, I actually enjoyed the show.

Some of the acts were actually really good. But we also had to sit through the grand master of the nose flute. And the impersonator (whose qualification, apparently, is that he can hear the voices). And the “shadow dancers” (also known as “the woman with the goat”). Although I did appreciate the balloon Regis.

The judging criteria are also considerably looser than on any of the other Simon Cowell shows out there. Somehow, acts like the horn guy and the senior citizen stripper made it through (and seriously, why was Hasseloff so interested in Bernie the Stripper?). But the judges were quite entertaining – I liked the interaction between the three of them, especially the moments when they leaned over and hit each other’s buzzers.

The editing on the show was horrific. Why did we have so much Regis? Did we really need to see him pull four acts at a time out of the audience? It made the show move really slowly. Since Simon Cowell is producing this (after all, the official title is Simon Cowell’s America’s Got Talent…really…), he should know better. One of the reasons that Idol works so well is that there is minimal Seacrest. There should also be minimal Regis.

Anyways, I’ll probably tune in next week. That is, unless, the Red Sox are on at the same time.

Sean is HIRED!

I’m back from some time away, and I was wrong – there was one last season finale before the official end of the season – last night’s finale of The Apprentice. And even though it was a good episode, if you didn’t figure out who was going to win, then I don’t think reality tv is for you.

So it’s down to Lee and Sean, and their first task is to choose their teams. And this is where we know exactly who will win. Sean picked a dream team – Tammy, Tarek, and Andrea, while Lee chose…well…Lenny, Pepi, and Roxanne. And when they got their tasks in the boardroom, Carolyn had what might have been the best line of the season as she asked “who was the guy on the end?” That’s right, they barely even remembered who Pepi was. And Trump followed up with “Pepi, you’re fired…did I say that?”. Fantastic.

Sean’s task with the Barenaked Ladies was great. I am a huge BNL fan, and it seemed like Sean was really on top of things. Even with Andrea’s trip to the doctor (what was that all about), things were running really smoothly. I really like Sean’s enthusiasm for pretty much everything, but especially for Tammy. As they say on Friends, he is such the smitten kitten.

Over at Lee’s task, a celebrity hockey tournament, it’s utter chaos. Lenny is worthless – in fact, I think he was making more work than he was doing. Lee was in way over his head. Which makes me wonder how he got as far as he did…how did he win that many times as project manager? Strange. And they shot some great footage of Jason Priestly wandering around and Jaime Pressly showing that her character on My Name is Earl isn’t much of a stretch. (“get it together little Apprentice boy”…yikes) The event itself seemed to run alright (although the auction didn’t seem to raise nearly as much money as it should have), but Lee’s failure to meet Trump was ridiculous. As Trump said, “they never learn…”.

So going into the final boardroom, it seemed pretty straight forward that Sean was going to win. What I did think was interesting was that the fired contestants were pretty evenly split about who they thought should win. Of course, Trump has watched all the footage, so no surprise that Sean is the one who is hired. (or that he says that he and Tammy will get married) And I LOVED how excited Sean was – that enthusiasm is what’s going to make him a good apprentice.

One final note…did anyone else notice how Trump ended the show too early so they had five minutes to play the theme song on an endless loop? What was that all about? If they really had an extra five minutes, I would have loved to have heard from some of the other contestants (like the reunion show that they do on Survivor).

So, Sean is the next apprentice, and will stay in New York instead of heading out to Hawaii. He must really like Trump to turn that down!

And now I think we’re really at the summer replacements. So far I’ve tivo’d a couple…more on that later this week!

A Week of Recaps...

So, I know that I am way behind on my blogging. No real reason other than the fact that there have been lots of Red Sox games on tv the past week, so I watched nearly all of the reality shows later on tivo. Come on – the Sox are in first place and just pounded the Yankees last night. It really doesn’t get better than that. So a few thoughts from the last week…

American Idol was rather anti-climatic as Elliott was finally voted off. It’s a shame really, since he has such an amazing voice. They really dragged out the results show, with all the footage of the top three’s visits home. In all that though, I felt really bad for Katharine. I know she lives in LA, but it seemed like no one really did anything for her. (especially compared to the hoopla surrounding Elliott & Taylor) And Ryan tried something new to drag out the results, giving the percentage of votes that each of the three contestants got. It was close, but no one should really be surprised that it was Elliott that went home. And even though I think that Chris should be in the finals, a Katharine-Taylor showdown will be pretty darn good.

