Over the weekend, "The Celebrity Apprentice" became intriguing in a way that the show never could have anticipated. The news of Bret Michaels health scare threw an interesting curveball at the show. Even though it has been in the can for months, would they mention on air that even though Michaels was having a ball on the most entertaining episode of the season, in reality he was in a hospital bed unable to watch said episode? And would they run into an unfortunate scenario that would see Michaels get kicked off the show while he was fighting for his life?
Through some sort of cosmic good luck, "The Celebrity Apprentice" managed to get the best of all possible worlds on Sunday night (April 25). There was no mention of his illness (save for a vague post-script that wished him a speedy recovery) and even though Michaels theoretically could have been canned after last night's challenge, Donald Trump ultimately decided not to fire anybody, leaving both teams in tact and keeping Michaels on the show (perhaps just so Trump can learn the secret of the bandanna).
The show opened with Trump re-shuffling the teams, with the new configuration pitting Curtis Stone, Cyndi Lauper, Summer Sanders and Holly Robinson-Peete (Tenacity) against Michaels, Sharon Osbourne and Maria Kanellis (RockSolid). There were doubts that Osbourne would actually show up, but she seemed revitalized by the new challenge, which had the teams designing some sort of exercise class for 24 Hour Fitness. It was another "Who can call their famous friends to donate the most money?" challenges, which are usually entertaining if only because it forces more famous people into awkward photo ops. But this time around, the celeb pals only acted as check books, and the people taking the class were little more than charity ringers.
Tenacity ended up dreaming up a vaguely uncomfortable concept called "Buns and Guns," which was meant to be an arm and butt workout but sounded like it could have been an alternate title for that movie where Steven Seagal is a killer cook. Meanwhile, RockSolid decided to focus on something they called "The Groupie Thrust," which was basically a pelvic thrust and not an actual workout. (The less said about "Pump Up the Weiner," which was pretty shocking for network television, the better.) Michaels was in full Poison mode last night, flirting with every woman in a five mile radius (especially Maria) and referring to himself as a "gynecological expert" (yes, that actually happened).
In fact, RockSolid seemed so distracted by innuendo and Michaels extra-curricular exploits (including a woman who told him that he was on her list of men she was allowed to sleep with without her husband getting mad at her) that they ended up getting pounded in the money department, losing big time to Robinson-Peete's cadre of rich athlete pals. Still, Trump seemed so entertained by the whole thing that he didn't really give anybody the going over, nor did he condemn anybody for their mistakes. Thus, nobody was fired, even though Michaels theoretically would have been the most logical victim this week. It seemed like a selfish move on Trump's part, as he really seemed to have a good time during this episode and just wanted his famous pals to hang around a little bit longer. Considering the number of people who have fired themselves this season, it makes sense that there would have to be a save tossed in there somewhere. The show will have to remain on its toes in the face of Michaels' ill health, but for perhaps the first time in the show's history, "The Celebrity Apprentice" did everything right.
Tags Bret Michaels, The Celebrity Apprentice
