No one has posted the thread yet, so I'll start it.

So long, Tim. How will Nicole react?

Good bye TIM!!!

I'm sorry, but I think Kinetic's presentation sucked. I call shenanigans! And Nicole won't give a sh*t, unless it will get her more screen time, because she never gave a sh*t about Tim to begin with. I even disagreed with Ivanka in the boardroom, which has never happened to me before. When Tim said that his relationship with Nicole is an easy attack, Ivanka disagreed, but I think it was the obvious and only attack on Tim that anyone could come up with!

It was obvious from the first few minutes of the boardroom. Frank was smart enough to stay quiet early on and Stephanie and James could see that Tim was going so stood a united front with Frank.

I hope Stephanie will be the next PM

That was a great task, and an even better reward. I loved that Kristine insinuated that she and chef-hubby got it on that night. Hee!

I guess Nicole didn't inherit her mom's sense of good judgment. "Just focus on the task" indeed.

Glad to see Trumpy has resumed his hard-on for Heidi, now that his Olympic!Gold!Medal!Winning!Superstar!Hockey!Player! is gone. Why doesn't he just sign her on and let her start "apprenticing" already.

I thought that was actually a good reward for a change. I'm glad the editing didn't give away the winners within the first 3 seconds of the episode like it usually does. Oh, and I love Tim for saying that he wasn't getting a chance to finish his sentences. You go, Tim!

According to Slate online, this episode caused a slight controversy at the LA Times.
Slate LA Times article

Interesting episode.

Kinetic: It looked like Heidi wasn't really the creative brain behind the task, but the team did well enough. My hunch is that Nicole came up with the winning idea, as we saw both Heidi and Kristine questioning whether or not it would work.

Arrow: James was safe because of his record and leadership qualities, and Stefani did a fine job with the presentation. Obviously, Tim and Nicole have both been unprofessional in their focus on their relationship, but I think Frank is generally weaker than Tim. However, Frank did well in pointing out the effect that the relationship was having on Tim's performance, as he got Tim to admit "that's life," even though Tim had just moments earlier denied that the relationship had any bearing on his performance. Overall, I could have gone with firing either Frank or Tim.

How will Nicole react? Well, she could go after Frank now.

I guess watching Frank chomp on snacks passes for entertainment out in camp. That was pretty funny.

Ah heck, Nicole isn't in love with Tim, she was just loving the attention.
That said, so long Timmy...he was way too immature, self oriented and distracting for the rest of the team.
Peeking through the bushes every two seconds is just not acceptable behavior.

I was kind of expecting to hear Heidi say that she would be back during one of Trump's chidings on how "she wasnt a winner anymore", but she finally spoke up tonight and said "I'm Back"....when Nicole was rolling her eyes during the task at Heidi's thoroughness, I thought the royal princess might finally be dethroned, but such was not the case.
Instead, we were exposed to her "secret" mother....and Nicole's...quite a difference there.

It's getting down to the wire, and its kind of sad to think that this is the best of the bunch...so many weak links.

"Nicole unleashed"? God help us all.

Does anybody else find James accusing Frank about bringing up concerns at the last minute to be the least bit ironic?

Okay, I mean, yeah, you're not with your family for a month or so while you do this stuff... but really, was that A Very Special (Non-)Reward, or what? I find it interesting that even Nicole's mom is going "Focus on the TASK!"

Tim is gone... and good riddance. I think it's not that he and Nicole were romancing... it's that EVERYBODY ELSE was being forced to DEAL with the Ti'cole romance.

In what universe are papers rubberbanded like that, and just magically dropped on your front door? (And since when do inserts get stuck on the top?) I mean, for home delivery, I've always seen them rolled up, almost never rubberbanded (except maybe when they attach the bill)... It wasn't just for the Apprentice!Mansion, it was these other "random" houses they're showing us. It kind of reminded me of the few times I've seen VH1's "The Surreal Life" and how they learn things from the paper left on their doorstep...

