The Apprentice 5

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The Apprentice 5 was the fifth series of The Apprentice, with Donald Trump as the Executive Producer and Host. Applications were available online [link] (as in previous episodes) and filming occurred in the fall of 2005. The Apprentice 5 will be the last season to take place in New York City. Starting with Season 6 and until further notice, The Apprentice will take place in Los Angeles, California.

The Apprentice 5 premiered on Monday February 27, 2006, right after the game show Deal or No Deal[NBC Shakes Up Post-Olympic Schedule], Zap2it.com, January 22, 2006. NBC, facing a ratings slump, opted to put future seasons of the show on Monday nights (as opposed to its past Thursday 9pm ET slot). The network hoped to build the show's audience by making this move, as the program had witnessed a fairly substantial erosion in ratings since The Apprentice 1. However, the show faced tough competition with the Fox's fifth season of 24. The finale for The Apprentice 5 took place in Los Angeles on June 5, 2006. Season 5's finale was the lowest rated ever, down 23% from season 4 and down 28% from season 3's final episode (in the important 18-49 demographic)[Trumped: Finale - fizzle for 'Apprentice' - Down 23 percent from last season, to a 4.4 rating], Media Life, June 6, 2006.

The Apprentice 5 marked the debut of Donald Trump's children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as boardroom judges when either George or Carolyn were unavailable. Season 1 Apprentice Bill Rancic, not a stranger to the boardroom scene, also filled in for George when George or Donald Jr. were not available[NBC ANNOUNCES 18 NEW CANDIDATES FOR APPRENTICE SEASON 5], NBC, published February 13, 2006. Jack McConnell, the First Minister of Scotland, makes an appearance in one of the episodes. [link]

For the first time in Apprentice history, all episodes of this season (including the Clipshow with never-seen-before footage) could be obtained at iTunes for indefinite viewing after the episode has aired.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

Candidates

In this season, candidates were not exclusively American: the cast contains cast members from Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As with Season 4 of the show, Trump hand-picked the candidates, but went one step further by hand-picking all of this season's candidates. Furthermore, Trump hand-picked Tarek and Allie, in an Apprentice first, to be "lead-off" Project Managers and to draft their own teams before the first task is issued. This is the first time in Apprentice history that the teams were formed regardless of sex (Seasons 1, 2, 4) and/or educational status (Season 3), giving the Project Manager flexibility to form who they want on the teams. Because this process was conducted after only preliminary introductions, some reasoning was a bit arbitrary—such as Allie picking Sean because of his British accent.

The Winning Project Manager, throughout the season, was not exempt from firing, therefore everyone had to do a satisfactory job and not be responsible for the loss in order to be safe.

The final regular-season records were Synergy defeating Gold Rush more times, 8-5. However, in spite of their wins, Synergy became the second company shut down by order of Donald J. Trump as of Week 13.

Lee Bienstock stayed on Gold Rush the entire time, and finished 5-8, with a Project Manager record of 3-1. Sean Yazbeck finished 9-4 (7-3 while at Synergy, 2-1 when transferred to Gold Rush), and currently holds a spotless record as Project Manager (2-0). Trump (including the home viewers) opted to hire/coronate Sean Yazbeck as opposed to Lee Bienstock at the end of the finale.

The Candidates

Sean Yazbeck, 33, Recruitment Consultant, (London, United Kingdom — resides in Miami, Florida.) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Transferred to Gold Rush in Week 11, Hired by Mr. Trump)
Lee Bienstock, 22, Business Analyst, (Brooklyn, New York) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired on the Season Finale)
Allie Jablon, 30, Medical Sales Manager, (Columbia, South Carolina) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Fired in Week 13)
Roxanne Wilson, 26, Appellate Attorney, (Austin, Texas) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Fired in Week 13)
Tammy Trenta, 33, Wealth Manager, (Edison, New Jersey) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Fired in Week 12)
Michael Laungani, 29, Management Consultant, (New York City, New York) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Transferred to Gold Rush in Week 8, Fired in Week 11)
Tarek Saab, 27, Hi-Tech Manager, (New Bedford, Massachusetts) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 10)
Charmaine Hunt, 27, Real Estate Consultant, (Nashville, Tennessee) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 10)
Andrea Lake, 31, Sticker Company Owner, (San Diego, California) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Fired in Week 9)
Leslie Bourgeois, 28, Realtor, (Houma, Louisiana) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 8)
Lenny Veltman, 37, Trading Company Owner, (Azerbaijan/East Brunswick, New Jersey) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 7)
Bryce Gahagan, 28, Home Builder, (Kansas City, Missouri) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 6)
Dan Brody, 31, Clothing Company Owner, (Miami, Florida) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 5)
Brent Buckman, 30, Attorney, (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) (Assigned to Synergy in Week 1, Fired in Week 4; Biggest Pain of the Season as per the Excedrin website)
Theresa Boutross, 36, Psychotherapist, (Barrington, Illinois) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 3)
Stacy Schneider, 38, Criminal Defense Attorney, (Long Island, New York) (Assigned to Synergy Week 1, Fired in Week 2)
Jose "Pepi" Diaz, 25, Attorney, (Miami, Florida) (Assigned to Synergy Week 1, Fired in Week 2)
Summer Zervos, 30, Restaurant Owner, (Huntington Beach, California) (Assigned to Gold Rush in Week 1, Fired in Week 1)