The finale of The Amazing Race was fantastic. The hippies started with a definite advantage with the leg in Japan (who knew that they spoke Japanese?), and it really helped as they did the amusement park task (which, by the way, was amazing…I love coasters, but I don’t think I could have done that!). Even though Ray and Yolanda caught up at the airport, they had no money. I also loved that the race ended where it started – who saw that coming? Oh – just in case you were wondering where they all got the snow gear (because all of a sudden, the two teams who had no clothes or money were wearing parkas and snow pants), the teams are provided with snow gear from the producers (thank you Brennan for the info…Brennan, of course, won AR1). And the final roadblock was fantastic…it can’t always come down to luck! I was rooting for the frats, but I’m glad that the hippies won. They always had such a positive attitude, and really seemed to soak up the cultures of each place they went. It was a really fantastic season.

Finally, there was yesterday’s episode of The Apprentice. It’s been a good season, but the editing lately has been disappointing. It was clear early on that the girls were going to lose, and I was even thinking before they went to the boardroom that Trump might fire them both. Even though both teams asked the employees what they wanted, the guys actually listened to what the employees had to say. It seemed like Allie knew what she wanted to design, and was going to use that regardless of what the employees wanted. Culottes? Puffy sleeves? Does Allie live in the 80s? And Roxanne was right – she was unprofessional towards their designer…she didn’t even call him by the right name! So, no surprise that the boys won (although I was kind of surprised by how bad the girls’ designs were), and I wasn’t surprised to see Trump fire them both. It sets up a really good final next week – Lee and Sean are so different, it will be interesting to see how they both handle the final task (and what will happen if Sean is able to put Tammy on his team). There’s also some sort of element of audience voting this season…this might just be the sign that The Apprentice has jumped the shark. Back to baseball…

Down to the Final Four on The Apprentice

This was a confusing episode of The Apprentice. With only five contestants left, we’re getting down the nitty gritty. So you would think that the remaining five would be fighting tooth and nail to get to the final four.

The task itself was practically the same task as all the others – a sales and marketing task. I understand that it’s all about sponsors and product placement. But every task is the same. I can’t believe that sales ability is the only thing that Trump really wants in his apprentice.

Over on the boys team (Gold Rush? Who cares…) they were really smart about the signage, or so it seemed. For some reason, the guy they hired couldn’t deliver the signs when he said he would. I hope that they didn’t pay the guy – it almost ended up costing them in the end. But you just knew that they would pull out the win in the end when they started talking about the Walmart price tags everywhere. Because everyone loves a good Walmart ad.

So what were the girls doing? Well, poor Tammy was trying to pull together the task, and Roxanne and Allie wanted nothing to do with it. This is where I got confused. When they all got into the boardroom, why did Trump accept the constant eye rolling (or, as they called it, eyebrow raising) from Roxanne and Allie? Bill saw it, and Allie seems to do it all the time – you always see her giving those looks to Trump. I think Trump should have fired them both. And I really thought that he would, considering his piece of “business advice” at the beginning of the show was about traitors. But Tammy took the fall, and Allie and Roxanne survived another week.

So next week is the final four, and some sort of promise of audience voting this season. Oh boy…

No Rules, Just One More "You're Fired"

Another selling task on tonight’s episode of The Apprentice…does anyone else wish that they would bring back the tasks from season 1? Ok, maybe it’s just me…but the thing is that this is supposedly a “15 week job interview.” All Trump knows about these candidates is whether or not they are good salespeople. And while I’m sure that being a good salesperson also shows good business sense, they’re certainly not one in the same. I know, it’s all about the advertisers, but I already like Outback, so…well…you get the idea.

No surprise that when someone had to switch teams, Sean gladly volunteered. And also no surprise that the guys lost. (oh…I guess it also wasn’t surprising that Trump wanted to “check out the cheerleaders”…looking for his next wife maybe?) Whenever they show a team that is ridiculously confident about a task, they always lose. Especially when it’s a male-female thing. As I watched the buzz that the guys were generating I thought that maybe they would be the exception. But they priced their food too cheap (a blooming onion is nearly $10…selling it for $5 is a deal, selling it for $2 is absurd) and they had events that involved overhead. They had to pay for the money machine, the money that they paid out, the food for the eating contest, and the prize for that contest. I don’t think the girls spent any non-advertising money on their event.

