Realitywanted.net - Reality TV News, Interviews, and Recaps

By Lin Sbordone

After listening to Donald fight with Rosie throughout the past few weeks, last night’s debut of The Apprentice: LA, long-awaited and well-hyped, demonstrated the type of work and statements deserving of actual press time. In a technically beautiful as well as interesting premiere, “The Donald” demonstrated why The Apprentice quickly became one of the most successful and watched reality shows in the industry.

Beginning with clips of Trump arriving at his LA mansion in high style and communicating with his family, we finally see the candidates emerge and assemble themselves on Trump’s front lawn. Each candidate tells a bit about themselves to Mr. Trump who quickly assigns them a task: go to the backyard of the separate mansion where they will be staying and assemble a large tent as a way of getting to know each other by working together. As the assembly started, chaos broke out, and it was quite unfathomable how 19 executives could be so at a loss to conduct simple assembly with an instruction manual provided. Finally Heidi, who stated she had a great deal of camping experience, garnered everyone’s attention long enough to begin leading the task quite well yet was interrupted by Frank who seemed to need to lead at any “cost”. A few people commented how unnecessary his intervention actually was. We see Martin standing alone on a rock viewing everyone’s work. Though people interpreted this as lazy, Martin claimed to be demonstrating leadership through supervising.

With this task finally completed, the both the candidates and the viewers get their first peak into the infamous boardroom built inside Trump’s LA mansion. When asked about leadership, everyone indicated that Heidi and Frank had both taken leadership roles, so Trump made them the project managers. (P.M.s) They quickly picked their teams, and it was noted that Martin was chosen last. The teams were also informed that the P.M. retained his/her position until he/she lost a task. With the teams picked and not named for once, Trump proceeds to send them onto their first actual task, running a car wash. Whichever team earned the most revenue won, plain and simpleOr so should it have been.

Watching the teams compete, it becomes immediately obvious that Heidi’s team is working much harder. She stated that, since the locale of their car wash was in a well-known homosexual area, she hired two men to hold very basic signs and lure the largest amount of customers possible into the car wash. Free lunch of hot dogs was offered to all customers and the team decided clearly to focus on volume. Frank’s team on the other hand took the opposing approach and went for up-selling to a higher end wash to get more money. Or so it is said, as the only thing clear about Frank’s team is that it moved more slowly, Frank ran off for the first 45 minutes of the task to make marketing brochures, and that they were not drawing in nearly as many customers as Heidi’s well-managed team. We see a shot of them discussing price-point and other shots of Tim and other team members having to take charge while Frank is away. Trump sent his daughter Ivanka to oversee the teams. Upon arriving and speaking with Heidi’s team, she first wondered why there were no cars being detailed and was quickly told of their volume approach and seemed satisfied with that answer. When she arrived at Frank’s team’s locale, she didn’t seem nearly as impressed, finding the team in a state of somewhat disarray. Immediately she notices Frank’s absence, and although Tim tried to cover for him by saying that Frank had delegated the duties well before leaving, one could easily tell Ivanka was less than impressed by his absence at such a critical time. When politely asking Martin how he was, Martin replied to her that he was tired, another less than impressive move. She also expressed concern that signage was an issue for them, seeing as they had none until 2/3 the way into the task, at which point Carey had gone to a local store and gotten cardboard and pens to make large signs. (The signs that Frank had printed were the size of a standard piece of paper and obviously not fit to be seen by approaching traffic.) Bottom line: Everyone worked very well together on Heidi’s team, and though Tim and ____ and some others tried their best, Frank’s team worked far from smoothly.

