Episode 1: "May the Gods of Good Pies Be With Us!" Task 1 •
Air Date: January 4, 2015 •
Task Scope: Teams must create and sell pies. •
Infinity Project Manager: Keshia Knight Pulliam •
Vortex Project Manager: Geraldo Rivera •
Judges: Donald Trump,
Ivanka Trump, and Piers Morgan •
Winning team: Vortex •
Reasons for win: Vortex raised $185,322. •
Losing team: Infinity •
Reasons for loss: Despite winning a $25,000 bonus for having the best pie as judged by
Buddy Valastro, the women failed to bring in notable donors and only raised $93,862 as a result. Keisha was also considered a mediocre project manager due to her failure to give clear direction. •
Sent to boardroom: Keshia Knight Pulliam, Jamie Anderson, Kate Gosselin •
Fired: Keshia Knight Pulliam – for her lackluster leadership, not calling
Bill Cosby for money, and for bringing in Jamie Anderson despite her being responsible for the pie recipe, which earned them a $25,000 bonus. •
Notes: • This episode was filmed before it got more widely known that
Bill Cosby was accused of sexual assault by a number of women. • On the men's team, after coming up with the name Vortex, Geraldo Rivera was chosen as Project Manager, even though Kevin Jonas felt he had pushed himself and his ideas onto the rest of the team. On the women's team, Keshia Knight Pulliam suggested the name Trojan Horse, which was rejected because of its association with condoms. Brandi Glanville suggested Gold as there were two Olympic medalists on the team, but Kenya Moore's suggestion of Infinity was chosen. Keshia then volunteered to be Project Manager. • Both teams concentrated on social media to spread the word that they were selling pies. Keshia assigned Shawn Johnson and Brandi Glanville to oversee it for the women's team. In the boardroom, Piers Morgan felt that both teams, but the women's in particular, should have concentrated more on calling big donors for money, especially since it was revealed Kevin Jonas had more Twitter followers individually than the women's team combined. • Each team had to make a sweet pie and a savory pie. The men's team chose to go with a chocolate-vanilla layer pie suggested by Kevin and a low-calorie chicken pot pie suggested by Lorenzo Lamas. The women's team chose a pear-blueberry pie suggested by Jamie Anderson and an enchilada pie suggested by Keshia. • During the making of the pies, Kevin felt Geraldo ignored the men who were in the kitchen to concentrate on raising money. Additionally, Sig Hansen burned a batch of 600 pies. On the women's team, Jamie Anderson and Kate Gosselin took charge of making the pies since Keshia offered no clear direction. • Gilbert Gottfried was able to secure comedic entertainment for the crowd. • Celebrities such as
Sean Hannity,
Maria Menounos, and
Joe Piscopo showed up to donate money. Additionally, former contestant
Claudia Jordan came to the women's store with the intention of smashing a pie in Kenya Moore's face, but Kenya smashed a pie in Brandi Glanville's face, who then retaliated. • Piers Morgan, upon visiting the teams, felt the women's store was chaotic with no clear direction, and expressed concern that Geraldo did not have a handle on what was actually coming in. • Buddy Valastro, the star of
Cake Boss, judged each team's pies. He felt that the men's savory pie needed salt, and ended up tasting one of the sweet pies that had been burned by Sig Hansen. On the women's team, he felt the savory pie had too many flavors for a pie, but thought that their sweet pie was excellent. It was revealed in the boardroom that Buddy had chosen the women to receive the $25,000 bonus from Toshiba. • In the boardroom, it was revealed that, on the men's team, Geraldo raised the most, while Lorenzo Lamas raised the least, with only $100. Additionally, Terrell Owens only raised $750. On the women's team, Leeza Gibbons raised the most, while Kate Gosselin was unable to raise any money. • Shawn Johnson stated in the boardroom that she did not believe the women raised enough money to win. Kate stated that Keshia was a poor Project Manager because she did not give any clear direction; Piers agreed. • Geraldo did not know the amounts raised by each person on the team, which Donald Trump found surprising given his journalistic background. • When the women's team was left behind, Kate and Kenya Moore expressed concerns over Keshia's role as Project Manager. Kate said Keshia had good intentions, but could have done better, while Kenya told Donald that Keshia had failed to call Bill Cosby, which Donald said could have made the difference between the women's winning and losing. • In the final boardroom, Keshia was called out by Ivanka Trump for bringing back Jamie Anderson, who was responsible for the pear-blueberry pie which won them $25,000, and then claiming Jamie had raised less than $5,000. • Before firing Keshia, Donald gave her charity $25,000. • It marked the first time on any celebrity version of
The Apprentice, and the third and final time across all 14 seasons, in which the losing project manager was fired for the first task, and only the fourth time overall that the losing project manager had been fired after a fundraising task (the first being
Omarosa in
Celebrity Apprentice 1, the second
Tom Green in
Celebrity Apprentice 2, and the third
La Toya Jackson in
Celebrity Apprentice 4). Usually Trump's policy of never firing the top fundraiser in any task is enough to save the project manager, but Keshia was only the fourth-highest fundraiser on the team. Piers pointed out that it had been somewhat foolish to volunteer herself as project manager when she was limited in terms of fundraising ability. • Total money raised was $279,184, which was rounded to $280,000 for Geraldo's charity.
