The Celebrity Apprentice makes its 2012 debut tonight – are you excited? This season is sure to deliver you tons of real drama and enough “You’re Fired” to satiate that reality-tv-loving appetite of yours for days. Stand by as we live blog the show tonight with all the up-to-the-minute details and of course who gets fired.
Eighteen eager celebrities will all be vying for $250,000 for charity tonight. We just wouldn’t feel right about sending you into the season with cold feet – so check out the cast list and bios of the 18 competitors here!
On tonight’s show called ‘Hero Worship’ – Donald Trump tasks 18 new Celebrities to create and sell deli sandwiches in a fundraising competition for charity. Due to a tragic accident, the men start with a man down, while the women’s Project Manager puts everything on the line to win. Fundraising on both teams sets new records, but only one Project Manager will take it all. In the end, one Celebrity will hear Trump’s feared words: “You’re Fired!” Special guests include Wyclef Jean, Russell Simmons, Carol Alt and Andy Cohen. Boardroom advisers: Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
Who are you rooting for? Rosie our Reality TV writer, thinks Clay Aiken is going to be the celebrity to keep your eye on. She feels having worked with Simon Cowell, Trump should be a breeze for Aiken. I on the other hand think Star Trek alum, the legendary George Takei will go far. I love him – he has devilish sense of humor.
We will be live blogging the show with all the up-to-the-minute details at 9PM EST so make sure to come back to this spot and watch the show with us. While you wait for the recap you can watch a sneak peek video of the episode here!
Tonight’s Recap: We are back last season The Celebrity Apprentice won millions of dollars. This season 18 celebrities are fighting to become the Celebrity Apprentice. They introduce the celebrities and the charities they are fighting for.
Donald comes in the room as the 18 celebrities wait. Donald welcomes the celebrities to the Lincoln Centre. Donald talks to each of the contestants and of course each one tells Donald they are going to win. Victoria Gotti is funny and tells Donald she already has two people she does not like.
Donald tells the contestants the way he likes doing this is man vs women. They have to go back to Trump Tower and pick their project manager and the name for their respective teams and then meet Donald in the boardroom to get their tasks.
The men are trying to decide on their name and they come up with Honey Badgers and Clay is not pleased he feels there are a lot of frat boys on his team. Penn throws out the name Unanimous and everyone seems to like the name.
The ladies are trying to decide on their name. Cheryl is a little frightened because she is a loner. Victoria thinks the most ridiculous names are coming out and people are not going to take them seriously. Someone suggests Forte and the women like the name. Patricia Velasquez wants to be the project manager.
Lou Ferrigno tells them all he reads lips. The men all ask who wants to be the project manager and there is silence at the table. Adam tries to figure out who should be project manager. Paul Teutel agrees to be Project Manager and he tells the men he expects a lot of input from the men.
Donald calls the contestants to the Boardroom – Invanka and Don will be Donald’s advisers – Donald tells them. The women’s team tell Donald that Patricia volunteered and they tell Donald there name is Forte.
The men’s team tell Donald that there project manager is Paul and he was chosen because he has the biggest arms. They tell Donald the name of their team Unanimous.
Donald tells the team members Marco Andretti is missing because one of his best friends was killed in a horrible accident. Marco’s father Michael is coming in to take Marco’s place.
They are going to making Celebrity sandwiches. The winning team will be the team who makes the most money and tips. Donald tells them to make the sandwiches delicious and make lots of money.
Paul is talking to the men’s team how they can create excitement. Paul tells the men he can get a hold of his shop and bring 10 bikes in. Penn tells them he is a carnival barker and he can talk. The mean are going for the carnival style. Adam tells them he wants everyone to agree that volume does not matter. Penn tells them that he needs to know what each of them can bring in. Paul tells them he can bring 1/2 million in. Everyone is shocked – but Paul is more confident and if it does not work he will do it himself.
Penn tells the men there is no harm in making good sandwiches and selling. They suggest to call the sandwiches the twisted sisters, the hulk and the chopper. Penn suggests they should make it all chopper rather than any other name since Paul is the Project Manager.
On the ladies team Patricia suggests they do Celebrity Carnival. Victoria is disagreeing because she does not think people will understand the connection between sandwiches and carnival. Victoria suggests they go with red carpet. Debbie suggests she can sing a song on the red carpet. Victoria says wait – if everyone is outside who is going to make the sandwiches. The ladies decided to take the three most recognizable celebrity. The ladies decided Teresa Giudice, Cheryl Tiegs and Debbie Gibson.