Personally, given that it was week 11 of 14, and there were 7 candidates left, I was expecting more of a bloodbath (or at least a double cobra) to narrow things down. Eh, there's always next week. Although from the previews, I have to wonder if we're going to get another cucumber porn situation where both teams failed.

ETA:


Well, their presentation may have sucked, but their insert was pretty good, I gotta give them that.


Heh. I thought the looks on the others faces were pretty good, although I have to wonder if they Foley'd in the sounds to make it seem so much more obnoxious than it was.

Surprising: Kristine's husband is beautiful, and Nicole's mom is smart. Just focus on the tasks, moron! That's not why you're here!

Not surprising: Tim being done in by the harpy. His cab ride was funny.

I also thought Kinetic's presentation was crap.


YES.

Wow, I was off on this task. I liked Arrow's presentation and prefer being told *how* a product works rather than relying on glossy models.

Boy, threre was some misdirection. Arrow seems to have the inside track because they hit the demographic while Kinetic has the "hot chick" angle. And yet, the execs loved the latter. Interesting.

Somewhere in the footage we didn't see tonight, someone HAD to bring up Tim sprinting to warn Nicole last week. I'd have been singing it in three part harmony. Yet the cobra really didn't seem imminent until Tim bitched about Ivanka interrupting him. Doesn't get a lot more kiss-of-death than that.

Most pointed, though, was Tim's exit...especially compared to last week's tearfest. Maybe they said their farewells in edited footage (and seeing as how the editing on this show, well, sucks I wouldn't be surprised) but it was almost like the rest of the team couldn't get away from Tim fast enough.

Someone help - do we have another double-firing to go sometime?

I doubt if Kristine and her husband "got it on that night" because... weren't all the beds in a single room? That would have made the mommies blush!

Anyway, I did not see that coming. I meant the boardroom battle. I guess I expected that each person would fight to stay in the competition, but, after so many weeks of seeing how comfortable everyone on Arrow was with each other (they are, after all, the core Arrow four - excluding Nicole who is now with Kinetic), I thought there would be some level of respect for the team most likely to be fired. I mean, look at how Kinetic handled the firings of their teammates. There didn't seem to be any animosity when Jen, Muna, and Angela left. But Arrow... wow. None of them stopped to send Tim off. That was a first. And it made me uncomfortable.

However, I am looking forward to next week's "split-into-three-teams" task, especially since I read that James and Stefanie are going to pair up. I hope that's our Final two right there.

Meanwhile, the previews indicate that Frankie and Kristine, and Heidi and Nicole pair up. I am confused since I would think that Heidi would choose Kristine on her team, since they're closer to each other, but I might be wrong. It should be interesting next week.

This is at least the second time that a bad idea of Tim's sunk the team (the other being the boxer idea for the GNC task). Of course, the team let him take over with his bad idea ... but it's time for him to go. If Tim hadn't gone, it would have to be James ... for approving Tim's idea and for not listening to Frank suggest that they film an alternate version.

Wow ... Heidi's mom is a hippie from Michigan. Who'd have thunk it?

I like James, but it was hilarious, seeing him get upset about that. Is Frank not allowed to cover his own ass, James? Is your ass the only one that is allowed to be covered?

Glad that Tim has left, and his showmance from hell can hopefully in. I did laugh at his cabride, and I think he'll be okay, in the end. I just hope Nicole goes next.

Heidi won, so Trump loves her again. That bit with her mom, makes me suspect that she's getting a redemption arc. Trump also seems to like James (Ivanka defintely likes him), so I guess they are the frontrunners at this moment. But hopefully Stefani will lead next week, and prove that she can do it.

I'm glad Tim is gone. This constant theme of him being lured by the siren which is Nicole is really boring, and totally inappropriate. Now if only Nicole could be gone, too. I am very weary of hearing her go on about her utter gorgeousness. Heidi and Kristine are attractive, in my opinion, but Nicole is awful.
That said, their insert was more appealing, largely due to the eye-grabbing graphic.
It was pretty clear that Tim was toast once he stepped on Ivanka's toes.

Oh, I agree so much. I didn't see how there was a disconnect (per the executives' comment) at all. It's an advertising supplement, and it has got to be informative somehow. Aren't all ad supplements like that? (Well, the boring ones at least.)