Episodes

Week 1: Summer of Sam's Club

Airdate: February 27, 2006
Hosting Companies: Wal-Mart and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
Project: Teams had to promote a Sam's Club store by giving out freebies and to be the team to sell the most memberships, especially upgraded memberships. Teams could use a Goodyear Blimp for promotional purposes. The team emerges as the winner by just simply selling either new or upgraded memberships.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Tarek
Synergy Project Manager: Allie
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: Lunch at the Penn Club with Donald Trump.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Summer only made one phone call while she was supposed to make as many as possible in a short amount of time, Lenny not covering enough area to attract customers to Sam's Club, modest freebies as Tarek declared nothing inside on the tote bags for the first few customers coming in. The reasons for the loss is also the week's Pain of the Task.
*Sent to Boardroom: Tarek, Lee, Lenny, Summer
**Firing Decision: After Lee and Lenny exposed Tarek's fatal flaws before Mr. Trump, Summer suddenly interrupted Mr. Trump to tell more, and it was not a good time for that because Mr. Trump suddenly had enough information to fire Tarek, but Summer's interruption caused Mr. Trump to lose his patience, and given Summer's poor contribution power in this task, decided to fire Summer instead of Tarek. Tarek did a horrible job as a leader, though Summer's poor boardroom strategy and her poor contribution made Mr. Trump change his mind.
*Fired: Summer for virtually doing little or nothing to help the team throughout the task and for poor strategy and logic in the boardroom.
Special Note:
*As an Apprentice first, Trump chose Tarek and Allie to be project managers for the first task and asked both of them to form the teams.

Week 2: The Razor's Edge

Airdate: March 6, 2006
Hosting Company: Procter & Gamble
Project: Teams had to promote the Gillette Fusion razor blade by asking people to text message a key word to a number. The winner would be determined by the number of text messages produced.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Lee
Synergy Project Manager: Pepi
*Pain of the Task: Stacy felt threatened by Brent during a product advertisement planning conversation, causing a lot of friction and wasting a great deal of time. Pepi could not control Brent and animosity spread throughout the team.
Winning Team: Gold Rush
*Gold Rush's Special Commendation: Working with Disadvantaged Men by dressing them in fancy clothes.
Losing Team: Synergy
*Reasons for loss: Pepi did not wake Synergy up early to get started on the task. Trump claimed Gold Rush already had received 100 text messages by the time Synergy got out on the street. Gold Rush had scouted a location beforehand but Synergy relied on native New Yorker Stacy to pick the location (which she did using a map). Gold Rush's location was clearly superior. Michael's idea of wearing bathrobes to market the Gillette Fusion was not seen as an appropriate way to represent the product.
*Apprentice First: Usually, Donald Trump performs multiple-firings unannounced outside the interview task but since the margin of defeat was bad (Bill Rancic declared a "pretty rough beating" when Synergy only received 458 texts to Gold Rush's 683 texts) not to mention that Synergy got to a late start, Mr. Trump had enough information to fire two people and made it clear before the final boardroom.
*Sent to Boardroom: Pepi, Brent, Michael, Stacy
**Verdict: Mr. Trump tells Michael that while he screwed up on the Gillette task (due to the bathrobe suggestion), he is willing to give Michael another chance since he did well on Task 1. While Brent was in jeopardy at Pepi's discretion (for causing animosity within the team), Mr. Trump gave him a second chance to clean his image.
*Fired: Pepi and Stacy both for mishandling Brent. The boardroom candidates all performed poorly but the Donald focused on the most inexcusable mistakes as follows:
**Stacy is fired for choosing the wrong location
***Trump also refused to believe that a criminal defense attorney could be "scared" of Brent
**Pepi is fired for not leading the team, not being able to get his team out to a good start, and for losing the respect of the entire team.
Special Note:
*This is the first time that neither George or Carolyn appear with Donald Trump; instead Ivanka Trump fills in for Carolyn, and Bill Rancic fills in for George on this task.
*This is the fifth time two or more people were fired in one week in the history of The Apprentice.

Week 3: Get It In Gear

Airdate: March 13, 2006
Hosting Company: General Motors
Project: Teams had to promote the new 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe by creating a retreat for the General Motors (GM) executives. The winner would be determined not by way of score but though judgment by the GM executives. [link]
Gold Rush Project Manager: Theresa
Synergy Project Manager: Andrea
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: Going to Marine World, to swim with the sharks
**Brent apparently was frightened by the sharks. This pleased Allie and Sean, who hoped the sharks would actually eat Brent.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Charmaine hired comedienne Cory Kahaney to entertain the GM executives during lunch. However, Kahaney's jokes offended the executives and their wives. The Golf Course was poorly done by Tarek, Lenny didn't get the Generator (but Bryce ordered one), Theresa came up with a horse and buggy idea which is labeled as being out-of-place with the Chevy Tahoe theme, and Bryce also failed to educate the show models.
*Sent to Boardroom: Theresa, Lenny, Tarek
*Fired: Theresa, for not bringing Charmaine to the boardroom (just because Charmaine was responsible for Kahaney and the models), weak overall leadership skills, not coming up with a theme for the Tahoe, and lack of focus as a leader.
**Tarek suggested a theme for the Tahoe event, though Theresa did not bring it up in the boardroom
Special Note:
*The Synergy reunion was not sweet whatsoever as Michael and Brent returned back, and Andrea was extremely hurt to see Brent return back from the boardroom. There has not been an instance where a candidate's feelings became hurt due to a candidate coming back from the boardroom.
*This episode was taped October 3-5, 2005, during the observance of Rosh Hashanah. Per the request of Donald Trump and as an Apprentice first, two contestants and an official took the task off in observance — Lee, Dan, and George Ross. Bill Rancic replaces Ross for the task because of the subtleties of the taping. (In some states there are laws regarding punishing employers who refuse to excuse people for absences during certain religious holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Passover.)
**Lenny admits that he's Jewish, but refuses to take a task off and work like the true warrior he believes himself to be in supporting his team.

