Tonight two new episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice airs on NBC. Read a live recap of the episodes here.
It’s week two of this season of The Celebrity Apprentice, but we are already at episodes four and five. So far Keshia Knight Pulliam, Kevin Jonas, and Gilbert Gottfried have been fired. Which two celebrities will Mr. Trump send packing tonight? Let’s find out.
After Gilbert’s firing, Geraldo notices how Lorenzo and Ian are disappointed he’s still in the competition. Shawn is also unhappy about Vivica calling her out in the boardroom and believes Vivica did that as an act of strategy instead of honesty.
The contestants gather in a park to learn their next task, which is to create a four-page fitness editorial for Cosmopolitan magazine. They will be judged on originality, creativity, and overall presentation. Johnny will be the project manager for Team Vortex and Jamie will be the project manager for Team Infinity. The winning project manager will win $20,000 for his or her charity.
Jamie wants to focus on natural beauty and showcase the two Olympians on Team Infinity (Jamie and Shawn) in the editorial, but team members Kenya and Brandi think a sexier idea would suit Cosmopolitan magazine better. While brainstorming, Kenya is visibly angry when Brandi is chosen to be in the ad instead of her. Geraldo suggests selfies should be incorporated, and Team Vortex comes up with a ‘Love your selfie naked’ idea.
Team Vortex gets to work on the photo shoot. Johnny’s wife visits to help participate, and the two of them pose in provocative selfies for their editorial. Team Infinity gets to work too and hires some male fitness models to help them out. Jamie sent Vivica and Kate shopping for a few props for her and Shawn’s shots.
Terrell is at work coming up with an exercise challenge and a diet plan for the editorial before posing with a hired female fitness model in the photo shoot for Team Vortex as well. Meanwhile, Kenya is getting annoyed with her team again. She thinks the photo shoot should be sexier and pressures Brandi to show more skin in the shoot. Brandi is unhappy to do so since she does not think she’s in perfect shape, but does so anyway. She starts posing with one of the male models in provocative poses too.
Vivica and Shawn return from shopping for props, and Jamie and Shawn can finally shoot their photos for the editorial. Leeza is worried that their editorial is going in two different directions: championship body and a touchable body. She thinks they should focus on one concept so their editorial would be clearer than what it currently is.
At Team Vortex, Ian starts posing with the female model they have hired for a pole-dancing feature. But he’s fully clothed, which Geraldo thinks doesn’t makes sense. So Geraldo takes off all of his clothes and wants to replicate his controversial shirtless selfie from a while ago. However, Lorenzo admits in a confessional that he does not think an image of Geraldo would suit the editorial since he’s not what the demographic of Cosmopolitan wants to see.
The two teams present their editorials to the executives of Cosmopolitan, as well as to Ivanka and Don Jr. In their confessionals, Ian thinks his team did a good job, but Kenya admits she thinks the two different concepts may have cost Team Infinity and the blame should fall on Jamie.
The teams gather in the boardroom. Mr. Trump asks Johnny who should be to blame if they lose, and Johnny names Geraldo since he came up with the concept. Mr. Trump then asks Kenya who was the star of this task, and she smugly names herself. Mr. Trump then asks Jamie if Kenya should be fired if they lose. Jamie says that she’ll answer that if they do happen to lose, but she doesn’t believe they did. Mr. Trump then gets to the tension between Brandi and Kenya, and the two get somewhat heated talking about each other.
So which team won? Ivanka informs the men they did a good job overall, but there was no clear takeaway. Don Jr. tells the women that they showed they understood the readers of the magazine, but there was no clear concept. Mr. Trump then reveals that Team Vortex won. The men can go back to the hotel suite, but the women must stay behind and someone will be fired.
Mr. Trump asks Jamie’s thoughts, and she admits she thought the two housewives Kenya and Brandi caused too much drama on who got to be a part of the editorial. Ivanka remarks that Jamie being in the cover of the editorial was confusing since she didn’t appear in any of the exercises featured. Mr. Trump asks Brandi’s thoughts, and she calls out Kate for taking hours shopping. Kate then calls out Brandi for bringing too much negative energy to the team. Vivica is asked her thoughts on who should be fired, and she names Kate and Brandi for simply driving her crazy. Kenya says Brandi should be fired for being too nasty and personal. Leeza stands up for Brandi and says she works very hard. Mr. Trump finally asks Jamie who should be brought back to the boardroom. Jamie names Kenya and Kate. The other ladies are dismissed, and the men watching the live feed from the hotel suite are surprised Brandi wasn’t brought back. Jamie probably should’ve brought back Brandi instead of Kate since Brandi and Kenya definitely would’ve went after each other in the boardroom and Jamie could’ve skated by.
Kenya and Jamie get into a heated exchange in the waiting room before they reenter the boardroom. Right away, Jamie admits she made a mistake not bringing back Brandi. Mr. Trump agrees that Brandi should have been brought back to the boardroom. Ivanka asks Jamie if Kate was brought back since she wouldn’t be as tough to go against in the boardroom, but Brandi would have been. The boardroom keeps talking about how Brandi should’ve been brought back, and before they can even get into the reason why they lost the task, Mr. Trump fires Jamie Anderson. According to Mr. Trump, she was fired for her indecision. But if Brandi had been brought back, she likely would’ve been fired.
