Two! Hour! Special! Episode!

Lame.

I knew it was Vinny leaving from the beginning. I'd rather have kept him, I can't stand Piers, but oh well. I love that only one other person on the team would've picked Piers to stay.

That Soprano homage ending was really lame. Otherwise, I enjoyed this episode, and thought the double agent rat stuff was amusing.

This is way too long and very very boring.

I thought the first hour was really funny-an unintentional comedy.

The second half just degenerated into something pathetic. Also, what was up with that ending? No one was fired? Huh?

ETA: On a superficial note, I love Piers' accent.

Cheesiest Apprentice editing ever--Vinnie walking out to "Don't Stop Believing" and the screen going black.

I could not stop laughing near the end. Seeing Piers with nothing to say was priceless. That being said the women got a fair amount of help from Vinnie.

I can't wait for Tito to come back and go what the fucking hell.

Yeah, it's been overdone, but I can't say I'm surprised either, that TD and TA used it there. It was lame, but I'll deal, since it (and everything else is better than Piers right now).

That was so corny, but I loved it. It's totally scripted now, but I still found it entertaining.

I think the 1st 1.5 hours going, "The producers asked Piers & Vinny to do this from jump," because it was getting boring watching a 3-0 show. After the BR? I'm not sure.

As much as I enjoyed seeing Piers reaping the bad karma of being such a smug asshole, I hate Stephen Baldwin more, and the few times Piers was tolerable was when he was punching holes in Baldwin's ego. I hope he does quit next week.

Vinny really had a fighting chance with Baldwin and Trace on his side and also b/c Piers stunted his own scheme by prematurely boasting to the girls. I kinda like Vinny, but one thing's for sure a lot of damage has been done to Piers.

I think the whole spy thing was scripted from the beginning, with everyone in on it just to make a "dramatic" two hour episode. By the way, wouldn't be cheaper for Crocs just two squirt out another 3 cents worth of plastic they use to make new shoes rather than collect, haul, clean, and ship used ones? I guess its more about advertising than practicality .

That was the most fun I ever had watching this cheesefest- subterfuge, betrayal, Piers actually showing fear- even The Baldwin amused me.
And who didn't see that ending coming from 20 miles away.

The only thing even remotely disappointing was how bad an actress Omarosa really is.

Comedy gold I tell ya!

So much to talk about. The actual challenge was kind of incidental. I thought the shoe was a cute idea but "Share the Love" is a pretty lame slogan. Talk about trite.

I was totally on Piers' side this time. I thought the sabotage was funny and clever. I thought the women, especially Omarosa, were totally7 overdramatic about it. It's not like the guys got any advantage from knowing about their stupid giant shoe.

It also bugged me how smug the women were about winning (a win they were probably only handed because the show didn't want to go five episodes in a row without a win for the women), and their cackling while they were watching the board room was obnoxious as hell.

Stephen Baldwin can stuff his self-righteous religiosity up his ass. I thought he'd been doing a pretty good job keeping a lid on that preachy, proselytizing bullshit of his but I guess it got away from him tonight. I did think it was funny to see Piers call him on it, though.

The previews showing the women dumping drinks on Piers' head really makes me despise them even more. They're turning into a bunch of Evel Dick Dontaos now. That's just great.


I haven't really liked Piers before tonight but after the way he got scapegoated tonight I'm now rooting for him to win.

Go Piers.

Mr. Nutburger is convinced that Bill Murray was standing at the door with a newspaper under his arm as Vinnie left the building. We've watched it twice and I gotta say, it looks like him, but? that would be wierd. . .Anyone else notice?

I kept waiting for someone to confess, "I really hate crocks!" :)



Me too. He seemed to take it so seriously that I started wondering if he wasn't acting, but was just strange.

ETA: Hypothetically speaking, would it be legal for the producers to ask V & S to quit to make the game more interesting/create drama?

What a long, tiresome episode. That said, Trace just gets better every week, and I loved how completely uninterested Marilu was in all the drama. She seems like she'd be a terrific person to work with.

I found it terribly uncomfortable when Vinnie got increasingly carried away about how in the "real world" he'd get killed for being a rat.