Week 4: Cereal Killer

Airdate: March 20, 2006
Hosting Company: Post Cereals
Project: Teams had to design billboard ads to promote a new addition to Post's ever-famous Grape-Nuts cereal: Post Grape-Nuts Trail Mix Crunch. Once again, teams would be evaluated by the Post executives, rather than by a score.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Charmaine
Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
*Pain of the Task: Tammy didn't delegate any major duties to Brent, refused to take Brent's idea for granted, Brent was severely segregated from Synergy.
Winning Team: Gold Rush
*Gold Rush's Special Commendation: Getting to prepare a meal with the world-famous chef, Jean-George at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
Losing Team: Synergy
*Reasons for loss: The "Generation moniker" was out-of-place for a Post Grape Nuts billboard, too much text for billboard, pictorial message out-of-place with the cereal's intended use.
**Ivanka Trump was extremely bothered that Synergy didn't give Brent any good tasks—Isolating a teammate won't cut it in the workplace because it led to Synergy's defeat.
*Sent to Boardroom: No final boardroom
*Fired/Reason for Foregoing the Final Boardroom: Brent for his unprofessional evaluation of Tammy's leadership, and his overall unprofessional misconduct both in and out of the boardroom. While Brent was not responsible for the loss in any fashion (Sean gave a poor presentation and Andrea designed a cluttered billboard), Donald Trump wasn't pleased at Brent's unprofessional behavior.
Special Notes:
*This is the fourth time a candidate is fired without a final boardroom in the history of The Apprentice
*Ivanka Trump fills-in for Carolyn in the Post Cereals task
*During Gold Rush's reward, Lenny decided to add a spice to one of Jean-George's signature dishes. Nobody, in particular, Bryce, approved of it. Jean-George managed to make a friendly joke of it.

Week 5: Cruise Control

Airdate: March 27, 2006
Hosting Company: Norwegian Cruise Lines
Project: Teams had to create a 30 second commercial to promote Norwegian Cruise Lines "Freestyle Cruising".
*For the third time in a row, the teams would be evaluated by the Norwegian Cruise Lines executives, rather than by a score.
*The teams had to be finished filming and compiling the scenes of the commercial by 3pm Eastern Time, since that's the Norwegian Cruise Ship Jewel's departure time. Instant failure would occur if filming was not done by the 3pm deadline, as the first part of the task was strictly crunch time.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Dan
*Pain of the Task: Dan didn't balance out the duties and didn't delegate any duties to Charmaine nor Leslie, which bothered both of Gold Rush's females.
Synergy Project Manager: Roxanne
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: Getting to visit the Brinks vault, and taking home one diamond from a selection of diamonds valued at $30,000.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Although both teams had bold introductions in their commercials, Synergy's concept became more clear, partially because they used voice-overs instead of just text.
*Sent to Boardroom: Lee, Tarek, Dan
*Fired: Dan, for not bringing Lenny back to the boardroom (Lenny was responsible for the "Stranded Man" idea), and poor quality leadership throughout the task. Although Mr. Trump was unhappy with Tarek's continually poor performance, the commercial concept was Lenny's idea and Dan was simply fired for not bringing Lenny back.
Special Notes:
*Bill Rancic fills-in for George Ross for the third time in this season of The Apprentice
*This is the second time in this season a Project Manager got fired for not bringing the candidate responsible for the team's defeat
*Trump felt that the requirements for Mensa needs to be changed given that Tarek made too many mistakes
*Trump, after Dan's firing, requested Lee and Tarek to warn Lenny that he would not last long

Week 6: King Of The Jingle

Airdate: April 3, 2006
Hosting Company: Arby's
Project: Teams are asked to create a 30-second commercial "jingle" (short song) for a brand new line of chicken products offered by Arby's—Arby's Chicken Naturals
*Teams are given access to recording studios, and professional musicians
*For the fourth week in a row, the winner would be determined by the judges in the form of Arby's executives
Gold Rush Project Manager: Bryce
*Pain of the Task: Gold Rush procrastinated during the exec meeting phase of the task—a huge error in the business world
Synergy Project Manager: Sean
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: A chance to sample a very expensive six-course truffle meal at the Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, valued at $4000 USD/lb—issued from Alba, Italy
**Donald Trump admits that even though he's privileged to eat very expensive food (like the Truffle that he mentioned at the dawn of Synergy's victory), he still prefers Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches any time of the day.
***There are no Arby's in the island of Manhattan
***Trump also mentioned that the Alain Ducasse at the Essex House is a restaurant people wouldn't go to every day
***So far in the history of The Apprentice, Trump's favorite foods are sandwiches from Arby's, hamburgers, and even pizza.
****Recalling from Season 3 of the show, teams had to sell innovations of Trump's two favorite foods—hamburgers and pizza as a part of their job interview.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Gold Rush was 25 minutes late to their 10:15am appointment as per Bill Rancic, a key catchphrase was missing in Gold Rush's jingle
**When Bill Rancic brought up the tardiness issue in the boardroom, even Donald Trump was surprised to know that Bill Rancic took an initiative to discuss the tardiness incident with the two Arby's executives.
***In New York, it is vitally important to allow ample time to approach an important event, meeting, or whatever the engagement would be
***In business, it is also vitally important that people are at least 10-15 minutes early to the meeting—apparently the Arby's executives were especially upset when Gold Rush arrived to the meeting 25 minutes late.
*Sent to Boardroom: Bryce, Lee, Lenny
*Fired: Bryce for bringing Lee and Lenny to the boardroom instead of Tarek and Charmaine, who were both responsible for the bad lyrics and music of the jingle, being 25 minutes late to the appointment with the two Arby's executives, and for terrible decision-making.
Special Note:
*The episode was aired 10PM Eastern/Pacific, 9PM Central/Mountain.
*Task 6 was filmed around Yom Kippur, as mentioned by Lee, who takes one day off per observance.
**Because George Ross also had to observe Yom Kippur as well, Bill Rancic fills-in for the Arby's task.
*Before the final boardroom, Charmaine was seen sobbing as she took the elevator back to the candidates' suite.
*The Internal Review, a scene which viewers usually watch Trump and his judges discuss the candidates before the final boardroom, was apparently cut from the Episode 6 viewing.
*This is the third time in this season of The Apprentice that the Project Manager was fired for not bringing the candidates responsible for the team's defeat.
*This is the first time this season a team has won two consecutive tasks.