While both team leaders were adamant in their belief their team was the winner, when the totals were read, Heidi’s team received the reward they deserved, winning by approximately $100.00. The winning team was then apprised of their reward, which was dinner with Mr. Trump at Spago’s, one of LA’s hottest spots, along with chef extraordinaire, Wolfgang Puck. They would also get to sleep in the mansion. In addition, for the first time ever, Heidi as the winning project manager would be allowed to sit in and participate in the boardroom. The losers, along with the usual firing of someone, were told there was an additional aspect this season: the haves vs. the have-nots. These have-nots learned they would have to pitch another tent for showering, etc. and reside completely outside until they win a task. We then see the rejoicing of Heidi’s team in the mansion and the whining outside. The dinner was luxurious and the team generally seemed to enjoy each other’s company and relished being able to get to know Mr. Trump in such an exquisite setting. To the contrary, Frank’s team sulked in a tent dining with plastic forks and knives. Eventually the discussion went to who should be fired, and Aaron asked Frank outright why he shouldn’t be fired, not because he was the weakest overall but based on this task alone. Frank with his loud voice and mannerisms responded that he led well and that it was the fault of one person not giving the task their complete all that cost them the win. When Martin heard Frank gunning for him, he tells the camera about the psychological strategy he implemented to turn the other contestants against Frank by pointing out the error of setting the price-point to low, stating to the camera, “If I manage to pull this off, I will be the greatest apprentice ever!” If, if, if. Surprisingly, Heidi assembled her team to inform them of her strategy which was to try and find out who were the other team’s weak points and try to retain that individual, ergo using her presence in the strongest way possible for her team’s advantage. Everyone loved the idea.

Finally, the losing team joins Mr. Trump, his daughter Ivanka, and the winning P.M. Heidi in the dreaded boardroom. When questioned about strategy, Frank says that he stood by the strategy of trying to up-sell. He claimed he did have a strategy all along, and that he would do the same thing if he had to do it over again. Throughout the questioning, Frank was more aggressive than assertive, oftentimes raising his voice very high and noticeably speaking brazenly over others. The running theme boiled down to Frank blaming Martin and Martin blaming Frank. Most of the boardroom time was these two rather going at each other. When Trump asked everyone on the team who he should fire, it came out about 50/50 for either Frank or Martin, with the other sales team members wanting to keep Martin, who had been in sales as well during the project. Finally Trump asks who other than Martin did Frank want to bring back and his choice was Tim because he was the losing sales manager of the project and; therefore, in Frank’s mind it was Tim’s responsibility to have overseen Martin better.

After the rest of the team returned to their tents, Trump asked both Ivanka and Heidi who should be fired and both replied Martin. Ivanka said that his personality did not mesh well with either the company or Mr. Trump. When brought back in, Tim was soon dismissed after receiving some praise from Frank. Just when it seemed that Mr. Trump was about to fire Martin, Frank erroneously called him “brilliant”, and Mr. Trump quickly jumped on him for praising his opponent at the time in such a way. Rebuked over four times for this, Frank refined his answer to state that he meant “book smarts”, not really saving himself too well. Finally, after being caught in somewhat of a fib over how hard he worked and giving it 100% along with the mistakes of saying he was tired on the first day along with asking to go to the restroom in the middle of introductions, the odd man became the odd man out and first fired from The Apprentice: LA. Instead of leaving gracefully, Martin became a bit incensed. Trump replied to him, “As a lawyer I like you. As a professor I like you even moreI just don’t see you getting into the nitty grittyI think you’re terrific.I think you’re smart as hell” This finally calmed Martin down enough for him to leave. On the infamous taxi ride, which this season became a chauffeur driven car, Martin commented, “I can’t believe this. I was probably the hardest working person there. I was the first fired from The Apprentice: LA. It’s better than being the second, third, or fourth. At the end of the day, I don’t regret telling Mr. Trump I had to go to the bathroom. I had to go.” And go he went, leaving 18 candidates to vie for the title of sole apprentice.

What does Martin have to say for himself? Join us tomorrow for our comprehensive interview with this week’s “fired” apprentice Martin and each Tuesday thereafter throughout the season for interviews with each week’s fired candidate. The interviews will be challenging and hard-hitting, so come read how the sparks fly and get more Apprentice: LA coverage right here tomorrow!

Lin Sbordone owned her own technical writing firm in Florida for five years before becoming a freelance political journalist under a pseudonym. Now working as both a freelance entertainment journalist and entertainment publicist, Ms. Sbordone now makes her home in beautiful Toronto, Ontario and can be reached for comment at .

Apprentice Los Angeles Video Promo

Last 5 posts by Mark

• RealityWanted.net UPDATE - We have moved! - February 20th, 2008
• The Dick Donato Diaries, An Interview With Evel Dick Winner Of Big Brother Season 8. - February 8th, 2008
• Interview with Moya and Jenileigh from CW’s Crowned - February 5th, 2008
• CBS Big Brother locks 8 reporters and television personalities inside the Big Brother 9 house. - February 4th, 2008
• Interview with Angelique from Rock of Love 2 - February 1st, 2008

Filed under: The Apprentice