
Usually when a reality show adds the word "celebrity" to its title, it's a sure sign of two things: That the quality of the show will take a dip and that you will question the validity of the "celebrity" tag when it comes to 90 percent of the cast. But in the case of "The Celebrity Apprentice," the show actually got better once famous people got involved (and handed all their winnings over to charity), and the actual stars in this season's group of combatants have real resumés (or at least most of them do).
On Sunday night's (March 14) season premiere, host Donald Trump introduced the universe to the new group of wannabe businessfolk, 14 stars who were split up into two teams by gender and given the task of running a diner for three hours. The two teams — "Tenacity," the batch of women, and "Rock Solid," the group of men — were lead by pop icon and professional wrestling enthusiast Cyndi Lauper and Poison frontman Bret Michaels.
Unfortunately, the actual challenges are usually the most boring parts of "The Celebrity Apprentice," as the teams of stars usually just spend time calling in favors from other famous friends (Sunday night's episode featured an Al Roker cameo, who shelled out a hundred bucks to eat a sandwich at the male team's restaurant). But there were some wildly entertaining moments, mostly care of Lauper, who sang her way through serving meals, openly bashed Trump during interview segments and had crazy hair throughout the night.
Even though the women got a $10,000 bonus from Joan Rivers, they still came up short, and the victory went to the men. When it came time to fire somebody, team leader Lauper was called into Trump's boardroom along with comedian Carol Leifer (who was relatively invisible throughout the episode). Even though Lauper spent the whole episode burying the host of the show, he still dismissed Leifer.
So far, it's off to a good start, as a handful of rivalries already look to be mounting on the women's side (especially between Sharon Osbourne and ... just about everybody), and some of the men already look like early favorites (including former baseball great Darryl Strawberry, comedian Sinbad and actor and former pro wrestler Bill Goldberg). But with so many music greats, it will be interesting to see whether or not somebody from that world will join former winners Piers Morgan and Joan Rivers in the pantheon of "The Celebrity Apprentice" champions.
What do you think? Did Donald Trump fire the right person? Is Bret Michaels the early frontrunner? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Tags Bret Michaels, Cyndi-Lauper, Sharon Osbourne, The Celebrity Apprentice