Category: reality tv

Penn Gillette seemed to be one of the frontrunners, but in The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 10, he came up with a slogan that was too pompous for Donald Trump (is that even possible?), which led to him being fired.

We start the show with Aubrey’s mouth running as her ego continues to burst.

Now Dayana gets to advance in the next task with two people who would just as soon see her fired.

This week’s task is to write and produce a 90 second jingle for Good Sam’s road side assistance program, then they will perform that jingle in front of a live audience. They will be judged on the jingle, brand messaging, and the performance itself.

I’m inclined to believe the team with Clay has an advantage. Supposedly, Aubrey is also a singer, though. I’ll take her word for it, even though I never heard of her before.

Dayana volunteers to be her team’s project manager since Clay did it last time. Arsenio wants to be his team’s project manager, knowing full well Aubrey will take all the credit regardless.

In the van ride over, Aubrey is already pitching ideas, which Arsenio immediately rejects. In the other van, Dayana seems lost. First she has to figure out that jingles aren’t just for Christmas. She does hit on an interesting idea, though. Just call Debbie Gibson. I’m not a fan, but the jingle she wrote received much praise.

Aubrey leads the discussion with the executive in the direction she wants it to go. This allows her again to pitch her cheerleading idea, which this time Arsenio accepts.

Although she’s the team leader, Dayana feels left out of this project, as Clay and Lisa instead clear ideas with each other. They can’t completely sideline her like usual, but they’ll do it to the extent possible. Granted, she really has no idea about music. Not that Lisa does either, though she can do some writing.

When Don Jr. comes to visit, Aubrey whines to him about how she does everything, and Arsenio sucks. Then he goes to visit Dayana’s team, and she says they’re lucky to have Clay on their team, which Lisa takes offense to because her name was not also mentioned. This leads to another Lisa meltdown, as she cries, swears, yells, and storms out, all while Dayana sits there and smiles at her. Dayana apologizes, even though she has no reason to, but apparently the words “I’m sorry” do not count as an apology in Lisa’s book.

Before they rehearse, Arsenio gives Aubrey instructions. She ignores them and does what she wants.

The drama with Dayana is not over yet. Now it’s Clay’s turn. She asks him a question. Then he attacks. Less dramatic than his confrontation with Penn, or Lisa’s confrontation with humans in general, though.

The teams come up with two very different approaches. Dayana’s team does a more conservative 60s jingle. Arsenio’s team does a more contemporary song with some rap and Aubrey about ready to pop out of her top.

In the boardroom, it’s time for Dayana vs. Lisa, round 12. Lisa shouts, Dayana stays cool, Lisa shouts louder and adds some insults into the mix.

Dayana declines to name who she would fire.

Aubrey interjects. She says she has no right to say anything, but she will anyway to defend Lisa.

Dayana is talking to deaf ears when she tries to discuss Lisa’s temper. Lisa insists that her swearing and shouting and being insulting makes her a good businesswoman. Sure, it works for being a potty mouthed comedian, but I can’t imagine anyone in a normal business setting respecting her.

The executives thought Clay’s singing was phenomenal, Lisa’s writing and performance was great, and there was a lot of energy. The branding was not on the mark, the theme was too safe, and Dayana was missing until the end.

For the other team, the jingle was catchy, there was good integration of the mascot, and they appreciated Arsenio’s and Aubrey’s performances. But it was a bit too sexy, and Teresa did not contribute much to the performance.

Arsenio’s team won $45,000 for his charity, plus the proceeds from the sales of the Good Sam mascot.

Dayana was certainly not responsible for the failure of this task (had they listened to her, they wouldn’t have gone with the safe 60s theme that ultimately blew it), nor is it fair to subject the others to Lisa’s behavior. However, with Dayana having fallen into the bottom three yet again, she has been fired. As with Penn before, she leaves with more dignity than some who remain.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 12, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

Because he angered Donald Trump by not bringing back the people Trump insisted were at fault in The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 9, Paul Teutul, Sr. was fired.

Lisa promises to be nice to Dayana on the next task. That would be different.

After finding out that Paul is gone, Arsenio is afraid for his team. Aubrey cements that when she says Teresa’s not strong, she doesn’t trust Arsenio, so she does not have anyone’s back.

Donald Trump is launching a fragrance called Success. Their task is to create an in-store display for Macy’s. They will be judged on creativity of the slogan, brand messaging, and the display.

