The Apprentice

It's unlikely there is a precedent for this "case." It's almost a legal conundrum. The contestant so far isn't suing so something is certainly going on behind the scenes (as usual). The waiver would included not divulging anything about the show which would jeopardize its authenticity. I'm not convinced it's not more theater than reality.

This was a good episode. Pamela sure got OWNED when Trump announced they lost.


The boys are going to go to bed happy after spending a day w/Anna. I couldn't stop laughing at Raj trying to hit her balls. The boy had no coordination.

Pamela
I have never been impressed by Pamela. Nevertheless, she was a strict taskmaster. She took control of those women whether they liked it or not. She didn't put up with any of their crap. She stopped Lil Stacy from her constant interruptions with her loud mouth when other people are talking.

Pamela had to treat the women like children because they act like children. Pamela would not allow petty squabbles and personality conflicts to take over. If she had not been a strict taskmaster, the women would have been at each other's throats like usual.

Pamela had never worked with the women before. She has been with the other team. She has not had an opportunity to observe and assess the individual strengths and weaknesses of the women on any of their previous tasks. Inasmuch as Trump dictated that Pamela would switch teams and directed that Pamela would be the project manager, Pamela did the only thing she could do.

Pamela interviewed each of the women, asked them about their strengths, and relied on their statements concerning their strengths and their desired task assignments when she delegated the work.

This is the first week wherein the women were actually reined in and their big mouths and personality conflicts did NOT cause extreme havoc. The women lost by $10.00 in gross sales.

In the boardroom, Pamela explained why she chose to bring Maria and Stacy in with her. Pamela was right on: Maria had misrepresented her abilities and Stacy is constantly spouting off her mouth without contributing much to the team.

I couldn't believe that Trump accused Pamela of not being able to assess people and always being wrong on her opinions. Given what little time Pamela had to assess her new team members, I thought she was right on the money. Additionally, she was able to control those childish women when no other project manager had even come close.

Although we don't like Pamela, both my honey and I were booing "the Donald" for the reasons he gave for eliminating Pamela. She didn't deserve to be fired this week.

Stacie speaks out:

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/staciej928

That's how I felt about Pamela's firing, Debra, the only difference is that I did like her a bit - she has a sense of humor.

My favorite by far is Raj, but I doubt he'll win.

I find both Maria and Stacie R. extremely irritating. I can't wait until each has her turn.

Ditto Debra! I thought the same thing. Some one did point out to me that in the closing credits there is small writing that states something along the lines that the producers do have input on the decisions Trump makes. As much as Pamela is just a bit too much a dictator, she is a 100 times better than other two that were in the boardroom with her.

I discovered the re-run on Saturday and it goes into a lot more detail from the boardroom. From the Thursday show I disagreed with Donald's decision as well...but after seeing the Saturday show I understand why he made the decision he did.

He really based in on that task. He didn't go back to the other tasks and bring issues from those. So based on that one task I see why he did what he did.

I do agree that Pam is 100% better than the other two. I don't see one of the women being the ultimate winner...and as Caroline said "I'm embarassed to be a business woman"

I too recently discovered the Saturday version and find it the better of the two. In addition to showing more boardroom activity, it compresses the pre-boardroom activity making it move faster. If i were to watch just one, I would definitely watch the Saturday version. Actually, I tape and watch both.

Debra--

I agree completely with your analysis. Pamela was a hard ass, but considering the group she was dealt, I felt she was 95% justified.

Maria flat out lied. She did purport herself to be "the spokesperson". I think Trump fires women he finds less attractive. Stacie also weaselled out of her job in finding the price. Pamela only did it because Stacie couldn't handle the pressure. Either Stacie or Maria should have gone before Pamela, IMO.

Looksism.

Sidebar-- Trump recently said he deeply regretted that he didn't date Princess Diana. <incredulous>

(on VH1 right now)

The Apprentice
* They use the same taxi every single time. Suitcases are empty when you see them take them to the boardroom and no one is leaving on a different elevator. Each person is filmed leaving in a taxi on day 1, even the winner on the 1st apprentice.

(fyi) - I dislike Jennifer M. She's a blonde who hasn't been in the spotlight much. There have been moments though where she's defended those who have been booted, but I hated her reasoning in doing so. I hate that she slides by under the radar every week.

Raj makes me smile.

I am hoping John gets booted b/c he was a terrible leader. Sure, Raj didn't contribute much in this task, but this just wasn't his thing. He sure "tried" to be involved, though I admit it was unproductive.

I wanted the guys to win this task.

guys vs. gals
I was anxious for the women to lose again. Too bad they won. Now blinking Maria has immunity for a week.

I'm not impressed with any of the women. Because she floats under the radar, Jennifer M. is likely to last the longest of any of them.

