The Celebrity Apprentice (also known as The Apprentice 7) is the seventh installment of the reality game show The Apprentice, and the first of The Celebrity Apprentice. This season features celebrity candidates vying for the title of Donald Trump's, "Best Business Brain," as a way to revitalize the series, with the winner donating their proceeds to charity. This installment marked the series' return to New YorkMcIver, Meredith; "They're Coming Back" trumpuniversity.com; September 20, 2007 after spending the previous season in Los Angeles and features abstract paintings by Seattle-based artist Maeve Harris. The series premiered on NBC on January 3, 2008, at 9:00 pm.
This is the first season where the candidates did not reside in a communal penthouse of Trump Tower which was more as a meeting vicinity and also the boardroom. The celebrities lived in Trump International Hotel and Tower. There are also no traditionally given rewards to the winning team apart from the winning project manager receiving an amount of $20,000 along with available proceeds from the tasks to be donated to the winning manager's favorite charity. Nevertheless, the firing rule remained. America's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan was the winner, beating country music singer Trace Adkins in the finals. Morgan was the only celebrity fired during the original British celebrity edition of the show.
Candidates
The following is the list of candidates for this season, with their original team placements. The show went back to its original concept of men versus women. The all-women team named their team Empresario (a Spanish term meaning "entrepreneur",) while the all-men team named theirs Hydra (after a monster from ancient Greek mythology.) + Candidate data Celebrity Background Original Team Age Hometown Charity Result Raised Piers Morgan America's Got Talent judgeHydra 42Guildford, Surrey, UK Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund13 The Celebrity Apprentice(2008–03–27)13$754,300 Trace Adkins Country singerHydra 45Springhill, Louisiana, U.S. Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network12 Fired in the Season Finale(2008–03–27)12$102,000 Carol Alt SupermodelEmpresario 47East Williston, New York, U.S. Tony Alt Memorial Foundation11 Fired in week 12(2008–03–20)08$40,000 Lennox Lewis Professional boxerHydra 42Kitchener, Ontario, Canada The Muhammad Ali Center10 Fired in week 12(2008–03–20)07$40,000 Stephen Baldwin Actor & authorHydra 41 Massapequa, New York, U.S. Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund09 Fired in week 11(2008–03–13)11$89,324 Omarosa The Apprentice contestantEmpresario 33Youngstown, Ohio, U.S. Positive Vibrations Youth Mentoring Program08 Fired in week 10(2008–03–06)04 Tito Ortiz UFC fighterHydra 32Santa Ana, California, U.S. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital07 Fired in week 9(2008–02–28)10$70,000 Marilu Henner Actress & authorEmpresario 55Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine06 Fired in week 8(2008–02–21)05$20,000 Nely Galán Former President of Entertainment for TelemundoEmpresario 44Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S. Count Me In 05 Fired in week 6(2008–02–07)03 Vincent Pastore The Sopranos actorHydra 61New Rochelle, New York, U.S. Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research 04 Quit in week 5(2008–01–31)09$50,000 Jennie Finch Olympic softball pitcherEmpresario 27La Mirada, California, U.S. International Breast Cancer Research Foundation 03 Fired in week 4(2008–01–24)02 Gene Simmons Kiss singer & entrepreneurHydra 58Los Angeles, California, U.S. Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation 02 Fired in week 3(2008–01–17)05$20,000 Nadia Comăneci Olympic gymnastEmpresario 46Oneşti, Romania Special Olympics 01 Fired in week 2(2008–01–10)01 Tiffany Fallon Playboy modelEmpresario 33Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. Walter Reed Society 00 Fired in week 1(2008–01–03)00
In an unaired scene available on the web, Trump gave Marilu Henner's charity a $20,000 donation because he felt she deserved to win money for her charity.
Donald Trump, in an apparent gesture to reconcile his feud with Rosie O'Donnell, offered her a contestant spot on the show but was turned down in a statement by O'Donnell's spokeswoman.Rosie Answers Apprentice Invite with a Big, Fat "No" , TV Guide
Weekly results Candidate Original team Week 3 team Week 6 team Week 7 team Week 8 team Final Task Team Application result Record as project managerHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraHydraEmpresarioHydraHydraEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioHydraOmarosaEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioHydraEmpresarioTito OrtizHydraHydraHydraEmpresarioEmpresarioFired in week 91–1 (win in week 3, loss in week 9)Marilu HennerEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioHydraEmpresarioFired in week 80–2 (loss in weeks 4 & 8)Nely GalánEmpresarioEmpresarioEmpresarioFired in week 60–1 (loss in week 2)Vincent PastoreHydraHydraQuit in week 51–0 (win in week 4)Jennie FinchEmpresarioEmpresarioFired in week 4Gene SimmonsHydraEmpresarioFired in week 31–1 (win in week 2, loss in week 3)Nadia ComăneciEmpresarioFired in week 2Tiffany FallonEmpresarioFired in week 1
No. Elimination chartCandidate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12131 PiersININININLOSEIN WINBRINWIN ININ CA 2 TraceININININININLOSEININ IN LOSE IN FIRED3 CarolBRBRINBRWININININWINININFIRED 4 LennoxINININININWININBR IN INWINFIRED 5 StephenWIN ININININININWINININ FIRED 6 OmarosaLOSEINBRININLOSE IN ININFIRED 7 TitoININWINININ IN ININFIRED 8 MariluINININ LOSE IN BR INFIRED 9 NelyINLOSE IN ININFIRED 10 VincentINININWINQUIT 11 JennieININBRFIRED 12 GeneINWIN FIRED 13 NadiaINFIRED 14 TiffanyFIRED The candidate was on the losing team. The candidate won the competition and was named The Celebrity Apprentice. The candidate won as project manager on his/her team. The candidate lost as project manager on his/her team. The candidate was on the losing team and brought to the final boardroom. The candidate was fired. The candidate lost as project manager and was fired. The candidate quit the competition. The candidate was absent during the week due to previous engagements.