How thoughtful of The Hair to fly in the loved ones and charge them with shopping and cooking for the winners. The hell? I wonder if the families of both teams were flown in? If so, were the losing team's families made to sleep in tents? (Kidding!)

Yes. What a hypocrite.

Talk about a day in hell for Tim. I give him credit for keeping his sense of humour through most of it. Except for the moment he was fired. It looked like he was biting his tongue, big-time. He was cute and so was his overbite but his time was up.

Shut up, Nicole, you big old drama queen.

The controversy seems to involve a conflict-of-interest with the paper's Outlook section. The Apprentice tie-in doesn't seem to have caused much controversy; as I read it, the columnist threw in there for extra gossip points, or maybe as a transition to NBC/Universal's ticket giveaway for the movie Peaceful Warrior, which, ahem, "underperformed."

The heartwarming family reunion segment went on waaaay too long.

Not only did Tim get fired, but now Frank has WORKER BEE painted on his ass, not only by Tim, but by James as well. I don't think that bodes well for Frank. Trump says he wants leaders, and Frank has been kept around for comic relief anyway. I see the Cobra in his future if his team loses the next task.

Shoot. Heidi won this task. Now we'll get to see her be smug and gloat. Ick. She makes me want to gag. She's quite a powerhouse after winning three tasks, but I honestly can't see Trump hiring her after knowing a bit about her film history. Trump will be a laughing stock if he does. She seems like a hollywood starlet hoping to get on television for camera exposure.

Trump made a good and solid call in firing Tim. He did have loyalty issues and his ideas were awful.

I think after this episode, the competition will be among James, Heidi and Stephani, with the final two being James and either Heidi or Stephani.

I thought Kinetic's ad was too female-oriented. I think they should have tried to recruit some guys.

Oh, and is the LA Times REALLY the largest paper in the US? I thought it was the NYTimes.

Ack, I'm trying to give her proper credit for her win, but her smug, gloating expressions in the boardroom made me feel nauseated. Stop raising your danged eyebrows, Heidi !!!!

I'm actually hoping for a Heidi and Stephani show down. I don't think Trump would be able to contain himself.

Sorry if that left a horrible image in anyone's mind.

If Tim just realized that the whole season was bullshit and decided he might as well treat it as a vacation and get laid, I can go along with that.

But for Nicole?!? With Stefani around? 'the fuck?

And did Trump refer to Nicole as Tim's "your little Nicole"? Yeah, she's got a shot.

Oh, I despise Heidi and her damn smugness. Bitch needs to quit believing she's all that and a bag of chips. I might have missed something. How long has Heidi lived in LA but her mom hasn't come to see her? Hit me over the head with that a million times, why don't you?

Sorry, but Tim had to go. He was a huge distraction. And thank god we won't have to hear about the showmance anymore. Can Nicole be next to go, please? Then she and Tim can be together again.

Right up until the visiting execs called a Kinetic win, I thought Arrow had this thing won. I much preferred a cultural diversity angle and using people they found on the streets as models. Arrow was very scientific in their approach and the ad told a story. I didn't think the idea sucked.

Kinetic got to feature themselves smiling. All young, all women. I just didn't get anything out of it and the presentation to the execs wasn't as strong, either, IMHO.

Nicole unleashed? God, I knew I would have to look away as soon as that was announced. I was hoping Kinetic would lose and Nicole would be issued her walking papers, but I guess I will have to be irritated by her voice for another week.

I am glad that Tim was fired over any of the other Arrow players. This whole showmance thing has made me sick and made me not like Tim. I don't want to get into the loyalty argument, but discussion of Nicole came up pretty frequently and had to be sickening to the rest of the team. No matter what his strengths, I think the team had had enough of Tim in the bushes and all the bs that went into T'icole.

I am dying to see what Stephanie can do because I really think she is a quiet and solid player. She hasn't led, so I expect her to lead next week. Why didn't Nicole lead Kinetic? Heidi has already been the leader as has Kristine. I was surprised to see Heidi leading again, but it scored her points with DT.