Now, the strategy itself for the guys was good – Lee knew the types of things that attract college kids to an event. But they couldn’t follow through with sales.

The girls’ event wasn’t as spectacular (although I’m not sure the cheerleaders would have helped their strategy), but it was effective. First, they priced everything at $5 – cheap enough to appeal to college kids, but high enough to make a profit. Their prices also made the cash flow easy for everyone. The best part, though, was the concept of delivery. Not having to move made their sales pitch very inviting. Minimal effort, low prices, and great food, all delivered by cute girls who took the time to learn the Rutgers cheer? How could they lose?

I loved Sean’s take on the pre-boardroom scrambling. He’s right – there’s only 3 of them, so if you ask “who do you think should be fired?” there’s a 50% chance that it’ll be you. And how could Michael be surprised that he was fired? He knew that he spent too much time on the microphone. And his explanation about giving the girls a few cheerleaders as a gesture of good will was, well, lame. Carolyn was really upset about that – it’s simply a horrible business move. So Michael goes home…and Lee manages to stay alive another week.

Hair Raising Episode of The Apprentice

I guess that Trump has heard the chatter about his hair. So to kick off tonight’s episode of The Apprentice, he let Charmaine feel his hair. Wow.

The hair but was because the task for tonight involved the teams running the grand opening of two Hair Cuttery salons. So much for the non-advertisting motivated tasks. Oh well. On the surface, this seems like an easy task. Advertise, set up shelves, sell products. But of course, the teams always make it harder than it is.

Gold Rush decided that they really weren’t going to listen to Charmaine, and the boys just didn’t want to work for her. And while Lee had a point about advertising versus setting up shelves, that’s no reason to not work hard. They never seemed to have a plan (and why was Tarek so concerned about a theme when they never incorporated that theme??), and that disorganization made it clear that they were going to lose. Although I did appreciate watching Charmaine get her hair done while Bill was there, and Lee and Tarek drive around and talk about what they were going to wear into the boardroom.

Over at Synergy, there was a lot more organization, even though Sean was clearly on the outs with Allie and Roxanne. And some sort of strange romantic tension between him and Tammy. Did Sean actually talk about making beautiful babies after the show was over? Wow.

No surprises when Synergy won. And no real surprise that the boardroom was brutal. I hope I’m not the only one who loved Lee running around the suite beforehand, then saying that he was done with the “political” part of the boardroom. There was no question that Charmaine was going to be fired – she just didn’t do a good job at all leading. And then Trump somehow heard me saying “oh please, fire Tarek too…” and did, in fact, fire Tarek too. Trump had it out for Tarek all along, and this week Tarek did poorly enough he could finally get rid of him. And what a cab ride for the two of them.

Andrea goes home on The Apprentice

Last night’s episode of The Apprentice was really good. It was a great task, a good boardroom, and even though you knew what was going to happen about 10 minutes in, it was really enjoyable to watch.

I loved the task. Yes, there was a corporate sponsor (because there’s always a corporate sponsor), but that’s not what the task was about. It was creative, sales, and actually did something good for others. It was such a breath of fresh air – it was a lot more like the tasks on the original Apprentice where it wasn’t so much about selling crap.

I also loved that Trump’s kids were on the episode. His daughter is really pretty…Donald Jr….well…as Letterman would say, he’s a hump. I hope he’s nice, because he’s not a looker.

You just knew that Lee would pull out a win, and that Andrea was going to keep Synergy from winning. And even though Charmaine thought that they won in spite of Lee, he did a good job leading the team. It was such a good move to get up early and stake out their spot to sell. And even if Synergy had arrived at the same time, Gold Rush’s brochure was just so much nicer.

Which brings me to Andrea. I think that everyone knows someone like Andrea – someone who claims to be an expert in nearly every field, yet almost never is. She’s been talking for the whole season about her graphic design expertise, yet the brochure she designed was horrible. And there’s no way she is actually good at sales…she was actually driving people away. I also thought the way she handled criticism was appalling. A few weeks ago she didn’t take it well when Roxanne said she wasn’t as good as Allie; this week she just couldn’t handle it when the other girls said she was the weakest player. I would never want to hire someone who responded to criticism by name calling and foul language.

So, no surprise at all that Andrea was fired, although it was interesting that Allie didn’t even get the chance to bring her back. I think that Trump knew what had been going on all along. And did you just love that he told his kids at the end what a good job they did, then sighed…it was a great look on his face that he probably didn’t realize had been captured on film. Fabulous.

