Wow, I think Gene wanted to get fired. Actually with all the sexist comments he made this week, the only way I could continue to watch the show was if he was gone, so I'm really glad he left.

Nooooooooo! Not Gene!

Also, am I crazy, or did the previews just show a handful of people who DEFINITELY don't go next week and the most likely person TO be fired?

Wow, until about 9:45 I didn't realize Tito was PM. I thought it was Piers. Too bad he didn't get credit for it, seeing as he was the one who nailed the ink thing.

Gene was played out by this point. I found him entertaining for awhile, but enough already.

I was digging the substitute viceroy until he said, "That's insolence to you, Mr. Trump!" Toady.

Oh, sweet moses. Gene Simmons makes Dump look like a nice, sweet older guy, and makes him seem less douchebagish by comparison. I know Omarosa is full of hot wind, but oh my sweet jeebus, even she said it was about the ink and tried to get him to see reason. Gene Simmons just can't listen to anything but his own douchebaggery. I am glad he's gone. "The women don't have a popcorn fart's chance at even shining the mens' shoes"? What century does this guy live in?!

Speaking of douchebags, how does Stephen Baldwin manage to stand upright? What's with the squinting? Why won't he go away??

Oh, Carol Alt, you pretty stupid fool. NEVER impale yourself on your own sword.

The only explanation is that he wanted out. His charity got some money, and he was done.

That was suicide.

And how the boys won is beyond me, that was the crappiest looking display I have ever seen.

Can someone send Trump to a sensitivity training class? So now we can add "The Italian knows where the bodies are" next to "the black man and the Mexican man like pit bulls". I know what he means and all, but DAMN!

Gene seems to think that he can be a misogynist as long as he's a POLITE misogynist. His "ladies" and "you first" bullshit means nothing as long as his actions clearly do not match his words.

Vinny: "You called me a fat Italian!"
Piers: "I called you a very fat Italian!"

I died, came back to life and died again.

With the laptop, was I the only one screaming "TURN IT OFF, YOU IDIOTS!!!!" Had they turned it off and upside down, it probably would've come back on in about 15-20 minutes.

Whoa, who was the bleached haglet tapping away with her tips at the laptop?

Gene good riddance ...you skeevie beaver hound.

and one last thing...

Kodak guy, you are NOT the next George. Overact much.

He almost did fall off the table. I think he should have been fired just for ruining a perfectly good MacBook Pro laptop. Of course the idiot who insisted on setting a beverage next to the laptop wasn't too brilliant either.

Forgot to mention: watching the men watch the boardroom is my favorite part of this show.

That was painful.

I didn't come into this a fan of Gene, but by the end of this evening I truly was. But as Trump said (and holy shiz, I'm agreeing with that pompous ass), Gene really did shoot himself in the foot with that one. There was actually a point where I thought it was possible that Gene was ready to get out of there and that's why he seemed to do everything in his power to get himself fired. And then I realized that that wasn't the case, but that he was just that stubborn.

I also have to say I was surprised that the women lost again. I understood the Kodak executives and their opinion (the men had a grasp on the ink thing, the women didn't) but the presentation of the product was atrocious. When you're acting as the face of a product and everything is done completely amateurish, the product looks bad, and that's what happened with the men and their trailer. The women on the other hand had everything looking quite professional and they represented the product well; they should have won.

And while it's obvious that Vinnie becoming a turncoat is going to ultimately get him fired, it should be fun to watch. I'm looking forward to that episode quite a bit.

This episode would have better been titled "Yes or No" I never saw so much circular chit chat in my life!!!!

Is the sky blue? Well yes and no... yes it appears that way, but no it really isn't it just the way the light refracts...

I think Gene was just bored and wanted off the show. And God forbid, but I actually LIKED Omarosa tonight. She has me cracking up.

As for team Hydra: No one saved the materials on a back up disk? Isn't that project 101? I guess if the computer is fried though, you wouldn't be able to get the disk out. I don't know. I am glad they won again though.