Poor John. He was a nice guy, but I agree that he didn't take control of his team. Kelly took control when he saw the need to do so and tried to keep the team organized and focused.

"There can be only one."

I'm going to miss the reedited version tonight, since it's preempted by
Nascar. If anyone discovers it in a different time slot, please let us know.
I would have been taping it anyway since baseball takes priority.

I forgot that Maria gets immunity this time around. Shucks!

I couldn't believe John didn't take Raj to the boardroom. Well, I'm sure it's because Raj was "a friend" esp. since Raj had the same opinion as John for who should get the boot. Raj was a disturbance and played harder than he worked, so I guess I agree that John just made too many mistakes.

Stacy
Joahaeyo:

I was so PLEASED that Stacy finally got the boot this week. Of the remaining contenders on the Mosaic team, I like Kelly the best. He's a hard worker, organized, and focused.

I'm having a difficult time choosing my favorite on the Apex team. Perhaps Kevin.

I really don't care much for any of the women. Sad. I was getting really upset when Jennifer was clipping the dogs' claws and they were yelping in pain. If you clip the claws appropriately, it doesn't HURT. She was clipping into the LIVE part of the claw---and then she bragged because she only had two bleeds.

So--who do you like so far on each team?

Everybody needs to put in their input or they'll start calling this board the Debra_Law, Linkat, and Joah board. haha





Me too!! Glad to see the little squeeky munchkin gone. Kelly is my favorite too for the reasons you stated, AND think he would make a great leader for Trump, but something tells me it may be someone else. Kelly isn't an "exciting" character, so some of my friends say. We'll see. He definitely knows what he's doing (w/o the added drama others bring).

I'm laughing b/c I'm glad someone else noticed the whole dog clipping thing. Then when they guy said "sometimes they bleed" ........ he forgot to include it can be quite obvious to the line/point you should stay ahead of. That beagle scared me though.

The only one that stands out in my mind is Kelly. Raj is the most entertaining and to be honest, he is a lot brighter than I would have expected. Of course I know he would have trouble being taken seriously in a company. To ME, he needs someone OVER him (leadership wise). The rest I either have no opinion about or think they are drama queens.

I think that Kelly is the most obvious winner overall, but who knows for sure. So far he has shown himself to be the best overall in all different situations. Didn't he even draw a few sketches with the designer on the last episode?

I thought Jennifer did a decent job (at least as far as the women go) as a group leader. But I agree with the nail clippings. Some one should not do that unless they have had some experience with it.

I could not stand big mouth either. I cannot believe that she stayed on so long. All she did was stand than and yak. She did nothing. I remember that one women complaining - here I am working my butt of and she will not even get me a drink of water.

And that other guy complaining it is beneath him to wash dogs - what an ass.

So this begs the question, "how do they predict the clothes that the fired person wears to the boardroom?"

Do they also already know on day one who is going to be fired each time?

Re: Pamela


I agree completely. I think that Pamela was not given a fair hand (but that's business, right?). She was given a group of strangers whom she did not know.

The women had never congealed and become a team. They lost huge every time. They were all backstabbing bitches. Naturally, they hated Pamela, who was a) a stranger, b) their leader by appointment, not election, c) older and wiser.

To Pamela's credit, she totally, 100% switched loyalty to her new team. Then she took that untrained herd and pulled them together to wind up with a narrow loss.

While I agree with George that even $10 short is still the losing bid, I would look at the track record. The women's team had been losing handily, then with their new leader lost by a very small percentage. This is an upward trend in my view, and a definate positive sign.

I would totally hire Pamela to manage my staff.

I wish the women had lost the next task, but it was hard for them not to win--I mean, design a women's clothing line? They won that by luck, and not cohesiveness.

They had a great designer who basically did everything for them, including having the outfits designed cut and sewn overnight. The men, besides being totally out of their element, had a high-fashion designer who was disorganized, and didn't get anything done.

On this task, I was left confused, however. The show did not explain just who was supposed to do what duties, and it seemed that the women just left it in the hands of their designer, then they went out to dinner, without another worry in the world.

The men seemed like they had to take on more duties themselves and without guidance. I felt like the show did not explain the scenario well enough.

It also did not explain how it was that the men talked to potential buyers and asked what they wanted and what price points and they built their line accordingly, but the women did not seem to do that kind of research yet sold much more product. This seemed like a big hole in the plot so to speak.

I must say that I really liked the women's designs better, but the mens looked more like the stuff you see on fashion runways.

General, I haven't noticed really what they wore to the boardroom (if it was just 1 or 2 outfits), but they did note there were a lot of inconsistency's. Sometimes a girl's hair was up, but she went into a cab with it down, etc.