George returns as the only non-Trump allowed to be an advisor.

Clay and Aubrey are project managers. Aubrey lost last time they went against each other.

Clay is smart enough to realize he’s got a star in Dayana, so he wants her to be his model, though he does not want her to get as undressed as she suggests.

Aubrey’s definition of success is happiness. She’s alone there. Arsenio certainly disagrees.

Penn comes up with a slogan, “You earned it.” Clay’s hesitant to run with this early idea, but he does when the rest of the team gets behind it.

When they find a quote from Trump on the Internet, the other team decides to go with “Always trust your instincts.”

Not having a model on their team, Aubrey has another idea: Eric Trump.

Aubrey sends Teresa and Arsenio to get supplies so that she can get rid of them and work on her own.

On the other side, Clay keeps thinking and thinking of what they need to do, as the deadline approaches. He realizes this isn’t his bag.

When Eric arrives, after she takes his picture, Aubrey takes full credit for everything. As usual.

Lisa’s been hearing Aubrey’s voice throughout the task, and she refuses to tune it out. Instead, she goes and spies on them. She returns with a report that both teams have come up with a similar concept, focusing on the skyline. Aubrey was talking about originality and not wanting to go with the obvious, but this was a pretty obvious approach considering they are promoting the product of a real estate mogul.

George is less impressed by Aubrey than she is. He thinks the building looks like a Rolls Royce, and that they missed the boat when they used Eric. After his visit, Arsenio is worried, but Aubrey still doesn’t get the hint.

Before giving her pitch, Aubrey tells us she’s responsible for a lot of wins. Really?

Her team is all granted some role to play in the pitch, and they have created pamphlets in the shape of the bottle, as well as scent strips.

The other team has Clay give a brief pitch, and when he’s done, he asks if the executives have any questions. No, they do not. Keep going. He’ll stumble for a couple more minutes, but that’s about all they’ve got.

The executives suggest combining elements of both displays would result in one great campaign, as they are not completely impressed with either display.

Clay calls his teammates all incredible.

Lisa says that Clay is in her top two project managers, with her buddy Aubrey being the other. She also says that Dayana killed it.

When they see the other team’s work, Lisa loves the pamphlet and scent strip, saying she is envious of them. Arsenio thinks Clay did a great job, and Dayana is beautiful.

Arsenio does not like being minimized. He thought he did something really important, finding the quote for the slogan. Aubrey interjects to take credit for it as well.

The executives thought Clay’s photo was beautifully done and representative of Trump, and the display was well done. They hated the slogan (too pompous), the photo (that they loved) was overpowering, and the slogan (that they hated) was too far apart and too small.

They loved Aubrey’s team’s slogan, thought the brand messaging was great, and had attention to detail. But the display was just okay and lacked creativity, and the silhouette was unappealing.

Trump offered $100,000 if he loved the winning display. He doesn’t. So instead, he offers $40,000 to the winning project manager, plus $10,000 to each contestant.

Aubrey’s team wins, and she receives $40,000 for her charity, GLISTEN. Not merely content with her win, Aubrey says she was hoping for the $100k, and she would have gotten that if she had smarter people from the other side on her team. The most compelling thing the other team did was the photo of Dayana. There’s no way Aubrey’s ego would defer that much of the spotlight to anyone, especially Dayana.

Clay leads by consensus. Trump does not.

The other team did pamphlets and scent strips, but Dayana’s idea to do it on this team was shot down. Clay’s defense is that he can’t always understand her.

Clay will be returning to the boardroom with Penn and Dayana. The Penn choice is obvious. But why Dayana? His answer is that Lisa’s the stronger of the two going forward. Still, a bad decision considering this task by itself.

Aubrey has an issue with Lisa. Why did she say Dayana was great? After all, Aubrey wants to see Dayana fired as much as all the other women do.

Neither Dayana nor Lisa were going to get fired here, so putting Dayana in the line of fire isn’t going to sit well with Trump.

Based on this task, Clay would fire Penn. However, he would rather get rid of Dayana, but that’s not happening, so he’s doing himself more harm than good by continuing to go there.

Penn would fire Clay as the project manager. Dayana would fire Clay for that same reason, and she gives Penn credit for his work on the design and photo.

Not taking the hint, Clay again asks for Dayana to be fired. And again.

Because he came up with the slogan, Penn has been fired.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 11, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.