The Apprentice

Summary

• Airs Next: NBC at Thursday 9:00 PM (60 min.)
  
• Status: Returning Series
  
• Premiered: January 8, 2004
  
• Show Categories: Reality
  

The Apprentice is the ultimate, sixteen-week job interview, where eighteen Americans compete in a series of rigorous business tasks, many of which include prominent Fortune 500 companies and require street smarts and intelligence to conquer, in order to show Donald Trump, the boss, that they are the best candidate for his companies. In each episode, the losing team is sent to the boardroom, where Trump and his associates, Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross, and later, his children, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump, judge the job applicants on their performance in the task. One person is fired and sent home. Who will succeed? Who will fail? And who will be The Apprentice?

The seventh season of The Apprentice sees the show returning to New York City. And this time, instead of real people being the candidates, celebrities are. Fourteen celebrities are currently vying for the title of the first-ever Celebrity Apprentice, including a returning Omarosa from the first season. The season so far hasn’t been without its share of drama, and the season has actually shown some pretty smart celebrity candidates.

The sixth season of The Apprentice saw the show leave New York City and move to an all-new location: Los Angeles, California! Here, Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross were gone and replaced as viceroys by Donald Trump’s children, Donald, Jr., and Ivanka. While the candidates, among whom were the show’s first Asian-American man, the first Jamaican woman, a cervical cancer survivor, and not one, but two openly gay men, were interesting, the season pulled the show’s lowest ratings ever, with too much focus on Trump and his brands, as well as Los Angeles pop culture, and not enough on the tasks and the candidates. Also, Trump’s logic behind his firing decisions made less and less sense. In the end, Stefani Schaeffer, James Sun, Nicole D’Ambrosio, and Frank Lombardi all faced off in the show’s first-ever final four finale that saw Stefani and James ending up as the final two, and Stefani walking away as the sixth Apprentice.

The fifth season of The Apprentice started with something new: the first Project Managers were chosen by Trump, and they got to pick their own teams. Also, exemptions were wiped clean from the rules. The season started out with promise, with four international candidates from Canada, Cuba, Great Britain, and Russia, but lost steam as the more interesting, colorful candidates, including three of the four international ones, quickly bit the dust and were fired earlier than the blander, less interesting ones. The show ended up with what’s been considered to be its worst final two ever, and in the end, the final international candidate, Sean Yazbeck, claimed victory over Lee Bienstock, the youngest candidate to ever make it to the final two, and won the title of the fifth Apprentice, as well as the honor of being the first winner to not be a native-born American.

The fourth season of The Apprentice returned to the basics — the same men vs. women format and winning Project Managers winning exemption — but this time, with a twist. The winning Project Managers would only receive exemption from Trump if the team cast a majority vote to okay it. The season, which featured the first-ever openly gay contestant and first-ever Russian immigrant, easily shaped up to be one of the best seasons of the show, with an interesting cast, exciting tasks, and even the show’s first-ever quadruple-firing! In the end, Dr. Randal Pinkett faced off with Rebecca Jarvis in the final two and won his rightful title as the fourth Apprentice and the first African-American winner. However, the finale was marred by his refusing Trump’s offer to hire Rebecca, as well, in what would’ve been the show’s first double-hiring.

The third season of The Apprentice included a new twist: there are already two teams, “Book Smarts” and “Street Smarts” (Magna Corporation and Net Worth Corporation, respectively). They went head-to-head to see which team was smarter. In the end, the question was answered in the showdown of the century — Kendra Todd, a college graduate, faced off against Tana Goertz, a high school graduate, in the show’s first all-female final two. While in the end, the Book Smarts won the battle as Kendra was given the grand prize and the title of the third Apprentice (and the first female Apprentice, to boot), the experiment of season three showed that both groups of people can be very successful.

The second season of The Apprentice pitted men and women against each other again, but with several changes. The winning Project Manager, or team leader, received an exemption the next week should his or her team lose the task. The tasks became tougher, the judging became harder, and the contestants became fiercer. By the end of the season, Kelly Perdew, though met with tough competition by Jennifer Massey, took his well-earned place with Trump on the other side of the boardroom table as the second Apprentice.

The first, and now classic, season of The Apprentice asked the age-old question: which gender is smarter? Packed with memorable contestants and mesmerizing moments, the first season was an enormous hit, garnering some of NBC’s best ratings in years. By season’s end, Bill Rancic was told, “You’re hired!” and named the first and original Apprentice over Kwame Jackson, and all of the cast members became instant celebrities, with Donald Trump, as always, at the head of the pack.

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