The Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 8

Departing from the usual firing someone just because it’s fun and they’re not entertaining enough for TV, Trump opted to fire nobody in The Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 7.

Clockwork Home Services has a task for three radio commercials, one for each of their brands. They will be judged on originality, brand integration, and live performance of the commercials.

Bret Michaels is the project manager for RockSolid; Summer Sanders is the project manager for Tenacity.

This week somebody will be fired, perhaps two people.

Eric Trump will be joining Ivanka this week. Just when you thought the shameless parade of Trumps was over.

RockSolid’s focus is the same as it was last week: off task perversion.

Cyndi is assigned to lyrics and music. Summer and Holly again plan to gang up on her.

Upon arrival, Bret takes their signs and puts them in their room, then he accidentally turns the other team’s around so they’re facing the wall.

The executives tell Tenacity humor can be okay, as long as it’s not at the expense of their plumbers. They decide the key is not to go too far outside the box.

RockSolid also wants to know about humor. The executives are very corporate and not laughing at all. This should be some indication to them that they’re gonna have to restrain themselves.

Summer assigns one commercial to each of her subordinates. Then she gives Cyndi a lecture. Curtis senses a different vibe with Tenacity because Holly and Summer can be bitches.

Bret has a different strategy. They will all work on all three commercials.

Curtis is out of his element. Jingles aren’t exactly his strong suit.

Bret is considering a jingle about plumbers’ cracks, apparently the wrong way to go because these execs made it known they didn’t like jokes like that.

Summer intends to jam as much information as possible into their commercials, whether it’s too fast or not.

Curtis fears his team is too vanilla. But Holly and Summer are taking the same stance as Sharon: these execs are looking for bland. Girls don’t wanna have fun.

Although she’d probably prefer not to, Summer defers the band to Cyndi. She’s horrified that she is writing jingles, but it does sound catchy. Though she does a good job of working with the band, Grammy winning singer Cyndi Lauper decides her voice is not up to par, so she asks one of the other singers to take her place.

Eric thinks that Tenacity sounds a little bit generic, but at least they’re not making jokes about cracks.

Bret is feeling limited by the live ad, which nobody does. The simpler the better because otherwise it’ll be too easy to mess up.

The next morning, Cyndi has changed her mind. She’d like to sing. Holly wouldn’t allow this if she were project manager, which she manages to convince Summer about. Curtis thinks giving up on using Cyndi’s voice is crazy. After going back and forth, Summer finally decides the correct path is to allow Cyndi to sing.

After hearing Bret’s crack joke, the executives are disappointed. He took it to the edge and came back… perhaps he should have come back a step further. The other team has more suitable humor, but as Curtis feared, they’re copy heavy and rush through the information.

The executives also didn’t particularly care for Bret’s hot and sticky heating commercial, which he felt was their most liberal. But there was one ad that could be put on the air of the three, with its very catchy jingle that made the phone number easy to remember.

On the other side, they felt they packed too much information into the commercials, and they thought they lacked originality. However, they did like hearing Cyndi sing.

One team was okay at best, while one team was fantastic. RockSolid has won. As the winning project manager, Bret gets $20,000 from Trump and a matching $20,000 from Clockwork for his charity, the American Diabetes Association.

Bret says he would fire Summer because she’s tough. Sharon and Maria want to fire the very smug Curtis.

Eric felt that Cyndi carried the team, whereas Holly seemed a bit reserved. Holly says that Summer is the strongest person on the team, despite the fact that she delegated so much. Of the three commercials, Summer thought that Cyndi’s commercial was the best. The execs just wished they heard more from Cyndi.

Curtis would fire the project manager.

Summer has to decide who should not be fired. Holly should not be fired because she is consistent. Not the smartest move. As much as Summer would like to get rid of Cyndi, it’s not happening on this task.

Trump would have preferred that Curtis fought back against Sharon and Maria. We all know how Trump likes his drama. Curtis didn’t think it would be appropriate to start screaming across the table at people who were jokingly tearing him down.

If she had the choice, Summer would fire Curtis, if Trump weren’t to fire her. Cyndi will not be fired and can go back to the suite.

Curtis would have been edgier, but at the end of the day, the decisions came down to Summer.

