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Theresa's mystery ailment notwithstanding, this looks like one of the more decisive final rounds of The Apprentice that we've seen (I think the only other one that comes close at this stage would be Kendra-Tana). If there were one of those "The More You Know from Trump" talks on this one, it would have been about separating emotion from important decisions (sort of like last week's, but mooore). Both Lee and Sean made picks that seemed largely predicated on attachment rather than what was needed to win. I don't dispute that both Lenny and Tammy could be very helpful in helping you win (Lenny is a bit rough around the edges, and hard for some to work with, but he had a few strong tasks). However, that didn't seem to be why either of them were picked. In most of the interviews, you get the sense that Sean would rather score with Tammy than win the task (that seemed particularly the case when they were picking the menu). Likewise, I think Lee placed too much trust in Lenny when picking the teams (as evidenced by the Boardroom crew yukking it up over the selection of Pepi after the fact).
Regardless, Lee really seems to be in over his head in this task. Pissing off executives and the heads of charities is usually a sure-fire way to lose, and Lee hasn't been helping his cause any. Likewise, I don't think Carolyn will be fighting too hard for him when it comes down to the hiring process. While things can turn around, at this stage Sean would definitely seem to be in the better position.
I'm not sure how they're planning to do this "You Can Help Decide" business, but needless to say I think it's a stupid idea. While viewers may be competent to pick who should be a recording artist whose records they will subsequently buy, on the basis of performances before them; I doubt that there is the same competency for deciding who should run one of someone else's organisations. I should hope that viewer input is kept to a minimum (I'm of the opinion that the only really good final boardroom was the one from the first year, when you couldn't tell that the studio audience was even there until after the final result was announced). All of that being said, based on what we've seen so far the choice should be fairly easy.
Regardless, Lee really seems to be in over his head in this task. Pissing off executives and the heads of charities is usually a sure-fire way to lose, and Lee hasn't been helping his cause any. Likewise, I don't think Carolyn will be fighting too hard for him when it comes down to the hiring process. While things can turn around, at this stage Sean would definitely seem to be in the better position.
I'm not sure how they're planning to do this "You Can Help Decide" business, but needless to say I think it's a stupid idea. While viewers may be competent to pick who should be a recording artist whose records they will subsequently buy, on the basis of performances before them; I doubt that there is the same competency for deciding who should run one of someone else's organisations. I should hope that viewer input is kept to a minimum (I'm of the opinion that the only really good final boardroom was the one from the first year, when you couldn't tell that the studio audience was even there until after the final result was announced). All of that being said, based on what we've seen so far the choice should be fairly easy.
2 Comments:
1. Andrea has the ailment, not Theresa.
2. NBC has been doing this text messaging activity where every week you text message in who should be fired and they show the results before Trump makes his actual firing. The impression I got this week was that's what they were doing—you were supposed to text message in all week who you think should win, and then Trump would be told the results. But Trump would make the final decision. (At least, I hope this is what they're doing—like you, I think it would be rediculous to give the audience any real say in the decision. I'm sure Trump wouldn't be stupid enough to let that happen.)
3. I think you're premature to be deeming this a run-away Sean win. They're doing what they did the last two seasons. Last season, they ended the first part of the final task by showing Randal getting berated by the sponsor (Outback Steakhouse) and the sponsor (Autism Speaks) saying that she had no confidence left in Randal. However, they cleverly didn't show what was happening with Rebecca, so we assumed she was doing better, but really we had no clue. Of course, in the end, Randal won.
Likise, the previous season with Kendra and Tana, they ended the first part showing EA Sports completely disappointed in Kendra, leaving us with the impression that Tana was doing great. Of course, they hadn't bothered to show us anything of Tana so we didn't see how big a disaster she was.
Once again this season, we haven't really seen what's going on with Sean's team. All we saw Andrea-Tarek arranging the Pontiac raffle. Apart from that, all we know is that Sean-Tammy have ordered food, and that Andrea is sick. We have no clue what stage their planning is in, we have no idea what they're doing with the concert, or the pre-parties, etc. Notice how we got Carolyn's comments on Lee, but nothing from George on Sean?
Basically, all we know at this point is that Lee isn't doing well. But we don't know if Sean is or isn't doing well. We can't make any kind of prediction yet.
As a final comment, I think part of the reason that Kendra and Randal did well in their respective tasks was that they got the negative feedback from the Execs. Once they had that, they could fix things up and impress the Execs by doing better than expected. When you didn't get Exec criticisms, you ended up doing things that the Execs didn't like. As it stands, I think an argument can be made that Lee is in a better position. (I don't think I agree with that argument—I think Lee is doing worse than Kendra and Randal were, but I don't think he can be written off yet.)
4. Lee choosing Lenny, I can understand. Lee trusts Lenny. Fine. But there's no way in hell that he should have chosen Pepi and Roxanne. Sean has the better team hands down. (This is partly why I think that Sean will end up winning.)
- Mustafa Hirji
Fair enough (not sure why I got Andrea's name wrong. It was late). In spite of the ploy of always making it look like both teams are in a disaster situation right at the end of the episode, I think Lee will still lose for a couple of reasons:
1. As you note, his team is much weaker than Sean's.
2. Lee is not the same calibre of contestant as either Randal or Kendra was. I've noticed this year that the contestants seem much less impressive than in past years.
3. Also, Lee doesn't seem to be taking the concerns of the execs to heart, and is really more complaining about their demands than anything.
While it may not turn out to be as much of a blowout as I've mentioned, it still looks like Sean is going to take this one.
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