The Apprentice
News

Two classic reality TV shows hit the air last night. And Make Me A Supermodel, too. What went down on these shows? Let's not waste any more time finding out...

Survivor: The favorites returned to camp after voting out the most notorious villain in Survivor history: Jonny Fairplay. Sea-king Ozzy apparently caught a fish with his bare hands on the walk back to Malakal beach. -- Reality TV Magazine

Celebrity Apprentice: At the start of the episode, Piers Morga was featured telling Tito Ortiz just how horrible Omarosa is. It went on and on and on and ended with Piers saying how he would never go to the women's team. -- Zap2It

Make Me A Supermodel: The bottom three models appear before Niki Taylor, Tyson Beckford and Cory Bautista to hear America's verdict. Ronnie and Frankie are safe, but Katy must go home. -- Buddy TV

Thursdays has always been a big evening for reality TV shows. Let's take a look at what transpired on a trio of them last night...

Survivor: Micronesia: Welcome to the season premiere. It's not just any old fans... it's SUPERfans going up against returning castaways in the latest incarnation of Survivor. Just how super are they? After all, they're calling the returning players "all-time favorites" and we're talking Jonny Fairplay and some more obscure players... -- TV Squad

Make Me a Supermodel: The three models get ready for the elimination ceremony in the morning. Casey's personal hygiene frightens us, as he wakes up in a pile of potato chip crumbs on his bed. How is that even comfortable? -- Buddy TV

Celebrity Apprentice: The claws come out as the teams retire to the penthouse after last week's emotional boardroom. Vinny's gone and Omarosa isn't about to hold back her feelings for Piers and the rest of the guys who goaded Vinny to turn rat on Team Empresario... Reality TV Magazine

On one reality TV show last night, a group of D-list celebrities fought for Donald Trump's affections. On the other, a group of hopeful models yearned to be even a D-list celebrity.

Here are recaps for Celebrity Apprentice and Make Me a Supermodel:

Celebrity Apprentice: Omarosa is shocked and disappointed by the result [of last week's firing]. Vinnie gives the $50,000 check he got for winning the last task to his ex-wife, whose husband recently died from pancreatic cancer. -- Buddy TV

Make Me a Supermodel: The super models-in-training are back this week, and it's time to find out who America does not want to see on the catwalk. -- Reality TV Magazine

NBC has renewed The Celebrity Apprentice for a second season. Next year's edition will premiere in January 2009.

"This revved up installment of The Apprentice has been a game changer for the series," said NBC executive Craig Plestis. "As the rest of this season unfolds, you just keep watching, these episodes have been more thrilling than any season before...

We are blown away by the casts drive, energy, and passion to not only play the game but also to raise a lot of money and awareness for important causes. There's no other show like it to prove your business brain and we are already getting calls from high-profile celebrities who want to challenge themselves in Season 2."

The Celebrity Apprentice's currently airing first installment has averaged 9.3 million total viewers and a 3.9/10 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographic in its first four broadcasts.

"Millions of viewers have spoken and made Celebrity Apprentice the No. 1 show on Thursday nights so far this year," said Donald Trump, failing to thank the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike for helping the show achieve that honor, of course.

A beautiful woman was at the center of reality TV last night - and we're referring to the individual ousted from Celebrity Apprentice, not anyone on Make Me a Supermodel...

Celebrity Apprentice: Jennie Finch is used to throwing heat on the field and not taking heat in the boardroom, causing the 27-year-old Olympic softball player to become the fourth candidate fired by Donald Trump during last night's The Celebrity Apprentice broadcast on NBC... -- Reality TV World

Make Me a Supermodel: With the complaint department on his way out, the models are given a fresh assignment: chemistry. It's time to see how well they can work with each other... -- Reality TV Magazine

This is disgusting, no matter whose side you're on.

Piers Morgan has told The New York Post that fellow Celebrity Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth proposed a "showmance" with the America's Got Talent judge before the latest season of Donald Trump's reality show began.

"Quite early on, before the first challenge, Omarosa sidled up to me and said, in all seriousness, 'Do you want to have a showmance?'" Morgan said. "And I said, 'What is a showmance?' And she said, 'You know, a romance on the show. And then we can make lots of money out of it.'

And I just looked at her and I thought, 'What a pathetic creature.' And I said to her, 'You really are a deluded woman.'"

Of course, Omarosa has a different take on Morgan's story.

"The conversation did not go that way," she retorted, instead claiming he tried to take advantage of her status as a former The Apprentice first-season candidate and reality show retread.