Wow, there were so many factors in tonight's ep!

But this is why I have a problem with keeping the same PM until they loose. Trumpy says he doesn't want to fire James because of the wins he's had -- but Tim -- and Stephani -- haven't even had a chance to lead the team yet. How is that fair?

I also think Tim was probably right about Frank. Frank might be a hard worker, and a good sales person, but I haven't really seen him come up with any ideas. But I have seen Tim offering ideas on several of the tasks.

I had to laugh when James said Frank shouldn't have waited until the last minute to start criticizing their idea. Can you say "GNC," James?

So then they try to tell Frank there just isn't time to do anything else, and he acts like a big baby and stomps off pouting. Sheesh!

I think Nicole should be fired for saying "more happier."

She asks the most inane, stupid questions in the boardroom. "Why was that middle insert loose from the others?" She had nothign else to say because she barely knew how her own team won their task. Rebecca2: Electric Boogaloo. She's still shown nothing in the way of skill or know how.

And Tim? Still waiting for you to get your balls back from Nicole. Hopefully she packe dthem in your wheelie bag before you left for the boardroom.

The ironic thing is that if Tim listened to Frank and dropped Nicole like a hot potato, Frank would've been the one going home.

Did anybody else laugh when Frank yelled, "young man, you're still wet behind the ears!!"

Frank's all of three years older than Tim. Tool.

Yeah, I did too. It reminded me of S3, when Craig called Kendra a "young lady." Then again, at least he did it turing as task, and not in front of... well, Trump. I think Frank must have just lost it there, because I can't see why that was a smart idea.

Maybe kind of disengenous on Frank's part. But his point was valid. Why would entangle yourself in a romance when you are on a job interview?

aunthelen, were you in my living room? As soon as she said that, I looked at my brother, and just said, "Fired. Now."

To be fair to Trump (or possibly his and the show's legal staff), I think he only said that it was ONE OF the largest papers. I specifically noticed that, cuz I thought "Now see, he can't say that THAT's #1 without some real proof"...


Hell yeah, cuz if memory serves, he's only like a year (or two) older than I am. But also note Trump waving the "street smarts" "from the Bronx" flag(s) again...


Absolutely cringe-inducing. I mean, bitch, PLEASE. Get OFF my TV!

Actually, I agree with Trump's assessment; I don't think he exagerated. LA Times is one of the largest newspapers, along with NY Times and Washington Post.

The sound on my TV faded briefly during Tim's well-deserved cab ride and I didn't catch what he said. Something about being "greyed out"? Can someone please tell me what he said and what he meant?

He was saying that that he didn't want to be "greyed out", on the NBC webpage. Whenever a contestant gets fired, his picture on the main Apprentice page gets greyed out, while those still around, stay in color.

Trump actually said, "It's also the largest daily metropolitan newspaper anywhere in the country." This sounded like bullshit to me. It's not like you can find the LA Times at every newsstand in the country, like you can with the New York Times. And wouldn't you know it, Wikipedia calls his goldbrickin' ass out. Christ, you think he would kowtow to his own freakin' hometown paper and give them the props they deserve!

Both ideas were fairly useless. But Kinetic pulled a Kendra by coming up with the innovative design. That was definitely cool. Otherwise, fairly useless.

Trump goes way too far in his critiques. Seriously, you thought Arrow's design sucked? It wasn't that much worse than Kinetic's. Easy on the hyperbole!

Tim sucks, and he's sucked for a while. The Tim-Nicole romance didn't take America by storm, and those of us who noticed found Nicole annoying beyond words. Props to NicoleMom and Frankie for putting the smack down and articulating what every person watching this show has been thinking: It's a freakin' competitive game show. Focus on winning the game, then swap spit with the object of your fancy, idiots. Then again, I don't think Tim or Nicole are probably getting a lot of dates - he's dweeby and she's annoying - so they were probably a little desperate. I seem to recall other Apprentice romances came together after the show, because, you know, those contestants were somewhat professional.