Aubrey O’Day is pissed off because she feels she is the most recognizable and feels the women are underestimating her.
The men are deciding on their sandwiches and it looks like Paul and George are not really meshing. The men are making their sandwiches. Paul is the project manager and he made big promises about how much money he could raise. He feels he may have bite off more than he can chew.
Ivanka walks in to see the men and the men are caught up in what they are going and Paul felt she was interrupting the flow. Ivanka asks what Paul has done for fundraising – Paul tells her he has that handled. Ivanka asks what his fundraising goal is and he says $500,000 and she is surprised.
On the ladies team Patricia starts to call her people she wants to donate. She calls every single person in her phone-book. All the ladies call there are friends to try and get them to come and donate. Lisa sees Victoria on the phone and hears that she is making personal phone calls rather than doing things to help the team. The ladies head to the Deli to make their sandwiches.
On the men’s team Penn has already made 70 sandwiches and Michael Andretti shows up. He is taking Marco Andretti’s place and then men tell Michael what they are doing.
The ladies got to Cafe Metro to start making their sandwiches. Teresa found that there was a lot of prep work – Teresa was making her secret recipe of red peppers roasted. Debbie feels that Cheryl’s work ethic is too laid back.
Team Forte gets in the vans and Victoria Gotti is missing. Aubrey is not surprised – because she says Victoria does not like to get there early. The ladies are happy how there Deli is looking. They have signs everywhere that say Celebrity Club. Victoria walks in and tells Patricia that she had an accident last night and she tore her eye. She may have torn the cornea or the retina.
Over at Anonymous Paul is on George’s back telling him to be careful. Lou takes his shirt off and George says he does not know how old Lou is but he is impressive and if he looked that way he would remove his shirt often.
Penn is outside juggling and the choppers pull up. Penn’s is juggling lighted pins and is a barker telling everyone that George is inside and then men are outside trying to draw people to the restaurant.
Over at Forte the ladies are open for business. Carol Alt came to support them – Teresa is at front and brings people in. Aubrey who is the most conceited person I have every heard – says she is charming. Wyclef shows up at the Deli for the ladies and he donates $2,000. Wyclef teaches everyone song and they are jamming together. Debbie is singing with Wyclef and Aubrey is jealous so she grabs the mike LOL…
The men are doing fantastic there are so many people Penn is outside being the barker and there are tons of people. Clay is manning the cash and he is doing the up-selling and Penn says he is fantastic at it. Penn got a female dance troop to come and he told them if they wanted to be there they had to bring $1,000 each. Clay is impressed but frightened because he still does not see $500,000.
Over at Forte their big hitters are showing up with money. Patricia got a lot of people come. Someone came in and wanted a Vegan sandwich for $10,000 and Victoria went in the back and somehow made it happen for him. Donald Jr. came in and Aubrey explained about the Celebrity Club. Donald Jr. thinks so far Patricia has done a good job – he is not sure about her decision to do grill cheese – because it could slow them down.
Over at the men’s team Dee is concerned that there are too many people outside and no people inside. Clay is concerned because they are making money but the $500,000 is not coming in. Adam is getting concerned too.
Donald Trump calls Patricia and Paul and ask how they are doing and then tells them they are going to take their best sandwich to the Rachel Ray show and the team who has made the best sandwich will get a sizable donation.
The men and women’s team come to the Rachel Ray show. The ladies come first and Lisa introduces – the Celebrity Club International. Adam introduces the men’s sandwich which is the chopper. Rachel tastes each sandwich – she likes the men’s sandwich and appreciates the ratio of meat to bread to cheese. She likes the texture of the women’s sandwich. Rachel tells the teams she will get back to Donald on the best sandwich.
Penn is still outside and barking. Clay is concerned because they are getting donations but nothing big has come in. Paul promised big donations so none of the men called their people.
On the ladies teams Patricia’s friend brings in $20,000. The ladies are doing fantastic. The ladies officially close their Deli. Patricia thanks all the ladies from the bottom of her heart.
BOARDROOM
The teams are in the boardroom and Donald comes in – he asks Patricia how she did and she says great and he asks if she won and she tells him no question they won. She tells Donald Dayana was her star and Patricia says Cheryl and Victoria were her weakest players. Patricia says Cheryl did not bring much money in. Victoria thinks Patricia would bring her into the boardroom because she disagreed with her. Patricia did not think Victoria was a team player because she had an injury to her eye.