And here's my yes and no for the night to match the show: I wish Trump had overruled Gene and fired Nely (that was a horrid performance at the exec meeting!) but at the same time I'm glad he let Gene hang himself.

I did love Alec's interview: "Stephen's so full of crap"

I have to say I am really enjoying this season.

That was exactly what I came here to post, except that it wasn't suicide. Gene committed Apprenticide.

I'm glad the boardroom gave me something to watch. The task was boring.

I thought that Nely should have been eliminate. When she went to go talk to the executives their presentation was about the ink but when she got back to her team that it was suppose to be about the printer.

I hope that the challenge nest week is about professional wrestling with Vince McMahon has a guest judge.

I just looked up "tough" in the thesaurus and one of the synonyms was not stubborn asshole.

If I was Trump I would have fire Gene the second he said, "Ms. Finch".

Also the horrible picture of Lennox and Tito should have been enough to lose. The picture was bad and the print job was worse.

If the other team had just mention ink once they probably would have won.

Gene's contract with the show must have been only for 3 episodes. He's got to go back to making real money now.

Personally, even if the men hadn't had the laptop disaster, I liked Gene's (and it was Gene's, not the woman's) display better. The only reason the men had more sales I suspect, was due to the Act of Baldwin.

If Trump really wanted to ditch Nelly, he would have. But that boardroom was so scripted, the WGA should be investigating it.

Noooo. Gene CANNOT be gone. He's the reason I've been tuning in. All that hot air and arrogance was too much fun. And all his great one liners tonight:

Gene: "I'm the king of all women." "I'm arrogant...I'm a powerful and attractive man." At this point, it's the Gene Simmons show.
Then Omarosa: "I'm the only one sitting there with my mouth wide open." Yup. I'm guessing that's exactly how he likes it.

Then, in the boardroom, he begins his broken record rant and he's gone. Maybe the hair dye poisoned his brain. But, probably, it's like merrycherry said-- he wanted out.

And still I wonder: what exactly does Jennie do? And why has Nely joined the Ivanka 'you-can-never-have-enough Botox' club?

Gene Gene Gene Gene Gene. You really must have wanted to go. Yes he was a pig, but damn he was entertaining. My biggest disapointment with this is that next week's task seems to involve the WWE (given that Vince is in the promo). But this may also be a good thing. Can the boardroom hold three of the biggest egos at the same time?

Side question, when was this filmed again? I ask because going by Vince's hair, it looks like it was around the time of the "incident" (using the term that is used on the wrestling board I go to).

Ok, back to the episode. Is it a Kodak world that we're just living in? I wasn't sure if that was mentioned or not

word. They totally should have won. Gene was right. The men's presentation was just horrendous.


so, sad to see Gene go. Mostly because he is quite entertaining if anything.

But Nely? you are not long for this apprenticeworld.

I agree with the posts that Gene wanted to be fired. I was enjoying his pomposity and kept yelling at the TV to bring Nely to the boardroom. Of course he didn't hear me.

I am quite pissed that they made this big deal about Piers vs. Baldwin next week..and then....they show you a promo for 2 weeks from now with Baldwin no where to be seen?? He is my favorite and I don't want him to go.

My reason for watching is gone! But really, he picked the wrong person to come with him. The only reason I think he brought Jenny back is because she's like Nadia and the first girl, pretty meek without any real leadership skills to date. He probably figured it would work a third time, but it backfired.

Either that or he wanted out!

Tonight was the night I missed the normal contestants. One of the best parts of the old shows is to see the contestants really, really fight to stay, because they know how great an opportunity it is... and then we have Gene who just didn't give a crap. Yeah, he's entertaining, but it's just weird watching these people... knowing very well that all they care about is TV time and not about getting a job working for Trump.