The lady's presentation WAS nice, but was it feasible financially? The huge shoe is outstanding, but the cost of making it must be great. And were the women inferring that everyone who donated shoes got a t-shirt? Even though this is a charitable recycling effort, these folks are still interested in a nice profit margin, right? Or maybe I'm taking it too seriously!

That was High School Non-Musical with a faux-Sopranos ending. I’d like some macaroni with that cheese, sir.

What KILLED me was that when he got the note from Vinnie, this ASSHOLE actually called Lennox out to collect the note so that he could lie to himself that he had nothing to do with what was going on. He could have very easily destroyed it or witheld it from the men somehow as opposed to waiting until they started reading it to start in with this "I can't be a part of this" bullshit. Fuck him.

The bit that killed me the most was Vinnie asking Trump if he gets up in the morning and fights with people.

Vinnie do you know nothing of the Donald? Trump calls Rosie O'Donnell a fat pig in his sleep.

I'm torn between whether this was scripted or not. See I can totally see Peirs doing something like this and of course it's the Sopranos actor that does it, but really who else would you send? Baldwin? he couldn't keep a straight face for 5 minutes.

I am a little suprised by how much Omarosa and Nelly hate Carol.

Boy, they had an entertaining as hell premise for the episode, and then totally pissed on it by stretching it out to two hours.

I love Piers for making the women look like the gullible fools they are. Nice editing on that sequence too.

And as between Piers and Baldwin, give me someone raised by McNuns over a proselytizing "born-again" any day.

I hope they just edited the preview in a weird way because if Piers actually said that the only way Omarosa would get anywhere near the White House would be as a cleaning woman (or was it maid?), wow. I knew he was a douche but damn.

I saw Bill Murray, too. Right after Members Only guy.

So why wasn't Tito about this episode?

Meh to Vinnie leaving. He quit DWTS, and tried to quit Celebrity Fit Club. Piers brings the brains, and tonight he brought the comedy gold, too.

The Sopranos ending was lame, but overall I thought the ep was a lot of cheesetastic fun. Count me amongst those who believes a large hunk of it was scripted, though.

I was so hoping Piers would get the boot, then remembered, oh, yeah, Omarosa hasn't dumped a glass of something on his head yet, so not happening this ep. Alas.

On the "Lennox Lewis is a big celebrity" front, definitely agree with Trump that their using his face in every campaign is getting tired. But a question to those who might be better in the know: Is he really that famous and recognizable here in the US? I mean, I didn't know him from the man in the moon before CA, and frankly still don't know him other than he's a boxer... maybe? Admittedly, I don't follow sports and certainly not boxing. So am I just living with my head in the sand, and most folks, even non-sports fans, really would know his name and/or his face if they saw it in an ad?

I'm getting tired of the whole "Lennox Lewis is a huge recognizable star" thing. Maybe I'm not familiar with boxing, but I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him before watching this show. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a nice guy and he won an Olympic gold medal for Canada, but I wouldn't know who he was if I saw him on the Croc box.

Trace rocks.

ETA: Fellaway's post went up while I was writing this, and it seems I am not the only one who questions LL's celebrity.

Wow. Just wow.

A few things...

1) I really don't believe Piers's ultimate goal was to get Vinny fired. He wanted to have a little fun, it got out of control, and then saw this as the opportunity to make himself look like the ultimate puppetmaster when it all just kind of fell into his lap. I really loved watching him sweat in the boardroom, and I honestly think Trump would have fired him if it came down to it.

2) If I was Trump and Vinny didn't resign, I'd have fired Piers. Sure, Vinny didn't have to go over there, but if Piers didn't suggest it and go along with it, it never would have snowballed out of control the way it did.

3) Omarosa is such a flip-flopper. She just rides whichever wave is the biggest for as long as it's convienient for her. She is even a bigger bitch than she was the first time around, and if I saw her crossing the street, I wouldn't brake. I may even speed up.

4) I don't see how Trace doesn't make it to the final episode at this rate. He's soft spoken and brilliant. After he retires from music, he'd be very successful in any other form of business he'd wish to get into.