Episode 2: "Nobody Out Thinks Donald Trump" Task 2 •
Air Date: January 5, 2015 •
Task Scope: Teams must produce and direct a commercial for the Neat Connect scanner and the Neat Cloud service. •
Infinity Project Manager: Kate Gosselin •
Vortex Project Manager: Kevin Jonas •
Judges: Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and George Ross •
Task tension: On the men's team, Geraldo Rivera was deliberately excluded by Kevin from the commercial's planning in favor of Ian Ziering and Lorenzo Lamas. Geraldo was later given the task of writing the script, but became angry again upon finding out that Sig Hansen had asked
Mike Rowe to narrate the commercial, rather than Geraldo. On the women's team, Leeza Gibbons and Brandi Glanville initially took charge of the commercial, but Kate saw Brandi as a distraction and excluded her from the further production stages. In the boardroom, Kate stated Brandi was the weakest player on the women's team due to her being a distraction. Geraldo said Kevin Jonas was a good PM, but slighted him even though he had experience in production. •
Winning team: Infinity •
Reasons for win: Even though they lacked in targeting their marketing-audience, the executives liked the women's brand messaging and the overall concept better, along with the fact that their commercial starred Vivica A. Fox as the "Neatologist", the product's mascot. •
Losing team: Vortex •
Reasons for loss: Despite Gilbert being a brilliant character in their commercial and the men adding more celebrities to their video than the women did, the executives disliked that the brand messaging of the logo wasn't included in the commercial and felt the product integration didn't go far enough. •
Sent to boardroom: Kevin Jonas, Geraldo Rivera, Ian Ziering •
Fired: Kevin Jonas – for trying to "outthink Mr. Trump" by bringing Ian Ziering back as an advocate, rather than Lorenzo Lamas, who was chiefly responsible for Vortex's theme and advert, in an attempt to get Geraldo Rivera fired. •
Notes: • Kenya Moore did not participate in the first half of this task due to a previous engagement. • Kevin Jonas was chosen as Project Manager because he was the most tech savvy, while Kate Gosselin volunteered for the role, despite having little understanding of the product, mostly because she wanted to prove herself after being accused of a lack of contribution in the previous task. Despite Infinity's victory, Kate's work as project manager received a poor reception from her teammates, who near unanimously agreed that she deserved little (if any) credit for the win. • Kate Gosselin won $40,000 for her charity. • During the initial boardroom, Geraldo Rivera attempted to take responsibility for having Gilbert in the commercial, even though it was Kevin Jonas's idea; the other men called him out on it. Kevin blamed Geraldo for the team's loss, since his script did not cover the Neat Cloud service, but both Donald, Jr. and George criticized him for not changing the script accordingly as PM. • Trump and his advisers were particularly puzzled by Kevin's decision to bring back Ian Ziering, and saw Kevin as trying to manipulate him into firing Geraldo. The women, who were watching in their suite, were also surprised by this choice. Trump tried to convince Ian that Kevin should be fired for bringing him back, but Ian stood behind Kevin. Ultimately, Trump fired Kevin anyway.
