I wonder what would have happened if one of the men had been good-looking in more of a "feminine" way. I'm thinking like an A&F model or something like that. The attractive men on the show are all, IMO, classically handsome, rather than "pretty."

Also, I wonder what would happen if they had cast an average looking woman on the show. God knows they cast some average (or below) men...although they were all gone within the first four weeks.

Finally, what about casting someone openly gay or lesbian. I mean, besides Kwame and Troy, which I see as kind of an "Oz" thing.

I, too, have been questioning the absence of the gay/lesbian equation. Unless there's something we don't know about some of the candidates.

They did cast average looking women this season: Heidi, Jessie, Tammy, and Omarosa (who looks like a man).

The only difference is that they didn't cast an overweight female, but Bowie was casted.

Well I'm thinking one of the men is deeply closeted myself, but I'm very much in a minority I know.

As to next season? I would like them to get fewer Heathers and more Heidi-types but with more refined language. I also want more George and Carolyn casual-wear.

And it's been said many times in this thread but it can't be said too often -- I want more information about the rules for the tasks and from whence TAs are given direction in relation to certain aspects of their assignments.

For example, what was the deal with the auction? The fairest way to approach the assigning of celebrities would have been to give the whole list of possibles to TAs and have them draw names out of Troy's hat. That way it literally would have been the luck of the draw with little risk of machination by TPTB.

I want to see the full, unedited two-hour boardroom sessions on CNBC (kind of like C-SPAN coverage).

For that matter, some on the Episode 11 board are suggesting a "Kwame, Bill, and Troy celebrating their victory in Atlantic City" 24-7 channel. As long as we're getting the full boardroom, why not turn CNBC into the 24-7 Apprentice channel.

That way if you're awake at 3AM you can tune in and find out if Katrina was lying about Nick and Amy doing it or not... in three camera nightvision!

So, goobaletta, you gonna just leave us all hangin' like that?

Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky? Or is sometimes a cigar just a cigar.

Circling Shark, if you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting:

1. Plausible. Entirely plausible.
2. Oooh, he's so CUTE!
3. Does this mean we need to start calling him GIRLfriend Bill?
4. Who is going to pay for Miss Alli's therapy?

Y'all got it. I commented about it in his thread Thursday night or Friday morning HERE...

If I could request one thing of Trump and Burnett it would be, as others have suggested, to have longer tasks that are more valid for the real world.

Odds are they'll do another advertising campaign one because that's a really good way to see who's creative and who's not and that's cool.

I'm hoping for another charity deal too, but perhaps some other sort of benefit. Or perhaps they could have two different charities so each team would feel more competitive.

No more pedicabs please. I do like the idea of a hot dog stand over a lemonade one. I also like the flea market challenge. And the art gallery one is okay but unrealistic considering how such sales generally work.

I'd also love it if they tossed something at the candidates like formulating a teaching plan and activity for kids in an after-school program or something. It could go on for a couple of days, get some kids on camera which is always a good sell, and do some good too. Also it would exhibit the candidates' people skills and creativity.

More "applicants" from the beauty pageant circuit!!!

[off topic] Because I'm a loser, and also because I'm nostalgiac for the Shack-style "Bachelor" recaps, I started re-reading the TWoP summaries from season 2 of The Bachelor, and was reminded of how borderline insane the two beauty pageant contestants, Christi & Heather-from-Texas, were. [/off topic]. If there were more people like the two of them AND Omarosa, I could, dare I say, be even MORE in love with this show. I have a feeling that it really doesn't matter what the winner gets -- a tiara, a husband, a job, or a job with a fellow applicant as a new boyfriend -- these women would compete with all they've got - rampant insecurity, paranoia and an irresistable temptation to sabotage their "co-workers". Whee!!

Hold on. Aren't we forgetting his alleged tryst with Amy?

And maybe I'm hearing things, but didn't Troy call him a metrosexual?

ETA I wonder what would happen if they did a 24-hour camshow like Big Brother. That way we could watch the whole boardroom if we wanted to. And during tasks we could have the choice of switching between the cameras following Versacorp and Protege. I'd pay for that.

whip1, that alleged tryst don't mean diddly. For all we know they're each other's beards. Just sayin'...