Week 7: It's More Than Decor

Airdate: April 10, 2006
Hosting Company: Ace Hardware and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
Project: Teams need to renovate and remodel an old recreational room and transform the space into an "interactive" recreational room for use in the New Faces for Helpful Places program hosted by both Ace Hardware and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
*Judges will be grading the teams based on Creativity, Functionality, and Upgradability
*For the fifth week in a row, the sponsors will be the one who will determine the winner based on the three criteria.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Lenny
*Pain of the Task: Lenny could not even say a word to the execs and left his teammates to do all the talking during the meeting.
Synergy Project Manager: Michael
*Obstacle: Michael came under fire from Synergy due to his indecisiveness (he apparently had to consult Sean, Allie, and Roxanne merely to choose paint schemes, which made them burst into laughter). Sean claims Micheal is such a "wanker" and his fury could be seen physically as he was backstabbing Michael.
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: Allowing an 8-year old girl named Dasheaira to engage in a Toys-R-Us shopping spree, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Dasheaira is diagnosed with cancer.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Synergy's recreational space provided more variety as opposed to Gold Rush, and Synergy's theme promoted an important business-based asset—teamwork. Gold Rush only spent 10 minutes with the executives as opposed to Synergy's 45 minutes, Gold Rush's theme was too narrow.
*Sent to Boardroom: No final boardroom
**Reason for foregoing the Final Boardroom: Although Mr. Trump allowed Lenny to bring between 1-3 people back to the boardroom, Lenny made a fatal mistake when he wanted to bring Lee back to the boardroom since Lee was Lenny's advocate. Mr. Trump, Bill, and Carolyn declared the leadership to be too weak, grounds for termination of Lenny's candidacy without a final boardroom.
*Fired: Lenny for not being behind his team during the crunch time period (he deserted his team when Tarek, Charmaine, and Leslie were preparing the room for recreational use), poor leadership skills throughout the task, inability to take initiatives, terrible decision-making, not communicating with the executives well during the meeting, and for not getting his ideas in clearly.
Special Note:
*Bill and Carolyn (Bill Rancic fills-in for George Ross once again) informed Donald (after Lenny's firing) that it was a no-brainer because Lenny lacked focus, substance, and direction.
*This is the second time this season someone was fired without the need for a final boardroom, the first time was when Brent had to be fired.
*Lenny's firing mirrored the firing in Season 2, Week 8 when Elizabeth's leadership was too weak.

Week 8: A Slice of Heaven

Airdate: April 10, 2006 (second show)
Hosting Company: 7-Eleven
Pre-Project Restructure: Since Gold Rush was down to four members, Michael volunteered to join Gold Rush to even out the teams.
Project: Launch a promotion based on 7-Eleven's brand-new Pizza Sandwich called P'Eatzza, by simply using a 7-Eleven Store provided by both The Trump Organization and 7-Eleven.
*The winner will be determined by the amount of increased sales
Gold Rush Project Manager: Leslie
*Pain of the Task: Lee wants to bulk-sell the P'Eatzzas at a very low but more reasonable price, but Leslie forbids it—Some 7-Eleven Supervisors/Managers complained that the P'Eatzza product was priced abnormally high.
Synergy Project Manager: Andrea
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: A Luxury flight to the Washington DC at a privileged hotel with New York Senator Chuck Schumer
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Gold Rush placed the price of the P'Eatzza too high. At $7.99 for one piece, $8.99 for two pieces, Gold Rush overpriced the product.
**Gold Rush increased sales by 608%
**Synergy increased sales by 997%
***This was somewhat a big beating since the margin of defeat was about 385 percentage points, a nearly 40% difference.
***The margin of defeat and/or sales results only gave Trump enough information to fire one person
**Carolyn didn't like the hat idea, but the prices of $4 for one P'Eatzza and $6 for two P'Eatzzas saved Synergy ultimately
*Sent to Boardroom: Leslie and Lee
*Fired: Leslie for setting the price of the P'Eatzza too high, not fully understanding the price points, not understanding 7-Eleven's ideal market, and for not listening to Lee's suggestion to lower the price of the P'Eatzza sandwich.
Special Note:
*For the first time in the history of The Apprentice, "usual judges" George and Carolyn will join the candidates later on as Donald Trump met with the candidates alone at the beginning of the task.
*Indy Racing League driver Tony Kanaan was an official with 7-Eleven, the sponsor of his Andretti Green Racing #11 Honda, and the sponsor of this task.
*George Ross returns back as a judge for the 7-Eleven task
*After an unprecedented see-saw battle the first four weeks which had seen teams alternate wins, Synergy has broken through with a four-week win streak and a 6-2 corporate win record.
*Andrea admitted that she was a vegetarian throughout the P'Eatzza task
*The P'Eatzza's introduction date of April 18, 2006 at American and Canadian 7-Eleven stores was based on the assumption that this episode was going to air on April 17, and then releasing the product the next day. However, a programming shift moved up the show.
*As with Week 6, it appears that Trump requested the internal review be cut from both Yahoo's extended footage and the actual NBC airing.

Mid-Season Highlights

Airdate: April 23, 2006 and April 24, 2006 on CNBC
This is mainly just a recap of the first eight episodes of this season plus footage that wasn't seen in the first eight episodes
More backstabbing, more issues brought up by Trump's trusted associates
As with all Season Highlights from the past, Donald Trump is the narrator
This is the only episode that can be downloaded without a charge at the iTunes Music Store
There's also a preview of what to expect in the final weeks of the "ultimate job interview"
While Canadians will not be able to see the episode on iTunes (because viewing this indefinitely requires a US-based address and credit card in order to access the episode online) the typical CNBC blackout was removed on the 12:00am ET airing only, due to this episode broadcasting only on this channel. [link]