<pauses to shake a fist at the preview monkeys for making me fear for poor l'il Jennie>

Well, well, I honestly thought they would hold onto the Gene until he actually committed a criminal offense, for the ratings and all. The women's trailer was beautiful and I can't believe they didn't sell more printers, especially since the guys set up near Washington Square Park, filled with joggers, NYU students, and chess players. Besides, who walks around with a few hundred extra bucks in their pocket anyway and comes home with a printer from a walk to the hairdresser or whatever (well, the Park still has the occasional drug dealer...) Besides, with all the stuff about the INK, I would have just bought some ink from the guys and then went to a discount place to get the actual printer, although it seems to cost only about $200 anyway.

I couldn't believe some of the things I heard coming out of Gene's mouth, honestly, about women. More astonishing, though, was the total inability to acknowledge that his team had freakin' LOST!! I haven't seen such wiggling around since the earthworms came out in the spring! Guess he was tired of the game and wanted to get fired.

Omarosa was right--everybody knows that the companies reel you in with the cheap printers and then kill you on the ink and cartridges, so the execs knew and she knew to emphasize the ink. That said, I couldn't believe that the men's sloppiness still won. I thought the whole Coffee Spill Disaster was hilarious, though, and Piers was totally wrong to blame Stephen--didn't you notice the two giant guys rolling off the table at the same time, moron?

Apparently this printer is also good for constructing giant quadrupeds on Roosevelt Island. Yay?

I'll miss Gene but Piers is rapidly up-and-coming in the jaw-droppingly inappropriate remarks race.

Edit: It's hard to spell quadrupeds.

I never laughed so hard during an episode of this show ever. Alec Baldwin's "I need to sit down" line was HYSTERICAL. Plus, I never thought that Omarosa would be the voice of reason, but hey, there you go.



I wouldn't call it suicide as more "Ok...bored now. How do I get out? A ha!" Had Kodak had been trying to reinvent itself overall with a new line of cameras and film, then I think Gene and Co. would have won this without a problem. The problem was, it was about ink. As shoddy as Hydra's presentation was, they were at least pointing out the fact that you can print a lot more documents and the like which I believe that was the whole point. I never got the indication that the ink was supposed to be for photo printing exclusively, so why was Empressario so focused on taking photos?

Which is exactly why Nely should have been fired. If she had picked up the importance that the Kodak executives were putting on the ink, rather than talking over them during the client session, her team would have known where to put the emphasis. With their excellent presentation, the women would surely have won.

My guess is that the promos are, as is often the case, deceptive about what's going to happen. My hunch is that the Steve and Piers fight will have been very overblown and the men will actually win again. I think Jennie will PM for the women, lose, and get fired. She talked about not having had a leadership role so far, so I think she'll want to step up.

The previews for two weeks from now show Vinny, Piers, and Lennox together, which might make sense if another woman gets fired next week. Then there'd be six men and four women remaining, so it'd be time for a reshuffle, with three men and two women on each team. They obviously didn't show the other two people to the right of the three guys we saw, because we'd then have too much info, but I have a hunch that the two people to the right of Vinny, Piers, and Lennox are the two women on their team (and one of those women would be the PM, since she'd be closest to the middle).

What the hell is the matter with Carol? Why did she act like she and Nely were both blithering idiots at the exec meeting, when only Nely was? Is she ready to go home too? In regular apprentice, when they are all just garden variety pompous asses, this would have been a horrible move. Is she that sick of it already, or just trying not to look like a bitch? Does she really think she'd look like a bitch by stating the truth?

Gene is an ass, but he was pretty entertaining. Even though he's an arrogant creep, I'd have loved him forever if he'd have figured a way to get Omarosa fired out of that.

I had never heard of Trace Adkins before this show, but I really like him now. The only woman I like is Marilu Henner and that is starting to wear a little thin. Nely is absolutely incompetent. I can't believe she manages to tie her own shoes without strangling herself.

Battle of the Egos...lame. Donald begging Gene to give him an out and Gene playgrounding his way off the show. Hard to win a stare down contest Gene, if you won't take off your sunglasses.

Buh bye you delusional, creepy, creepy man.

And who buys a printer out of an Airstream on the street corner?

