[BlogEntry] Celebrity Apprentice : Season Premiere

Ok, normally I would probably give this show a pass, it's a total "jump the shark" moment for Trump and his franchise. But, with the strike going on there's nothing else to watch.

For episode one, Gene Simmons is the star of the show. He's a regular on all the reality shows, and most people familiar with him know that ultimately he's a giant a-hole. There's no reason to think that that's changed.

The task is selling hot dogs. While the women debate whether they should rely on their celebrity and the men wonder what their hook should be, Gene gets on the phone and you hear "Listen, do me a favor, come into the city tomorrow and donate five grand to charity for a hot dog, ok? Thanks." Next thing you know the guy's whole strategy is going through Gene's phone book and getting rich people to swing by and drop off donations.

The women, led by Omarosa (who is a "celebrity" only in the sense that she is a past Apprentice contestant), never stood a chance. By not playing the celebrity card they were selling hot dogs for $5 and lucky to see a $5000 donation, while one call from Gene Simmons brought them $10k. Guys win, $52k to $17k.

I really really really hoped that Omarosa would be the first to go, and she does nothing but subtract from the show. She's annoying to look at and to listen to. But Trump ends up firing the Playboy playmate because she never called Hugh Hefner for money. That's just dumb.

One change this season that I like is that the men got to watch the boardroom on video. It was fun hearing their comments. "Omarosa is a cockroach,you can't kill her!"