An extra episode of "The Apprentice"...more Trump for EVERYONE!

Two episodes of The Apprentice tonight – so an extra long blog! Woo hoo!!

The first episode’s task had them renovating rooms at tow Boys and Girls Clubs in NYC. And right off, Lenny showed that he’s not just an ineffective teammate – he’s also an ineffective leader. They got ready to meet with the executives, and it was just uncomfortable silence. Lenny had no idea what to ask the execs, and it didn’t seem like he even knew how to handle the meeting. I’m not sure he even understood what the Boys and Girls Clubs are. (can you just imagine him saying something about “what is this club? We don’t have clubs in Russia…”)

Even though he was much better prepared for their meeting with the executives, Michael couldn’t make a decision to save his life. Which paint to buy? Let’s ponder that for awhile. Did Bill just say that they met with the execs at 11 am? And they got back from buying the supplies at midnight? And I would have thought that Bill would have more sense then to look at Andrea in the midst of the chaos and ask how Michael was doing as a leader?

After watching the utter mess that Michael was making of things at Synergy, they cut to the utter mess that is Gold Rush. Bill is asking how Lenny is doing, and, inexplicably, Lenny isn’t there. He seems to be in a van driving the wrong way, and can’t believe that his three teammates back at the Boys and Girls Club haven’t finished the area.

At the presentation, Michael seemed to pull it out. Their room was really nice, and gave the kids lots of things to do. I loved that there were different areas, and they recognized that the kids don’t all need to be doing the same thing. At Gold Rush, their room wasn’t nearly as inviting, and Lenny’s presentation, was, well, lacking. It was no surprise that Synergy won.

Let me interject here a bit of my own platform. Two amazing charities were featured in tonight’s episode – The Boys and Girls Club and Make a Wish Foundation. These two organizations do so much for kids, and it was a welcome change to see an episode focused on helping others. Please – help support these organizations. Volunteer your time, donate your spare change, help these kids however you can.

Back in the suite, there was great footage of Lee prepping Lenny for the boardroom. I’m not sure why he’s so gung-ho about Lenny staying. When Lenny wants to say that his brain was completely off, let him. And then Lenny tells Lee that he’s most likely going to take Lee back in with him. That’s how you repay friendship and loyalty?

In the boardroom, Lenny was horrible. And Lee kept defending him up and down. If I were Trump I would fire both of them. Alas, I’m just a fan (although, Mr. Trump, I would love to sit in for George or Carolyn if you need someone…). But justice was served, and Lenny finally went home. How Lenny left was horrible. When Charmaine tried to shake his hand, he wanted nothing to do with it. You might not be the Apprentice, but you can still show good character.

The second episode was back to the usual tasks of selling a new product for one of the show’s sponsors. This one happened to be 7-11. You know, the home of the world’s largest soda? Well their new sandwich sounds like it couldn’t be grosser…two slices of pizza with deli meat in between. And the teams have to sell them, along with a promotional item.

Synergy gets rid of Michael, but are stuck with Andrea as their project manager. I have no doubt that she’s a good businesswoman. But she’s also a control freak, which isn’t always good on these tasks. Like when her team brainstormed ideas for promotional items, but she went with her hat idea anyways. Carolyn summed it up well – if someone tried to sell me a pizza sandwich with a free cap, I would keep on walking.

Over at Gold Rush, they’re already off to a bad start. Their promotional item is much better – a cooler bag – but their price point was way too high. I can’t figure out who would buy this sandwich to begin with, and certainly not for $7.99. Lee tried to say that the price was too high, but even his price point was too high. $4 a sandwich was much more reasonable.

Speaking of Lee, I thought his idea of clearing all the other sandwiches off of the shelf was brilliant. That’s what made the competition even close. Synergy’s marketing was much better – handing out those flyers the night before clearly made a difference. Although I did like Tarek’s selling technique…I believe his exact words were “[this sandwich] will completely change your whole concept of reality.” If that reality is a 7-11 sandwich for $8, well, I’ll be sticking with my reality, thanks.

In the end, Gold Rush lost, because of their high price point. Leslie only brought Lee back into the boardroom, which wasn’t smart at all. They lost the task on price, and if she had simply said that she was aware of that, and brought back everyone except Lee (since he argued for the lower price), she would have had a chance. So, no surprise that Leslie was the second casualty of the night. What a night.