Task 3 •
Air Date: January 5, 2015 •
Task Scope: Teams must create a presentation for the frozen food product line Luvo. •
Infinity Project Manager: Vivica A. Fox •
Vortex Project Manager: Terrell Owens •
Judges: Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and
Eric Trump •
Task tension: Vivica A. Fox assigned Kate Gosselin and Shawn Johnson to retrieve props for their presentation, and was upset when they took six hours to secure the needed props, since this left no time to rehearse. Shawn also did not feel good due to her menstrual cycle. The women's service was not as smooth, with large gaps between the service of each dish. At one point, Kenya Moore, who was trying to get the food out on time, angered Jamie Anderson by asking her for a plate which was not ready. Terrell Owens asked all the men to come up with a script for their parts of the presentation, but Gilbert Gottfried refused and insisted he would improvise during the presentation itself, much to Terrell's annoyance. •
Winning team: Infinity •
Reasons for win: Despite the inefficiency of the service (which resulted in some of the food being cold), the women had better brand messaging, produced a consistent lifestyle in the presentation, and the executives complimented Leeza for her solid presentation. The team's "Love Yourself One Bite at a Time" slogan was also considered to be very good. •
Losing team: Vortex •
Reasons for loss: While the men had proficient service and represented their celebrity personas, the executives felt the slogan ("Eat Lean, Live Long, Eat Luvo for a Delicious Life") was both dull and too long, and that the team could have emphasized more lifestyle in their presentation. However, the primary reason for the loss was stated to be the sex jokes that Gilbert Gottfried told during his segment, which the executives considered very inappropriate and off-color, and deemed to have instantly destroyed the men's presentation. •
Sent to boardroom: Terrell Owens, Gilbert Gottfried, Geraldo Rivera •
Fired: Gilbert Gottfried – for including inappropriate jokes in his presentation to the executives and the audience, and showing a lack of desire to remain in the process. •
Notes: • In the boardroom, Terrell Owens believed his team's presentation, except for Gilbert's portion, was well liked by the executives. Vivica A. Fox also expressed confidence, but cited Shawn Johnson as the weakest link because of her menstrual issue; it upset Shawn because she felt it was a personal matter that should have not been discussed with Donald Trump. Jamie also said Kenya was rude due to the incident in the kitchen, but Kenya stated that her family owned a restaurant, so Jamie just didn't know what to expect as much as she did. • Vivica A. Fox won $50,000 for her charity. • Similar to season 12, during the Buick task, Gilbert's sex jokes actually received laughs and laughter can be heard for a split second before the shot changed to show the executives looking with shock and disgust. • In the final boardroom, Trump only briefly questioned Terrell Owens and Geraldo Rivera on why they should stay, and mostly about their desire to remain in the process, indicating that Gilbert Gottfried was considered so obviously at fault for the loss that he would only survive if Terrell or Geraldo were to quit. On top of it all, Gilbert effectively admitted that his heart was no longer fully in the show.
Episode 3: "A Family Affair" Task 4 •
Air Date: January 12, 2015 •
U.S. viewers (in millions): 5.85 •
Task Scope: The teams must create a fitness magazine advertisement for
Cosmopolitan. •
Infinity Project Manager: Jamie Anderson •
Vortex Project Manager: Johnny Damon •
Judges: Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Ivanka Trump •
Winning team: Vortex •
Reasons for win: The team made strong use of their celebrity, and the
Cosmopolitan team especially liked the "
selfie" theme that Geraldo Rivera came up with. The overall layout of their advert was also good, despite a few minor criticisms. •
Losing team: Infinity •
Reasons for loss: The advert the team created was felt to be somewhat disjointed, and the theme not nearly as cohesive as Vortex's. The photographs were also felt to be a little too conservative, and not to have used the celebrities as well as they could have. •
Sent to boardroom: Jamie Anderson, Kenya Moore, Kate Gosselin •
Fired: Jamie Anderson – for not bringing back Brandi Glanville, who was the one responsible for the concept, and for not taking control as Project manager. •
Notes: • While Geraldo Rivera was complimented for suggesting what turned out to be the task-winning concept, there was still disharmony between him and the other men, especially when he insisted on incorporating a shirtless picture of himself into the advert. He also objected to the length of a story that Ian Ziering added, though this was not brought up as an issue in the team's feedback. • In the final boardroom, Jamie Anderson pleaded with Trump to disregard her boardroom choice and fire Brandi Glanville anyway, claiming that he had done such a thing before. In fact however, as Trump himself pointed out to Jamie, he has never done that on
The Apprentice, although
Martha Stewart did do so during
her Apprentice season. • The men who were watching it were confused and not very satisfied with Jamie's decision whom to bring back. • Johnny Damon won $20,000 for his charity.
Task 5 •
Air Date: January 12, 2015 •
U.S. viewers (in millions): 5.85 Johnson was stuck in Nashville, Tennessee due to bad flying conditions. • Trump again asked Kenya Moore if she had stolen Vivica A. Fox's phone, which she still denied having done. • During his presentation Geraldo Rivera earned the ire of his team by twice mispronouncing Ian Ziering's name, and also getting the name of Lorenzo Lamas's former TV show
Renegade wrong. • Former contestant
Melissa Rivers made an appearance as part of a special tribute to her late mother, Joan Rivers. When Trump was polling the celebrities, Vivica A. Fox suggested that since Joan was the only female
Celebrity Apprentice winner so far, her memory should be honored by crowning Leeza Gibbons as the second female winner, something that the studio audience appeared to overwhelmingly agree with. Ironically, Leeza became the second winner after Joan to earn less money than the runner-up, albeit just $12,000 less than Geraldo Rivera, compared to Joan earning almost $200,000 less than Annie Duke did. ==Reception==