Tonight is the two-hour season premiere of The Celebrity Apprentice on NBC. Read a live recap of the episode here.
Donald Trump’s outrageous reality competition show that brings C-list celebrities to carry out tasks to raise money for charity returns tonight. Once again we’ll get to see celebrities work on various fundraising tasks and watch as they all bicker and back-stab in the name of charity. And each week, Mr. Trump will fire a celebrity from a job they’re not even competing for. But despite its craziness and heated drama, it’s all okay since it’s about raising money for charity. So without further ado, let’s get started!
Donald Trump is standing atop of Trump Tower to introduce us to the new season. He claims this season will be bigger and better than ever. But first let’s get acquainted with this year’s cast.
On the men’s team, there is reporter and talk show host Geraldo Rivera, two-time World Series champion Johnny Damon, Actor Ian Ziering, musician Kevin Jonas, former NFL star Terrell Owens, Deadliest Catch star Sig Hansen, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, and soap opera actor Lorenzo Lamas. On the women’s team, there is actress Vivica A. Fox, Olympian gymnast Shawn Johnson, reality television personality Kate Gosselin, The Cosby Show star Keshia Knight Pulliam, cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Brandi Glanville, Olympian snowboarder Jamie Anderson, cast member of The Real Housewives of Atlanta Kenya Moore, and talk show host Leeza Gibbons.
Donald Trump informs the contestants that their task is to work at the company Pie Face. They will bake and sell pies for charity, and the team that raises the most money wins. The Cake Boss Buddy Valastro will also stop by and determine which team has the best tasting pie and will give that team a sizable donation. In addition, Mr. Trump’s advisers for this task are his daughter Ivanka Trump and first Celebrity Apprentice winner Piers Morgan.
Afterwards, the two teams choose their team names and project managers. The women are Team Infinity and Keshia will be their first project manager. Piers comes to visit the women and advises them that the most important factor of this task is to raise money. He notes that Keshia should be bringing in the biggest amount of money since she’s the project manager.
The men are Team Vortex and Geraldo will be their first project manager. Ivanka stops by to greet the men. She thinks the men are off to a harmonious start, but notes that past history of the show has shown that the harmony only lasts for so long. Ivanka also admits to being a huge fan of Beverly Hills, 90210 – the show that made Ian famous. After Ivanka leaves, the men get back to work and discuss getting as many people to their event as possible. While discussing bringing people in, Kevin is worried about Geraldo’s demeanor and believes he will be difficult to work with.
At the bakery, Kevin is getting frustrated with Geraldo. He wants to immediately get started with baking pies, but Geraldo still wants to make sure everyone’s social media accounts are in order. Meanwhile at Team Infinity, the women are also getting off to a late start. There was more discussion of what to do than actual baking, which frustrated Kate. But Team Vortex finally do get started baking.
Both teams are working on baking the pies. However, the men overcooked several of their pies. Since it was already very late in the day, the men will just have to make do with the pies that they have. At Team Infinity, Jamie and Kate are in charge of baking the pies, and they are confident that their pies taste great. They believe they will win the bonus check from the Cake Boss. Leeza Gibbons believes she will have a lot of people to help bring in money with the connections she has. Keshia is also hard at work trying to bring donations in since she’s the project manager. Shawn Johnson is in charge of handling the social media accounts and making sure everyone is tweeting correctly to help promote their event. Kate, however, doesn’t think social media is as important and asserts that making the pies are more important. Kenya disagrees and says in a confessional that what’s more important is bringing in donors to raise a large amount of money, and she believes Keshia did not put enough focus on bringing in money.
The next day is the pie selling event. Keshia names all the people she has called for donations, but Bill Cosby was not one of them. This puzzles Kenya and she criticizes Keshia in a confessional for not calling her TV dad since he would have most likely brought in a large donation (this season was filmed almost a year ago and before the scandal).
At Team Vortez, Johnny and Terrell greet the customers waiting in line, talking with them and taking pictures with them too. At Team Infinity, Kenya is once again complaining about Keshia. Kenya think Keshia was micromanaging the team without consulting them. Kate also claims that Keshia was all over the place. Even Shawn isn’t very impressed with Keshia’s ability in running a team. If Team Infinity do lose this task, Keshia could very well be the first contestant fired this season.
The doors for both bakeries are open. Geraldo’s first donation is a $10,000 check from Bill O’Reilly. The bakery is getting busy with even more donations as Kevin is working the cashier desk. Once again Kevin is frustrated with Geraldo’s overall demeanor and doesn’t find him to be motivating.
Back at Team Infinity, Kenya is once again complaining about Keshia. She thinks Keshia should be making sure the event is running smoothly instead of handling the money. However, a lot of people do come to donate money for the team. But Jamie criticizes Kate for simply greeting people at the door instead of working hard inside the bakery. Claudia Jordan (a former contestant) agrees to visit and donate money as long as she can throw a pie in Brandi’s face, which she does.
The Cake Boss Buddy Valastro comes to visit, and he stops by the men’s team first. He notes that the men overcooked their pies. He then tries the women’s pies. He likes their pie overall, but thinks they put too much flavor in it.