"Piers started, early on, trying to jockey for position and trying to figure out how he could extend himself on the show," she said. "He started picking my brain about past seasons of The Apprentice and he asked me about [first-season contestants Amy Henry and Nick Warnock], about their relationship, and didn't I think that if they had stayed together, they could've done great things?"

"He said, 'I would do damn near anything to go to the end of this show.' And he said, 'Think about it: The two of us together would make a fierce team.' And I was looking at him, and his disgusting rotten yellow teeth, and I just couldn't believe it. I was completely disgusted by the idea."

Here's a scary tag team: Vince McMahon and Donale Trump will team up on this week's edition of Celebrity Apprentice.

The WWE Chairman and billionaire boss actually have a fake rivalry: they each chose competitors to represent them and do battle at Wrestlemania 23. It ended with McMahon, due to an earlier bet, having to shave his head when his wrestler lost.

"I invited Vince to come on because I loved my victory over him at WrestleMania 23, and I thought maybe I'd take it to the next step," Trump said. "Vince is the greatest showman there is. Whether you like him or not, Vince is a smart guy. He's cunning, he's sharp and I did listen to his opinions."

Here's a shock: Donald Trump says the celebrity edition of The Apprentice is the best yet, as he had to accept far fewer stars than even applied for his show.

"I think it's important to say for every person we took on, we turned down five. I never knew there were so many celebrities, to be honest with you," Trump told reporters during a recent conference call.

In the end, 14 D-List celebrities were accepted for The Apprentice's seventh season, which is scheduled to premiere Thursday, January 3 on NBC.

"What really surprised me was the fact that I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting. These are people that are successful celebrities, some unbelievably successful," said Trump. "And we've really had an amazing crop of people. I didn't know whether or not they were going to take it that seriously.

I didn't know whether or not they were going to be as competitive as kids getting out of Harvard and Yale, and Wharton, and all the different schools who, you know, were fighting for their lives. It turned out to be, I think, the best Apprentice we've done and that includes Apprentice Number One which actually became, for many weeks, the number one show on television.

"I really, in some cases in particular, had a hard time firing some of these people because I've known them not necessarily personally, but I've known their achievements," continued Trump.

"It's much more difficult. And that was, to me, the biggest difference between this and firing some young kid from Harvard who did a bad job. That was not hard for me, but firing somebody that I, in many ways, grew up with or watched over the last 25 years or 5 years or 2 years, was much more difficult because they're people of great achievement.

And it's hard for me to fire people of great achievement. But they deserved it and they got fired."

Jenn Hoffman is an alumni of The Apprentice.

And Donald Trump would be proud of how straightforward his former protege is being when it comes to the integrity of his show, along with reality TV in general.

Following Lauren Conrad's admission that parts of The Hills are - shocking horror! - staged, Hoffman wrote the following letter to Perez Hilton.

"Hi Perez,
I can't believe Lauren Conrad is trying to lead the public to believe all reality shows are staged. Her life must really be boring if the producers have to make so much stuff up. I was on the latest season of The Apprentice (a show about "boring" business people â€" not even supposed California socialites experiencing the high life) and I can tell you that every single thing on my show was real.

No scripts, no re-shoots for "continuity" and certainly no fake characters like you say they introduce on The Hills. Obviously some of the dating shows on tv are bullshitty and a bit put onâ€" but they make it pretty obvious. The Hills is filmed documentary style and presented as "reality." LC should just suck it up and admit she is a faker. Would anyone really be surprised or upset?

The Apprentice is real. Reality shows are real. It's just Lauren Conrad's show that apparently is fake."

Jenn Hoffman, MBA
The Apprentice Los Angeles
www.jennhoffman.com

The Scoop's Take: Can't we all just love The Hills for the semi-real, mostly-imaginary world that it is? If your show was so legitimate, Ms. Hoffman, and you're therefore such a serious businesswoman... why are you emailing Perez Hilton?

We hate to break it to you, but The Apprentice already has an attention-whore posing as a real businesswoman. Her name is Omarosa.

Donald Trump is turning The Apprentice into The Surreal Life.

Here is the cast of quasi-celebrities he has lined up for the next season of the reality series:

• Trace Adkins (country music singer)
• Carol Alt (model/actress)
• Stephen Baldwin (The Usual Suspects)
• Nadia Comaneci (Olympic gold-medal gymnast)
• Tiffany Fallon (2005 Playboy Playmate of the Year)
• Jennie Finch (Olympic gold-medal softball player)
• Nely Galan (producer, Telemundo)
• Marilu Henner (Taxi)
• Lennox Lewis (former heavyweight champion)
• Piers Morgan (America's Got Talent)
• Omarosa (Apprentice Season 1 contestant)
• Tito Ortiz (UFC champion)
• Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos)
• Gene Simmons (KISS frontman)