5) The broad generalizations on tonight's show really bugged me. Especially the "How can you trust him? He was on 'The Sopranos'" nonsense. By that logic, you can never trust Anthony Hopkins because he played a character that killed people and then ate them.

Trace might just be about the only one of these morons I like. I thought Piers/Vinnie thing was funny for like the first five minutes and then it just became embarrasing on both sides. Plus I think if I were ever in a room with Piers I'd want to punch him after five minutes so I can't get too upset that people hate his ass.

I also don't care if a win by the women was scripted. It was still nice to see Piers and Baldwin knocked off their damn high horse.

On the Lennox Lewis front, I know who he is in name only. Prior to this show I wouldn't have been able to pick him out of a line-up, so therefore him always being the celeb endorser does nothing for me. Granted not that I think I would fall for the X celeb endorses product Y line of thinking in the first place, but I'd recognize someone like Marilu far quicker than most of the men.

Yes, seemed to be totally scripted. What a bore.

I can't stand hypocrites at all. Stephen should save his preaching for the church that he goes to.

Vinnie's not only delusional, but he's also deadweight. Good riddance.

Kudos to Lennox for siding with Piers.

Piers FTW!

I was debating who was the less recognizable celebrity, Lennox Lewis or Carol Ault? Personally if either one of them walked by me on the street, I wouldn't notice.

I actually thought the best idea was a combination of the two campaigns. You take the big shoe idea from the women as the reseptacle and use the slogan from the other team. "Wear them and share them" is a MUCH better slogan than "Share the love", which is generic, weak and sappy in addition to not giving you any idea what the campaign is about, but the box the guys designed looked like a big garbage bin. The only problem with the women's big shoe was I am not sure how many shoes that is going to hold before its full. It looked like about 20 or 30 pairs would fill it up. It grabs your attention better than the guys idea, though.

Also, Piers didn't really USE the women's idea of the women's team. He just was trying to find out their idea to annoy them.
I think that was scripted from the beginning. The Sopranos guy as a "double agent"? Come on, that has scripted plot written all over it.....if writers could actually be involved, which they cannot of course.

The ending of "The Sopranos"? Never saw it. How close to it was the scene of Vinnie leaving the building?

Indeed, you are not. Glad I'm not alone!



Have to admit, while I previously thought he seemed a nice guy, Lennox went down in my estimation somewhat with this ep, what with his support of Piers and the shenanigans. While entertaining to watch, yes, it did no favors for Piers. Whether he sent in Vinnie as a spy or a saboteur, the whole thing was childish and, if he had no doubts about his team's success and Empresario's failure regardless, why bother with espionage or sabotage? And I totally don't believe he had this grand Machiavellian scheme in mind when he sent Vinnie to the women's team. He sent him in as a prank. When it mushroomed out of control, Piers tried to spin it that any damage done to Empresario or Vinnie (in order to get rid of him) was all according to his plan, but nope. Not buying it.

I, too, am liking Trace more and more with each ep. Carol, too, but I've liked her from the start. She's shown savvy and smarts in the boardroom each time she's been in there, so I felt there were some task skills there to back that up, too.

I made five pages of notes on this ep... five! (Granted, they were big notes on a legal pad, but still.) So, to condense them down...

Prior to the credits, listening to Assorama complain, my first thought was "Assorama, you're a stone-cold bitch". Although the line about cutting her throat with the "Mr. Trump pen" was great... funny primarily cuz of the bizarre product placement there.

Speaking of Assorama, hands up, who still laughs every time they introduce her as a "reality tv star"? And while she came up with the great idea of the croc receptacle, but she flipped on Carol so fast from the beginning. AND no love, total denial of any help by Vinny later on. And where the hell did she run off to while Piers was shooting himself in the foot?

I loved the set-up for the "Vinny is a rat" plotline; shame it all crashed down in tatters. Stephen's change into a preachy wuss was totally obnoxious. At least Trace was honest about his failure to speak up about it.

Interesting comments (and lack thereof) by Ivanka, DJ, and The Donald himself on sabotage, and hurting people, and doig whatever it takes to win.