Week 9: Assault on Battery

Airdate: April 24, 2006
Hosting Company: Ameriquest
Project: Spend the day at Ellis Island to create a souvenir for a National Park at New York City, and sell their souvenirs.
*Each team are given access to certain graphics designers for their souvenirs.
*The winner will be determined by the amount of sales committed.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Lee
Synergy Project Manager: Allie
*Pain of the Task: Synergy's late start deprived them of any Battery Park sales, therefore their Plan B involved going to Ellis Island to sell the brochures, a very bad idea according to Donald Jr. Andrea mentioned Bulk Sales at the last minute. Overall, Donald Jr. is extremely disturbed at Synergy's careless selling strategies.
Winning Team: Gold Rush
*After losing four in a row to Synergy, Gold Rush finally breaks through with a win.
*Gold Rush's Special Commendation: Play golf with Trump Sr. and Vijay Singh, with Golf Clubs from the PGA Pro Golf Player himself
Losing Team: Synergy
*Reasons for loss: Allie and Tammy had to go back to the Ellis Island Museum to retrieve Tammy's notes—a really bad idea for crunch time purposes (This was an act of carelessness according to Ivanka). Andrea designed a really bad brochure. Synergy got to a very late start (Gold Rush started at 5 a.m. ET), mirroring what happened during the Gillette task (where Lee also led Gold Rush), Synergy attempted to sell their brochures at Ellis Island, a very bad idea considering that most people come to Ellis Island from Battery Park since the Ellis Island visitors already obtained their goods from Gold Rush.
**Gold Rush's sales stands at $1548.68
**Synergy's sales stands at $843.40
**Margin was 45.5%
**Dramatic Tension: Andrea suddenly have lost the respect of many people, since before the judgment.
*Sent to Boardroom: No final boardroom
**Reason for foregoing a Final Boardroom: Allie stated that she sold more P'Eatzzas than Andrea during the 7-Eleven P'Eatzza task. Andrea's concentrations lied more in business operations as opposed to sales, design, and other clerical skills. Andrea didn't deliver any of her promises, and the team, with the exception of Sean, had little or no appreciation of Andrea whatsoever.
*Fired: Andrea for a lack of business chemistry, designing a terrible-looking brochure, and for only giving lip-service skills throughout this task. Allie did very poorly as Project Manager for the week (i.e. leaving the design team to take matters in their own hands and not inspecting them), though Andrea was found to be ultimately responsible for the loss.
Special Note:
*Charmaine isn't happy that Leslie was the one fired from the boardroom in the previous week.
*This is the second time George and Carolyn were not available to evaluate the candidates—The Donald's elder children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, will be observing the candidates for this task.
*This is the third week Ivanka Trump will be filling in for Carolyn
*This is the first week Donald Trump Jr. will be filling in for George
*This is the first week NBC and Donald Trump Sr. invites cell phone users to text their predictions who would be fired for a particular week in this season of The Apprentice. The promotion is similar to Deal or No Deal, which precedes The Apprentice, and its Lucky Case text game, where cell phone users may text guesses for a case with $10,000. In both cases, all correct entries with the $10,000 case (Deal) or the fired candidate (Apprentice) are drawn at random, with one player with the correct answer winning $10,000. An alternate Internet-based voting process (free) is available because some states declare this type of sweepstakes a "lottery" because of the entry fee.
*Charmaine was unhappy with Lee's victory, as she felt he got lucky by choosing to be PM. They are the only two players to have led Gold Rush to victory as Project Manager.
*With Andrea's firing, Lee seizes the lead as Project Manager by being the only player still in the game with a 2-0 record as Project Manager.
*Coincidentally, this board was similar to Brent getting fired; the whole team ganged up on Brent, with Andrea aiming for him strongest, whereas Synergy now teamed up (excluding Sean) to fire Andrea.
*This is the longest in any Apprentice season in which no teams have switched members entirely (Michael volunteered to go to Gold Rush, but no teams have actually shuffled).
*This is the third time someone was fired after winning the previous week as a project manager. (Bradford, Series 2, after waiving Exemption used in Series 2, and Clay, Series 4, are the others fired the week after winning as project manager.)
*The Donald, after firing Andrea, thought that his children did a terrific job, with Ivanka having the honor of playing judge with her brother this time around.
*This is the third time someone got fired without a final boardroom for this season alone; six if you counted other on-the-spot firings in the history of the show.

Week 10: Blow Out

Airdate: May 1, 2006
Hosting Company: [The Hair Cuttery]
Project: To celebrate a grand opening event of two Hair Cuttery franchise salons in the New York area by executing a sales event.
*The winning team will be determined by the amount of sales committed on their franchised salon
Gold Rush Project Manager: Charmaine
*Pain of the Task: Tarek and Lee hated Charmaine's style of leadership and organization while they were executing their flyer task, Charmaine made a very fatal mistake by getting a hairdo during the final three hours of the task.
Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: Write a song at the Steinway Hall with a well-respected musician Burt Bacharach
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: Gold Rush lacked a lot of direction throughout the planning phase during the task according to Bill Rancic. Synergy had $1005.47 worth of sales which include $363 worth of hair products. Gold Rush only had $700 in sales, Synergy outsold Gold Rush by $305.47. Charmaine got her hair done while she was supposed to be giving direction—she was stealing away task time just for a hairdo. No hair products were sold at Gold Rush's Hair Cuttery whatsoever. Furthermore, Gold Rush should have been marketing the day before opening when they decided to keep organising the store.
*Sent to Boardroom: No Final Boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
**Boardroom Tension/Reason for foregoing a Final Boardroom: During the remaining time of the airing, Charmaine and Tarek viciously attacked each other as Mr. Trump silently hears the exposure both Charmaine and Tarek bubbled out against each other. The heated argument exposed both Charmaine's weak leadership during this task and Tarek's inability to be led during this task and in the past.
*Fired: Charmaine for a series of bad decisions, "slacking off" during the task while she should've "had her hands dirty" during the final three hours of the task, and lackluster leadership throughout the Hair Cuttery task, and Tarek for being excessively hard to work with in this task, and for his series of insubordination in the past.
Special Notes:
*While this was not really a pain (and technically not eligible for the Excedrin Pain of the Week), Sean was under fire for lambasting Allie for her awful performance during the Ameriquest task.
*Tammy, in spite of flirting with Sean during the task, garnished her much-needed win as a Project Manager.
*This is the sixth time Bill Rancic fills-in for George Ross
*This is the seventh time in the history of the show two or more people have been fired outside of the interviews. Unlike the Gillette task, this multiple-firing was unannounced.
**This is the second time this season two people were fired in a single week.
*This is the second time in the history of the show the fired candidates didn't speak inside the taxi regardless. (The infamous Series 4 quadruple firing was the first.)
*This is the fourth time someone gets fired without a final boardroom for this season alone, seven if you counted past "sans-boardroom" firings. This is also the first time two or more people got fired without the need for a final boardroom.
*Similar to the Series 4 double firing of Felisha and Alla, one was fired first, and then as everyone was expecting to return to the suite, Trump holds everyone back and then fires the second person.
*After ten weeks, the original draft of 18 players is fairly one-sided; Lee is the last original member of the original Gold Rush Corporation to stay alive. Of the other five remaining players, Allie was the original Project Manager for Synergy, and she drafted the other four players remaining on her team originally.
*A few days after this episode aired, Charmaine received a franchise offer from Hair Cuttery to run at least one or two franchised salons with the Hair Cuttery name. [link], [link]

