Summer is fired on the first Apprentice of Season 5
I was conflicted as to what the title of this post should be. Common sense would dictate that I use the title of the show and the name of the candidate so people would know right away what this is about. But I also like the title “What do you prefer – a free massage or a free empty duffel bag with a corporate logo?” This too could sum up the first episode of this season’s Apprentice.
In classic Trump style, the Donald flies into New York on his private plane to meet the 18 candidates at the airport. I’m not sure if it was to impress the candidates or inspire them, but Donald Trump takes them onto his plane and says if you work really hard and are really successful you too can have your own plane. He takes the candidates out onto the tarmac and appoints Allie and Tarek as the first Project Managers of the season. Their first task is to pick a team. Allie picks Andrea, Sean, Pepi, Roxanne, Brent, Stacy, Tammy and Michael. They eventually name their team Synergy Corporation. Tarek picks Dan, Theresa, Bryce, Charmaine, Lenny, Summer, Lee and Leslie. They name their team Gold Rush Corp.
The contestants are then given their first task immediately by Trump – they are to use advertising on a Goodyear Blimp to drive business to a local Sam’s Club. The team that gets the most new business memberships or upgraded business memberships wins the task.
The Synergy Corporation comes up with the idea of giving customers free massages and free manicures to drive traffic into the store. Once they’ve been pampered team Synergy hits them with their sales pitch. The Gold Rush Corp. uses the Blimp to advertise Sam’s Club and their slogan about being a big deal to get people into the store. They give the first 485 customers in the store (and they get the gift whether or not they upgrade). While they get their freebie team Gold Rush goes in with their pitch.
Synergy wins the challenge having signed up 43 new memberships. As their reward, Donald Trump takes them to lunch at The Wharton Club (as The Donald reminded us earlier this show he is a graduate of The Wharton School). The team members got to have a Q and A session with Donald Trump to tap into his business knowledge and expertise.
Gold Rush Corp. lost the challenge, having sold only 40 memberships. When they return to the loft the backbiting, strategizing, and alliance forming begins. The team as a whole seems to be picking on Summer – she was assigned the task of calling local restaurants to invite them to Sam’s Club, but only made 1 call. Lee is the only one in the group who speaks out about the ganging up on Summer. He didn’t disagree that she was a weak performer on the team but felt it was unfair to criticize her or talk about her when she wasn’t there to defend herself.
Back to the boardroom….Everyone seems to be picking on Summer again (surprise, surprise) but Lee speaks out about the team’s lack of creative process. This, in his opinion, was a failing of the Project Manager. Not to be outdone Tarek strikes back by calling into the boardroom with him Lee, Summer and Lenny. Why he called Lenny into the room is beyond me. I think he just doesn’t like him personally so thought this would be a good way to get rid of him.
For a while the tide seems to have turned, and Donald, Carolyn and George are criticizing Tarek in a big way. Summer opens her mouth and interrupts Donald while he is in the middle of a tirade. This ticks him off and he fires Summer on the spot. He called her stupid because she interrupted him right when The Donald was about to give his famous “you’re fired” line to Tarek. On the way out of the boardroom Donald tells Tarek that he was very lucky and that Summer saved his ass by her stupidity. When the contestants have left the boardroom, Donald, Carolyn and George agree that getting rid of Summer was a good move, but Donald concludes the show by saying Tarek is overrated.
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