Two people were sent home in The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 9. First, Anand was sent home for being an idiot, a cheat, and a liar. Then Poppy was eliminated for being too girly and not abrasive like her team members.
Brandy’s guard is up because she doesn’t trust her team members to not turn on her should things go south.
The net result of Poppy’s firing is that Liza and Stephanie are stuck on a team alone together. This is a perfect recipe for disaster, which is exactly what Trump wants.
As part of his reward, Clint has received a $5,000 gift card for Pier 1 Imports.
Today, the contestants will be working with AT&T and Flo TV. Their task is a 30 second TV commercial for AT&T Mobile TV. They will be judged on creativity, representing the brands well, and a clear and concise message.
Stephanie will be a project manager for her team; Steuart is the project manager for his team.
Stephanie’s concept is to shoot inside a sports arena and an office setting, putting people in situations they don’t want to be in and escaping through their TV. Liza suggests having a mom and her kids in the park as well, but Stephanie doesn’t care. Her philosophy is that she’s a one man show. Again. The problem with Stephanie is that she thinks she’s so great, but she just keeps sucking, so it just comes off as delusional. Liza is just her secretary for this task, and none of her ideas will be acknowledged.
Brandy is assigned to the presentation, Clint will handle the creative, and Steuart will do the editing. While in the bathroom, Clint comes up with a concept that he loves, which Steuart begrudgingly accepts because he doesn’t have any ideas. They will do an odd man out scenario, with one guy who doesn’t know what’s going on because he does not have Flo TV.
Liza is unable to find any type of sporting location or any type of office location, so their photographer/director is just standing around staring at them. I bet she would have no problem finding a park. This leaves Stephanie scrambling to create a makeshift office, and she’s trying to deal with a photographer who doesn’t seem to like her. Can’t imagine why.
Clint has decided he has to be the star of the commercial, the odd man out. He talks about how many hats he has to wear, although that could have been limited some if he didn’t insist on the camera time. They are shooting in multiple locations, which may put them in something of a time crunch, but at least they have picked sensible locations that are easy to nail down.
Back to Stephanie and her stupid location ideas. There are no sports stadiums available. Therefore, they are stuck doing an indoor sports stadium complete with a backdrop that looks fake. Rather than switch to a more sensible location, she insists on running with what she has, no matter how long it takes to modify it. Her director calls her work the high school version. Don Jr. sees that Stephanie has sidelined Liza, which means that Stephanie will get most of the credit or most of the blame.
After he’s done acting, Clint wants to retain control of the task, but Steuart wants to go with the original plan, which is him handling the editing. As the night winds to a close, Steuart doesn’t feel great, but he doesn’t have any choice but to go with what they have because it’s way too late to do anything about it.
Liza and Stephanie have 27 seconds already with their office scene, so they make a decision together (how unusual) to just scrap the lame indoor outdoor sports scene. That said, Liza doesn’t like the office scene either. Then Stephanie complains in her confessional that Liza doesn’t know how to work as a team. Wait. Liza doesn’t know how to work as a team? I thought it was Stephanie who started off as a dictator unwilling to listen to Liza.
Although Brandy may have nailed her presentation the first time with the fashion show, she hasn’t delivered in her two efforts since then, and is now fumbling over her words. On the other hand, Stephanie delivers a decent presentation.
The executives liked the production value of Stephanie’s commercial, whereas they thought the other team did a good job of product message and where it could be bought (in spite of Clint’s thoroughly cheesy acting).
Stephanie wanted to prove that she could manage a task and get along with Liza. She also wanted to prove that she doesn’t lie. She and Liza got along really well in this task. Really? Liza agrees. Huh? I guess their definition of getting along is biting their tongues to avoid a shouting match, which it seemed they did a fair job of.
Trump doesn’t get the whole concept of showing an office setting. He doesn’t want his employees watching TV during a boardroom. Stephanie blames lack of props for how this turned out and, hence, Liza.
The judges liked Stephanie’s/Liza’s presentation and energy. However, the premise was flawed, lacking common sense. It also took too long to get to the brand, about 18 seconds into the commercial. Liza told Stephanie they should have the brand in the beginning, but that idea was vetoed.
On the other side, the executives loved that they put the brand up front, the creativity, and the reasons they provided for why the product would be a worthwhile purchase, as well as where it could be bought. They disliked that it was a bit campy and the inconsistent brand messaging (to be fair, I’m confused whose brand is supposed to be getting promoted based on all the names being thrown around anyway).
Clint, Brandy, and Steuart easily win. For his reward, Steuart will be meeting with Cathie Black of Hearst magazines.
Stephanie felt as though she was a team of one, which happened because she designed it to happen that way.
Steuart starts yelling at the TV. He’s as tired of Stephanie as I am.
The office setting concept they originally discussed was modified, which Liza found surprising in the editing room because she was out getting props and had no idea what was going on. As much as Stephanie wants to blame Liza for her prop shopping, Stephanie’s failure to communicate with her about the changes wouldn’t have left her with the knowledge of any necessary prop changes anyway.
Don Jr. says that Liza didn’t contribute very much, but ultimately she was not allowed to contribute anything either. Granted, even her prop shopping left something to be desired.
Although Trump is not happy with Liza either, Stephanie is fired. In her cab ride, Stephanie takes one final opportunity to call Liza incompetent. Good riddance. Can’t even leave with a shred of class.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 11, which airs Thursday at 10/9c on NBC.