Week 11: Back to School

Airdate: May 8, 2006
Hosting Company: Outback Steakhouse
Pre-Project Restructure: Sean volunteers to transfer to Gold Rush to even out the teams, tilting the job interview back to its inaugural roots of men versus the women dating back to Seasons 1, 2, and 4.
Project: Host a tailgating party by selling Outback Steakhouse food during a football game using separate tents, lots, and cooks, located at Rutgers University
*The winner will be determined by the amount of sales obtained.
Gold Rush Project Manager: Lee
*Pain of the Task: Michael focuses too much on the events rather than on sales, and attempted to give up some of the cheerleaders to Synergy.
Synergy Project Manager: Roxanne
*Task Turning Point: The women were apparently out-of-luck when Gold Rush secured an exclusive deal with the Rutgers cheerleaders, but devised a plan to set the prices at $5 all the way through, plus midway through the task, Roxanne devised a Bulk Selling and Delivery strategy to make up for such seemingly difficult-to-handle handicap. Roxanne's Plan B (Bulk Selling and Lot Delivery) paid off for Synergy as described herein. Lee attempted to burn Synergy with the same early-bird push that carried Gold Rush to victory twice. This was not to be because of the way Gold Rush's strategy for this task mirrored Excel's embarrassing mistake in Week 6 of Season 4. In business, it's really important to place all energies into what the task and/or job is all about.
Winning Team: Synergy
*Synergy's Special Commendation: To create their very own signature wine at the Rafael Vineyard Estate of Long Island, New York.
Losing Team: Gold Rush
*Reasons for loss: According to Carolyn, Gold Rush focused too much in their events rather than converting their guests into sales. Synergy sold $2750 in food, while Gold Rush sold $1000 less. This is a humiliating defeat for Gold Rush as apparently Gold Rush was deemed to be overconfident throughout the task.
**Recalling from the 7-Eleven P'Eatzza task, Leslie set the P'Eatzza price too high for a target audience focusing on college students, which Lee had criticised; Lee wanted items priced affordably low, hoping that the low price will boost up sales based on the audience, which Lee perceived was the same audience for the game (the tailgating lots in question would be mostly college students). The low pricing backfired due to Roxanne's Tailgating To Go strategy.
*Sent to Boardroom: Lee, Sean, Michael—Gold Rush were all under internal review as Trump requested the entire team to wait at the reception area.
**Internal Review turning point: Carolyn had issues regarding about Gold Rush's exclusive deal plus Gold Rush lacked a competitive edge when asked by the Donald to provide feedback.
*Fired: Michael, for attempting to give up some of the cheerleaders to Synergy, focusing too much on the events, and for lacking a competitive focus. While the entire team did poorly (Gold Rush focused too much on the events rather than on sales, only Sean did the sales), asset-sharing is considered a serious flaw in the business world, and Michael had to go just because of that.
Special Notes:
*Although the majority of the viewers billed Allie as a big pain, given Synergy's win in this task, none of Allie's actions qualify for the Excedrin Pain of the Week.
*Roxanne and Sean have spotless records as a Project Manager. (Roxanne is 2-0, Sean is 1-0).
*The internal review was filmed for the first time since the Norwegian Cruise Line task.
*The use of British spelling ("whilst" instead of "while") was noted during the printing of Gold Rush flyers, when Sean used the British spelling. It was noted by Lee and corrected.

