"The Apprentice" (spoilers 10/13): rules schmules?

Last night's episode of "The Apprentice" shows why reality TV, when well-done, is probably here to stay.  Even though clever editing can alter our views of the contestants, the bottom line is that they say the things that are caught on tape, and when they say and do odious things, like Toral did (recapped nicely here by Prof. Althouse), it's just soooo satisfying to see them get their comeuppance.

Still, something about the insta-firing -- Trump didn't even wait for the final boardroom showdown, he just fired Toral on the spot -- bothered me, just as Martha Stewart's overruling of the PM's choice last week to fire someone who hadn't been brought into the final conference room bothered me.  In Martha's case, the PM messed up by bringing in the wrong people, and unlike Trump, who in a similar situation fired one of the ones brought into the boardroom, Martha forced the "safe" team members to come back, whereupon one of them was fired.  It was the right outcome, except that it made a mockery of the rule that the PM makes the choice of who faces firing.

Ah, but didn't Trump insta-fire someone in season 2?  Yes, he fired Elizabeth on the spot after the police commercial fiasco.  But the crucial difference there was that Elizabeth was the project manager -- hence, she was automatically going to be on the firing line.  It didn't matter who else she brought with her; Trump had made up his mind to fire her, and nothing could change that result.

Here, Toral was not the PM.  As we saw, last week, Toral should have been brought into the final boardroom but was not, and therefore she was spared.  Thus, Toral was not automatically going to be on the firing line.  Besides, I have a had time believing that the women lost because Toral refused to put on the mascot suit.  (I mean, when I saw Zip, my first thought was that it looked like some giant pillbug.  Yuck!)

I suppose, in Trump's defense, Felisha was part of the anti-Toral & Rebecca clique and there was no way she'd let Toral escape the final boardroom. . . .  Still, it would've better procedurally if Trump had at least asked something like, "I assume you're bringing Toral into the final boardroom?"

Comments

[Matt]

I think what Trump did was entirely within the rules. If I'm not mistake, the first rule of The Apprentice is that The Donald makes the rules!

On a more serious note, though, I think it was crystal clear that Toral was coming back into the boardroom. I know where you're coming from, but this is one of those cases in which summary justice didn't bother me at all. And wow, was it ever satisfying! Even in the taxi after just having been handed her head, she just didn't get it. Amazing.

[JJ]

I have to say I have absolutely no problem with The Donald & Martha bending the rules. Sure it's a TV show but it's all under the premise of being a job interview. If someone goes out of their way to be a PITA, which I belive Toral did in the end, he's well within his rights to not even bother with the showdown segment. It's his show, afterall. We all know that the person who ends up the apprentice doesn't get a real job (except maybe that real estate developer chick from last season - Kendra What's her face - since her "job" is quite similiar to what she had done before). But oh well...