"Game within a game within a game"... where'd the extra game come in? But Vinny was so boned, from all sides... And most especially when he said that the show wasn't for him... you knew he was going down, cuz DT hates quitters, as we've all seen.

Nely bitching about "integrity"... geez, lady, didn't you ever *watch* "The Sopranos"? Yeah, this is real life... but his character was a f**kin' RAT! (And Vinny himself, geez, seemingly mixing up real life with the Mob in the BR... c'mon, god!) And her whiney, obnoxious voice, whining about "Christians don't spy!" Heh, bullshit. Just utter bullshit.

Heh, here's a good note... "Vinny is TRIPLE-boned. He better avoid boat rides with Piers for a while..." Seriously though, I didn't realize that the ending of the ep was an homage to "The Sopranos" at first, although I did like the one about an hour-ten or so into it, when they came back from commercial on the bridge with the traffic, and the music vaguely reminiscent of the opening theme...

Honestly, though, I'm actually slowly growing to love Piers, even as the others move away from him... he at least stuck to his guns in the BR about throwing the mad dog into the others' backyard, so to speak... He didn't want to work with him, so he booted him, thought he could create chaos and destruction on the other team. It didn't work, but still.

I do kinda think that, if the men had had an entire campaign to present with their bin, like the ladies did, that they coulda smoked the women again. This time, Nely's "whole campaign" methodology actually pulled it out for them, IMO.

Anyway... Assorama looks to be getting super-nasty with Piers still around, and now Greasy Baldwin's gonna go off? Gimme a freakin' break, folks! (I can't wait for next week :D)

The only thing that was really the same was the song -- Journey's "Don't Stop Believing," and the sudden cut to black after the words, "Don't stop..."

Omagrosa thinks shes a 9 1/2? Thats out of 100, right?

ITA. "Wear them, Share them" is so dead-on. (Trace rocks. I don't know if he could win, but he's one you could get behind fully, I think.) My other thing on the shoe, besides the general expense and complicated nature, was that you had to lift the handle UP to drop the shoes in... Now, you want to get kids involved, yes? How the heck is your five-year-old daughter gonna be able to get that handle up far enough to dump the shoes in... cuz you know they'll want to do it themselves. Gimme a break. And, who's gonna stand there distributing tshirts?

Yes he does. I first saw him on one of Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect panels. He's smart. Too "conservative-minded" for me, but smart, and has a demeanor as coolly calm as it gets. Piers first starting sweating in the boardroom when Trump asked Trace for his opinion. Even Piers' ego recognizes Trace is no pushover. Not to mention, he came up with all of the good ideas.

Piers is an ass, but an entertaining ass. Vinnie? Not so much. So, I wasn't so sad to see him go. Besides his stance on things flops around like a caught flounder.

Omarosa still sucks. Carol Alt doesn't.

That was hilarious! I do not agree with what Piers did, but he entertained me. I loved watching him try to explain how Marilu Henner was not going to kill Vinny :)

A bit surprised to see Ivanka cop to a tiny admiration for industrial espionage :) I am hoping she only said that because she saw what a joke this was.

How about Omarosa being happy with "Carol's progress"?!?

The woman was running businesses when you where still slumming around for your first fame-whore opportunity.

Vinny: "You called me a fat Italian."
Piers: "No I didn't. I called you a very fat Italian."

I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

I enjoyed the ep, but only saw the last hour or so. Maybe that was the way to do it.

By the way, Nely's face may have been surgically altered to make it appear she's in her thirties, but those hard lines in her nose (defining the nostrils) scream mid-forties. She turns 45 this year.


Apparently, something he learned to do while he was buried with the fishes.

Why was it never brought up that while Piers sent Vinnie out into the hallway to try to overhear something. It was in fact Vinnie himself who offered to help the girls, before even consulting with the guys. He then defected to the girls side after bonding a bit, and came clean.

Had he just been straight forward from the point at which he realized that he was on the girls side. Everything could have been avoided and I wouldn't have lost an extra hour of my life tonight. The girls would have taken him in, and the guys wouldn't have missed him. win-win.

