The Apprentice is back for its 10th season, with a twist. Instead of 16 egomaniacs who left high-paying corporate jobs for a shot at working for Donald Trump, we've got 16 slightly humbled egomaniacs who have been struggling to either find work or keep their own businesses afloat in these tough economic times.
One would think they'd be able to keep their eyes on the prize, what with the fire of unemployment raging under their collective behinds and all.
Nah, teams Octane (the gents) and Fortitude (the ladies) still bickered like goobers and wasted time worrying about curtain fabric and potted plants when their task was to design an ultramodern SoHo office space in barely 24 hours.
And that's just the guys!
But what do you know?
Team Octane pulled off the winning design, although the Donald admittedly wasn't thrilled with either office. But once his right-hand offspring, Ivanka and Don Jr., had weighed in in favor of the guys—"If I wanted to work at a 200-year-old law firm, the ladies' was definitely the way to go," Don remarked—it couldn't have gone any other way.
As his prize, winning project manager Gene Folkes, an unemployed financial advisor who at 46 is the oldest player, got to meet with one of the greatest CEOs ever, [cough] Donald Trump.
And the ladies got to, as Trump put it, "go through hell."
Fortitude came to the table with claws fully extended, real estate agent (specializing in urban loft design) Tyana Alvarado having already told Don Jr. straight out, when he came to check on Fortitude's progress, that attorney Nicole Chiu was a craptastic project manager.
Suffice it to say, these ladies gave good boardroom.
Nicole ultimately got the boot because, as everyone pointed out (often all at once), the main decisions rested with her and, in most cases, she chose poorly.
In fact, Her worst decision may have been to bring back Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy, an assistant district attorney from Brooklyn, who prosecuted Nicole like there was no tomorrow.
Trump still thinks his first fire is a good person, of course, and magnanimously offered to set her up with an interview with the Miss Universe Organization.
Wow! The "civilians" certainly know how to throw down the gauntlet, take the gloves off, etc.
Our only question is, how are these struggling professionals supposed to get back on their feet when they're all stuck under the bus?