The Apprentice on NBC: Trump in LA

Trump sends instructions for his new candidates to meet him in the driveway of their new home -- next to the mansion he'll be staying in while he seeks out his next Apprentice.

As the candidates arrive, Mr. Trump gets the phone call. He meets with them in the driveway to learn more about each candidate. After each of them makes their introduction, he announces their first task. He says behind the house they'll find a box with a big tent in it. He instructs them to work together to build the tent. Immediately, they go to work, but many of them seem puzzled on how to build a tent. Heidi, a sales manager from California, notices that some of them have no clue as how to set up a tent, so she jumps in to take control of the situation. While Heidi attempts to give instructions to her teammates, Frank, a Real Estate Developer from New York, thinks he can do a better job. He whistles to get everyone's attention. Once he has their attention, he very loudly gives them orders. Mr. Trump watches from the window of his mansion, and he comments that Frank has a very loud voice. "Frank, keep your voice down!" Trump yells to him. After Frank follows Mr. Trump's orders to lower his tone, everyone works together to assemble the tent. Well, everyone except Martin, an attorney from Georgia. He was standing on a rock watching the action instead of participating! "I thought it was important for me to get up on that rock and supervise. I needed to let those people know that I had an ability to serve a function and keep it unified," he states.

The tent is finished! Now the candidates worry as they wonder if somebody is going home. Was this their first task? They file into the boardroom and take a seat to find out. Before he gets to business, he introduces his daughter, Ivanka. He reports that she will be working along side him, and he says she'll be his eyes and ears throughout the process. Next, he explains the empty chair beside him -- the one we use to see George in. He says that later he'll be inviting a special guest to set in that chair.

Soon after his explanation, he asks the candidates about the tent. They all agree it's a nice tent, and Frank remarks that he'd sleep in it tonight. Mr. Trump asks Frank who he thinks the best leader was. Franks believes Heidi done a great job as leader. Another candidate adds that she thinks both Heidi and Frank were good leaders. Since everyone seems to agree, Mr. Trump explains that Frank and Heidi will each choose someone to be on their team. He goes on to say they'll also be the first project managers.

After the teams are chosen, Mr. Trump gives them the details about their first task. He says they will be running a car wash. He adds that in LA the car wash is a big business ($250 million dollars a year). He goes on to say the team that makes the most money wins. Before he goes he announces a new twist, he discloses the project manager will remain the project manager if their team continues to win. He goes on to say the losing team may lose their project manager if he or she is fired, and if that happens then another candidate will fill their shoes and take over as project manager.

Right off the bat Frank starts out bad leaving his teammates to fend for themselves as he and Aaron run off to get started on marketing materials. With no one to lead, Tim, a Tutoring Company Owner from California steps up to the plate.

Meanwhile, Heidi seems to be doing a great job leading her team. Their plan was to make signs out of cardboard boxes. The signs read "free lunch." In order to make sure everyone on her team is available to wash cars, she hires two guys to stand on the streets with the signs they made. It worked! Within a few minutes, loads of cars are lined up waiting to be washed. Ivanka arrives to see how things are working out. "They're promoting the basic car wash. If you go to the detailing decks they're completely empty, which is an interesting strategy, let's see if it pays off for them," Ivanka conveys.

Back to Frank's team. They don't seem to be doing too well. His teammates are standing on the street corner yelling "car wash," but since they have no signs it's not working out. Not long after, Frank and Aaron return with the flyers. The flyers weren't much help either, though, because they continued to stand on the street corner yelling while holding the flyers in their hands. "Well, I work in marketing and I know how powerful a sign is. Here's what I love about Frank. I love that he's enthusiastic, hard working and dedicated. But, how do you convince a car to pull over with a piece of paper this big," Carey, a Marketing Firm Owner from Georgia says, indicating the size of the flyer (8.5" x 11"). "We need a sign Frank, a sign! You get it... a sign," he continues, throwing his arms into the air. In fact, he approaches Frank recommending they go to the store to buy a big sign and some markers.

Ivanka arrives to check in on Frank's team, but she's not impressed when she finds out Frank is not there with his team. "Frank was not there when I arrived at the car wash, but where they're falling short is in terms of signage. There's none! That could hurt them. I think they really need it," she says.

Returning to Heidi's team, the customers are getting edgy. They're complaining about the long wait. It appears as if everyone is working more on bringing people in than they are getting the cars washed and on their way. Noticing the problem, Heidi calls her team over and delegates each of them a job so they can get the cars washed and on their way quickly.

Finally, with some signs to draw attention, Frank's team now has customers! Tim, Martin and James begin working on their salesmanship skills, but Martin seems to be failing in that department!

Whose team done the best? Mr. Trump meets with them again. He turns to Ivanka and asks about Frank's team first. She says that his team spent a lot of time trying to attract customers, and overall their team earned a grand total of $2,345.54. Next was Heidi's team, and they earned a grand total of $2.463.00, giving them their very first win! After they all scream with excitement, Mr. Trump reveals their reward. He says he will be taking them to dinner at Spago. In addition, he says they will be living in the mansion behind him, and the project manager, Heidi, will join him in the boardroom to help make the decision on whom to fire from the other team. Unfortunately, the losers are shocked when they learn they will be living in the tent they helped put together, along with another tent they'll have to put together on their own. He adds that they will continue to live outside in the tent until they win a task. He goes on to say if they do win a task then the other team will trade places with them. "This is a case of the haves verses the have nots," he clarifies.