I think he wanted out. Watching him talk to Trump in the boardroom was like watching a two-year-old. Trump could have said, "The sun rises in the east," and Gene would have said, "Not in my world it doesn't." Did he really think he could make a persuasive case to fire either Jennie or Omarosa, when Trump handed Nely to him on a platter?

Omarosa really got it right (I know, I couldn't believe it either!) when she described his attitude towards women. I was never a fan, and watching him for these weeks has made me less of one. He's entertaining in small bits, but I'm glad to see him go.

I agree that the men's presentation was sloppy as all hell, but they got the idea of how Kodak wanted to position this product. Gene's idea was nothing new at all; it was a regurgitation of the emotion behind all the Kodak commercials for the last 25 years. The executives made it clear that they needed to break away from that in order to make a splash with the new printer. Gene wasn't interested in listening to anyone but himself, Nely wasn't interested in listening to anyone but herself, and Carol was too passive and let Nely run the show. But Gene's congratulating himself on the originality of his Kodak theme was funny, because it was nothing new at all.

So, the promo’s I’ve been seeing all week, with Trump saying “I know you’re a champion, but you’re fired”, is something from a different episode. I was sure at the beginning that Tito was going to be fired because of that and because his team seemed to do a lousy job, and he was barely even leading them. It looked like Piers and Baldwin took over and he did very little at all.

Nice bit of misdirection in last week's previews for this ep as to who would be fired.

Am I right that the winner this week was not determined entirely (or even at all) by which team made the best presentation but by which team made the most money selling the printers?

Loved the woman bustling down the street with her new printer in her stroller while her toddler made off down the side street!

Well, Gene may be a people person, but this person finds him repulsive and is glad he's gone. His people skills must not have stood him in good stead on task, either, if his team didn't make as much selling the printers as Hydra. Am I the only one who didn't want either team to win? The men because they're not all that and a bag of chips and need to learn it, ASAP. Empresario, because, er, ditto for Gene Simmons. (Sorry, women.)

Nely is very lucky. If Gene had brought her into the boardroom, based on her performance this week and last, she'd've been gone. Trump practically begged GS to bring her in. GS either places too much importance on believing he's the smartest, rightest person in every room, or he wanted to be fired. Or both, which actually has my vote.

I dunno, Carol may have earned herself some points with Trump, sticking up for Nely by not disassociating herself from that disastrous meeting with the execs, saying it was both their failure even though it seemed to be entirely Nely's. Very reminiscent of Rebecca from Season 4. Trump liked that kind of loyalty then, so...

Gene should've shaved his head and stuck a sucker/lollipop in his mouth. "Name's Kodak. Who loves ya baby?"

Actually, I think they were from this episode. When Nely is explaining why she chose Jenny and starts out with "She's a very sweet girl, blah, blah, blah." Trump says he did the same thing with Nadia saying "You're a champion, but you're fired." Ridiculously misleading, I know.

No, to me it sounded as if it were solely about the presentation. Trump mentioned as an aside that the men had also sold the most printers, but there wasn't a dramatic reveal of the amounts each team sold they way there is when sales is the determining factor.

Yes, I thought Stephen was the team leader until the very end.

Gene Simmons is an arrogant and pompous man. He is also a very very rich and successful businessman. Being fired so early in the show had to have been a blow to his ego. I do not think he wanted to be fired. I think he wanted to go all the way and win.

Has Gene Simmons been like he was tonight all along? What a strange, scary man. I'm surprised that he didn't give his team mates "the tongue". Yecch.

Under what circumstances am I supposed to know who Nely and Jennie are?

I'm not surprised that several, heterosexual, wouldn't-know-neatness-if-it-bit-'em guys would have a messy display, but I'm sure they'd all say that it's the product that's important, not how aligned the boxes are.

He definitely planned to take the two people guaranteed not to be fired in with him. I'm surprised Trump didn't call him on his obvious "don't want to be here anymore" attitude.

