The Celebrity Apprentice Finally Shows Someone to Hate

The Apprentice was a reality show that appealed to me for two reasons: It's fascinating to watch from the sidelines a life-or-death struggle to meet a deadline and complete a Herculean project and it's even more fun if all that work has to be accomplished by people you don't really like much. The truth about The Apprentice was that usually Donald Trump ended up being the nicest guy in the room (a grim reality if there ever was one), surrounded by bright, aggressive, hard-nosed young snots who probably would have scorned me or my friends if we ever met them or - worse yet - had to work for them in some capacity. There they all would sit, pointing fingers at each other ruthlessly in a desperate bid for survival. By the time it was over, I would grin broadly and wave "Bye-Bye!" to whomever ended up riding away in the cab.

Enter: The Celebrity Apprentice

This latest season of The Celebrity Apprentice broadsided me a little because among the group vying for gifts for their favorite charities was nobody that I disliked. I couldn't imagine cheering for any of them to be fired. Now I was like a Roman spectator who didn't want anyone to die - what's the fun in that?

Then Came Tonight's Episode

Tonight, the six people left on the "island" were sorted into two teams: Holly Peet Robinson, (Tenacity Project Manager), Bret Michaels, and Cyndi Lauper in this corner facing off against Sharon Osbourne (Rock Solid Project Manager), Maria Kanellis, and Curtis Stone. They all were assembled in Trump's grand "digs" when he assigned them the task - each team was supposed to decorate and refurbish a luxury apartment for the use of visiting high-echelon executives and celebrities. The best apartment would win, with judging to be done by Lee Curtis and Jonathan Adler, famous interior designers.

This was an especially fun show because of the before-and-after aspect. Eagerly, we living-room voyeurs watched each team's members recoiling in shock at their first glimpse of the bare apartments. It was fun to watch each group -- armed with unlimited budgets, a couple professional workmen to help, and wildy fluctuating points of view -- struggle to get these places in shape.

Sharon Osbourne, especially anxious for her first win as P. M., seemed to order too much furniture that couldn't fit into the elevators upon delivery and she vacillated nervously when it came to choices of color for the walls - an attack of nerves which drove her team-mates to distraction and threatened the timely completion of Rock Solid's project.

Meanwhile, over at the Tenacity camp, Holly and Cyndi clashed repeatedly on various fronts. Watching this show, I could see how Bret Michaels later ended up in the hospital. Not only was he caught in the middle between his two impassioned opponents, but the photographic prints he had ordered came in the wrong size, and later when they were reprinted and redelivered, the elevator didn't work and he had to bolt down 18 flights of stairs to get the prints (and run them back UP those same stairs).

Ultimately, everything was finished even down to artistic displays of fruit and muffins in Rock Solid apartment's kitchen. With great ceremony, Messrs. Adler and Curtis looked at both places and cited the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Rock Solid's effort was great except for the Celebrity Media Room, which just wasn't special enough somehow, and Tenacity's apartment also had great things (including the bright red room that had been Cyndi's project), but there was too much stuff which looked too cheap, and that seafoam bedroom that Holly had come up with sucked, in their considered opinion (if not those exact words).

The Board Room

One couldn't help rooting for Rock Solid - three people who had bonded well, worked hard, and in my opinion had produced the nicer looking place. That was also the considered opinion of the judges, as it now turned out, which meant that $40,000 would be awarded to the Cedar Sinai Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Screening Fund. Triumphantly, the winning trio adjourned to the winners' suite, there to sip champagne and watch the fun that was to follow.

At Last, Somebody I Don't Like

The three Tenacity people - Holly, Bret, and Cyndi were now left to fight for their survival. Now, finally, watching The Celebrity Apprentice began to seem like real fun to me. I had had mixed feelings about Holly all along as it seemed to me that she qualified for the job description of someone who would look at me and my friends as though we were worms if we ever ended up on the same bus together. Tonight, as Cyndi put it, the "gloves were off" and Holly showed her true colors, fighting and sparring to dump Cyndi and avoid being fired herself. Bret tried to do the nicest thing in the nicest way - which may be the description of a perfect gentleman but didn't really do anybody any good tonight - and poor Cyndi was finally undone by nothing else than accidentally giving credit where credit was due for something.

Sadly, I watched Cyndi leave in disgrace but one good thing had been achieved - now I finally disliked someone. Wild horses couldn't keep me away from next week's show and the dream that Holly may be the next one to be shown the door. At last, I have someone to hate - THIS is more like it!