Apprentice Blog

Only two of the original 14 celebrities left standing...for the prize of $1 million going to the Celebrity Apprentice’s chosen charity! Again, congratulations to Mark Burnett and Donald Trump for bringing much-needed attention to some really amazing charities.

Task: For this season’s finale the celebrities had to work together to run a charity auction and concert event. The final two would be evaluated on who raised the most money in the auction and on ticket sales.

Team Trace: Trace Adkins chose Lennox and Marilu to help him provide the catering, entertainment and decor for the event. The special musical guests at the event were the Backstreet Boys, or as Trace liked to refer to them - the BSBs. It became clear very quickly that a big issue for Trace would be providing all the special items the BSBs wanted in their dressing room - like special peanut butter, black fingernail polish and wheatgrass juice!

Team Piers: Piers Morgan chose Stephen Baldwin as his first pick and ended up with Carol Alt as the last pick for his team. Carol was responsible for the auction and catering. Piers was running a charity auction and his strategies were to get some really amazing prizes up for bid and to bring in some of the wounded soldiers from his charity, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.

Key Success Factor - Keep Your Cool Under Pressure!

Piers - Over the course of the task, Stephen and Piers had a special moment in the van and apologized to each other for their earlier issues. But with three hours to go, Piers began to panic because Stephen couldn’t get anyone to commit to come to the event. Piers made the decision early on to give away a lot of tickets to wounded soldiers, so they could be at the event and set the tone for why people should bid. Piers also used the tactic of trying to get the wait staff to reduce the food and increase the alcohol to loosen up the crowd’s wallets to hopefully raise more money. Some interesting tactics that would reinforce what people thought about him - but which could also prove to be effective at pumping up the numbers.

Trace - He was depending on his country music star friends to support him. Quite a few did show up, including Ronnie Milsap and Montgomery Gentry. A lot of the logistics of getting the stage set up really started getting to Trace. However, his wife showed up with his two little girls and he realized what was really important and settled back into his “groove.” But just as he was settling down, one of the BSBs twisted his knee and Trace had to figure out where to find a knee brace and some wheatgrass juice to ensure they would perform.

The Auction Starts - Big $s Count!

The auction brought in a lot of money.

Some highlights for Piers’s side...

• Christie’s Auction House - $18K!
• Tea with the Duchess of York - $100K!
• Dinner with Trace Adkins - $6K for Ivanka!
• A Night with the Osbourne’s - $100K!
• Shopping with Ivanka Trump - $100K by none other than Simon Cowell!

Things looked pretty good for Piers...and you could tell Trace was sweating.

The Concert Kicks into Gear and the BSBs Take the stage

The audience really got into the concert and the event was an overall success. The six contestants shared a moment watching the BSBs and Trace and Piers both expressed their strong feelings about the collective team.

The Taped Boardroom Begins!

• Lennox - said they have different styles, but he picked Trace as his favorite.
• Carol - said Piers was the best because he raised almost $300K more for the auction than Trace.
• Stephen - said he didn’t agree with Piers’ methodology of trying to get bidders drunk so they would put more money into the auction.

Live Boardroom

In the live Boardroom, Piers and Trace both had their supporters. Everyone felt pretty strongly that Trace was the “good guy” and Piers was the evil business guy. Gene Simmons put his vote in for Trace via “closed circuit” in his typical genius and insolent manner - while on a break from filming a new movie in Japan.

Trace was supporting The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, which helps educate and find solutions for people with severe food allergies. And the audience was lucky enough to hear Trace sing his #1 hit “You’re gonna miss this!”

Piers was supporting the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund Center, which provides prosthetics and therapy for severely wounded soldiers. Piers felt strongly that there is no greater or better sacrifice than supporting those who have defended our country. The wounded soldiers at the live event got a standing ovation from the crowd.

Both celebrities made very eloquent statements about why they should have won. But Donald made the correct decision and picked Piers as the Celebrity Apprentice, even though Donald acknowledged Trace’s amazing qualities, because of Piers’ effectiveness in business. I guess the lead-in tagline still holds true: It isn’t personal, it’s business!

