The Apprentice

Donald Trump announced on the morning program Imus In The Morning, er, this morning, that his wife has given birth to a boy, though no name seems to have been chosen yet. This is the first child Trump and Melania have together, though this is not the first for Donald.

The question now is, would Trump date him?

Excuse me while I slip into my '80s California accent. Ahem. . .Dude! Like, The Apprentice is going to be doing the show in Los Angeles. That is most excellent, Trumpster!

And now I return to the normal sarcastic personality indicitive of the Northeast.

Open casting calls are currently underway nationwide for the sixth cycle of the show. They will continue until April 8th and cover such cities as Seattle, Jacksonville, New York, Chicago, Hartford, Honolulu, and Las Vegas. You can download an application and check on the dates and times at the official Apprentice website.

According to Donald Trump, the show will move to Las Vegas during the show's seventh cycle, followed by Chicago and Miami. That's just awesome!

And now for the review of The Apprentice, Episode 3. . . Donald Trump did not say anything about dating his daughter.

Now, on to your comments. Hm? I'm sorry, what did you say? That's not a review? You want me to critique the episode and comment on the good and bad? You want me to talk about Donald Trump's hair resembling a child of Cousin It from The Addams Family? Oh, okay, if you really want me to!

I came into this late. In fact, the episode I'm reviewing right now is the first I've watched.  However, from what I see, there is a clear difference between teams Synergy and Gold Rush. Synergy has a diverse group of people who seem to have their heads on straight and are effective at completing a task. On the other hand, Gold Rush is full of neophytes who only care about themselves.

Donald Trump just entered the Joe Simpson Club of Creepy Dads, for telling the gals on The View that, if Ivanka wasn't his daughter, he'd probably be dating her. Ew? I know he's desperate to get better ratings for 24-year-old Ivanka's five-episode arc on The Apprentice, but... ew! I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. He also said she has a nice body and would look good if she wanted to pose in Playboy magazine. Ick. Ick. Ick. I guess that Martha Stewart feud didn't create enough headlines so he's working another angle.

While that's super gross, Joe Simpson remains the ultimate creepy dad for talking about the size of daughter Jessica Simpson's breasts.

Forget the office! Why push paper all day when you can take a day off from shaving, throw on your ratty, old Survivor buff, strip down to your undies, and go to the first annual Reality TV Convention!

All you have to do is drag yourself to the Nashville Airport Marriot in Tennessee and you'll be well on your way to the largest reality television show convention ever conceived. Pictured above is an empty conference room, but if the convention were in it, I'm sure we could expect to see booths for a variety of shows and plenty of people with William Hung masks on. Event organizers are expecting a crowd of over 5,000 and according to the link below, stars from The Apprentice, The Biggest Loser, Big Brother, Survivor, American Idol, and many others will be in attendance. Fans will be able to ask questions, take pictures, and get autographs. For any reality fan, this is indeed the reality TV show Mecca. So plan your trip now for the event which will be held on June 3 and 4.

[Thanks to event organizer Joe Blackmon for the tip.]

I'm going to start this out with a simple statement: I don't like Martha Stewart. She bugs me, her talk show freaks the hell out of me, and for whatever reason I'm also terrified of people who have their own magazines. However, I partly understand where she's coming from regarding the recent comment war between her and Donald Trump. The topic of course being her version of The Apprentice and how large a flop it was. So despite my feelings toward the Kitchen Queen, I kind of feel bad for her (or at least agree with her) when discussing how this is all playing out.

Well it had to happen sooner or later, but Martha Stewart has finally started complaining and making excuses for why her version of The Apprentice did so poorly. Her main argument? There was too much Apprentice at once... which from here on out I will refer to as Trump-Stewart Sensory Overload.

Apparently, the original plan was for Martha to have the only Apprentice show and it would start out by her firing Donald Trump; in essence passing the torch of mediocre reality television. She even said it was unfair to the both of them but that Trump really wanted to stay on... well, wait a second. Maybe I'm off here, but wasn't Trump under contract to do more than three seasons? So it didn't matter if he wanted to stay on or not because the guy had a job to do. I don't know, sounds to me like Martha isn't dealing too well with her defeat.

It appears that the fifth season of The Apprentice has something that previous seasons have lacked. International contestants! Well kind of... they all currently reside in America. Trump's new wannabes (there's a Canadian, a Russian, and a Brit) have all been successful in their previous ventures which include law, commodities trading, and consulting. We learned a few days ago that an Olympian will be voted in by TV viewers to join the sixth season's cast which I believe takes place in Los Angeles. You can see a full list of the contestants at the link below before the show premieres on Monday, February 27.