The winning team enters the mansion; they're all amazed by the exquisiteness! In the meantime, the losing team frowns at their living quarters. Their mood doesn't get any better as they hear the other team celebrating with champagne. Hmm... maybe this will give them some motivation to worker hard on the next task, and just maybe Frank will stick around to lead his team better. Well, that is if he doesn't get fired first.

As Heidi's complimenting her team, Tim shocks Frank when he says if he's asked who he would fire he would choose him. He argues with Frank that marketing was their downfall. When Frank works to defend himself, he attracts the other team's attention with his loud voice. Unaware that the other team is listening in on their little spat, they continue to argue. Frank, again trying to defend himself, puts the blame on Martin saying sales was the reason they lost, but Tim disagrees sticking with marketing as the reason.

The next morning arrives, and Frank's team is up but not at 'em very well. Many are complaining that they didn't sleep well. Heidi's team on the other hand, is lounging in the pool enjoying their luxuries.

Later in the day, the winning arrives at Spago in Beverly Hills for dinner with Mr. Trump and Wolfgang Puck. While enjoying dinner, Mr. Trump asks Angela about the gold medal she won in the Olympics. Soon after asking about Angela's gold medal, he compliments everyone saying they did well. However, his question shocks them all. "Who did the worst," he asks. When they all stop cold, he says, "This is a reward, what am I doing. It just comes natural." They laugh in unison.

Back at what I'll refer to as camp, the losing team is eating their dinner on paper plates in the dark. They continue to talk about how they lost, but this time they're discussing price. However, Martin feels threatened so he tries to get everyone to focus more on Frank than him. He asks Frank if he believes they lost because of price, and Frank says no. When he adds that the rest of the team believes it was price, he turns a few heads in his direction! "I can handle the physiology of the group, and after the maneuvering I did, Frank is on the defensive. I think in the back of his head he's in a dark place. If I can pull this thing off, let me tell ya, I will be the greatest apprentice ever," Martin notes with conviction.

Back at the mansion, Heidi informs her team that she has a strategy for the boardroom. She explains that first, she's going to try to find out whom their weakest link is, and then she says she'll try to keep that person there to give them an advantage. They all seem to agree. Will it work?

In the boardroom, Mr. Trump start the ball rolling by saying the project manager from the winning team will always assist him in the boardroom. With that out of the way, he asks Michelle what she thought about Frank as project manager. She replies that she thinks he maintained a consistent energy in the first task of putting up the tent. Ivanka asks if they feel like Frank gave them a strategy, because she says when she got first got there (at the car wash) she felt there was no strategy. "Absolutely not," Martin answers. He goes on to say he thinks there were three "mission critical" errors made: planning, price point and marketing. Ivanka questions Frank about the marketing. She asks how much time he spent on marketing, but in a round about way he avoids the question. She points out that Heidi's team focused on marketing, but he focused on catering to the "high stream cliental." When she asks Frank if he'd do it the same way again, he says he would. Next, price point is brought up, and Mr. Trump asks Frank who priced. He says Tim was in charge of sales. Tim confirms. Ivanka asks Frank why he didn't take charge of sales, and he says he had to wear many hats that day. She says she understand that, but she says ultimately it's about getting the customers in the door, and she points out that he had people scattered in the streets, and she couldn't find half his team. She goes on to say if he would have had more people there they would have moved more cars. When asked, Tim expresses to Mr. Trump that he doesn't think Martin is very good at sales. Since Aaron has been quite, Mr. Trump asks for his opinion. He says from what he's heard there was a weak link in sales. "Who do you think was the weak link?" Ivanka asks Tim. "Based on numbers, Martin was," he answers. Instead of focusing on Martin, Mr. Trump goes back to interrogating Frank about marketing. Frank pleads his case then attempts to bring Martin back into the picture. To speed things along, Mr. Trump asks each member of Frank's team who they would fire, and the majority of them say Frank. He asks Frank to name two people he wants to bring back to the boardroom with him. Frank says Martin and Tim. Before Frank goes outside the boardroom, he pleads his case to Mr. Trump, but Mr. Trump tells him to save it, because he'll be back in five minutes.

A few minutes later he calls Frank, Martin and Tim back to the boardroom. Mr. Trump asks Frank if he would get rid of Tim over Martin, and he replies he would not. Mr. Trump sends Tim back to the tent. With Tim gone, Frank continues to be loud as he begs Mr. Trump for another chance. And, at the end of the day, it seems to work, because Martin was fired. Mr. Trump comments that he sees fire in Frank, but he says he doesn't see that in Martin. He goes on to say he believes he would be great as a lawyer or professor, but he doesn't see him working for him, because he says there's too much "nitty gritty."

Martin's last words: "I can't believe that I got fired. I was probably the hardest working person there. You know, I'm the first one to go on LA Apprentice. It's better than being the third or fourth -- I'm the first. At the end of the day, I can't regret telling Mr. Trump I had to go to the bathroom. I had to go."