All right, after a week with no show, it's now the 9th week of the most famous (and most likely only) 15-week-long interview! Even though two episodes aired in one night two weeks ago, I felt a bit bereft last week with no Apprentice.
After the recap of the last episode's firing (Leslie), Lee made a huge faux pas upon his return to the candidates' suite. Instead of saying that Leslie fought the hardest of any of the folks with whom he's been in the Boardroom, he said: "She fought the hardest of any of those I've fired." Delusions of grandeur there, Lee? While I think he has lots of great ideas, especially when it comes to marketing and focus, he's the youngest candidate there and has been brought into the Boardroom more than any of those remaining on the show. Methinks he's gotten a bit cocky.
The candidates met up with Donald Trump, his son (Donald, Jr.) and daughter Ivanka in the lobby of the Trump International Hotel and Tower. Representatives from Ameriquest, the sponsor of the task ahead, were also there. This week's task had the candidates designing a souvenir tourist program for Ellis Island that would include historical bits, photos and such. Ellis Island, of course, is where 12 million immigrants arriving in the United States entered the country from 1892 through until 1954. The main building was reopened as a museum in 1990 and is a part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Proceeds from the sales of the brochures made by the teams will go to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
Teams had to take a Circle Line boat to the island. Those run on a fairly regular schedule around Manhattan daily. Lee decided he had to be the Project Manager for Gold Rush and, if they lose, he knows he's history. Allie stepped up to the plate as the Project Manager for Synergy. Again, Lee's ability isn't necessarily that of a true leader. He delegated Tarek and Michael to go to the island and take the photos needed for the task while he and Charmaine stayed in Manhattan trying to cold call hotels in attempt to sell bulk copies. That wasn't all that fruitful and I personally think he left Tarek too much in charge. Perhaps it was the right path with the final outcome, but if they lost would he blame Tarek? He made a few excellent decisions otherwise, though.
The whole Synergy team went to Ellis Island and, not surprisingly, Andrea balked at Allie's leadership. Allie wanted them to explore around and take notes. Andrea thought they should just get the pictures and snag all the brochures already offered to use for content ideas. Uh-oh! Tammy was the note-taker and left her notes behind as they were leaving the island. So, half the team took off, the rest remained until they could catch the next boat. Andrea decided, since she's a graphics expert, she'd create the brochure cover layout. (May I roll my eyes here, please?) It was bad. It was so bad. Thankfully, Allie stuck to her guns about how bad it was despite Andrea's nastiness about things. "I heard you deep sigh me! Don't deep sigh me," ranted Andrea. Hee hee!
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Article comments
1 - Clubstyle_DJ
Ding Dong The BISH is DEAD...(just had to make the first comment) I'll interject more L8R. (shhhh i'm in a big meeting)
CSDJ
2 - Rodney Welch
Glad to see Lee rescue Gold Rush from a fifth straight loss. I think that really says something about him. I think he and Allie will make it to the final four.
3 - Clubstyle_DJ
Once again Ding Dong the bish is dead... I had her set to be fired in the fantasy game and CHANGED it... Clubstyle_DJ "lesson of the day"... 'NEVER second guess yourself...If it feels good going down and sets good in yer tummy then go ahead and digest it.' The editors had Andrearosa shifted into "overbish" t'nite...I knew from the start she was gone... although I have to admit it wasn't entirely her fault. The leadership was a little shotty. I swear that guy doing the tour was the guy from "Hitch" with Will Smith (cute movie BTW)...anyway maybe it's the uniform...I digress.
Allie showed the little demon that lives within her little preppie body OMG. She lost a little credibility for me t'nite. Nice win Lee but yer still a gonner. Charmine "deep sigh" for you. I think i'll call my final four after the next epi.
Here's how i did fantasy wise. (dismal) but i'm having fun? question/my answer/right answer
ClubStyle_DJ predicts
Points: 500
Overall Rank: 639
Percentile: 96th
Rank Change: -205
1. Prior to the task which candidate will want to be the project manager?
Lee Lee
2. Who will be the project manager for Gold Rush Corporation?
Lee Lee
3. Who will be the project manager for Synergy Corporation?
Tammy Allie
4. Which Gold Rush candidate will say he/she are excellent at inside sales?
Lee Charmaine
5. Which candidate will lose all her/his notes for the task?
Tammy Tammy
6. Which Synergy candidate will Allie consider to be terrible at sales?
Andrea Andrea
7. Which one of the candidates will not want to backstab anyone?
Charmaine Sean
8. In the boardroom, who will Mr. Trump call a good speaker?
Allie Roxanne
9. How many people will the losing project manager bring back to the final boardroom?
None
10. Which candidate will be fired?
Tammy Andrea
4 - Dynamo of Eternia
Well, I was really glad to see Andrea get fired. It's about time. She's just been pushy beyond belief. She seems to think that all of her ideas are instant gold and anyone who has an alternate idea is wrong and horrible. (And her whole hat idea for the pizza project was stupid, even though she thought it was instant gold).