I'm not so sure all this is that big of a deal though. Does anyone think that a gimmick like this will actually bring a new dynamic to the show?

[via Zap2it]

By next fall, the Olympics will be long gone. But, NBC wants to remind you of the games by putting one athlete on The Apprentice. Which one? You get to choose. Online voting begins today, coincidentally, so do the Olympics, and ends on February 26, coinciding with closing ceremonies. The winning Olympian will join the other candidates in Los Angeles when shooting begins on season six of The Apprentice. I'm guessing that whichever team gets the Olympian will exploit him or her to the max until Trump fires the athlete. The press release that announces the cross-promotion doesn't mention any of the athletes' business experience. No matter. The Apprentice stopped being about business in season two, didn't it?

The list of candidates is after the jump:

The Donald's latest venture is in the travel business. He launched GoTrump.com, a website that promises low airfare and lodging rates. I checked it out and it's just a Trump-ed up version of Travelocity. Literally. It's a joint venture between Trump and Travelocity. Trump told the New York Times that his site offers special deals on his hotels and will allow normal, middle-class folks to live like the rich and famous. So far, it just looks like your run-of-the-mill travel website and Trump's hotel deals are nowhere to be found. There are also pictures of Trump planes on the site, but don't expect to ride on The Donald's airlines because that tanked in 1992.

Gee. You think we're going to see some GoTrump plugs on this season of The Apprentice? Yeah, me too.

NBC is doing a little cross-promotion with the King of product placement, Donald Trump. When the game show returns to television at the end of February, Trump will make a cameo appearance to pimp the return of The Apprentice and to assist the contestants in deciding whether to "deal or no deal". Immediately following Deal or No Deal on Monday, February 27th is the season premiere of The Apprentice.

[Via The Futon Critic]

Once NBC returns to regular programming following two weeks of Olympics (Feb. 10-26), the line-up is going to look a little different. It's moving around a few shows, including Law and Order and Las Vegas, and adding some new mid-season shows to the mix. Get 'yer TiVos ready, here are the changes:

• Deal or No Deal, nightly at 8 pm from Monday, February 27 to Friday, March 3
• The Apprentice, Mondays at 9 pm, starting February 27
  
• Conviction, Fridays at 10 pm, starting March 3
• Las Vegas, Fridays at 9 pm, starting March 3
• Teachers, Thursdays at 9:30 pm, starting April 6 (replacing The Office, which has a season finale on March 30)
• Law and Order, Wednesdays at 9 pm, starting March 22
• Heist, Wednesdays at 10 pm, starting March 22
  

Unnamed Republicans, cited in the New York Daily News, are saying that billionaire TV personality Donald Trump may indeed be considering a run at the New York state governor's office. According to the reports, he'd run as a Republican which is interesting since he's donated money to both Democratic and Republican campaigns in the past.  Trump almost ran for President on the Reform Party ticket back in 2000. I'm not sure he'd have time to fit this responsibility in... I mean he still has a few seasons of The Apprentice left right? And I think one is supposed to be out in L.A. This is almost getting comical though. I'm trying to imagine some kind of United States governor's summit with Ah-nold and "The Body" all at the same table with Trump. I'd say SNL could put together a sketch, but they've only got one Darrell Hammond.

By now you've no doubt heard what happened on the finale of Trump's The Apprentice this season. The final two contestants met with The Donald on Larry King Live, recently, to hash out some of what occured on the show. The transcript of the King show is available online, though here's the part that more than a few people would like to read:

KING: Rebecca Jarvis, this is hard to answer, of course, it is retrospect. If you had won, Mr. Trump had said to you, make him co- apprentice. Honestly, what would you have done?
JARVIS: It's actually not hard for me to answer at all. As a business leader, I make business decisions that are best for business. And when you see talent in the business world, you snatch it up as soon as you have the opportunity to do it.
KING: You would have said yes?
JARVIS: Absolutely.

The New York Post is reporting today that the actual winner of The Apprentice: Martha Stewart was Bethenny and not Dawna. They changed the winner at the last minute, as Charles Koppelman's 6 year-old granddaugther told all of the cast members backstage that Martha was going to choose Bethenny, because Martha didn't like Dawna's fashion show. The judges decided to change the winner of the show because of the granddaughter's announcement. This sort of makes you wonder how real the entire process was. I mean, was Dawna the best candidate or not?

This is not a good thing.