As the project manager, who has failed to give a very strong argument for why she should stay, Summer has been fired.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Celebrity Apprentice 3 Episode 9, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 16 Episode 11

In an uneventful non-elimination leg, Louie & Michael came in last in The Amazing Race 16 Episode 10.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Jet & Cord – 8:02AM
Second: Brent & Caite – 8:36AM
Third: Dan & Jordan – 8:53AM
Fourth: Louie & Michael – 11:00AM

Jet and Cord tell a story of how Cord’s skull was crushed by a hoof to the head in 2004, and how Jet stuck by his bed as he fought his way back. Caite doesn’t understand why people think she’s an idiot, so she believes this race will redeem her for some reason.

Teams will make their way across the city to the Garden Bridge, which locals know by its Chinese name, meaning they’d better hope they run into someone who knows where it is. Brent & Caite find a local with a cell phone who searches for it. Jet & Cord get a cab driver who figures it out after driving around aimlessly for half an hour. After wasting 2 hours, Dan & Jordan head back to meet up with Louie & Michael because maybe they know where they’re going. Their hope is the cops are just as clueless, and they can at least take the lead when they have to go do their speed bump. Mike comes up with an idea. He calls the translation service, which tells his cab where to go. Hopefully Dan & Jordan are successfully able to follow Louie & Michael through the crowded streets of Shanghai with a cab driver who doesn’t understand a single word they’re saying, including the words “follow” and “stupid.” Nonetheless, they do manage to catch up to them.

The next stop is the Longhua Temple, where they must go by some method of transportation other than taxi. Hopping on the bus, Caite tells everybody who makes fun of her (a long list) to go screw themselves because her finding the bus is proof of knowing how to read a map.

In the road block, teams must count all the golden statues in the room. Ick. A counting task.

Before they can compete in the road block, Louie & Michael hit their speed bump, which is to perform a local good luck ritual, tossing their coins in an incense burner. This looks about as simple as all the speed bumps have been this season.

Road block (in order of arrival): Caite, Jet, Dan, Louie

Caite is incorrect on her first try. And her second try. Third try is not a charm. It’s here that the cowboys catch up to them. Jet is right on his first try, and Caite has finally gotten it right as well. Dan’s first time is also successful. Louie, however, is not right. He realizes what he’s done wrong after he reads the clue. He only counted the buddhas, not the two samurai warriors. That will cost him 10 minutes of waiting.

The next stop is the Yuyuan Gardens via motorcycle. The detour is the choice between pork chops or pork dumplings. In pork chops, teams make their way to a store that shows engraved stamps known as chops, from which they must find ones containing pigs and their names. In pork dumplings, they head to a restaurant to pick up 10 orders of dumplings that they will deliver after making their way through the crowded market.

Pork chops: Jet & Cord, Brent & Caite, Dan & Jordan, Louie & Michael

When they start the task, Brent can’t concentrate because he has to go to the bathroom. Caite doesn’t care. He can hold it or go in his pants for all she cares. After listening to him complain for a while, Caite finally gives in to his “waste of time.” Jet finds his and shoves it in his pocket. Brent finds his next, then Caite finds hers. Immediately after, Jet finds Cord’s. Dan & Jordan have about 20 minutes on Louie & Michael, who catch up to them. It’s going to come down to who finds the statues first. Dan finds his. Jordan’s got his next. Michael locates Louie. Then they grab Mike’s. Their only hope is the cabs.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the Riverside Promenade. Jet & Cord want to get there “muy rapido.” Meanwhile, Caite believes she’s proved she is intelligent. Really? For all the drama, the end result is pretty obvious.

First: Brent & Caite (win a trip to Spain)
Second: Jet & Cord
Third: Dan & Jordan
Eliminated: Louie & Michael

Coming in last place for the second leg in a row, Louie & Michael have been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 16 Episode 12 Huger than Huge (San Francisco), where we will find out who The Amazing Race 16 winner is, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina Winner

The women’s alliance kicked into gear in Survivor South Africa: Santa Carlina Episode 12 with the elimination of Kaseran.

Sade believes she’s the biggest threat because she’s the strongest chick left, or so she tells us. GiGi, likewise, has decided she’s on her own.

We jump right into the immunity challenge. They will start face down in the sand, jump up, and start the obstacle course, complete with digging, climbing, monkey bars, balance beams, and lastly a puzzle. There are 72 different ways of completing this 3D puzzle… they only have to find one. Given that the first task here is to climb under a pole in the sand, it’s safe to say that ProVerb’s a lost cause here against these girls. Ashley is the first one through. She’s then the first person over the wall and through the tire. GiGi and Sade break free as Ashley crosses the monkey bars. Sade’s just about caught up with Ashley on the bars. Ashley hits the balance beam first, but Sade is closing in. With the girls a long ways ahead, Pro has finally freed himself from the ground. Nobody’s particularly convincing on the balance beams as GiGi joins the others. Ashley is the first person to hit the puzzle. Sade joins her. Ashley wins immunity.

