Celebrity Apprentices: It's About the Money

It's all about the money. Even when it's for charity. That is what the men's team found out during the first challenge in the latest season of "Celebrity Apprentice."

Again this season, the men have a star-power edge over the women. They have big names and recognizable faces. The most famous of the women are Joan and Melissa Rivers.

There's no reason the men's team shouldn't be able to leverage their star status each week to their advantage in terms of big-ticket donations and volume sales to the general public. Thankfully, their weakest link, Andrew Dice Clay, is gone. Their challenge will be to motivate and focus Rodman into the team player he can be. For all of his antics, Dennis Rodman was a team player when he needed to be and knew his role in helping NBA team go as far as possible, even claiming NBA championships.

Tom Green has the right idea - if the men want to win, they need to get on e-mail, facebook, their cell phone, whatever, to solicit big donations from people they know. Jesse James will need to watch his attitude about getting donations. That got more than one celebrity fired last year. Trace Adkins brought in money - and that kept him in the game up to the finale. However, it was the magnitude of donated dollars that ultimately made Piers Morgan the winner.

From this first week's episode, one could almost venture a guess as to how the show will end and who will become the second "Celebrity Apprentice." The standouts would be Brande Roderick and Tom Green because they played well but they also got big donations. Annie Duke is gone because of her control issues and lack of being able to interact well with others. Joan Rivers and Dennis Rodman are too much character to make it to the finals but may make it far in the competition just to make better television. Personally, it would be nice if Scott Hamilton or Clint Black made it to the finals, but they will need to step it up in terms of donations and in contributing the task in an overwhelmingly positive way. Of course anything could change - that would make the show interesting.

What is interesting is the fact that the women's team managed a win, and even without the bonus donation for the cupcake taste-off, the women's team would still have had donations rivaling those of the men's team. Unlike last year's team, this group of relative celebrity unknowns is ready to put up a fight despite personality clashes. They will still need to overcome big egos to keep winning but they seemed prepare to outsmart the men and use all their assets. They realize it's all about the money.