This season’s Celebrity Apprentice television show on Sunday evenings on NBC has given viewers plenty of drama and some suspense. The show for this time around should be renamed to “Where in the world is Sharon Osbourne?” She has been ill and absent from the popular reality TV series.
Bits of drama over the past two weeks have come from Brett Michaels worrying about a diabetes diagnose for his daughter. And, Trace Adkins, country and western singer/songwriter who appeared on the Apprentice two years ago returned this week to daringly disagree with the Donald on his boardroom firing.
Celebrity Apprentices
The show started the season with fourteen celebrity contestants including:
- William Goldberg, actor/wrestler
- Curtis Stone, master chef, bestselling author
- Brett Michaels, award-winning, multi-platinum singer, songwriter and producer
- Carol Leifer, a standup comedian and Emmy-nominated writer
- Sharon Osbourne, wife of rock superstar Ozzy Osbourne, talk show host, reality show star
- Summer Sanders, Olympic swimmer, Today show correspondent
- Selita Ebanks, model
- Darryl Strawberry, legendary baseball player
- Holly Robinson, actress and author
- Maria Louise Kanellis, wrestling diva and aspiring fashion designer
- Michael Johnson, 200/400-meter sprinter
- Rod Blagojevich, ousted Illinois Governor
- Cyndi Lauper, Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter
- Sinbad, comedian
The eight remaining are William Goldberg, Curtis Stone, Brett Michaels, Sharon Osbourne, Summer Sanders, Holly Robinson, Maria Louise Kanellis, and Cyndi Lauper.
The Week’s Competitive Task
The groups were charged with selecting one of two new country artists and then completing a professional makeover for each. The women selected Emily West and the men selected Luke Bryan. Industry experts judged each group on the overall makeover, a press kit, magazine interview, and a performance.
This is the first week the women’s team experienced disharmony in the group. Last week the team suffered one its three losses and it caused high levels of tension. The women’s team did win this week and has seemingly settled their differences after leaving the boardroom.
Stress, tension, and an overly dominant player (Lauper) caused the group to harbor anger and discontent toward this week’s project manager, Cyndi Lauper. Sounds like any office in any profession in any city across the world.
Sharon Osbourne, who many bloggers pegged her to win this year, has been noticeably absent for several shows. Actually, she missed the entire show last week and parts of shows almost since the beginning of the season. She did make an appearance midway through this week’s show.
Apparently she has been ill but nobody on the show is saying what the illness has been. Those fans of the Osbourne’s reality show will remember that she allowed cameras to film parts of her colon cancer battle and recovery.
You're Fired
The boardroom, led by the Donald himself, included his son Donald, Jr. and special guest Trace Adkins. Trace completed The Apprentice a few seasons ago. He did a great job and finished in the final two. William Goldberg from the men’s team got the ax this week and Adkins voiced his displeasure to Trump.
How do you make a very tall, manly, deep voiced, country western star blush? Have Donald Trump thump his hand on the desk and give him the Trump stare because he disagreed with his firing. While Adkins did voice his opinion that Trump fired the wrong person, viewers could quickly see how uncomfortable Adkins became when Trump realized what Adkins was saying.
True Apprentices
There are several strong apprentice contenders emerging. Holly Robinson is organized, has just the right amount of attitude and confidence, and knows when to back off her personal feelings for the good of the project and the team. While Brett Michaels seems to be disorganized and has a difficult time focusing at times, he does have a solid sense of what works in business.
Curtis Stone is level headed and seems to have unlimited patience and doesn’t get overly excited about much. Any of these three stand a strong chance of winning.
The others have business characteristics missing. Sanders is too quiet and stays in the background too much. Kanellis gets too angry too often. Osbourne, when she has been on camera, complains too much. Cyndi Lauper’s disorganization and her habit of shutting down other’s opinions may get her eliminated before the final.