Drinkinhelps, considering that Miss America is about scholarships, it's not unreasonable to think that there are beauty competitors that are educated and successful in all things business. It would only be fun, however, if they were whackjobs like Omrswashingtondc-ah. And Lord knows you don't need more than one of those per season.

Things I would like to see:

1) More real-world twists in some of the assignments - perhaps the PM is chosen for the team on a given task (or bring in a non-player from the outside). Or in the middle of the season there is a random corporate re-org of the teams. Or put in a secret mole who does nothing (or sabotages things) and see how the teams deal with it.

2) Some individual assignments, where you see what each person can do on his/her own (maybe even at the beginning). This would help to expose dead wood, as well as see more of the talents of the quiet ones.

3) More prep time for certain tasks. For example, in the episode with renting the apartments, there was barely enough time to fix up the place, leaving less than one day to show it. You get very little rental traffic coming in one day, so it turned out to be a bit anticlimactic. With this one (and several other tasks) if you had more lead time you'd get to see more strategic planning and marketing skills used, rather than just luck and sex appeal.

4) More "regular" looking people.

5) A free form contest something like: "Here's $5000. You have 3 days. You can't do anything illegal. Make the most money."

6) More Carolyn and George

7)Video footage in the boardroom (both to contradict someone who is trying to spin a situation, plus to confront someone with a "what were you thinking" moment).

Yeah baby, Grifter! That's exactly what I want. I want the full boardroom AND the full discussion of the cadidates by Trump, George, and Carolyn. I want to see the full context of the smirks, comments, and reactions.

Actually, I would love for them to go back and do this for Apprentice 1. Since they shot a whole bunch of footage, they could easily milk the unseen footage and maybe have Carolyn AND George give THEIR commentary of the candidates throughout the weeks.

THAT would be AWESOME! You have my vote!

I'm pretty much happy with the way this season has been handled, and would hate to see it gimmicked up, but I love smedvig's "Here's $5000, you've got three days. Don't do anything illegal."

I second smedvig's Anything Goes idea. That would really bring the creative minds to the forefront. Package of dirt, anyone?

I would love to see someone get "fired" each week but still have to stay and play the game knowing they won't win (a la The Family). After all, part of being a leader in corporate America is having to work with folks who have disengaged from the company or team mission but are still there as dead weight. Knowing how to motivate or influence those folks is a big part of working successfully.

That would be AWESOME, Techgirl! Can you imagine Sam seeing Trump week after week knowing he won't get the job? Or watch Omarosa try to sabotage them as much as possible...actually TRYING this time, as opposed to last time when it just worked out that way? That's where my vote goes!

Holy Kelly Britt. He's popping up so much i'd swear he's sleeping with Google.

What do I want? More boardroom, for sure. More looks of disbelief and disgust and cuts-like-a-knife questions from Carolyn. More dismissive comments from George as he essentially tells TAs how stupid he really thinks they are.



Techgirl this is a cool idea but I could never see this working on TA. With the bunch of losers and backstabbers that we've seen on TA, the show would quickly become The Mole.

That, and the people still in the running would be completely hamstrung as soon as the firees outnumbered them, i.e. at episode number 9 at the latest, and possibly as early as ep 6. At that point it's no longer about who's doing the best job, it's about who has the most incompetent saboteurs.

My request is simple...

MORE SAM!!!!!!

I'd buy a DVD if they put one out. Depending of course on the price point :) With lots of BR stuff, and lots of footage of the teams brainstorming before tasks.

With all the spoiler concerns swirling around Katrina, I'd like to see them change the sequesterville arrangements next time. Once it gets down to five or so, the firees should be sequestered individually (it's not like there's a shortage of rooms in NYC). The sequester period is fairly short at that point, so it wouldn't be that much of a hardship. And then, past a certain point, it would be much harder for accidental leaks to happen, since firees really wouldn't know who was axed after them.

Call the next show "The Apprentice Redux" so its initials would be TAR.