Week 12: Backs Against the Wal-Mart

Airdate: May 15, 2006
Hosting Companies: Wal-Mart and Microsoft
Project: Create an interactive and three-dimensional in-store display area at Wal-Mart for customers to demo Microsoft's followup to the original Xbox, the Xbox 360
*The winner will be the team that creates the most compelling in-store Xbox 360 promotion to be judged by both Wal-Mart and Microsoft executives.
*The scoring goes back to the Judgment System, dating back from Week 7 (Ace Hardware task)
Gold Rush Project Manager: Sean
*Gold Rush's concept is to outsource the building of the display of the Xbox 360, leaving the duet to focus on merchandise inside the set.
*Obstacle: Adrian (an employee of the firm Gold Rush hired to construct the set) was not making Sean pleased with his apparent delays and broken promises, plus Sean and Lee were facing a lot of crunch time moments due to Adrian's supposed hidden agenda.
Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
*Tammy's idea is a Hollywood theme, which both Roxanne and Allie didn't somewhat like
**The team domestically built their own display
*Pain of the Task: Allie and Roxanne were not focusing their energies on the task while Tammy was shopping around for the Xbox 360 layout when Bill Rancic checked on them, plus Tammy had a discussion with the two to curb Allie's and Roxanne's insubordination, but Tammy was not strong enough to curb the insubordination completely.
Winning Team: Gold Rush
*Gold Rush's Special Commendation: To go to Hollywood to meet Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of DreamWorks' Animation Studios Executives and conduct voice-overs in the animated film Over the Hedge.
**The The Internet Movie Database's [full credits] for the film lists both Gold Rush participants as the voices for BBQ Barry and Lunch Table Larry, respectively.
*[See the Pre-Episode Citation]
Losing Team: Synergy
*Reasons for Loss: The lack of price points hurt Synergy's 3-D Display (people wanted to know how much each item cost), plus there were not any real-life examples on how people can use the Xbox 360; plus the living room theme wasn't retail-friendly. Gold Rush rushed their display but provided a more retail-friendly display that more than made up for Adrian's inability to meet Sean's Crunch Time demands.
*Sent to Boardroom: No final boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
**Boardroom Tension: Trump brought up the Project Manager record, but was not pleased that Tammy lost twice as Project Manager. Trump also hated Tammy's way of designing the Xbox 360 display, which he thought "stunk", somewhat mirroring Brent's harsh treatment of Tammy back in Week 4, but in a more civilized manner. Trump also took note about Tammy's failure in curbing Allie's and Roxanne's insubordination and keeping both of them on-task.
*Fired: Tammy, for overall weak leadership throughout the task, bad overall design of the Xbox 360 display, losing the respect of plus failing to completely curb insubordination issues with Allie and Roxanne.
Special Notes:
*This is the second time Wal-Mart has sponsored an Apprentice task, making them the first company to ever host a task twice in one given season.
*The episode aired one hour later than its normal scheduled time
*Bill Rancic and Ivanka Trump fills-in in for George and Carolyn for the Wal-Mart/Microsoft joint task
**This is Bill Rancic's seventh and final time filling in for George as a Boardroom Judge
**This is Ivanka's fourth stand as a boardroom judge
*Tammy had lost twice as a Project Manager before she was fired, a feat that happened with Season 4's Felisha.

Week 13: Who Wears the Pants?

Airdate: May 22, 2006
Hosting Company: Embassy Suites Hotels
Project: Create a new line of uniforms for four different departments for the hosting company
*Each team has access to design studios, clothing designers, and even models
*The employees will be the ones who will determine the winner via a fashion show
Gold Rush Project Manager: Lee
*Gold Rush design their uniforms based on market research and key "things" employees wanted to change. A key move here was shown when Lee and Sean collaborated with their designer on fabrics (something which later would become crucial as fabric choices greatly helped them ultimately).
Synergy Project Manager: Allie
*Pain of the Task: Synergy uses their love of fashion to execute the task, but Roxanne has some issues with Allie's designs. In addition, Allie (according to Roxanne) offended clothing designer Mark Ballard during the design phase of the task.
**Task Issues: During the Fashion Show, Sean and some of the Embassy Suites employees became aghast at the clothes Synergy was offering Embassy's employees.
Winning Team: Gold Rush
*Gold Rush's Special Commendation: An intimate dinner with Ivanka and Donald Jr. at the Aquavit plus advice on how to become Trump's fifth apprentice. This is the final reward for the season.
Losing Team: Synergy
*Reasons for Loss: Gold Rush's uniforms are more comfortable and professional than Synergy's; Synergy's uniforms won't fit with all employees. Both Ivanka and Donald Jr. declared a very huge beating when Ivanka said that 83 employees preferred Gold Rush's uniforms over Don Jr.'s 37 "pro-Synergy" employees.
*Sent to Boardroom: No final boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
**Key Firing Points: Customer Relations issues were being heard about during the hearing. Ivanka lambasted Allie for being too drastic on the designs.
*Fired: Both Allie and Roxanne for not differentiating work from friendship throughout the task, and for exposed hidden disloyalty with each other in the boardroom. While Allie was responsible for Synergy's loss (because of her flamboyant designs and her rudeness to Mark Ballard), Trump had to let Roxanne go as well since both Allie and Roxanne were too close during the job interview.
**Mr. Trump's lesson of the week, Work and Friendship, covered the differences between friendship and business, and neither Allie and Roxanne had an idea about that.
Special Notes:
*This is Donald Trump Jr.'s second and final time filling-in for George Ross this season
*This is also Ivanka Trump's fifth and final time filling-in for Carolyn Kepcher this season
*This is the final "normal" task of this season.
*Because both Allie and Roxanne were fired on this task, there won't be one-on-one interviews this season. This is also the second time in the history of the show that a company has "closed for business" on the final task; the first was Capital Edge from Season 4.
*This is the seventh time in history two or more people were fired in one week in the history of the show outside of the interviews.
*This is also the sixth time in history people were fired without a need for a final boardroom
*[See the Pre-Airing Citation]