Did you know that they don't have jingles in Russia?

Tonight, on a very special episode of The Apprentice…a team pulls together, only to ultimately fail. Oh, the humanity…

So, after a miserable task last week, Bryce started Gold Rush down the right path. He was a great leader – pulling them all together to attempt to end their bickering. And they really did work much better together than they had before. Bryce seemed to be a good leader – the type that people really respond to. Of course, good leadership can’t always fix bad decisions. Like, who schedules a meeting for 30 minutes from now? In New York City? In the rain? And then doesn’t leave for another 10-15 minutes. Did they not learn anything from last season? And Lenny. I don’t care if you don’t know what a jingle is. You’ve watched tv…you know what commercials are. Step up to the plate and stop playing the “I’m from Russia” card.

Over at Synergy, ladies man Sean has a much stronger team working for him. And with stronger players (and an on-time meeting with the execs), you’re bound to get a better product. Their jingle really was good – way better than most of what you hear on television. It was clear that they were the winners – now go eat your $4000 dinner.

Ok, so Gold Rush has to go to the boardroom (after a tearful moment in the suite), and this is when I started to get angry. Very angry. Lee missed this task because he was observing Yom Kippur. For those of you who don’t know, Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Jews spend the day in synagogue – no work or school. But because this was the second task that he missed, he came under fire from some members of his team. It bothers me that Bryce would bring him in to the boardroom. But it makes me angry that the producers put Lee in that position to begin with. How hard is it to look at a calendar and not schedule a task for Yom Kippur? It’s one day – have the task be the day before or after. Could you imagine the uproar if candidates were required to do a task on Christmas Day, and then were criticized for attending church instead of the task? Someone on this show has got to learn some tolerance.

So, Bryce brings back Lee and Lenny, which pretty much assures that he will be fired. He had to know that Trump would not risk the backlash of firing Lee for observing the holiday. And while it seemed like he was resigned to the fact he would be fired, he still should have fought a little harder. Did I miss the game for this?...

I’m such a nerd when it comes to reality television. I love all of it, and when it comes time for “scenes” (you know, scenes from the next week’s episode), I get so excited. But it’s such a pet peeve of mine – when the scenes and the show don’t really match. And for whatever reason, this is what played out on tonight’s episode of The Apprentice.

You see, in last week’s scenes, they teased the fact that tonight’s task involved advertising for a cruise line. The thing that they highlighted was the fact that if the teams didn’t get off the ship in time, they were stuck. And thanks to some clever editing, it really did look like one of the teams didn’t make it off, or at least had a problem with the task because of the time constraint. Of course, that wasn’t the case -- the time was barely a factor.

Anyways, both teams created reasonable advertisements for the cruise line, focused on the idea of “freestyle” cruising. And Synergy won, even with the fighting between Roxanne and Andrea. Their advertisement was just better – no one wants to go on a cruise with someone covered in seaweed. And their reward was amazing – I have never seen so many diamonds in one spot before. Did you see them? Holy moly. (and did you see the locks on the vault – I would SO love to see Ocean’s 11 crack that…)

So it’s time for the boardroom. And it looks for a brief moment that we will be rid of the annoyance that is Lenny. Sure, Lee seems to be in gold medal contention for best kiss-up. But the whole idea was Lenny’s. But for some reason, Dan chooses to bring back Tarek and Lee – not Lenny. Now I’m not on The Apprentice – I think we all know I wouldn’t last one task. But even I know, that when Trump asks you “would you like to bring back Lenny?”, you bring Lenny back. I mean, come on. And why does Tarek constantly get picked on? Is Trump really that insecure in his own intelligence? (imagine that thought process…Trump silently thinking “who’s smart now, Mensa boy?”) And I think that Tarek is right – his teammates know that he’s vulnerable, so they always bring him back.

So, because Dan didn’t bring back Lenny (which Trump essentially told him to do), Dan gets the axe. And we’re stuck with another week of Lenny-isms. Great. Thanks a lot Dan.

I do love a good pun. So when I saw that the title of tonight’s episode of The Apprentice, well, I had to giggle -- “Cereal Killers.”

Why the pun? Well, we’re back to a task where the contestants design an ad campaign for a new and improved product. Tonight’s product? Some sort of new Grape Nuts cereal. And like every other task like it, it would be judged by the executives at Post (or whatever company makes the product) – of course, usually Trump knows the names of the execs. Tonight, he introduced them by saying “your names please?”. That’s just got to make you feel good.