Meanwhile, Team Infinity are all on the phone trying to bring in money. Piers Morgan stops by and asks how they’re doing. Shawn admits that they’re not getting a large amount of donations. Piers also believes the Team Infinity’s kitchen is chaotic and no one is really running the task. Back at Team Vortex, the men are receiving large amounts of donations. Piers visits their kitchen too and notices that the men’s kitchen are busier than the women’s. He asks Kevin who has brought in the least amount of money, and Kevin admits that it’s Lorenzo. However, Kevin asserts that Lorenzo has been working hard all day long. But I believe that the episode has made clear that the men will win this task, unless the editing has misled us into a shock. So it looks like Keshia will be in trouble tonight since she is the project manager. However, Kate could be vulnerable too since she was unable to raise any money for this task.
The task is done and both teams gather in the boardroom. Mr. Trump asks both project managers how they think they did. Geraldo and Keshia are optimistic and believe they did as well as they could. Mr. Trump goes on to say he hates firing people despite what people believe. He then asks Keshia who the stars were, and Keshia names Leeza. He then talks to Shawn, and she admits to the kitchen being chaotic and does not believe they won. The other women on the team don’t agree with her. After Piers once again reminds the women they did not focus enough on fundraising, Mr. Trump asks Kenya who the weakest team member was. She calls out Keshia for not spending enough time raising money.
Mr. Trump now talks to Geraldo and his team. Geraldo is confident they won. He then asks Gilbert his opinion, and he says that he thinks Geraldo did a great job, unless Mr. Trump thought otherwise. Ivanka then asks Geraldo if the reason he chose to be the first project manager was because he knew he would be able to bring a lot of money in. Geraldo admits that he knew he could bring money in. Geraldo is then asked who donated the least amount of money, and Lorenzo is called out for raising only $100. Piers asks Geraldo how he would feel about his team members withholding money for their own charities down the line. Geraldo did not anticipate his teammates doing that and doesn’t believe Lorenzo was accessible to a lot of money for this particular task.
Geraldo is asked who he would fire, and he says it would be the team member who raised the least amount of money. According to the numbers, Lorenzo and Terrell brought in the least amount. Geraldo first thought Ian brought in less than Terrell, but Kevin and Ivanka had to correct him.
Now who gets the bonus check of $25,000 based on the best tasting pie? The winner of the extra money is Team Infinity. Jamie was the team member who worked on the pie’s ingredients the most, so Piers notes that Jamie should be credited with getting Team Infinity that extra money. However, Shawn and Kate still believe they lost when asked by Mr. Trump.
So which team won? With the extra $25,000, Team Infinity raised over $93,000. However, Team Vortex raised over $185,000. Team Vortex is the winning team. Geraldo feels “enormously gratified,” and believes his team will be ready for anything moving forward.
This means someone from Team Infinity will have the dishonorable distinction of being the first celebrity fired from this season of The Celebrity Apprentice. Mr. Trump asks Keshia what happened. Keshia starts rambling about making sure everyone was working hard. She is clearly nervous. Ivanka then asks who brought in the least amount of money. Kate is acknowledged for raising the least amount of money. Piers advises Kate to start throwing someone under the bus since she did not raise any money. Kate quickly names Keshia and criticizes her managing techniques. However, Brandi calls Kate lazy since she just stood at the front of the door and greeted people. Kate is affronted and others start piling on. Uh-oh, it looks like Kate is in the most danger of getting fired now.
Ivanka asks Vivica her thoughts. She gets emotional and believes Keshia really did put her best foot forward and gave it her all. However, Kenya calls out Keshia for not calling Bill Cosby for a donation. Mr. Trump believes there is some merit in that comment. Keshia defends herself and says that she hasn’t even talked to Bill Cosby in five years and would feel uncomfortable calling him for a donation. However, Piers piles on the criticism and says it was a mistake to not try to get a donation from Bill Cosby.
Ivanka asks Keshia how much she raised, which was around $7,000. Ivanka then asks if Keshia was naive in taking on a big fundraising task if she couldn’t have brought in that much money. Keshia says no and believes her work ethic would have been good enough. Mr. Trump then asks Keshia which two people she will bring back with her. One of the three that reenters the boardroom will be fired. Keshia chooses the two team members who brought in the least amount of money – Kate and Jamie. Everyone else is permitted to go join the men in the hotel suite, while Keshia, Kate, and Jamie stay behind in the waiting room. One of them will be the first celebrity fired.
The three women reenter the boardroom. Mr. Trump first says that there are no losers here. He then questions Keshia’s decision on bringing back Jamie since she was instrumental in earning the $25,000. Keshia says that Jamie could not be totally responsible for the $25,000 since making the pies was a group effort. Mr. Trump asks Jamie who should be fired between Keshia and Kate. She simply says that it’s a coin toss and she’s too nice to call someone out. Mr. Trump then asks Kate who should be fired. After saying she never would have brought in Jamie, she says that Keshia should be fired. Kate does not believe that Keshia was a strong leader. She gives Keshia credit for taking on the challenge, but her efforts fell flat. Keshia is getting upset and is not handling the pressure well. After being a weak project manager and not raising a lot of money, Mr. Trump fires Keshia Knight Pulliam. However, Mr. Trump will personally give Keshia $25,000 for her charity.
And that ends the first episode of this season of The Celebrity Apprentice. While it’s understandable why Keshia was fired for not being a strong leader and raising very little money as the project manager, I think Kate should have been fired. She raised no money for this particular task and was even called lazy by her fellow teammates. Oh, well.
Thanks for reading and join me tomorrow for another episode of The Celebrity Apprentice!
