Friday, September 17, 2004

You're Fired!

It was Bradford who heard those words on the second installment of The Apprentice. Bradford made an early exit from the show despite the fact that the Donald had granted him immunity in the first week of the show.

In week 2, the task was to create a flavor of ice cream and then sell that flavor on the streets of NYC. The men created donut flavored ice cream that contained actual pieces of donuts. The men then decided to sell their ice cream in Times Square. The men believed that they were at a disadvantage in street marketing because they did not have the sex appeal that the women have. However, the men came up with a brilliant scheme. They decided to donate a portion of their proceeds to lukemia research.

Meanwhile, the women created a red velvet flavor but had no idea how to market their treat. They thought they had hit a gold mine when they discovered the fact that the men were heading to Times Square. They decided to move right next-door. Then the wheels came off for the women. First, an aggressive hot dog vendor chased the ladies from their chosen corner. Then team leader Ivana lost track of the location of her carts and didn't know where one of them was for nearly three hours. And, Stacie J. continued to be a lunatic. The men's excellence and the ladies ridiculousness combined to propel the men to a decisive victory.

Then came the board room. This is where things started to get weird. It seemed clear that either Ivana or Stacie J. was gonna get the boot. But then Bradford spoke up inexplicably and declared that he would stand on his record and forego his immunity. So, Ivana took Stacie J., Jenn C. and Bradford with her into the final board room. Ivana apparently believed that Jenn and Bradford would both condemn Stacie J. and convince the Donald to kick off Stacie J. and not Ivana. But, the Donald was having none of it. Trump seemed to think that the impetuous decision to forego immunity was not the kind of intelligent decisionmaking that he needs from his top assistants. Therefore, he fired Bradford.

I think think this was the second straight poor decision by the Donald. I admired Bradford's guts. Furthermore, he was the best member of Apex for the second week in a row, so he should not have had to rely on immunity to survive this second task. In contrast, Ivana was a horrendous leader that will never actually be the Apprentice. I don't have anything good to say about Jenn C. although she didn't do anything particularly bad this week. And, Stacie J. is just a lunatic.