Jackie,
In regards to you being surprised about Trump's reaction to Andrea being a problem, I don't think Trump always knows everything that is going on. I think he really only gets whatever George and Carolyn (or whoever is replacing them when they aren't there, in this week's case it was Donald's kids) report back to him. And they are often around to only see portions of what is happening. I don't think (though I could be wrong) that Trump actually gets and of the footage being filmed to view before the boardrooms happen (particularly considering that the boardrooms happen pretty much right after the tasks are complete). And since they give Trump a summary of what they saw, some pieces and details of what they saw could be forgotten and overlooked in the summary. And that combined with anything that George, Carolyn, or their replacements don't see means a lot of info is often left out.
I've often seen boardrooms where I wonder why certain issues aren't brought up that I feel should have been as it would have a strong effect on who stays and who goes, but if none of the candidates think to mention it and if neither of the reporting party's noticed it, then it just goes overlooked.
In this case, Andrea had won as project manager, and her team was just on a winning streak overall. Most anything that Trump heard or saw of her up to that point was probably otherwise good, so he just wasn't aware of the negative stuff that was going on the rest of the time. I don't think that she was unfairly attacked. She had it coming. And if bulk sales are her specialty, then why the hell didn't she bring that up from the start of the task? She's no where near as good as she thinks she is.
As far as Lee goes on the Gold Rush team, he wasn't that great of a leader for the most part. Most of the work was done by Tarek (which would have been nice if Trump had been made more aware of that since he's kind of had it in for Tarek for a while). The idea of getting up really early to get a head start was a good one, but that didn't exactly take a genius to come up with a plan like that.
I guess I would say that Lee deligated things fairly well since the end result was clearly good. Part of being a good manager is knowing when to put things into the hands of others who are qualified to carry out the task in question. It's too bad that the bulk sale thing didn't go as well as they had hoped, but they did get the one sale for 100 of their brochures, so it wasn't a total waste.
But I do think Lee is getting more credit than he deserves at this point. He's dodged the bullet a few too many times. He tends to stay in the background a lot to avoid being the brunt of blame. He's missed two taskes because of religious holidays (I don't mean to judge someone on their religious beliefs and I respect the fact that he is religous, but it that doesn't exactly chalk up any positive points in his favor either). I mean, if he somehow manages to make it to the point where he is one of only two candidates left (which I doubt he will), is he going to miss the final task if it falls on a religious holiday?
At any rate, he is less than impressive, but he's just been in a lot of positions where someone else did a worse job so they get fired instead or in this case, where he's getting a lot of credit for a task that he really did very little on. It's not that he's really done a bad job or anything, it's just that he really hasn't done anything period, for the most part anyway. It will be interesting to see how long he lasts.
5 - ClubStyle_DJ
Hey I know they already won but...100 programs for 85.00 bucks...If ya do the math 1 for 3bucks translates to about 300.00 for 100 no? and hell the 2 for 5 should have netted a better buck than that deal...maybe i don't know bulk sales but... Sounds like a loss if ya could get 100 for 85 bucks. I know it doesn't matter but...talk about price point...The buyer jumped all over that deal, and they took it without a hint of negotiation ... course it was a sight unseen purchase i think?
6 - Brent
I wouldn't have been surprised by a double firing. Andrea wasn't much good but anyone with half a brain should remember the mantra "location, location, location" particularly since Gold Rush beat them in the Razor's Edge task in exactly the same way - by getting up early and seizing the best location before the ohter guys woke up. The brochure may have been crap but they'd have had better sales if they'd either been competing from the start or there first. Apparently they didn't want to miss their beauty sleep though.
7 - Jackie
Sorry I'm a day late (and perhaps a dollar short) getting back to y'all - I conked out early last night! Onto the comments --
CSDJ - Heh...you just couldn't wait and had to sneak a comment in at work! As for your real comment: I agree with your assessments, although Allie didn't slip as much with me. I don't think any of those will be in the final four, either. Who I'm more impressed with each week is Roxanne. I don't think she's the best leader, per se. But, I think her people skills are perhaps the best of the bunch.
Tarek is getting his act together as a worker, but can he lead? Well, perhaps he can lead his team over a cliff or something!
I can see where you slipped in the rankings. We'll expect you to redeem yourself with your answers next week!