What I'd like to see is how they avoid a flood of spoilers next season, since so many of their tasks involve selling things to people, and people talk.

This has a certain appeal (as sending Katrina to a desert island for a few weeks almost inevitably would, I guess), but isn't this something that ALL of these shows have had to deal with? TAR, Survivor, pretty much every show except for Big Brother (which is in real time). In all of those, the remaining players see the arrivals of the eliminated players as the game progresses; it's just never been an issue.

I think the true spoilerage here can be attributed (pretty much exclusively) to Miss Katrina, and I hope to GOD that Trump and Burnett's lawyers come after her with a vengance if she stepped out of the bounds of her Confidentiality Agreement by even a millimeter.

God, now there's a crossover concept: CourtTV and NBC present: Katrina vs. George, in Contract Smackdown.

Katrina's not the only one--there have been a bunch of spoilers spawned by Heidi's pictures from sequesterville. I surprised that MB & co let her put them up, or at least didn't tell her to take them right back down. The previews haven't been as ambiguous and/or misleading, either.

I don't think he's anywhere near as concerned with spoilers for this as he is for Survivor, since a firing isn't going to come flying out of left field the way boots on Survivor can.

But didn't Heidi post her pictures en masse? Putting up pictures of everyone at the same time wouldn't necessarily be leading to spoilage. Although agreed that in this case that it did.

If not having formal education is a detriment, make sure all future contestants have degrees.

One thing I've been thinking about since the first episode (and before I heard about FOX and CBS doing imitations of "The Apprentice"); they should've rotated companies. Donald Trump could be in need of a new CEO each year but it would be refreshing to see how different bosses from different industries handle this type of interview format. But any chances of that happening now due to the shows marketing power is nil.

What would be really good is if on their CNBC(?) (I know it's not MSNBC) cable channel they aired an additional indepth half hour after their replay of an old episode or simply exchange the replay for an hour long indepth episode.
That would prove to be a much better lead in for whatever business related news shows they do on that channel. It would give NBC studios a means of providing people who want more indepth analysis while keeping the current integrity of the show on NBC.
I'm sure their media analysts believe very strongly in the marketing power (and rightly so IMO) of the human factor of showing how the contestants act within a social environment for the general audience.

A lot of the ideas stated hear in how indepth NBC could go with the show are pretty good.


Another thing I agree with is changing the format of the challenges and rewards. The rewards have been hit or miss. The challenges are even worse if they donn't account for whatever special project Trump will give to his Apprentice.

Keep the real estate tasks to a minimum. The first one this season was all right, but last night's was fairly dull. And both of the real estate tasks this season had last minute negotiations that resulted in a team winning right before the buzzer. These sorts of tasks could be very easy to fix.

SVNBob, yes, she put them all up at once, but the spoiler was in who she didn't have any pictures of, since they were identified as having ben taking during the sequester. There aren't any of Amy, or Bill, or Nick, or Kwame, but there is one of Troy, and they were posted several weeks ago. That pretty much gave away the final four. That's why I'm surprised that MB let them stay up.

I'd love to see an Apprentice with Bill Gates.

I read somewhere that Richard Branson of Virgin is doing a Fox reality show, but it didn't say anything about a job as a reward.

somewhat O/T:

Where are you guys finding the spoilery stuff from Katrina, Heidi, etc. Is there a website of the sequestered or something?

Thanks.

HammaLee, there is an entire thread in the Apprentice General Gabbery devoted to Spoilers. It's a long thread, but we have discussed (to death) those topics. As you'll find, Heidi posted the pictures on her own personal webpage, www.heidiabressler.com

Make the task for the second season actually creating and running Trumps House of Wings!

IzzyB, I declare you a genius.

I hope they do more for charitable organizations or NY institution.
How about a fundraiser for the Humane Society or the Zoo? Or sell popcorn on the street (the good kind with coconut or palm oil) as a fundraiser for "X" event?

Perhaps a Trump Cardiac Care wing at St. Vincents?