But the biggest winners of all were...all the charities that received additional exposure and the more than $1M raised because of this season of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Congratulations to all the Celebrities!

First of all, I want to say hats off to Mark Burnett and Donald Trump for coming up with the best concept for The Apprentice yet - an all-celebrity cast where every task is based on raising funds for charity. This season there really are no losers!!!

The task was to create the best commercial to sell Pedigree dog food to raise awareness of Pedigree’s Dog Adoption Drive. Gene Simmons and Nely Galán were selected by their respective teams to be the project managers. The teams picked Nely based on her TV expertise, but sometimes, as we’ve seen on many of The Apprentice tasks, the expert should not be the leader, they should just be the expert and let someone else focus on leading. Gene’s dominating presence during Task 1 made him a shoo-in for project manager for the men - but that dominating presence can also backfire!

Lesson:  You don’t have to make the subject matter expert the leader.

Nely led the women’s team in a little kumbaya to bolster morale and get the creative juices flowing, while the men’s team argued points until Stephen Baldwin brought up his 20+ years of film experience to capture the role of director for the commercial. Gene and Stephen clearly have a good rapport going. Not the case for Gene and Ivanka. Gene, in an apparent attempt to keep his vision a secret, made the very unfortunate mistake of rebuffing Ivanka when she came in to monitor the team’s progress. Not only did he rebuff her, he was rude about it. I can understand operational security, but it is not a good idea to insult the judge, even less of a good idea when she’s Donald’s daughter. That will come back to haunt him, if not on this task then on a future task.

Lesson:  Don’t insult the judge, especially when she is the boss’s daughter.

Marilu Henner was instrumental in writing the script and doing much of the directing on the women’s commercial. However, once again the women forgot to use their star power. They seemed a little disorganized and none of the shots looked compelling.

Lesson:  Learn from your prior mistakes, in this case - use star power.

After shooting all the scenes, Gene and Stephen basically booted the other five guys out of the editing booth so they could work in peace. Tito and the rest of the crew decided they didn’t want to leave their fate in Gene and Stephen’s hands. Tito led the group back to the editing booth and voiced his concern about being kicked out, but Gene and Stephen were insistent about being left alone to finish. This was a strong move by Tito, as I also wouldn’t have left it up to Gene and Stephen either. Tito is a competitive mixed martial arts fighter and that competitive spirit is what drives him in the cage and in business. They are all playing to win for their charities and Tito wants to contribute. Now Tito’s got some defense in the boardroom if the men’s team loses; however, he’s now become something of an antagonist to Gene and Stephen - two very strong players.

Lesson:  Sometimes less is more - not all tasks require the whole team.

Both teams then presented their commercials to Donald and the Pedigree VP of Marketing. The women’s team wore color-coordinated outfits and for the men, Gene, in a theme of consistency, was completely insolent. From the short pieces that aired, the men’s team clearly delivered the better commercial. Pedigree liked one of the commercials so much they plan to use it at the Westminster Dog Show. In the boardroom, Gene apologized to Ivanka and after watching both commercials in full, the men’s team won handily.  

Lesson:  Admit when you’re wrong and always use star power.

Nely decided to bring Nadia and Carol back into the boardroom with her, but there didn’t seem to be much reasoning behind those choices. Nely may be in trouble . . .

When they returned to the boardroom, Nely did not do a good job of defending herself. However, Carol dealt the death blow to Nadia when she said that Nadia could not be a leader and Nely reinforced that message. Nadia seemed confused, Carol kept quiet, and Nely described herself as exceptional.  In the end, Donald made the decision to fire Nadia because he thought Nely had more potential and that Nadia hadn’t showed leadership qualities. I would have fired Nely, as she was responsible for the overall delivery and Nadia wasn’t responsible for the loss.

Lesson:  Have a good reason for your choices and defend yourself when the time comes.