‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ Recap

The 4th season of The Celebrity Apprentice aired last night, and it looks like we’re in for another great season.

The episode began by introducing this season’s celebrity lineup in New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. I’ll begin my recap by introducing the stars and their charity packages.

Mark McGrath is the front-man for Sugar Ray and he represents the Save The Music Foundation. Jose Canseco is a former MLB player and he represents Baseball Assistance Team. John Rich is one-half of the country music duo Big & Rich and he represents the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Richard Hatch is the winner of the first season of Survivor and he represents Grassroot Soccer.

Gary Busey is an actor and he represents the Center For Head Injury Services. Meat Loaf is a rock star and he represents The Painted Turtle. Lil’ Jon is a rap star and he represents The United Methodist Children’s Home of North Georgia Conference. David Cassidy is a member of The Partridge Family and he represents The Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.

Star Jones is a television personality and she represents The American Heart Association. Niki Taylor is a model and she represents The American Red Cross. NeNe Leakes is a Real Housewife of Atlanta and she represents the Atlanta Union Mission in Support of My Sister’s House for Women Against Domestic Abuse.

Lisa Rinna is an actress and she represents the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women Cancer Research Fund. La Toya Jackson is a singer and she represents AIDS Project L.A. Hope Dworaczyk is a model and she represents Best Buddies. Marlee Matlin is an actress and she represents The Starkey Hearing Foundation. Dionne Warwick is a singer and she represents The Hunger Project.

The celebrities were split into two teams based on gender. Both teams had to decide upon a name. The ladies immediately chose ASAP, which stands for Actors, Singers, Authors and Professionals with a Purpose. The men went through a few names before settling with Backbone.

Richard Hatch and Star Jones immediately volunteered to lead their teams as Project Manager. Donald Trump then revealed the first challenge of the season. Both teams would be tasked with operating a pizzeria in either New York’s college or theater district. ASAP wanted the pizzeria in the theater district, and Backbone was content with operating in the college district.

The teams were given a day to prepare for the challenge, and both teams went to work by calling their associates for donations. Problems began to erupt in the men’s camp. Jose thought Richard was being a tad controlling and demanding. David Cassidy also showed some disdain for Richard because the Survivor star “pushed” him around. Ultimately, the men decided to put Lil’ Jon, John Rich and Gary Busey in charge of the project’s creative department.

Meanwhile, the women worried about Dionne Warwick, who was in charge of the credit card machine. It was taking her too long to learn how to operate the machine. Niki Taylor decided to make the pizzas because she claimed that her 16 years as a mother gave her some authority in the kitchen.

Amusingly, Star Jones and Richard Hatch did not engage in any physical labor. Richard constantly bossed the men around while Star spent almost three hours working on an advertisement.

Gary Busey became the “Peperoni Profit” by putting on a strange red outfit and disheveling his hair. John Rich also tried to rake in the donations by playing some tunes.

Dionne’s failure to quickly use the credit card machine caused Star to volunteer to take her spot. This got Dionne a little ticked, so she picked up the slack.

ASAP and Backbone seemed to be on even ground. The men got a man to purchase a slice of pizza for $15,000, and the women received $5,000 slices back-to-back. Curtis Stone, famous chef and contestant in last year's ‘Celebrity Apprentice’, was sent to both camps with a mission. He would taste a slice of pizza from ASAP and Backbone, and whichever team had the superior slice would receive an additional $35,000 donation. However, there was a catch. The winning team must deliver the pizza in order to earn the $35,000.

Star Jones learned that she could receive $40,000 if she could deliver 40 pizzas. The massive order caused Star to shut down the pizzeria two hours early. This shocked some ASAP members, but Star claimed she had the situation under control. Fortunately, the buyers of the 40 pizzas instructed Star to reduce the amount of pizzas to 8.

Further stress was added to ASAP once Curtis told them they had the best pizza and needed to deliver an order to the New York Fire Department for an unknown, but sizable, donation. Tension between Lisa and Star began to grow because Star wanted Lisa to return to the pizzeria to prepare for the delivery of the massive orders. Lisa was irritated because Star sent her on a $300 delivery.

The unpredictability of New York traffic caused Lisa to only deliver the $40,000 order. She didn’t make it to the Fire Department in time, so ASAP missed out on the additional $35,000. Star blamed Lisa for failing to make the delivery, and Lisa chastised Star for shutting the shop down early.

ASAP and Backbone were sent to the boardroom after completing their tasks. Donald Trump stated that the men made a little over $54,000 in donations. On the other hand, the women demolished the men by earning $115,000.

Although the women failed to make the delivery to the Fire Department, Donald decided to give the $35,000 to the charity of ASAP’s most dedicated worker. Niki Taylor was chosen as the hardest worker, so the $35,000 went to The American Red Cross. Star was extremely pleased that the amount she helped raise would assist the 81 million Americans suffering from heart related illnesses.

Meanwhile, the blame game began in the men’s camp, and each male contestant agreed that Richard Hatch should be fired. Because Richard was Project Manager, he couldn’t avoid the possibility of being fired. However, he was allowed to duke it out with two people of his choosing in the boardroom. He chose David Cassidy and Jose Canseco.

Richard was intense in the boardroom. He expressed that David should be fired because he took more breaks than anyone on the team. Remember the push that David suffered from earlier in the episode? David constantly brings up the way he felt belittled by Richard in the boardroom. It seemed like the only thing he could talk about was the way Richard mistreated him. In my opinion, I don’t think Richard was wrong in calling him “sensitive” and “emotional.” I don’t like to be pushed around any more than the next guy, but I think David was blowing the situation out of proportion.

Donald was disappointed that David hardly tried to defend himself. He also didn’t like how David constantly turned to Jose for support. Ultimately, Donald fired David because he didn’t display the same type of passion that Richard did.

We can expect to see fireworks erupt between Jose and Richard in the future. Jose said he’d like to knock Richard out, and that he didn’t think Richard belonged with Backbone’s all-star cast.

The first episode ended with David Cassidy giving his final remarks, and he talked about how much he hated Richard Hatch. The next episode of The Celebrity Apprentice will feature Meat Loaf and Lisa Rinna as Project Managers. Be sure to watch it Sunday, March 13, at 9:00pm on NBC.