Has an Apprentice ever had the comeback arc like Frankie? I hated him on sight, but now I find him only slightly annoying, and actually vaguely useful/intelligent. He certainly appears to be a hard worker, and the young man smackdown was pretty nice.

Stefani exists only to annoy me with the granny glasses. Seriously, what is that look about? She has her whole frame glasses resting on the very tip of her nose. I think she could afford half frames if she needs them. The way she wears them screams "pretense," "take me seriously," and even "I'm an 'actress' on Skinemax about to drop a pencil in my low cut dress in front of the boss after hours." She's very good looking, but this prevents me from liking her.

Just noticed Heidi's weird teeth. Is it me, or are all the Apprenti overdoing it with the Crest White Strips? The family members as well. Mr. Kristine seemed to have glow in the dark teeth. It also appeared that he was much better looking than Kristine, and I didn't need the imagery of her getting naked, thanksverymuch. "It's none of your business!" It sure isn't, and I wish you'd never mentioned it.

Didn't it seem a little weird that Heidi has been in SoCal for seven years and never brought her mom down? I'm assuming she had a decent job before TA. I'm sure JetBlue or Southwest flies from Michigan to LA pretty cheap.

I don't want to see any more Nicole confessionals. She bugs the hell out of me... mannerisms, voice, life philosophies...

Here are my rankings of the Apprenti, in order of least annoying:

1. James
2. Frankie
3. Stefani (only because of the glasses. If not she'd probably be number 1!)
4. Heidi
5. Kristine
6. Nicole

I'm not at all surprised that DT said the LA Times was the largest daily Metropolitan nespaper in the US; after all this is the man who also said that The Apprentice was the number one TV show.

Heidi? Shut up. Now.

Yea, my bogosity meter went off on that big time. The only way that the paper could be thrown in that manner is if the carrier hand-carried it to about 5 feet from the doorstep and kind of gingerly tossed it.

We get our paper rolled up in a plastic bag and launched in the vicinity of the foot of our driveway. I cannot speak to the delivery of the L.A. Times, but I have to think it's very similar.

I could *possibly* see the insert placed in a high visibility location in the paper, but that would require a lot of work on the carrier and would require a lot of $$$ from the advertiser.

As for the firing .. meh. I don't think either Tim or Frankie would have made F2, so it's a wash in the end. I really liked Tim's passionate arguing there at the end. So much better to have a semi-reasoned and rational argument than random screaming (Tammy, Roxanne, and Allie.)

I am so loving Ivanka. Does Donald ever have anything substantive to say when she's around? I'd love to see this show with just her.

I did agree with Tim, Frank should of been fired and all he does is errands. At least as of late. I haven't seen Frank do much creatively nor lead a task. All he does is bitch bitch bitch in his confessionals. I think he's the only person left who has yet to lead a task. Nicole maybe too? I don't see either Frank or Nicole making the F4 anyway.

Why wasn't Nicole and Tim's relationship a factor last week when Kinnetic lost for Nicole? But when Arrow loses its a huge factor for Tim. Tim was a scape goat this week. When was the last time Trump fired someone the entire team wasn't pushing to be fired? Seems like Survivor to me but without the strategy!

The delivery of Frank's boardroom defense sounded like very bad dialogue spoken by a very bad actor.

Although the Smart Mouth cut-out ad was superior, I was itching for someone--anyone!--to bring up that misplaced hypen in the middle of the poster: .....24-hours of fresh breath! While "more happier" is far more egregious, that hyphen wasn't an amazingly literate act either. I wanted one of those execs to say, "Take your pick. It's either 24-hour fresh breath or 24 hours of fresh breath."

Arrow knew of the conceptual miasma visible at the shoot that later became much more apparent when the prints were developed. There was nothing to redeem then. At the presentation, the first thing the execs saw was this motley assemblage of yawning models, causing them to doubt the clarity and effectiveness of the whole insert. The problematic "scientific" loose insert-within-insert ( I have seen this type of quasi-scientific information appear on all sorts of products, so they idea wasn't exactly novel) probably fared worse due to its separation from the body of the main flyer; the separation caused a disconnect from the information that Arrow had hoped to deliver (too much!).