That's what kills me about these shows. Communication is key. Dysfunction is bred on their lack of communication.



That was the line of the night for me. Omarosa really stereo-types people doesn't she? Twit indeed.

These people realize that The Sopranos was a television show, right? Fiction? They way they kept referring to it, you'd think it was a reality show and James Gandolfini and Company actually did run New Jersey.

With the whole "He was on The Sopranos" concept going on, I found myself relieved that LaVar "Kunta Kinte" Burton wasn't on the show. Then we'd have the celebs pointing out that "Of course we made LaVar clean up the boardroom - he was in Roots!" *sigh*

I think Vinnie got shafted by the women in the end. Seems like I recall him suggesting they use Carol as their spokemodel. And frankly, Crocs are hideous. Just my humble opinion.

I was going to stop watching, but, this episode really was entertaining to me - at least for the first hour anyway, then it got a bit whiny and repetitive.

It's funny how Vinnie was reprising his role as Big Pussy to the tee. I do wonder if that was scripted. It was just too perfect a fit.
I mean, he plays the rat role well.

I did laugh at loud at times because it was all so ludicrous. I mean the lines of reality were blurring left and right. Also, I still think this started when the men thought the women were listening. I do think that's what caused the initial idea of ok, two can play at that game.

Also, if you're going to sabotage or play dirty, just admit it. That's Dump's m.o. anyway. Who did Baldwin think he was preaching to about integrity in the boardroom?
I did like that Piers just admitted everything whereas Vinnie just waffled and Steven was just a sanctimonious prick.
He did this whole speech for the camera then snickered his ass off.
He got the note, then as has been said, made Lennox pick it up. Please. Take a stand when it matters, not in the boardroom because you want to see your biggest competition gone.

The women did not impress me and Assarosa needs a skirt that doesn't show so much well, ass. Way too tight on her. She bugs me; Nely bugs me. Their concept to me was good for kids but not in general. Who wants an ugly green shoe all over the world. It's kind of an eyesore. Also, it's not practical, is expensive to build, breaks easily and holds less shoes.
And the t-shirts would diminish the profit that would help either Crocs company or the people it was purporting to help.

Besides, just send the people shoes. WTF do you need to recycle old shoes for?
Blech.

The men's slogan was far superior. The women's was lame. Share the love. Grab a Coke and a smile. I'd like to teach the world to sing. Please.

Trace's simple wear em, share em was brilliant and catchy.

By the end of the show, it all got pretty tiresome and Vinnie was starting to look ragged. Enough already.

No matter what the sanctimonious Baldwin thinks, the team would suck without Piers. Piers is the brains and the determination of that team. Of course, Baldwin doesn't like the competition.
On that team, I would have to say at the moment to me Piers is leading. While I love Lennox and Trace, I can't see them as masterminds and Baldwin is a douche. Tito, no.

I'm glad Vinnie got out. This really didn't seem like the right vehicle for him. And he's right, he doesn't need the drama - although he created most of it. Heh.

Whoever's handling wardrobe really doesn't like Omarosa does he/she?

That outfit she wore during the presentation was pushing maximum density. And the gray outfit she wore at the beginning made her look like a monochromatic Mushmouth (from Fat Albert and the Gang).

Those guys from crocs looked really . . . off when they were standing next to Trump describing the task. They looked like POWs forced to videotape a confession.

Frankly, I think crocs are a fad that's already on the way out. I don't think they'll have any problem getting people to turn theirs in. The only problem they'll have is getting people to accept the new recycled ones. Like that Seinfeld episode with the muffin stumps.

And, by the way, am I to understand they're donating new shoes to third world countries? Don't they have enough to worry about without having to deal with barefeet in rubber shoes in sweltering heat?

The one time I liked Piers was when he took the shot at Stephen's born again status about how he didn't need to be "born again" because his (Piers') life wasn't so debauched he needed to dig himself out of the pit. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was kind of awesome and a good comeback to a born again who is trying to cop a superior attitude with you.

Speaking of Stephen, I still think they should have had him and Corbin Bernsen come on as a two man unit. Stephen on a reality show without CB seems wrong somehow.

