Celebrity Apprentice 2012 has been a mix of task troubles and boardroom brawls. Clay Aiken led by consensus and lost the challenge on April 22nd. Despite having a much better display to sell “Success” the new cologne by Donald Trump, the team led by Aubrey O’Day won with their juvenile and lackluster display. But will Clay’s astonishing defeat on the fragrance challenge ultimately cost him the title of reality TV show title winner?
Dear Donald Trump, what the heck happened this week on Celebrity Apprentice 2012? Clay Aiken led the team that used a captivating photo of Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza to sell cologne during the episode that aired April 22, 2012. His team also included Penn Jilette and Lisa Lampanelli — but they still lost and someone had to be fired. The whole show episode was a disappointment.
Surprisingly, Penn came up with a slogan the executives in charge of brand marketing for the new fragrance hated. The execs thought the phrase “Success — You earned it…” sounded far too pampas for them to use (even selling to a more affluent market — possibly because their target demographic was the 18 to 35-year-old white-collar businessmen and they were too young to understand it).
The executives hated it and it cost the team the win.
Donald Trump was very clear that he was not thrilled with either team’s performance but that both teams did well. He actually gave 10 thousand dollars to each of the competitor’s individual charities as a thank you for them doing good work on both sides. But the Celebrity Apprentice host had to fire someone — and on this sad night he had to let go of one of the best players.
Penn Teller got the boot and Clay Aiken got a free pass to continue the game — but not without their “boss” pointing out something he thought was inappropriate.
Dayana Mendoza, the beautiful model who often has her ideas disregarded (strictly because she is gorgeous, latino, or a woman) was called back to the boardroom more times than any other competitor in the reality TV show’s history thanks to Clay Aiken.
When it came to her performance as a team member working under Aiken, she really did nothing wrong (except, perhaps, waiting so long to tell him that their display really did need a take away element as an advertisement memorabilia token if they were going to win it). Lisa Lampanelli did virtually nothing during the challenge except to spy on the other team — but no one called her out for cheating and the singer did not bring her back to the boardroom. Because she was not there to fire (and the project manager opted to scapegoat Dayana), Trump did the only thing he could.
The slogan was so strongly disliked by the execs, Trump capped Penn.
Jillette took his firing better than any other Celebrity Apprentice contestant in recent memory, but after watching the show it was surprising to see him — rather than Clay Aiken voted off. Clay clearly struggled with his emotions as project manager and it seemed as if when he was forced to work away from friend Arsenio Hall (who always offers sage wisdom and moral support) he was lost.
Bringing Dayana back to the boardroom was the wrong political move as well. The promo teaser for the upcoming episode showed all the players turning on her once again but not before Trump giving her praise and credit for being intelligent and smart as a game player.
As for Penn, don’t worry about his future. He’s never been a D-Listed celebrity. You can find out more about his funny stage act with partner Teller here — pennandteller.com. Long running, the headliner really has earned his own success by using his natural talents as a creative thinker combined with a strong work ethic.
He will be missed moving forward — as Aubrey O’Day is obnoxious and two-faced; Lisa Lampanelli is even worse — although on this particular task she seemed innocuous.
It is too bad the Donald Trump could not fire those women before Penn.
Right now, the person who looks like the best fit to become the next Celebrity Apprentice is Arsenio Hall — but only because Clay Aiken seems to struggle with being a project manager and he doesn’t. Teresa Giudice is simply not decisive enough to be the ultimate winner, Lisa Lampanelli is not personable or professional in the way she treats other people, and Dayana Mendoza is naturally handicapped by her appearance.