Subjective tasks are tough, aren’t they? Especially as a viewer who only gets edited glimpses, it’s always difficult to really evaluate who deserved to win. But last night on The Celebrity Apprentice, I had no doubts.
This wasn’t the first time that the show has partnered with Kodak on a task. I have visions of a Kodak truck from last year, with “celebrities” trying to get people on the street to go inside. One of those moments that our parents tell us to run away from when we’re kids. But my point is that I did sort of feel like this task was just being recycled.
However, even if the objective had been the same, which it wasn’t, new players certainly gave it a unique twist. And last night’s task pitted Sinbad against Maria Kanellis. Let the games begin!
I think it’s really funny that the women see Cyndi Lauper as “special.” And you can’t really spin that … she asked the Kodak executives how to use the erase function on one of their cameras, so you know the women know exactly what they’re trying to say. But sometimes I wonder if the contestants consider the fact that when the show airs, their talking heads or taped conversations might be included for all to see. Does Holly Robinson Peete never foresee a time in the future when she might want to call on Cyndi for a favor? Because that ship has sailed.
Speaking of taped conversations, what was with the Govna last night? Could that have been any more staged? Or was it? Honestly I don’t know. He’s definitely going to milk his time on this show for as much positive PR as he can get, but at the same time, he’s going through some serious legal troubles right now. Is it out of the realm of possibilities that he’d have to deal with them at inopportune moments? Maybe. I just don’t know.
But I think it was hilarious that he got mistaken for Donny Osmond. Personally I would recognize the Govna before Osmond, but that woman really got into it. Also funny was one of the women referencing a mouse in Alice in Wonderland that runs here and there … did they mean the White Rabbit who did scurry to-and-fro, or the Dormouse who slept in a teapot? I guess somebody skipped the movie and the book. And how great was Bret Michaels’ favorite word, discombuberated? Keep saying it … maybe it’ll make sense eventually.
There’s no question that Sinbad failed as a leader — I think his problem was lack of clarity and delineation, not delegation — although I do question Bret’s pulling a Dennis Rodman and sulking in the basement. I think his representation that he was trying to avoid a distracting fight was interesting, and possibly true, but more than anything else he should have been proactive like Michael Johnson. If your leader sucks, you have to just bypass him. It’s that simple.
The Celebrity Apprentice is usually hit-or-miss when it comes to how the show breaks down different episodes. Some are heavy on the task; others the boardroom. Last night was a fair mix, and yet I felt that it lacked task exposition. Meaning, more so than most weeks, I had no idea what to expect when they started the sequence on the episode that contained the task itself. Which I found disappointing, because I enjoyed watching that prep part of last week’s episode. But then I guess it’s just the luck of the draw.
As, by the way, are the two teams themselves. I use quotation mark around the word “celebrity” just as liberally for the men as for the women, but when it comes to recognition, there’s no question that the men have the women beat by a long shot. And that’s why the men’s experience was so much better than the women’s. There was no contest, and there also shouldn’t have been a contest when it came to who won.
I’m with Michael Johnson, who couldn’t fathom why the men had lost. It still makes no sense to me. Especially considering the fact that we saw the men pushing those cards with the website information. If the secret shopper didn’t get one, part of that might also fall on his shoulders, because wouldn’t it be natural for people getting their pictures taken to ask, “Where can I pick these up?” And had he asked that, I’m sure he would have been given a card. Yes, it’s on the men for not being proactive, but it’s also not fair to measure either team using a yardstick that’s not average, i.e. someone who is not acting like an average shopper would — asking where to get their pictures. I think that was bogus, especially because all the Kodak executives needed to do was go to the video tape to see how hard the men were pushing those cards.
Almost as hard as the Govna, AKA the Balloon Man, was touting the goldenrod balloons. Or Sharon Osbourne was spreading her Ebola, or whatever she had. I think this is another sport that needs to consider the use of instant replay on tough calls.
Anyway, Sinbad will not be missed so much. He was definitely funny, but I can see him becoming exceedingly frustrating as the show continues, particularly as a repeat project manager. Better that he go quietly into the night now.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 22, 2010 @ 15:00 EST5EDT
The men lost for one reason – they did not push the actual products. That was what Kodak wanted more than anything (and the Kodak people did like that they hawked the website regardless of how much The Donald harped on the Secret Shopper issue). When you see tables of stuff from printers to frames to cameras and no one is standing there to pitch them to the people coming in for a free picture, then you lose. Plain and simple. Kodak wants to promote (and sell) its product and Summer did a great job at that. The men did not. I don’t know why that is so hard to fathom.
*POST AUTHOR*
Historically, that product thing would have been a red herring. The executives would have privately told Trump that they’d been trying to promote the website, trying to drive consumers there, trying to build a community, etc. That would have been what pushed the men over the top in any other year. Which would mean that Trump was repeating after the executives when he said that the secret shopper not being able to get his pictures was the big problem. I think had that not happened, the product failure wouldn’t have made a blip on the radar.