Osama bin Laden was killed in The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 9. Oh, and Hope was fired. I think. NBC dropped the ball. There was no reason at all the show had to be interrupted and they couldn’t wait until 11:00 just because the President planned to speak “soon” (aka 11:35).
NeNe acts surprised to find out that Star doesn’t want to talk to her. Realizing that the two can’t work together yet not wanting to fire either of them to resolve the issue that’s not going to be resolved otherwise, Trump opts instead to mix up the teams, swapping Meat Loaf with NeNe. Good luck boys and La Toya.
Their task is to produce a comedy show with three comedians and 50 tickets each (to be sold at whatever price they can get), with the goal of earning the most total money. Jim Kramer will be taking Don Jr.’s place this week.
La Toya will be the project manager for Backbone, while Meat Loaf will be the project manager for ASAP.
NeNe needs some more time to pout, so she disappears from her new team.
John Rich fired most of his ammo during the art task, so his angle this time is to secure a comedian, Jimmy Fallon.
Star gets Tracy Morgan on video. Jim Kramer is not impressed. Why not a personal appearance?
Trump should have gotten rid of NeNe last week instead of Hope. Now he’s in the position of making the call to ask her to not quit. No such luck. NeNe sends La Toya a text saying she quits because she can’t stand this negative environment (which she created for herself).
La Toya doesn’t seem to be making much progress. She’s not comfortable either asking for money or leaving voicemails.
Meat Loaf’s afraid that he’ll lose and his donors, who want to give specifically to his charity, will then end up giving to La Toya instead. They decide to strike preemptively and ask Trump for the okay for each project manager to keep their winnings for their charity. Trump says he can’t promise that because they should be trying to win if that’s the outcome they want.
Jimmy Fallon arrives as planned, and he surprises them with a check for $10k. Oddly enough, he’s a singer/songwriter.
Star and Marlee convince Meat Loaf to continue and stop moping, but regardless his head’s still not in the game. However, when it’s time for him to take the stage, it’s then that he kicks into gear. Marlee also takes the stage to do a routine.
La Toya’s never been this happy on a task, but she’s left thinking: did they raise enough money?
It’s evolving into a lovefest. Without NeNe, everybody is getting along with everybody else.
Trump’s message for NeNe: you’re fired, you’re a quitter, and Star Jones kicked your ass. He more or less admits that Hope shouldn’t have been fired, but what’s done is done.
John Rich has an offer for Meat Loaf. If his team loses, he will personally match whatever he raised.
ASAP raised $102,080. Backbone raised $82,500. As the winning project manager, Meat Loaf will receive the money for his charity, Painted Turtle. He says this is one of the best moments in his life.
La Toya can’t say anything bad about her teammates, and she is unwilling to pick which one was better.
Lil Jon says it should be the project manager or the person who raised the least. In either case, that would be La Toya. As the only one to ever be rehired, La Toya is also the only one to ever be fired twice.
It’s double episode night. First was The Amazing Race, now it’s The Celebrity Apprentice. One task down, one to go.
Onstar will be selling new technology at Best Buy, and their task is to introduce this new market with video. They will be judged on creativity and originality, product integration, and brand messaging.
George returns to take Ivanka’s place.
John Rich will be the project manager for Backbone for a third time. Marlee will be the project manager for ASAP. The winning project manager will receive $20,000 to be matched by Onstar.
John is struggling with a sinus infection or something. He’s hardly able to read and write, let alone think of the script.
Meat Loaf takes the creative lead on his team’s commercial. Marlee goes along with him, realizing his quest to find a donut shop represents a risk. He doesn’t come up with a script, though. They can just improv. Because Star’s in charge of branding, he thinks it’s her responsbility to come up with a script if she wants one.
The men opt to show a soccer mom and a college girl talking about how great it is they can now get Onstar. Lil Jon would like to get a lot of special effects into this shot, which their studio is not really equipped to handle.
Star is the main actor for her team. She can’t remember her lines. Cue cards don’t seem to be helping either.
Don Jr. notices the tension in ASAP and the fact that Meat Loaf seems to be the one in charge.
After Star finishes her informational part of the commercial, it’s time for officer Meat Loaf to save the day by finding Marlee’s stolen car. Now he wants to find his favorite donut shop.
Marlee realizes she took a little too much of a back seat, and she just hopes they have enough to edit.
Backbone arrives to edit first. John bets the other team got too complicated and fell behind. Lil Jon is confident they have plenty of time, but his special effects will push them close to the deadline. When ASAP does arrive, Star sits back and lets the other two do the editing.
The execs felt ASAP had a much more ambitious project but were a bit softer on the message. They didn’t like the the policeman was seen as the butt of a joke rather than a hero. They liked Lil Jon, but thought maybe he came on too strong. That said, they really sold the idea that this is a new way to get Onstar. One miss was someone was driving a car without wearing a seatbelt, which makes the footage unusable.
John thinks the other team missed the main point. The other team is unable to say the guys did a better or worse job… just different.
Backbone wins, putting the Jonz in the final 4. As the winning project manager, John Rich gets $40,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Marlee would fire Meat Loaf because his working style is different than what they are accustomed to. Star would fire Meat Loaf because of the creative. Meat Loaf would fire Star based on product placement and branding.
When they go out into the hallway, the argument continues. Meat Loaf wants to get into a shouting match with Star, who he calls sweetie, which she takes offense to, though Trump doesn’t understand why.
Somehow, the boardroom ends up turning into a debate about whether it was politically correct for Meat Loaf to call Star sweetie, as if this is accomplishing anything.
Because they lost the task on branding, the person in charge of branding has been fired. That would be Star. Bad decision. She didn’t cost them this task, although she didn’t attempt to salvage it either. With Star being assigned 2 of the 3 criteria for the task, while leaving the commercial in the hands of the other two people, she was an easy target in the event of a loss for any reason.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 4 Episode 11, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.