Right away at Synergy, it was clear that Brent was going to be a problem. And Tammy quickly put him in charge of clothing to keep him out of the way (which in itself is funny if you look at how Brent dresses). And she did a great job tactfully explaining to him that he wasn’t the image they wanted to portray to the executives for a healthy cereal. I think I would have just said “Seriously? You? But you’re such a fat slob…”.

On both teams, they figured out that they could get attractive models very cheap by just going out on the street. We know that Gold Rush paid their model $200 and a track suit; Synergy might have paid even less. Of course, I was impressed that Gold Rush got their model to just get into the van with them – I suppose that the NBC cameras helped a bit.

In the end, Synergy’s ad just wasn’t great for a billboard, even though they probably had a better concept. And I think that their ad would look great in a magazine – just not on a billboard. I also loved that Trump couldn’t wrap his brain around why you would assume that the older man was her father – what’s the age difference between him and his newest wife by the way?

I almost forgot – kudos to the cameraman (or woman) who caught the show that was Brent being late for the presentation. Nothing quite like big Brent walking around in his underwear, or carefully combing his hair so it looks like he slept on it. If I were his team, I would have just left him behind. I hate being late.

Anyways, going in to the boardroom, Brent was looking good – because he didn’t have any responsibilities, the loss couldn’t be pinned on him. As they walked in, I kept saying that his team needed to have him be project manager, follow his directions, take the loss, and finally be rid of him. But in the boardroom, Brent just couldn’t keep his mouth shut. For some reason, he felt the need to say that Tammy stunk, and proceed to slam Andrea as well. It was just a train wreck. If you’ve ever watched The Apprentice, you know that the best approach is to keep your mouth shut. No one was attacking Brent – no one was even talking about him. He completely brought the well-deserved criticism upon himself. And it’s no surprise that when Trump finally says the magic words to Brent – “you’re fired” -- you actually can see everyone else on the team breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness.

I have a big problem with tonight’s episode of The Apprentice. And it’s not what you might think.

My problem has nothing to do with the task – in fact, I really liked the task (but more on that later). The problem I have is the timing of the task. Why was a task scheduled on Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish holiday that Lee and Dan were off celebrating)? Rosh Hashanah is one of the most sacred holidays of the year. Observant Jews do not work – they spend the day in synagogue. It would be like planning a task for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Why place Lee and Dan in that awkward situation instead of postponing the task two days? It makes no sense to me. Trump was clearly aware of the situation (George was off for the holiday as well), yet didn’t change the scheduling. And for Lenny to question why they would put their faith above a television show is absurd. He should have been fired just for that.

Ok, off of my soapbox. I did like the task. Yes, it was full of product placement (and why do we always have to have product placement?), but there was more to the task than the truck. Planning a corporate retreat is a lot more involved than just creating an advertising campaign. I loved Synergy’s concept, and the fact that they had a theme. Tariq over at Gold Rush understood that too – too bad his teammates didn’t. You knew that they were going to lose when you heard that their concept was to have a horse and carriage, models, and a comedian. Yikes. Even with Brent and his busy work, you knew that Synergy would win. I think that at this point, Andrea and Allie have got to be favorites to win it all.

Not a favorite to win it all? Lenny. Oh Lenny. What is the deal with Lenny? First, he’s being ridiculously disrespectful by questioning Dan and Lee’s choice to observe Rosh Hashanah. Then we hear him talk about how he’s Jewish too, and he’s like the Israeli army. (what?) And of course, we get to see him “do everything” at the event. My guess is that if the cameras weren’t there, and they hadn’t signed a million page contract, Lenny would have been slugged by now.

The other person who I don’t understand is Tariq. Why is Trump always so hard on him? My only thought is that it is editing – either because he really messes up in a future episode OR because he ends up in the final two (and they want to throw us off). You heard it here first.

So, we get to the boardroom, and for some reason Theresa doesn’t bring back Charmaine, even though the two lowest parts of their retreat (the models and the comedian) were her responsibility. Bringing Charmaine back would have bought Theresa at least another week or two. So, Theresa is gone, and Tariq promises to step it up (even though Trump adds “if you can”). Very very strange.

Next week – “The Brent Show.”