Kate and Kenya rejoin the other contestants in the hotel suite. Brandi is angry that Kenya survived, while Kenya is very smug and says she knows how to play the game very well.
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Now it’s time for the next task. Mr. Trump greets the contestants with his advisers for the week (Eric and Don Jr.). He informs the contestants they will be opening wedding boutiques, and they can sell at any price they want. Whichever team earns the most money from selling wedding dresses wins.
Team switch! Ian, Terrell, Johnny, Leeza, Brandi, and Kenya are the new Team Infinity and Geraldo, Lorenzo, Sig, Shawn, Kate, and Vivica are the new Team Vortex. Ian and Geraldo are the two project managers. There has been tension between Ian and Geraldo since the beginning, so both men are eager to beat each other in this task.
Everyone on Team Infinity is on their phones trying to get people to bring money in. Brandi is sitting away from the team to avoid drama with Kenya, but Ian is worried she’s isolating herself from the group. In a confessional, Brandi calls out Terrell for not doing anything. He’s not on the phone calling for donations from wealthy friends like everyone else is. Over on Team Vortex, everyone is calling for donations too. Geraldo has plenty of rich contacts and is confident he’ll raise enough money to win this task. But Kate is worried she won’t bring money in this time since she didn’t get any last time. However, she does get some hair stylist friends and convinces them to do a mini hair salon to give hair tips at the front of their boutique.
Brandi goes missing, and Ian calls her to find out where she is. On the phone, Brandi tells Ian she’s lying in bed in the hotel suite due to having a panic attack. The other team members complain over the fact that Brandi is not with the rest of the team and there wasn’t anything bad enough happening for Brandi to get a panic attack too.
The next day, the teams are decorating their boutiques. Brandi is back and she says she is ready to get to work. Her money is the first to arrive, and she feels vindicated since she thinks her teammates were underestimating her. Money continues coming in, and Team Vortex gets a near $100,000 check from one of Geraldo’s contacts. Ian brings two Chippendale friends to help promote Team Infinity’s boutique and bring customers in. Over on Team Vortex, Kate is bothered by Sig’s overly aggressive way of bringing in customers. He yells for people to come in and pulls them by the arm.
Later on, Ian gets a check for $165,000 for his team. There are only a few minutes left in the task before Kate’s $30,000 check finally arrives for Team Vortex. Terrell, however, isn’t as pushy to bring in money. He simply says he is not as comfortable asking people for money over and over again like his other team members are. Soon enough, the task ends, and Ian is greatly hoping he and Team Infinity defeated Geraldo in this fundraising task.
The contestants gather in the boardroom. Mr. Trump sits down and asks Ian if he won. Ian is confident and feels like his team was motivated to raise as much money as possible. Mr. Trump then gets to the tension between Kenya and Brandi. Brandi says her panic attack and leaving the team had nothing to do with Kenya. Kenya is belittling Brandi’s panic attack and thinks she exaggerated the reason she temporarily left the team. Ian mentions how he brought in $165,000, and Mr. Trump says he’s scaring Geraldo. However, Geraldo and his teammates are still confident he won.
Mr. Trump reveals that the two teams together raised nearly $600,000 and there was only a $2,500 difference between them. He then gives the two project managers a choice. They can either keep the money they raised for Ian’s and Geraldo’s charities or they can go for broke and the winning team’s project manager will get the $600,000. Personally, I think they should keep their own money so a lot of money can go to both charities, but Mr. Trump believes that they should go for the $600,000. But it’s up to Geraldo and Ian. What will they decide?
They agree to split the money. Geraldo says it would be too egotistical to go for the $600,000 and Ian simply does not want to risk it. It’s time to find out who won. Team Infinity raised $292,000 for Ian and Team Vortex raised a little over $294,000 for Geraldo. Team Vortex wins. Mr. Trump will also give Geraldo the near $6,000 to make it an even $300,000 before Team Vortex returns to the hotel suite.
Mr. Trump also gives Ian $8,000 to make his entire total $300,000 as well. They now get to deliberations on whom shall be fired. Mr. Trump asks each person how much money they individually raised. Ian admits the women did well, but Terrell and Johnny raised the least amount of money. Therefore, Ian will bring back Terrell and Johnny back into the boardroom. Brandi, Kenya, and Leeza can join the others in the hotel suite.
The three men reenter the boardroom. Terrell admits he had a $5,000 check that did not come in. If it did, they would have won. Mr. Trump gives Ian credit for making the wise decision to split the money. Mr. Trump says he cannot fire Ian. Mr. Trump asks who should be fired and he said it should be Terrell. Terrell admits he should be fired too since he brought in the least amount of money. Mr. Trump fires Terrell Owens. Ian thanks Mr. Trump for the extra donation before the three men exit the boardroom. Ian also thanks Terrell for all his help before Terrell gets into the elevator and Ian and Johnny join the others in the hotel suite.
And that wraps up another two-hour installment of The Celebrity Apprentice. The promo for next week highlights that the late Joan Rivers will be one of the advisers.
What were your thoughts on the episodes? Did you agree with Mr. Trump’s decisions this week? Thanks for reading and come back next week for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice.
