NBC's "The Apprentice"

"They should have a good time [on my plane]. But they better not use my bed."
- The Donald, on Nick's and Amy's reward of a trip on Trump's luxury jet

The week's challenge involved seeing which team could rent Trump's penthouse ballroom, a 5500 square foot room on the 90th floor of the Trump Tower. Trump told them they should get at least $20,000 for one night.

Strange that neither team ran into the other while showing the ballroom to prospective tenants. Maybe there were actually two such rooms, one on each side of the elevator banks, and each team was assigned to different rooms.

Anyway, Protege (Troy, Kwame, Bill) had two bidders, one couple at about $32,000, and another pair who offered $35,000. But Troy went to work on the second pair and asked for $38,500. That guy got up and said, "I think I'm being hustled." Which he was. So the team went back to the first couple and squeezed $35,001 out of them. I actually thought that Kwame was quite clever in asking for the extra $1, on the theory that if the other team got $35,000 too, Protege would win by $1. (This is a useful tactic in bidding on ebay, too, I might note.)

Versacorp (Nick and Amy) weren't doing as well. With 15 minutes left, they had no bid, and the one guy who was really eager to bid had a problem with the lease: he wanted the room for a New Year's Eve party, but the lease required that the room be emptied by midnight. However, with 2 minutes left, he came back, and Nick closed the door. Amount: undisclosed to us at the time, but later revealed to be $40,800.

The Reward: As noted above, Nick and Amy got to fly on Trump's luxury jet to go to an exotic foreign resort for lunch. However, any notions of a romantic lunch were squashed when Amy's sister and Nick's dad joined them.

The Boardroom: Bill said that Kwame needed more real-world experience and that Troy was good at sales but would not be a good CFO or CEO. Kwame agreed that Troy would not be a good CFO but thought that at an appropriate company, he would be a good CEO. Troy ended up taking Kwame with him to the boardroom, which stunned Kwame. Troy explained that over the past 12 weeks, Bill had had great success in thinking outside the box, while Kwame had done a terrific job -- only in a supporting role. Kwame defended himself on the ground that he had been selected project manager twice (and had been the PM a third time as well on a random draw). Troy said that he didn't have Kwame's education (MBA) but he had better business instincts.

Trump thought about and said, "This is a tough choice. This is the toughest choice I've had to make." Then he told Troy that he was talented but too much of a loose cannon to run a multibillion corporation. And he fired Troy.

Next Week: The next episode is the last "regular" episode before the live finale. And we're told that two people will be fired in the first half hour! Not only that, Omarosa will be back in some kind of role. . . .

* * *

I'm a bit surprised that (a) Troy took Kwame with him instead of Bill; and (b) Trump fired Troy instead of Kwame. However, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. Bill has been a quietly strong performer, and everyone knew that last week, Amy had identified Bill as her strongest competition. In addition, Troy had to be worried that if he chose Bill to go to the boardroom, Trump would think that he (Troy) was favoring his buddy. So I think choosing Kwame was the better move for Troy.

As for the decision to fire Troy, I probably shouldn't have been surprised either. While I think Troy has been a strong performer, for whatever reason, Trump hasn't been that impressed with him. Maybe it's the lack of a college education, or maybe it's Troy's occasional smarmy aggressiveness.

At this point, I think the final two will be Bill and Amy. Yes, I know that last week I thought that Amy had lost her sense of invulnerability, but it looks like I was wrong.

UPDATE (4/2): Prof. Althouse was bored by last night's episode:

We might as well have an episode that's just a closeup on Trump's face where he looks into the camera and says, for an hour, "I am rich, I am so rich, I am so much richer that you can imagine .... " That's what it felt like last night.

Comments

[Kevin]

I'd still guess the final two is Nick and Amy--probably a fire the losing team situation. My sense is that Mark Burnett has too much invested in the Nick and Amy drama not to drag this out to the end. But obviously, it's all speculation here!

As for Trump's firing of Troy, I too was surprised, although in hindsight Trump is generally a sucker for the brand-name label (Harvard MBA, Goldman Sachs) and thus his retention of Kwame makes sense.

[Will Allen]

I strongly smelled a fix last night, as far as which team won. For T.V. production purposes, the award works much better, with having the romantically linked couple fly down to the Florida beach-side mansion. Particularly with the female demographic, what appeal is there to have three guys fly down to Trump's mansion? Throw in the last-minute nature of the $40,000 lease, when Nick and Amy would have been desperate to get anything, and the lessors would have known it, and it seems very likely to me that the outcome was pre-ordained.

As far as the boardroom, it proceeded as expected. Kwame is the protypical corporate climber without remarkable talent; he demonstrates that it is often bureaucratically effective to simply be non-offensive. Troy may not be right Trump, but he will end up very successful in some enterprise. I just heard him interviewed by Don Imus, and he has tremendous charismatic appeal. Assuming he doesn't suffer from serious ethical problems (and I don't see anything unethical in having two bidders compete against each other) he will do very well at something.

Nick once again seemed to me to be the typical mediocre salesperson who overrates his ability. Amy was completely accurate in her assessment regarding Nick's habit of talking WAY too much, especially when dealing people who know your product better that you do, as was the case with the event planners. "Shut up and sell" is a bromide for a very good reason, and it completely escapes Nick, as it does with many mediocre salespeople.

Now that the wild-card talent of Troy has been eliminated, Bill and Amy are the two obvious best choices to manage one of Trump's companies, and if Kwame and Nick aren't eliminated nest week, there isn't any point in watching the finale, at least for me. What role Omorosa plays in that process will be interesting, however. Any predictions?

[Tung Yin]

I don't know about Omarosa, maybe the rumors of her intention to sue were true, and CBS/Mark Burnett reached a settlement with her where she would be brought back on air and be paid for her appearance.

[g]

I agree with Will about Kwame. He's very smooth in the boardroom and can say the right things, but I've seen absolutely nothing out of him besides that. He's got the right pedigree, but none of the spark that Troy has. While it is true that when you're running a big company in NYC you need a certain level of experience to deal with bigshots and say the right things, I don't see Kwame being anything but average when running a company. I think Trump should tell Troy to go back to school and talk to him again when he has an MBA because I see Troy being a much better executive in the end than Kwame.

[bdogg]

Will was bang on with Nick & Amy's bid - Two minutes to go and getting that bid was too much...Either he was a dope or it was fixed...

...And I still want to wipe that smug off Nick's kisser...

[teka]

I have to say I was shocked that Troy got the boot, I think Troy chose Kwame to go to the boardroom, because he knew if he picked Bill he would have been so out of there, but with Kwame he had a chance to stay in the competition.

That was sad, sad, sad though I think he really wanted it, but I agree, I think Bill has got this wrapped up unless he does something really insane.

To me the two people who I thought have gotten so lucky during this whole thing has been Kwame and Nick, what does Nick do other than being cute and sit around with that weird stare, like he doesn't know he doesn't do anything and Kwame what does he do other than go work out with Troy and put his glasses on and take them off, they simply get lucky, over and over and over again...

[Doug]

The commentors about the rigged setup are probably right. I found this in my rss aggregator today. No proof it's accurate, but it's definitely believable.

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/new_york_new_york/realitys_apprentice.php

[Marie]

I hate to say this but I think it is a lot of black-ass kissing going on in the "The Apprentice!" If Kwame wins, I will never watch another show! He didn't contribute anything to the show and as far as Amorosa is concerned, just another deadbeat looking for money by crying the race card!