On the other hand if Trump really wanted Nelly gone he could have fired her straight out without asking Gene to bring anyone back - he's done it before.

And in the real world ------- The fault for the ruined computer would be squarely on the shoulders of the idiot who put a giant cup of coffee with no lid two inches away from the lap top. In some worlds you'd be fired or reprimanded for even having an uncovered drink on your desk.

Funny and entertaining.

He knew what he was doing, that big tongue is stuck firmly in his cheek.

I was wondering about this too and I think it's a combination of (1) Carol really liked Nely and they bonded after that 'brutal' Boardroom that left Nely in tears and (2) Carol decided to play the 'I'm a team player' card in hopes of impressing Trump - and it looked like it worked a bit.

We've seen that Carol can hold her own and isn't afraid to come across as a bitch. I mean if you can go head-to-head with Omarosa, that's not a big concern.

Nely Galan used to run Telemundo? Wow. She seems completely incompetent and even airheaded on this show? I mean she seems like a very sweet woman but I don't get 'high powered executive' from her at all.

She better watch her back. Trump wants to fire her SO BAD.

I can't get a read on Gene Simmons. Part of me thinks he wanted to go and hence, 'committed suicide.' But the other part of me thinks that he is just that arrogant to think that if he says something enough it's gonna become truth. So saying Kodak was wrong, and that they really won and that Trump should fire Omarosa were things he absolutely believed in.

I had him pegged as going the distance so now I'm trying to figure out who on the men's side is gonna be in the Final 4. Hmmm.

Hmm, I dunno, I could've sworn Trump said at the top of the show, when presenting the task to the teams, that sales would be a factor. Well, maybe NBC will be kind enough to rerun the ep, like they did 1 and 2, if the WGA strike continues on and I can watch again.

If I were Trump I would have asked Gene "who should be fired, you or Nely?" If he volunteers himself, then I would fire him since he clearly doesn't care. If he says Nely, then I would fire her since she deserves to be fired. I have a feeling Gene would have said himself though.

Also, I would assume sales don't matter because Alec could have given the men the edge. If sales mattered, I would guess everyone would have celebrity friends come over.

I think if the women used text similar to the following they would have won:
"It's a Kodak World. Welcome
New Ink saves you up to 50% off of other leading brands."

Of course they would never say that since Nelly failed to get the message that ink is important. I don't think that Gene needed to be at the meeting like the Kodak execs thought he should be, but he should have at least considered using part of the message that his representatives got from the meeting.

This show is actually an even bigger mess than the L.A. version was. I too was confused as to who was the Project Manager. And wasn't sure why they were selling printers if that wasn't the criteria for the win.

I had to love Simmons basically flipping the bird to the Dump and trying to make him choose between Famewhore Assarosa and Simmons who probably is the biggest ratings getter when they filmed this. The Dump was so pissed. Telling Simmons he could just bring one in but then forcing a second on him when Nely wasn't the one? Simmons made the Dump look like a huge putz there. And you could tell the Dump was not only pissed but also a bit afraid of Simmons. As if he knew he couldn't really reveal that anger as he wasn't sure what Simmons would do.

Assarosa still proving once again why she doesn't have a successful career as a public speaker. Saying the blonde should be there because she "hasn't stepped up" only to point out exactly why the blonde couldn't step up that was completely out of the blonde's control. Just for that argument alone, I was waiting for the Dump to weigh the ratings odds and gamble on Simmons and toss Assarosa. Though I would have been shocked had it actually happened. Assarosa knows how the Dump rolls on this show, Simmons was just too much of a loose cannon. And in the end, when Simmons just gave his dead snake smirk at whatever the Dump said, the Dump cut his losses.

I think this should have been a case of both teams lost. Neither of the presentations looked like something I would give two seconds to even if there were some real celebrities standing out front. Both of them looked like something a new age cult would set up to try and lure in disaffected techno geeks.