I'd say the execs were predisposed to liking the competing ad not because of the chick-model angle, but because of the eye-catching shape of the insert. This was enough to propel them through the rest of the presentation without finding that the ad was skewed towards young, on-the-go women. Had they objected to that, the argument would have been that only one of the models should have been featured, to give the insert a through-line.

The Tim/Nicole romance, showmance didn't really bother me. I really didn't feel it played a large part in Arrow's loss. More responsible was a failure to direct the models appropriately, or to stage the shoot in such a way that it didn't have two possible interpretations. None of the models appeared to be truly horrified by their breath odor, and having so many of them in a small ad made it look like an ad for methamphetamine or Folger's crystals.

Interesting that Kristine called Heidi out (in the confessional) for less-than-mercenary, soft-pedaled leadership on this task. Seems that this observation may end up being repeated in a boardroom.

I actually think that Tim's feelings for Nicole wasn't what ended up hurting him. What hurt him more was hearing that Trump was down on him, after the last boardroom. After James informed him that Trump questioned his loyality, it just seemed like Tim panicked, and tried too hard to come up with a winning idea, and didn't see the flaws. He basically went into Operation Panic Mode, and ended up annoying and hurting his team. But it wasn't like he messed up, because he was sitting around, crying about losing his Nicole.

Arkay said Word! I don't like to snark on someone's looks but Nicole ain't pretty enough to be calling attention to her prettiness every 5 minutes.

Yes, Sunday LA times is rolled into a plastic bag. And ads are inside the paper.

The LA times delivery brought up timing issues for me. How long between team declared losers and boardroom firing? I'd assume it take at least a couple of days to get the ad ready for the LA times.

Actually, that is how the Sunday LA Times is delivered. It's enormous, much too thick to fold. It get rubberbanded (or tied by string) and delivered by people in trucks at like five or six o'clock in the morning in my neighborhood. They toss it if it's a short distance. If it's a longer distance they walk it up and toss it 'gingerly' on the doorstep or walkway closer to the door.

What wasn't realistic was the insert on the outside. That I am sure was done for dramatic effect, to demonstrate to the tv viewer that the insert was in that particular edition that day.

The reward was nice if the contestants hadn't easy access to them before or after the show was done. I think when Heidi said her mother never came out in seven years it wasn't that Heidi didn't pay to bring her out, it was that her mother always had a 'reason' not to make the trip. I have a sister and brother in law who are like that, they don't just hate LA they hate all of California and won't come in the state except rarely and briefly. Heidi's mom had that whole hippie/farm/hospice nurse thing going on back home and probably felt like it wasn't her deal to come out and vacation visiting Heidi here in satan's playground. :-)

But still, a reward should be something great you don't get every day. That's what I find puzzling about relative rewards: why are these people so choked up and freakin' out when they see their relatives? This is true of Survivor too. I mean, Survivor is less than a month and half. You can't not see your mother or sister or brother for a month and a half without acting like they just returned from some years long separation? It's stupid to me. And the Apprentice is much shorter in duration. So how is that so shocking and amazing? When I don't see someone I care about for about a month for some good reason I don't fall apart when we meet again and neither do they. My dog, however, acts like he's won the lottery when I return after five minutes from getting the mail. I'm not sure what that says about these contestants, but whatever.

Glad Tim left. Nicole must leave next, please God. And watching Frank eat chips was hysterical. As was Stefani's mention of reward right then. And Frank's 'want a chip?' question. I love Frankie Suits and I want him to win except for the part where if he wins I don't think he has the skill set necessary to deal with the fake job or whatever they wind up having him do and he'd be told adios and his sad puppy dog face would fall and I don't want that for Frank. I want him to have sunshine and puppies and always be happy.

Although drunk Frank is awesome.

ETA:



We only get plastic if the weather looks like it's gonna be damp or wet. Otherwise it's just plain tied together and left as is, folded in half just like on a newstand. But I believe the delivery people are the ones who do the banding and putting in bags part, so it could be an individual neighborhood kind of thing.