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You're Fired! A Preview of The Celebrity Apprentice 2
by Reg Seeton
 I have to admit that when I read the cast announcement of stars that were appearing on The Celebrity Apprentice 2, which airs Sunday, March 1 on NBC, I had a hard time picturing what it would be like working on a team consisting of former Dallas Cowboy running back Herschel Walker, country singer Clint Black, flamboyant NBA rebounder Dennis Rodman, singer Brian McKnight, Olympic figure skating champ Scott Hamilton, West Coast Chopper Jesse James, and comedians Tom Green and Andrew Dice Clay. I mean, sitting in a boardroom with Rodman, Green, and Clay would make for a conversation that you'd never forget. Throw in a female celebrity team consisting of model Claudia Jordan, reality personality Khloe Kardashian, golf champ Natalie Gulbis, T-Boz of TLC, Playboy Playmate Brande Roderick, poker star Annie Duke, and Melissa and Joan Rivers and it's even harder to get a mental image of the entire cast of Celebrity Apprentice 2 sitting together in one room ... in front of Donald Trump nonetheless. Think too hard and you'll get a self-induced celebrity brain freeze.
 Prior to watching an early preview of the eighth season and second celebrity edition of The Apprentice, the screener sent by NBC sat beside me on my desk for a few days. Each day I'd look down at it periodically and get various mental images of Tom Green, Andrew Dice Clay, Joan Rivers, Rodman, and Khloe Kardashian and think to myself, "How in the world is Donald Trump going to sit in the board room and keep a straight face?" Not out of anything malicious, I just couldn't picture all of those extremes in one room together. And with each passing day the mental images got too much to bear until I couldn't contain my curiosity any longer. I mean, come on, how can you not be curious? If you were the least bit curious about the first Celebrity Apprentice and the wide range of celebs Trump rounded up, this one is off the "inquiring minds want to know" chart.
But what surprised me most about The Celebrity Apprentice 2 beyond the colorful cast of celebs is that the show's traditional two-team, project manager, business task format serves as the credible spine of the season. Like any season of The Apprentice, the projects need to be taken seriously. So any questions that I had surrounding the order of the cast on the celebrity food chain soon gave way to curiosity about how each one would handle the tasks assigned and how each would work together as "average people" (which some of them are) to get the jobs done. And that's where the entertainment value kicks in if you're a reality TV junkie that loves to see celebrity drama from all walks of Hollywood, including the fringes of Tinseltown where the spotlight sometimes doesn't shine so bright. Like the first Celebrity Apprentice, the show's format offsets the preconceived opinions one might have of the stars. Interestingly enough, some of those opinions might change after watching how some of the celebs work under pressure in normal situations.
 The premiere sees Trump divide the teams into male and female, with the men and women hitting the streets of Manhattan to make and sell as many cupcakes as they can before "The Donald" brings them back into the boardroom for the final tally to an awaiting Piers Morgan of last season, Don Jr. and Ivanka, and the famous line "You're fired!" Like previous seasons, the teams start out with a simple task reminiscent of selling hotdogs and work their way from scratch in the kitchen to the street where they need to find a good location, make themselves as visible as possible, and do anything in their power to sell as many cupcakes throughout the day out of a truck.
But the drama begins in the kitchen where celebs like Andrew Dice Clay, Natalie Gulbis, Rodman, and Claudia Jordan are put to the test on the specific and simple task of making cupcakes (tough gig for some people) while others show smarts you'd never ever think they possessed. And of course there's big time drama with Melissa and Joan Rivers who not only get into it with each other but run up against a team mate that's as equally outspoken in poker champ Annie Duke while another easy-on-the eyes and unlikely team member "trumps" them all with her celebrity connections. On the men's side, the person that you can picture in your mind as the most high-maintenance plays a huge role in the celebrity testosterone-fest in standing in the way of the final objective. But a couple of the most unlikely guys of the bunch come out of the cupcake task looking like near geniuses for their ingenuity and ability to get things done and call in a few favors. And there are a few unexpected surprises throughout the two-hour premiere, including the final boardroom where, again, a couple of the celebs come out looking better than they did before signing on to the show.
 For me Celebrity Apprentice 2 is all about the curiosity factor. And I have to admit that I'm curious to see how a few of the celebs will fair in future episodes. While I'm fully expecting the girls to completely melt down and descend in to madness on national TV (nothing beats a good catfight after a hard day's work at the office), a couple of the most unlikely guys may walk away from the show with new and improved celebrity. Given the crop of this year's celebrities assembled for Celebrity Apprentice 2, I wasn't expecting much. Since Trump prides himself on excellence and quality, there's an obvious conflict of interest with the Trump brand and the cast of Celebrity Apprentice 2 that some longtime fans of the show may not be able to swallow. Still, depending on your own specific taste for reality contests, there's definitely entertainment value to be found in Celebrity Apprentice 2. How much entertainment value? That will depend on you and what type of reality junkie you are. One thing I can all but guarantee is that you're only going to see this ensemble of celebs once in your lifetime.
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