The Final Task: The Mother of All Tasks

Starting Airdate: May 29, 2006 (Week 14: Final Battle)
Ending Airdate: June 5, 2006 (Week 15: Season Finale)
Universal Sponsor: Pontiac
Beginning:
*Lee and Sean received a call from Robin to report back to the boardroom immediately after Allie and Roxanne got fired
*In the Boardroom, Trump said that the boardroom is not a place people want to be, but Trump made the Boardroom pleasant by announcing both Lee and Sean as the Final Two among over one million applicants for Trump's fifth apprentice.
*Following the special visit, Lee and Sean were asked to proceed back to the suite and to assemble the teams.
*Unlike the first four seasons, Lee and Sean get to talk to each of the sixteen fired candidates before the next morning
*As with Season 4, Lee and Sean can assemble their teams in the manner they want
Lee's Final Project: Host a Pontiac-sponsored Celebrity Ice Hockey game at an assigned place at the Chelsea Piers to benefit the Leary Firefighters Foundation.
*The Ice Hockey game MUST utilize AT LEAST one fundraising component, and any fundraising component MUST be approved by the charity.
*All net proceeds in the Ice Hockey Game will be remitted to the Leary Firefighters Foundation
*Lee's Corporation Name: Gold Rush
*Lee's Recruits: Lenny, Pepi, Roxanne
*Gold Rush Cliffhangers:
**Lys didn't like the ideas Gold Rush gave for the charity event, and Lys was giving Lee not only a list of events he was to run in a short amount of time, but apparently neither Lys nor Lee were getting along with each other.
**Carolyn was concerned about Lee's leadership abilities at this point of the job interview
**Carolyn was also concerned about Lee's selection of employees. Furthermore, Jaime Pressly was lost in one point of the task.
Sean's Final Project: Host a Barenaked Ladies concert held at the Trump Taj Mahal at Atlantic City, New Jersey to benefit the World Wildlife Fund.
*All net proceeds from the Barenaked Ladies concert will be remitted to the World Wildlife Fund
*Sean's Corporation Name: Synergy
*Sean's Recruits: Tammy, Andrea, Tarek
*Synergy Cliffhangers:
**Andrea was forced to leave the task in order to check in with a doctor because she was seeing a lot of blood coming from both her mouth and nose. Although it seems that Andrea was suffering from tuberculosis or laryngitis, this wasn't the case because it was actually a minor sinual irritation that Andrea needs to be very careful of. Afterwards, Andrea bounced back.
**The Pontiac Execs were also concerned about the lack of the Pontiac badging during Sean's event.
Special Notes:
*Each Executive Director has a seed budget of $5000 USD.
*No interviews are needed given that both Roxanne and Allie were fired on the Embassy Suites Hotel task, so Lee and Sean are automatically named the Final Two.
*Neither Trump nor Carolyn seemed to remember who Pepi was, and they were concerned with Lee's choice of him as a recruit.
*The Mother of All Tasks promises to be the most difficult task of all time
*While both tasks were successful, there were a couple of mistakes as described:
**Lee chose Lenny and Pepi, who seem to be very weak links. Lee unfortunately didn't give enough direction and apparently directions were considered to be too vague.
**Not withstanding the fact that Jaime Pressly was overly lost was one of the reasons Lee's downfall was explained
**George thought that Sean was not overlooking his employees closely, which bothered him. This was only minor because Sean pulled the team together.

Decision Time

Airdate: June 5, 2006 (Week 15: Season Finale)
The episode aired at a special time, 9:30pm ET/PT, 8:30pm CT/MT.
See the Final Task for cliffhangers and the outcome of it.
Both Lee and Sean chose the same job, a Trump International Hotel in the trendy SoHo neighborhood of New York City.
Hired: Sean, for pulling the team together and making the fewest mistakes.
*Coronation Reward: A 2006 or 2007 Pontiac G6 Hardtop Convertible
Fired: Lee, for not giving enough foresight to his teammates and for not fostering enough discipline to both Lenny and Pepi. Among all of Lee's employees, Lenny performed the worst.
Special Notes:
*This is the first time viewers were able to help Trump decide who should be hired. Trump said only that it was "a one-sided decision" but that he agreed with it, ultimately hiring Sean.
*While the finale was aired live, as in previous seasons, Season 5's finale was held in Hollywood, California. Season 6, scheduled to air after the NFL season, filming is scheduled to begin shortly after the finale.
*In Apprentice fashion, the final candidate to be fired from the interview generally don't hear Trump's trademark coup de grace. Because the viewers were asked to help Mr. Trump make the ultimate decision, Mr. Trump made an exception. While Mr. Trump liked both Sean and Lee, he told the viewers and the audience that he can't break any rules (by doing a double-hiring) this time around, and said that he had to agree with the viewers by firing Lee and hiring Sean. Jennifer Massey from Season 2 was the only other person who heard Mr. Trump's trademarked coup de grace.
**The only rule Mr. Trump was allowed to break was his trademark application firings
*The five people Mr. Trump hired consecutively had spotless project manager records.
*Sean denies rumors that he would marry Tammy Trenta [link], [link]

Week by Week Results

Candidate	Original Team	Week 8 Team	Week 11 Team	Final Task Team	Application Result	Record as Project Manager
Summer Zervos	Gold Rush				Fired Week One
Stacy Schneider	Synergy				Fired Week Two
Jose "Pepi" Diaz	Synergy				Fired Week Two	0-1 / Week 2 - Loss
Theresa Boutross	Gold Rush				Fired Week Three	0-1 / Week 3 - Loss
Brent Buckman	Synergy				Fired Week Four
Dan Brody	Gold Rush				Fired Week Five	0-1 / Week 5 - Loss
Bryce Gahagan	Gold Rush				Fired Week Six	0-1 / Week 6 - Loss
Lenny Veltman	Gold Rush				Fired Week Seven	0-1 / Week 7 - Loss
Leslie Bourgeois	Gold Rush	Gold Rush			Fired Week Eight	0-1 / Week 8 - Loss
Andrea Lake	Synergy	Synergy			Fired Week Nine	2-0 / Week 3 - Win; Week 8 - Win
Charmaine Hunt	Gold Rush	Gold Rush			Fired Week Ten	1-1 / Week 4 - Win; Week 10 - Loss
Tarek Saab	Gold Rush	Gold Rush			Fired Week Ten	0-1 / Week 1 - Loss
Michael Laungani	Synergy	Gold Rush	Gold Rush		Fired Week Eleven	1-0 / Week 7 - Win
Tammy Trenta	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy		Fired Week Twelve	1-2 / Week 4 and 12 - Loss; Week 10 - Win
Allie Jablon	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy		Fired Week Thirteen	1-2 / Week 1 - Win; Week 9 and 13 - Loss
Roxanne Wilson	Synergy	Synergy	Synergy		Fired Week Thirteen	2-0 / Weeks 5 and 11 - Win
Lee Bienstock	Gold Rush	Gold Rush	Gold Rush	Gold Rush	Fired on the Season Finale	3-1 / Weeks 2, 9, and 13 - Win; Week 11 - Loss
Sean Yazbeck	Synergy	Synergy	Gold Rush	Synergy	Hired	2-0 / Weeks 6 and 12 - Win

References

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