Review of the Season Premier of the Celebrity Apprentice

What happens when you mix 13 powerful celebrities with one who thinks she's a powerful celebrity? You get an explosive reality TV show called The Celebrity Apprentice. This season's celebrity version of The Apprentice has the potential to be as interesting and fun as the first season.

The Celebrity Apprentice premiered Thursday night on NBC. The 14 celebrities contending for $250,000 to be donated to their favorite charity are:

Carol Alt - Model/Actress
Gene Simmons - KISS Front man / Entrepreneur
Jennie Finch - Olympic Gold Medalist: Softball
Lennox Lewis - Heavyweight-boxing Champion
Marilu Henner - Actress / Author
Nadia Comaneci - Olympic Gold Medalist: Gymnastics
Nely Gala´n - Entrepreneur and Former Telemundo Executive
Omarosa - Season one "The Apprentice" Candidate
Piers Morgan - Editor/"America's Got Talent" Judge
Stephen Baldwin - Actor
Tiffany Fallon - Playboy Playmate/Miss Georgia USA 2001
Tito Ortiz - Ultimate Fighting Champion
Trace Adkins - Country Music Star
Vincent Pastore - Actor

Of course, the one who thinks she is a powerful celebrity is the one reality TV celebrity we love to hate, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth. Regardless of what any of us think of her, she makes good TV. At least, someone thinks so which is probably why she keeps showing up. Just as I think her 15 minutes is up, she crawls out of the shadows of obscurity. Gene Simmons summed up my feelings best by saying, "she just won't go away; she's like a cockroach."

Keeping with the format, the first thing The Donald did was separate the celebrities into teams of seven - men vs. women. The division according to sexes seemed to please many of the celebrities.

The first thing Omarosa did was interrupt The Donald by announcing that she wanted to "go on record" and request that she be the first project manager for her team. Mr. Trump was quick to tell her that it was up to her teammates to chose a project manager, and that he was the only one there who liked her.

Once the teams were formed and settled into their Trump Towers suite, their first order of business was to pick team names. Gene Simmons threw out the name "Hydra" which is the name of a seven headed mythical creature. (Insert you own phallic humor here.) The name was quickly accepted by the team. The women chose the team name Empresario which Nely explained was basically a corporate mogul. Omarosa beamed.

Granting her wish, team Empresario made Omarosa their first project manager. As her first order of business, Omarosa forbade her teammate's use of their celebrity status to sell their product. She insisted that the product, hot dogs, was the focus -- their celebrity status was not. Based on her past experience, it was best for the team to put all of their efforts into making the best hot dog ever rather than use their celebrity. Marilu Henner and Tiffany Fallon disagreed with Omarosa, but Omarosa being Omarosa knows best and wouldn't budge on the matter.

Meanwhile, team Hydra, lead by project manager Stephen Baldwin, had no problem pulling out the celebrity card. While the other members of his team brainstormed, Gene Simmons picked up his cell phone and began making calls. It wasn't long before some of his contacts promised to buy a hot dog for $5,000 or more.

During the task, the women obviously were struggling. Sales were slow because the team had no signs and were relying on barking at passersby in hopes that some of them would recognize the importance of purchasing the best hot dog ever for charity. Marilu finally got on the ball and made a couple of phone calls to her own contacts. In the end, Marilu's contacts donated over half of the money that team Empresario earned for the task.

After the task was completed and once they were back in the Board Room, the ladies were visibly taken back when they were told that team Hydra had won the challenge by taking in almost four times the amount of money as they had. I am fairly certain I saw a bead of sweat on Omarosa's forehead when she realized she was the losing project manager. The final totals were $17,038 worth of the best hot dogs sold by team Empresario (which would have been impressive during any other season) while team Hydra sold $52,286 worth of celebrity hot dogs. Stephen Baldwin couldn't have beamed any brighter as the winning project manager.

Stephen couldn't have beamed any brighter until, that is, The Donald announced that for each task all money raised would be donated to the winning project manager's favorite charity. Stephen's charity, The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, will be receiving a generous donation of almost $70,000.

Next it was time for the usual round of finger pointing, bickering, and back stabbing. I was not surprised to find that Omarosa was still an expert at deflecting blame away from herself and onto some other unsuspecting sucker. This round, Omarosa targeted Tiffany Fallon, the Playboy Playmate, for not using her beauty and sex appeal to make sales. Although Omarosa had admitted a few minutes earlier that she didn't want to use sex to sell, she vehemently criticized Tiffany for not using sex to sell the hot dogs. That kind of "double standard" is why we love to hate Ms. Manigault-Stallworth.

Omarosa's second choice for firing was Carol Alt. Carol claimed to know New York better than anyone else on the team, so even The Donald said he was surprised that she had picked such a bad location to sell hot dogs. During the discussion, however, it became clear that Carol was not Omarosa's primary target.

From their vantage point in the "War Room," members of team Hydra were able to watch and listen in on the goings on in the boardroom and predicted that Tiffany would be the season's first casualty. Unfortunately, they were right. Poor Tiffany, a decent person, had no clue how to defend herself against the likes of a shark like Omarosa.

Tiffany heard those infamous words come out of The Donald's mouth, "you're fired." His reason was that she, being a Playboy Playmate, had one of the best contacts at her disposal but didn't take advantage of it. He said she had potential but was low key. Tiffany's only defense was that she was saving her contact for a "bigger" task.

Next week's episode promises to be even more exciting. Based on the previews, Gene Simmons, the rock star who claims to have slept with over 4,000 different women, makes an unwanted pass at The Donald's daughter, Ivanka. Both Ivanka and The Donald appear to be insulted and upset by the incident. I just can't wait to tune in next Thursday to find out what the whole hubbub is about.

Celebrity Apprentice Airs Thursdays on NBC. Check your local listings for times.