Vincent shouldn't have quit, since it would have been phenomenally easy to boot Piers if he chose to stay and fight. All you had to do was point out that Piers wasted his time playing his stupid little spy/sabotage/fuck with the girls like a 6 year old pulling their pigtails on the playground game instead of focusing fully on the task at hand, and he failed to grasp the main idea. He wasted Trace's great slogan, which did kick ass and should be incorporated with a less expensive, easier to produce form of the women's shoe, by failing to highlight the Croc brand to draw in the attention and THEN hit them with the campaign. The women did that part perfectly--the giant Croc instantly draws the attention of any Croc-wearer, then they get the information on the program. the men's big old boring recycling bin was plastered too heavily with the program's logo and only had the little croc head logo on the little round door to push the shoes through. That thing isn't going to draw the attention of the Croc wearers. Put a big Croc on top of that box, maybe? And you've got something. Maybe put it on a stick and have it rotating or something, to really draw the eyes towards it. Do something. What the groups needed to do was capitalize on the Croc brand to draw the consumers into the display and then hit them with the program info. The women did it perfectly, to the point where the slogan was almost secondary as long as it didn't suck beyond belief. The men could have maybe gotten there, too, if Piers hadn't been piddling around with all his little hijinx, thinking he was the coolest kid in school all day. He went for sucking up to the program people by putting their logo and posters all over the box, which is good for the ego and all, but it's not ALWAYS the way to go. And count me in on the "is Lennox Lewis really THAT recognizable?" bandwagon. Especially for the target market here. I'm thinking former supermodel probably beats Canadian boxer for this particular task in terms of who the people you're going to be reaching would recognize.

It seemed like Trump really didn't want Vincent to go. Normally he's not so reluctant to take a resignation. On non-celebrity TA, it's usually the standard "quitter" guilt trip and they're on their way. But, he seemed like he wanted Vincent to change his mind and duke it out with Piers. Made me think Trump possibly agreed with me that Piers completely blew the task and deserved to go. But, Vincent insisted on going on and on with the resignation, even when they were practically begging him not to. "What if I fire Piers? Do you still want to resign then?" That means you stay and fight it out, idiot.

I also think that the girls could have acknowledged that Vincent did help them some. He didn't design their whole idea or anything, but he did seem to contribute in their meeting. They were completely happy with him and he was working out fine in their eyes until Piers dropped the bomb on them. Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was kind of sexist that people kept saying "oh they needed to grab a man to help them as soon as one was available". Um, no, they had an available body of any gender willing to pitch in and help them out with the kind of workload they needed to get done in a short time, and it was also an opportunity to know that they were outnumbering the opponent, at the same time. It wasn't about whether the person in question had a penis or not, it was whether they had a pulse, some ideas and were ready to chip in and work without being a condescending asshole of Gene Simmons-proportions. It was clever of Piers to engage in subterfuge, but it wasn't clever of the women to capitalize on what appeared to be a rift in the opponent and steal one of their workers? Why do I have the feeling that if say Omarosa and Nely fought, and the guys reached out and snapped up Nely to work for them, they wouldn't be condescended to, but lauded as clever for snapping up the disenfranchised opponent to work for them? But the women do it and they're weak and thought they needed a man to come to their rescue.

Well, they also panned the street and focused on random strangers who looked sort of suspicious. It was goofy but I found it kind of amusing.

I just wonder if any of these celebs are going to be doing any damage control when this is over. How stupid do they look!? Although Trace is quite charming. Also, I didn't blame Lennox for backing Piers. If Trump was really going to hire someone to run something, do we really think Vinnie Pastore would be the guy? Please.

I had no idea that the Big Pussy character was a rat on The Sopranos. Since I just got this information, I can understand why people think this episode was scripted.

If this show was rigged to give the women a win because they haven't won yet, it's a shame. After all, Team Apex on season two also endured a long losing streak.

In a way I'm sorry to see Piers get skewered in the boardroom because we all know that Omarosa will lord this over his head...and I can't stand the woman either.

Piers with his snark reminded me a little of Simon Cowell.

Has Omarosa ever done any damage control? :)