Sade intends to stick to the women’s alliance. However, GiGi and Ashley discuss flipping things again, getting rid of Sade rather than ProVerb.

Sade’s pitch at tribal council: what difference does it make if she’s there or not? That’s the spirit.

Votes
Sade
ProVerb
Sade
Sade

By a vote of 3-1, Sade has been voted off the island.

The next day, they take a walk down memory lane while the locals play music in the background. That leads them to their final immunity challenge. They’re positioned out on the water on a platform, where they must keep their balance. If they fall, they’re out, but Nico will be waiting for them with some lemon water, fruit, and shade. Pro’s struggling even with the support pole. Once that drops, so does he. GiGi doesn’t look to be budging at any point, but all of a sudden she stumbles and falls. Ashley wins immunity for the fifth time in a row.

Ashley has an interesting decision to make now. If the better player gets the votes, it doesn’t matter who she picks because Ashley’s had control of this for quite some time. Pro’s viewed by people as not having done anything, although that also means he hasn’t screwed anyone either (except for that weird Izak vote that ultimately was responsible for Izak’s elimination). GiGi, meanwhile, has enough fellow tribe members on the jury that all it could take is one or two bitter Timbilans to tilt the scale in her favor.

Both of them just say that it’s up to Ashley, and they’re not going to be making a case for themselves. Ashley’s decision is that she doesn’t want to burn yet one more bridge.

Vote
ProVerb

With 1 vote, ProVerb has been voted off the island. In a departure from the usual, he leaves with a smile on his face. If only that could rub off on the very sour looking jury.

Ashley hates conflict. Oh, well, this won’t go well. That said, she doesn’t apologize for how she’s played the game.

Hanna’s very tame question is whether Ashley has done charity work prior to Survivor. The answer is yes, she has a lot of charities she tries to lend her name to whenever she can.

Louw is questioning whether Ashley has outplayed them. I’m guessing he’s looking for an answer other than “Duh.” On day three, his promise to her was that, if she screwed him, it would come back to bite her. Ironically, despite all his whining, she had nothing to do with him being voted out. That was the fault of Izak. Regardless, he doesn’t believe her that him getting eliminated wasn’t her fault, apparently having rewritten history in his mind. Dumbass. If you’re gonna be bitter, at least have a logical reason for it.

Okkert has a throw away question that he’s not allowed to complete but that doesn’t get the most sensible response from GiGi anyway.

Gys says GiGi is not cheap despite her career. Then he comments about whether Ashley’s emotion was a strategy or heartfelt, to which she is not allowed to respond.

Izak admires the way Ashley played the game.

Kaseran is still reeling from his friend backstabbing him. She feels that she was honest with him, as he asked, but hopes that he will find some way to forgive her.

Sade would have liked for GiGi to be more honest with her, but GiGi didn’t want another situation like Kas where he refused to look at Ashley again.

Pro wants GiGi to wipe her tears. As for Ashley, she used him until she no longer needed him, then threw him to the side, for which he applauds her. That’s the game.

Due to the even numbered jury, the public has been given a chance to break the tie.

Votes
Ashley (viewers’ vote)
GiGi
Ashley (Izak)
GiGi
Ashley (ProVerb)
GiGi
GiGi
GiGi

Not the most bitter jury we’ve seen, but Louw and Kaseran certainly give others a run for their money in that category. The Survivor South Africa: Santa Carolina winner is GiGi.

If he had the chance to vote, Darren would have voted for Ashley, who played the game the best. Kas acknowledges that he made an emotional decision. Louw is still delusional. According to him, GiGi had the best strategy. Apparently, praying for someone from the other tribe to save you is a strategy.

The charity prize money was split as follows:

Gigi: 500,000 rand
Ashley: 200,000 rand
ProVerb: 150,000 rand
Sade: 125,000 rand
Kaseran: 100,000 rand
Izak: 95,000 rand
Gys: 90,000 rand
Okkert: 85,000 rand
Louw: 80,000 rand
Hanna: 75,000 rand
Nico: 50,000 rand
Sandi: 45,000 rand
Darren: 40,000 rand
Lady Lea: 35,000 rand
Craig: 30,000 rand
Cindy: 25,000 rand
Jub Jub: 20,000 rand
Garth: 15,000 rand
Christina: 10,000 rand