I'd suggest having more interviews with the four we saw tonight. They know how to grill people and separate the wheat from the chaff. Plus it's funny to see the aspiring corporate weasels get grilled. :)

Okay, if they are going to end up the same way next season as this one, then ALL the fired Apprentii should be brought back in to the final boardroom and the final two need to pick out three out of those assembled. How much better would it be for Kwame if he could have picked Kristi instead of Assorama?

I'd like to see a new boss. Nothing against Trump, but seeing him season after season and hearing his trademarked "Your fired" might get a little tired after a while.
Maybe Oprah could do it instead. Then viewers could see the business side of her. Or, perhaps Yankees boss George Steinbrenner would make a good replacement. Just a thought.

The real must-haves for me are:

1. Women who are picked because they have credentials that suggest they might actually be good candidates for the apprenticeship. IMO, most of the current crop of women were obviously picked for their looks. I base this on the way they handled themselves and in some cases based on background (I read here that one of them did a bit of work in an adult film. Oh, yeah, I'm sure TD is going to hire her for a CEO-type position.) Indeed, AFAIC, the women *knew* they were picked at least in part because of their looks. They saw who tried out and who got on the show. They could see that looks were important, and everyone knows TD loves pretty women. All of which explains why they constantly dressed in short skirts, etc. If the next season brings a new crop of women whose main assets appear to be their bodies, I won't be sticking around to watch.

2. No one under the age of 25. Any younger, just not enough life experience to command the kind of respect a CEO needs to command. Would Trump himself feel comfortable having a really young person in a CEO position? Would he do that to his employees? I have a feeling that current Trump employees would not be too happy if they were told that their new boss was 23.

3. No Actors. No Aspiring Actors. As contestants, that is. If you have an agent, IMO you shouldn't even be able to get on this show. People who want to be in the entertainment field, who like that industry, are not likely to be happy with the corporate world. At least, not over the long haul.

4. Less intervention by TPTB. Or, to put it another way, more "reality" than you usually get on reality tv shows. My interest in this show has really waned since seeing how TPTB manipulate which team wins. They did this with the apt. renovations. (The winning bid was a fake. I believed then, and still do, that TPTB intervened because Omarosa's team was losing, and she would certainly have been booted, and TPTB wanted her around for a little while longer for her entertainment value.) I believe they also stepped in to keep Amy and Nick from losing during the penthouse rental. Why? Because TPTB - again, just my opinion - hadn't finished milking the Nick/Amy "romance". This kind of deception, rather than making me more interested in the show, has actually had the effect of turning me off.

5. Better variety of tasks. Tasks that aren't just sales oriented. Also, tasks that don't clearly favor one sex over the other.

I see your point, but Trump hired Carolyn at age 25 when he bought the golf course. She had already been running it at a profit even though it was in bankruptcy (don't ask me how that works, but apparently it's true). Somehow, she'd risen through the ranks there and apparently was commanding enough respect to run the place. So it isn't age, it's carriage. And as long as older employees aren't stepped on by a whippersnapper, they can still respect a younger boss.

It would be cool to have people who weren't so successful at younger ages. Try someone in middle management and see if they can break out of those ranks.

ITA. It's almost insulting that we, the viewing audience, were expected to believe that these women were serious contenders. Tammy, Heidi, Jessie-Okay I can see why they may have been chosen as actial interview candidates. But the other women were cast for looks. And all they achieved was setting back women's reputations in the workplace all for the sake of T & A and ratings. Amy, Kristi, Ereka, Omarosa, Katrina were obviously looking for fame and fortune and not a job. Because if their behavior on the show and after is any indication of how they behave in the workplace, I can't possible wrap my brain around how they managed to keep their jobs.



Total 100% WORD. To me, this whole concept got diluted because of the casting of wannabe's. This show started out as a semi-authentic look at corporate life, office politics and the inner workings of business. But it quickly turned into the Omarosa show. The fact that they featured her as much as they did shows me that they were more concerned with ratings (okay...understandable) than they were the actual theme/idea/concept behind the show. All the cat-fighting and overblown drama completely diluted this show's brand to where it's impossible to imagine that any of these people were ever serious candidates that wanted this job.