On The Apprentice tonight, we learned about text messaging. Wait. Did Donald Trump actually explain to us what a text message is? Oh boy…

The task for tonight involved creating a text messaging campaign for the new Fusion razor. They didn’t show a whole lot of the task itself (which is probably a good thing), but they did let us see some of the characters.

At Synergy, Brent continued to be a distraction, and actually seemed to threaten one of his teammates. And when his entire team decided that he should be sent home, Pepi didn’t have the guts to do it. I don’t know which is worse – the distraction that is Brent, or Pepi not doing anything about that distraction. If they lose, Pepi could go home for not dealing with him.

The big story at Gold Rush seemed to be Lenny. What is the deal with Lenny? I can’t stand listening to him talk. It has nothing to do with his strange accent – it’s what he’s saying. At what point did he become an expert? And aside from his ridiculously negative comments, the way he talks to Lee and his teammates is just so disrespectful. Someone who is disrespectful will never get far in business. Of course, I’m guessing that he’ll last awhile on the show – he’s in half the previews for this season.

So, after getting a late start (which I really don’t understand why they wouldn’t be up and out as early as possible), Synergy hit the streets in their bathrobes and slippers. Which, in my town, would cause some attention. But in New York, no one really noticed. Somehow, instead of switching locations or game plans, the idea was to have Brent dance to attract text messages. Brent – I hope you read this – your “dancing” and “robotics” are not talents.

In the end, it wasn’t a huge surprise that Gold Rush won, or even that they won by such a large margin. I was, though, pleasantly surprised at their reward. A moment on my soapbox – there are organizations throughout the country like the one highlighted tonight. You can donate your suits to these organizations to help out men and women who have fallen on hard times. You probably have a suit in your closet that you don’t wear – donate it tomorrow.

Anyways, I appreciate the fact that we got so much boardroom footage. And even though the editing was a little bit funky, Trump was on his game. And with Bill and Ivanka (where are George and Carolyn??), Trump was really the star. In the end, Trump fired Stacey & Pepi. I understood firing Pepi – he really didn’t do a good job leading the team. But Stacey over Brent? If Brent had kept his mouth shut, the entire task would have gone differently. And Brent’s smug little look as he boarded the elevator at the end was enough to make you hurl. My only thought is that because Trump knows that he won't last long, he and Mark Burnett (who does consult on the decisions) decided to keep Brent around for the good tv. It's the Omarossa factor, really. Sigh...

Who would have thought that I would ever be so glad to see Donald Trump? But after the debacle that was Skating With Celebrities, if I could have jumped through the screen and hugged him I would have. Thank you, Donald Trump, for The Apprentice.

This looks to be a great season. As the contestants introduced themselves, they seem to be the most qualified yet. In classic Mark Burnett fashion, we have another schoolyard “pick ‘em” to decide the teams. And just as I love it on Survivor, I loved it on The Apprentice. The teams seem to be evenly matched, and each has its own share of characters.

Oh characters. There’s Brent, the large and loud attorney who created his own diet and lost 100 pounds. (did he really suggest getting a karaoke machine??) Then there’s Lenny, “the Russian” (I love that Trump called him that) who doesn’t seem to have any real talent other than laughing at others. And who can forget Summer. Oh Summer.

How could she not make the phone calls that she said she would? While she might have had a valid point that calling during the dinner rush isn’t the best time, that’s no reason to not make the calls. And my personal pet peeve, why didn’t she pull her hair back? I just don’t think it’s professional to have you hair all over the place like that – it’s business, not a date.

Anyways, the task itself was incidental – you could tell it was going to be close. Both teams had reasonable sales plans, even if Tariq kept calling his giveaways “gift bags” (it would have helped a lot if he had called them duffel bags, so no one was thinking they were getting a bag full of stuff). And while I kind of thought that Allie’s team would win, it was no surprise how close it was.

My favorite part of the show is always the boardroom, and tonight’s was great. I loved that Carolyn looked at Summer and asked her flat-out what she contributed to the task. And I think that she said knowledge of the product, which would have made me a great part of the team. And Lenny & Lee lost a lot of my respect when they were laughing at Tariq – I think that speaks a lot less of them than of Tariq. And at the end, even though Summer ended up getting herself fired, it spoke highly of her that she tried to explain (at least it looked like she was trying to explain) the whole empty gift bags vs. duffel bags thing. Honesty will always get you far in the game of life.

So, it’s goodbye to Summer. And next week we get the battle of the wackos.