by Troy Rogers
After a tense boardroom meeting on Celebrity Apprentice, Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders became the latest to be fired by Donald Trump after Sanders and Tenacity lost to Bret Michaels and former Tenacity girls, Sharon Osbourne and Maria Kanellis. Although Celebrity Apprentice praise went to Cyndi Lauper for helping the girls with three advertising jingles, Summer Sanders went against the celebrity grain and the words of Donald Trump and chose Lauper as one of the Tenacity girls to be fired along with celebrity chef, Curtis Stone.
At the end of the Celebrity Apprentice day, however, Summer found herself the target of Trump when Sanders couldn't defend her choices. As a result, Summer Sanders became the latest to be fired from the Celebrity Apprentice.
Post Celebrity Apprentice, we caught up with Summer Sanders to learn more about what went down in the boardroom, why she chose Cyndi over Holly, and how Summer feels about Bret Michaels after Michaels was rushed to hospital with a brain hemorrhage.
THE DEADBOLT: Why did you bring Cyndi Lauper back to the boardroom when Trump said she was the strongest part of your radio ad? Why did you cut Holly loose?
SUMMER SANDERS: I mean, I know I paused for a second to really think about it, but I chose not to bring Holly back because of consistency. I didn't just look at this one task. Holly has been there every step of the way. Cyndi, She went to go to the White House. She went for very important reasons. She left the show. But there were a lot of days Cyndi wasn't there and Holly nailed her spot. She wrote the jingle. She performed the jingle. What they didn't show on the episode that is now on the cutting room floor, is that there were aspects of the jingles that the executives didn't like. So I thought about that and that's when I said, "You know what? Holly is the strongest player here." So I send her back to the war room.
THE DEADBOLT: How was the show different from what you expected?
SANDERS: [laughs] The editing. It's ridiculous, but I sort of knew it going into the reality show. I think just as your normal mom of two kids sitting at home watching the show, I sort of thought I could go on the show and be myself and be respectful and do a great job and have fun and that's the way it would come across on camera. I learned that so quickly after the first time I was project manager, the power of editing. It's brutal. It is absolutely brutal.
I'm an athlete. I'm used to training very hard, showing up for my race, racing, touching the wall and looking up and seeing who won, and the time. There's no judging, going back over and editing it so that there's a different winner. It's black and white and that's what I'm used to, and that's definetly not the case in a reality show. But it was still very fun and I'm glad people learned about Right to Play.
THE DEADBOLT: In light of his current situation, can you talk a little about Bret Michaels and what it was like to compete against him?
SANDERS: Bret was fantastic on the show, hilarious, and I don't know where he got the energy to do all that he was doing. He was not only 100% into every single task, he would go off and do shows at night and then take a red-eye back. I don't know how he fit it all in. And then he was still like - he'd win and go out and celebrate and be out until all hours. I'm telling you, I have a four year old and a two year old and they were there in New York with me when I was taping and I was exhausted, but I don't know how he kept up with his schedule.
Other Conference Call Highlights
Summer Sanders on taking it easy on Curtis Stone in the boardroom
"I am a lover, not a fighter. And honestly, I really did take control of this task. I wanted to be a better project manager, and I felt like I was. But I also wanted to take responsibility, and I think when I was sitting there representing my charity and I felt like I would be doing a disservice by not representing that well. I couldn't just sit there and say that Curtis did an awful job."
Sanders on working with Cyndi Lauper
"There was a ton of editing. She has a super-creative mind, and when she gets going, I feel like you have to reign her in just a little bit. That's just the way I was raised. If you're working with someone you have to show them respect. But her accent? We loved it. And all of her stories about David Hasselhoff and Ben Franklin, they make you giggle. We were just laughing because it's another Cyn story."
Summer Sanders and whether Bret Michaels has a shot at winning
"He's strong. He's now won two tasks, and he has this way of thinking outside the box. Every time he does that he says, 'I'll take the fall.' Even when he wasn't project manager, he was the guy leading the group. I think a lot of people walked into this show thinking, 'Who is this Rock of Love guy? He's going to be out fast.' And he's proven a lot of people wrong, so that has to feel good for him."