Donald asks Paul how the men’s team did. Paul tells Donald his biggest star was Penn. Penn disagrees and says it was Paul. But Paul thinks Penn did a great job and brought a lot of nice looking women. Paul thinks his weakest link was George and Arsenio. He thinks George was the weakest because there is a lot of strong personalities and George is meek. Donald is surprised because George has been a leader in the Gay community. George says he was taken aback when he said weak – because he has learned to survive with what has happened in his life. Donald tells Paul it is an inappropriate word. Paul tells Donald Arsenio is a random pick. Paul tells Donald he brought the Chopper to Rachel Ray.
Patricia tells Donald they brought the Celebrity Club to Rachel Ray.
The Cafe Metro is donating $35,000 to the winner of the best sandwich. The sandwich that Rachel thought was fantastic was the men’s team. So the men’s team gets $35,000 extra.
Donald asks Lou to tell him about the gun show. Donald asks Lou if he is still in great shape and George assures Donald that he is. Donald asks Paul if he considers himself a good leader and Paul tells Donald he is. Penn confirms that Paul is a great leader.
Donald tells both teams they did an amazing team. The ladies team with Patricia as team leader raised $126,962. The men’s team with Paul as a leader raised $332,120 + $35,000 = $367,120. The men’s team wins. Paul had one donor give $305,000. Paul has won almost $500,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation!
Paul congratulates his team as they watch the ladies in the boardroom.
The ladies are surprised that they lost. Aubrey tries to convince Donald to give the money Patricia won to her charity. Donald tells her NO. Ivanka tells her at least she brought awareness to her charity. Patricia tells Donald – Dayana brought the most money next to her. Patricia tells Donald that Teresa and Aubrey did a good job too. Donald asks Debby who she thinks should be fired. Debby tells Donald she was not happy when Patricia said Victoria was weak. Debby says that she felt Cheryl did not move as quick as the other contestants. Cheryl claims that her friends brought in $10-$15K but Patricia disagrees. Cheryl said that a friend of hers in the Police Department spread the word and people came. Aubrey says that Victoria Gotti should be brought into the boardroom. Aubrey says she is a strict business women (bla bla, I really don’t like her) and Victoria was a disappointment. Aubrey thinks Cheryl brings a positive energy.
Donald asks Tia why she said she would come back to the Boardroom. She was being flippant – she does say she could defend herself.
Donald asks Tia who would she fire – Tia says Victoria showed up at the task one hour late. Donald Jr. asks if anyone thinks the project manager should be fired and everyone says NO. Donald asks Dayan who she thinks should be fire and Dayan is shocked they lost. Lisa says she thinks Victoria should be fired because she did a lot of personal calls. Victoria denies it and says she was just a mother and she was checking in. Lisa then says Cheryl was not focused.
Donald asks Patricia who she is bring back to the Boardroom with her. Patricia says Cheryl and Victoria – no surprise. The rest of the ladies go back to their suite. Donald tells the men to turn off the television. Paul tells the men not to say anything when the women come in – they have to play the game.
Patricia is upset because her charity lost the money.
The ladies come back in the boardroom – Donald asks Cheryl if she deserves to be brought into the boardroom – and she tells Cheryl NO. She feels she worked hard behind the scenes. Patricia does not think Cheryl worked hard enough. Patricia thinks everyone held back. Victoria admits she held back a bit. Donald Jr. asks Victoria why she did not call some of her big hitters – Victoria tells Donald that she was suppose to be in the kitchen behind the scenes. Donald asks Cheryl if she held back donations. Cheryl admits she did because she did not live in NYC.
Donald asks Patricia if she regrets being the Project Manager. Patricia says NO, Patricia tells Donald she would get rid of Cheryl. Victoria tells Donald she would not fire herself – she would fire Cheryl. Cheryl tells Donald Patricia did a good job so she would not fire her.
Donald asks Cheryl if she as the energy to go on and kick ass. Cheryl admits she does not know if this is for her. Donald tells Cheryl he does not think if she fits into the group and is comfortable in the group. Donald tells her that everyone in her team felt she did not step up. Donald fires Cheryl!
Cheryl thanks him and she leaves. He tells Victoria she has to focus – and if she does not he is going to fire her. He tells her to get out!