Episodes
Episode 1: Selling Hot Dogs Airdate: January 3, 2008 Task scope: Each team had to sell hot dogs on the streets of New York City for as much money as possible. Hydra project manager: Stephen Baldwin Empresario project manager: Omarosa Judges: Donald Trump; Ivanka Trump; Donald Trump Jr. Winning team: Hydra, with total sales of $52,286. Reasons for win: Hydra used Radio City as their location and used their celebrity status to drastically up-sell the hot dogs and Gene Simmons used his contacts to put up impressive numbers. Piers Morgan also came up with an idea whereby anyone who paid $100 or more for a hot dog would get to have their picture taken with one of the celebrities, encouraging passers-by to make more substantial donations. Losing team: Empresario, with total sales of $17,038.79. Reasons for loss: Empresario did not use their celebrity status to the extent they could have and chose sound business principles instead. Many hot dogs were sold for much lower prices than Hydra had, and their location (which was near Penn Station) was deemed awful by the Trumps, mainly due to the numerous food courts at the station. Sent to boardroom: Omarosa, Tiffany Fallon, and Carol Alt Fired: Tiffany Fallon – for being the least effective saleswoman on her team, playing the game low-key, and for holding out on her contacts. While Omarosa led the team to failure after she forbid her teammates to use their celebrity status and Carol Alt was responsible for picking their bad location, Trump was nonetheless impressed with their hard work, and he did not like that Tiffany (a Playboy Playmate) did not call Hugh Hefner to help with the task. Tiffany stated that she was waiting for a more opportune event to use his services, but Trump ultimately fired her for it. Notes: This is the first time the winning team as a whole watched the losing team in the boardroom. Prior to this season, only the project manager was allowed to do this. This is the first season where the firing process started immediately after the results are revealed. Usually the winning team would be given a reward for their victory prior to the start of the boardroom, but the rewards were dropped from the show at the start of this season. Tito Ortiz brought his girlfriend Jenna Jameson to help with their task. Gene Simmons called in many of his contacts to donate money, including fellow Kiss member Paul Stanley. Despite Omarosa's original approach of not using the celebrity status on the task, Marilu Henner called in some of her contacts, who brought in a total of $11,000 for her team's total profit. Jennie Finch brought in New York Mets 3rd baseman David Wright near the end of the task, and he purchased their remaining stock for an unspecified, but significant amount. In the boardroom it was noted that if not for Marilu and Jennie's efforts, Empresario would have only raised a few thousand dollars. This episode marked the beginning of the feud between Omarosa and Piers Morgan, when Omarosa took offense to Piers mispronouncing her name and his claim to have no idea who she was. Omarosa responded by claiming she wasn't familiar with his show, America's Got Talent, but Piers fired back by saying that it was the country's most-watched show at the time. $69,324 is the amount that both teams together raised, which is the amount that Stephen Baldwin received for his charity.
Episode 2: Pedigree Community Awareness Ad Airdate: January 10, 2008 Task sponsor: Pedigree Task scope: Each team must create a heart-warming commercial advertising for both Pedigree dog food and the Pedigree Adoption Drive. Hydra project manager: Gene Simmons Empresario project manager: Nely Galán Judges: Donald Trump; Ivanka Trump; Terry Lundgren Winning team: Hydra Reasons for win: Once again, Hydra utilized their celebrity status to improve the quality of the commercial, using Trace Adkins' deep voice for the voice-over and having Lennox Lewis star in the commercial, which made it a success. Losing team: Empresario Reasons for loss: The client felt Nely got carried away during their presentation for their advertisement, and Empresario did not utilize as much celebrity power to sell their commercial. Although they used Marilu Henner as a voice-over, it was not distinctive enough to empower their commercial and the other voice-overs that had been used were deemed undesirable for broadcasting. Sent to boardroom: Nely Galán, Carol Alt, and Nadia Comăneci Fired: Nadia Comăneci – for lacking a competitive drive and over concerns that she would be an effective leader. While Nely Galán admitted that she was too ambitious regarding the project and took full responsibility for the loss, Trump still believed that she was an exceptional teammate. Trump also felt that Nadia did not defend herself well enough against Carol and Nely, which added to his belief that Nadia could not lead the team. Notes: Carol Baldwin and her sister came to Trump Tower to receive the money Stephen Baldwin earned last episode Members of Hydra became restless while Gene Simmons and Stephen Baldwin did all the editing for the commercial by themselves. Nely Galán chose to meet with the clients who were to judge this commercial in order to get a more effective message while Gene Simmons did not, believing that time was of the essence. Trump has commented in previous seasons that you should always talk to the clients so you really understand what you are looking for, but in an ironic twist, Hydra was the team that won the task. Hydra's commercial was shown at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Gene Simmons insulted Ivanka by brushing off her requests for a status report and asked her if she would tell Empresario what the men were doing, accusing her of female solidarity in the process. Gene subsequently apologized to Ivanka in the boardroom.