If the producers insist on getting involved this much, then I wish they would PLEASE recognize that their viewing audience isn't a bunch of idiots. It was a matter of time before the women who rented the apartment from Troy's team came out and exposed what had happened. And, please, the showmance between Nick and Amy was so transparent. Finally, we had the second to last episode where once again Omarosa over shadowed everything and evryone. I didn't care about Omaorsa. I wanted to see Bill and Kwaame compete.


After Thursday's episode I was left feeling very manipulated. And I was a hardcore fanatic of this show. This series was cast with about 12 wannabee actor's or fame whores, and about 4 actual business minded candidates. Survivor is supposed to be about drama and conflict and backstabbing. They are supposed to cast extreme personalities for Survivor explicitly for the necessary drama involved with Outwitting, Outplaying and Outlasting. The Apprentice, so I gathered from all the hype before it aired, was about 16 "cream of the crop," 200 IQ's professionals. The behavior of some of the people (read: the women) has been reprehensible. I'm insulted that TPTB thought that this show would pass as authentic.

I feel so used.

The only change I'd like to see is that when it gets down to teams of 3, instead of having the PM pick only one other person, maybe do something like a reshuffle of teams for each task, and have everyone be up for firing except the PM of the winning team gets to pick one person (from either team) to send up to the suite. I think that would give an interesting dimension onto who's considered valuable (since the team's are reshuffled, there's incentive to pick who you think is good instead of just protecting your own members) and give Trump the option to fire a member of the winning team whose cumulative performance isn't up to par. I'm just thinking that if Amy had won the Casino task and the Apt. Rental, the final four would have been Amy-Nick-Katrina-Bill or Kwame... and while I have my own opinions on who the Final 2 should be, it's a little disconcerting to think that a change in who won one task would mean that we COULDN'T have the current Final 2. Also, maybe have everyone on the team have the option (or be required) to stay for the firing boardroom so that people who perform well and aren't put at risk for firing aren't penalized by having less experience/witnessing of what answers go well vs. getting smackdown.

Actually one other change, I'd like George and Carolyn to be doing the final interviews instead of these random outsiders... I feel if you're going to bother having tasks to demonstrate people's skills, you might as well have the people involved in final recommendations be able to make a wholistic evaluation.

I have no problem hiring a 22-year-old in a middle management position if that 22-year-old's track record shows he/she is a young business phenom. Middle management, however, is a lot different from "CEO" or other very high-level position, which is what TA is focusing on.

Yes, Caroline was 25. (Note I said "under 25".) I think you have to have at least a few years of post-college life experience to be a viable high-level executive. And even 25 - for most people - is still pretty young, if you're talking about a corporate job worth $250,000 a year. I have a feeling that Caroline's accomplishments, at age 25, were exceptional. Perhaps even more the exception than the rule, I don't know.

Also, this show particularly disappointed me because, as Tashanir pointed out, it tried to portray itself as being serious about its intentions (of finding top-notch business people and letting them seriously compete for the Trump job.) Yeah, right. It's about as realistic as Bachelorettes in Alaska.

I guess I wouldn't mind if TPTB picked one or two "loose cannons" to make the show more entertaining. But the majority of candidates should actually have reasonable credentials to be the next apprentice. YMMV.

I apologize if this has been mentioned before but I would like to see the two teams living in different spaces. It would add a dimension to the whole team dynamic to have them actually move from one space/group to another when the teams are shuffled. Even if they move numerous times (as Amy would have this season). It would make the newest members of any team an unknown entity to the other members of the team and keep the pm's on their toes when they have a "new hire" to bring into the already established group. I realize it sounds like Survivor, but I still would like to see that arrangement.

Since the OhmygoshIcan'tstoplying's allegations, maybe a Big Brother type live web cast is an idea whose time has come as well. With multiple cameras to select from, if there was something said at any point, there would likely be someone out HERE to catch it. Downtime from the real time shadow cameras on BR time though. It sure would help to fill the hours between episodes! ;-)

And, who wouldn't have wanted to catch T-Roy or Kwame in the gym everytime they were there?