I'm still confused as to how Nely got to where she is. Talk about a disaster in heels when it comes to perceiving what the client wants and how to go about getting it. Maybe because in her position in television too many times when it came to concept and execution she was actually the client. Because she is horrible. Meeting 101? When the person who holds the power is talking? You don't interupt. Let alone do so to entirely throw off track the current path of conversation. And to do so when you are basically receiving intructions? I'll bet she argues with her GPS.



I was confused about this as it seemed from the brief shot we saw that Carol thought Nely was a flat out idiot at the meeting. So I'm starting to think that maybe she really doesn't want to be around anymore. With Simmons setting the tone, what could make this season fun is watching everyone but the truly pathetic and desperate (Assarosa, Piers and the Blessed Baldwin Brother) fight to get "fired". Now that would make this the best season ever.

This challenge really showed how out of touch celebrities can be. Anyone who's ever had to replace an ink catridge knows that they're pricey and take time to install. Doubling the life of a cartridge means cutting ink costs in half and spending half as much time messing with the printer. I doubt the women didn't grasp this, but Gene definitely didn't get it. He was very stuck on the language of a Kodak slogan, which wasn't as essential as understanding what made the product unique. I loved it when Omarosa asked Trump to ask Gene what the name of the product was. Too bad he washed his hands!

Nele was the second weakest on the women's team, and also failed to grasp the gist of cheap ink. DT just needs her to make a minor mistake and he'll fire her with glee.

If NBC doesn't carry it again on Saturday night, CNBC will repeat it on Saturday. Usually at 8 & 11 but those times could change.

Hydra's presentation wasn't neat, but this isn't grade school and coloring in the lines isn't the most critical factor. Putting out the right message matters more. A bad implementation can be salvaged; a bad idea isn't worth salvaging. Most competitive reality shows punish problems of concept more than problems of implementation, and that's right in most cases.

I enjoyed Gene's insanity while it lasted. Yeah, he has some unreconstructed ideas about women, but what else could we expect from a dragon? If Trogdor could talk, he'd probably be Gene Simmons. Oh, well, Gene, back to burninating the countryside.

No it was this episode. He was referencing the Nadia firing last week.

They kept stressing that the men's presentation was sloppy. Well, this whole episode was extremely sloppy. What a boring mess.
The task wasn't well-defined. I remember Trump saying it was about creating something to be used later. Selling printers out of an airstream wasn't the task.
The women's message was antiquated and Kodak wanted a new slant. They wanted to push their printers and what made them different from the thousands of others was the economy of the ink. The men got this and even though their art got ruined in the table-jumping fiasco (who was that woman anyway?), their message was extremely clear.
I would not buy a printer because it's a warm wonderful world but I might if I didn't have to keep buying ink cartridges so often as that's the huge money drain.

Anyway, with that in mind, I actually saw no need for everyone to go to meet the execs if you had competent people. Piers got the message immediately. Nely never got it. She was blathering so much. She should have been fired for not listening and hence bringing back a message that wasn't accurate. Carol is becoming annoying to me in her bs. Tell the truth. The video is there anyway.

Messy useless episode really. Gene's team missed the boat, whether the presentation looked nice or not. Now, of course he should have brought in Nely and Carol, but, at one point he said he thought Nely was decent, so he wasn't going to bring her in knowing Trump wanted to fire her.

My theory and yes, I'm sticking to it, like GS, is that he couldn't have given a rat's ass if he stayed or left. He played the game for a while. It got boring. He knew the women wanted to stay and he didn't. In his weird way, he was making sure they would not be fired. Also, as Trump said, he valued his independent thinking over all and wanted to be the one to shoot himself. And he did. I don't understand him but since he's fine with his decision, I am too.

So, I was only watching because I love Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock, (if you're not watching it, you should be!) but even he couldn't save it. Alec, a little creepy. Stephen, a little creepier. Gene, STOP SCARING ME, DUDE.

Everytime they show Piers back at the apartment he sounds sloshed and his face is always red (not to mention he has a drink in his hand). I wonder if he's drinking all the booze in the apartment.