Celebrity Apprentice Recap: Jingle All The Way

Last night, Donald Trump told the remaining six victims on Celebrity Apprentice that they all looked sick and tired. And, he’s right. I’m sick and tired, too. The marathon pace of the show is starting to visibly take its toll on the contestants. Or maybe the editing monkeys exaggerated everyone’s behavior. Whatever it was, after tonight’s elimination, there will only be one way to go, and that’s for everyone to turn on each other.

The challenge this week was to create a jingle for Good Sam, an emergency roadside assistance firm with a retro-esque mascot. What a shame that both our musically inclined “celebrities” were project managers last week. This week, Aubrey O’Day and Clay Aiken really could have shone, but instead Dayana Mendoza decided to PM, with Arsenio Hall managing Unanimous. Or, the reality, Aubrey took over the creative direction of the team while Arsenio’s true project management task was managing Aubrey.

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Now, how does one solve a problem like Aubrey? She’s been the biggest surprise of this season: smart, hard-working, funny, and with a lot more depth than was ever alluded to in her Danity Kane days. But, her ego is too much to deal with. Her hair and her ego just keep growing; they must be related to each other. Aubrey says she was the only reason her team won last week, and this week, dominated the task from Arsenio, claiming only she has the creative genius to come up with the jingle and presentation idea.

Having dealt with domineering ego-maniacs before, I totally understand Arsenio’s approach. You can either argue with them, which is futile since they think everything they do is right, or you can go along and make the best of it. Where Aubrey completely loses me, are her comments about how stupid her teammates are. When Donald Trump Jr. came in to check in with the team, she threw them all under the bus. Aren’t she and Teresa Giudice supposed to be BFF? Wouldn’t it work in her favor to at least pretend to support her project manager? A win for Arsenio is a win for Aubrey.

This self-centered, egocentric nonsense will be O’day’s downfall. Just watch. Especially in the coming weeks, now that she and Lisa no longer have their scape goat of Dayana. This show never shows us the backstage machinations like other reality shows do, but it seems pretty obvious that Teresa, Lisa Lampanelli and Aubrey formed an alliance to kick off the other women. What happens now when all the other women are gone? Time for the dream team to implode.

Over on Forte, Lisa had another meltdown fight with Dayana, only this time Clay Aiken was there to back her up. The toll of the competition really showed on Dayana this week, she seemed really frustrated and like she was reaching some kind of breakdown. Never forget that these shows are shot in incredibly quick time crunches, with sleep deprived cast members. The conditions on Celebrity Apprentice are probably better because these guys can negotiate better conditions, but the production schedule is still grueling. And being forced to interact with a bunch of people you can’t stand has got to be rough. So, I felt bad for Dayana.

But, on the other hand, as Lisa said in boardroom, she was running with the big dogs now. Dayana was clearly trying to prove that she was intelligent and worthy of being chosen as a cast member, but it just went overboard. Trying to tell Clay anything about music was a wrong move. Making the comment to Donald Trump Jr. that Lisa was just being loud was also wrong, as well as attempting to work with her. Here is where Arsenio could have taught her a thing or two: you manage an angry, irrational person; you don’t try to get them to cooperate.

There was so much psychology in this episode, I almost forgot the challenges. Forte went with a 60s theme, Unanimous went with a cheerleader script that starred Aubrey’s cleavage. It’s really too bad that Debbie Gibson was gone at this point because the singing showdown between her and Aubrey would have been absolutely hilarious.

Unanimous wins, and thankfully Arsenio doesn’t cry when he gets the money for the Magic Johnson Foundation. The team gets dinged for their sexy presentation, but wins anyway. Forte gets dinged for a lack of Dayana, and finally, Donald fires her without even bothering with the façade of having to think it over alone. That was cold! But, she’s been in the boardroom something like 6 times now, so the choice was clearly not that hard.

There was another argument between Dayana and Lisa in the boardroom, with Lisa defending her uncontrollable emotions and Dayana sitting cool as a cucumber. Is it true she only learned English a few years ago? If so, that’s pretty impressive. Anyway, she’s finally gone and the real psychological warfare can begin. Who will go next? My money’s on Aubrey.

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