Besides the players already fired, there are 3 other players who are totally worthless. Jose, LaToya, and Hope.
How big will the trainwrecks be when LaToya and Jose are finally the PMs.
I was going to say that everyone can surprise - NeNe actually did a pretty good job. But I think NeNe has shown a willingness to work and look for more to do in her previous tasks, and that translated well. Nothing about Jose or LaToya suggests that.
I was kind of impressed by Lil John’s leadership. He got everyone to work well together, but wasn’t domineering or anything. He just had a lot of energy and enthusiasm and let people do what they were good at without trying to force anything. He also didn’t appear to be stressing out much like most PM’s do. He was pretty laid back.
And his presentation and working of the crowd could well have made some of the difference in shifting a close audience vote to his team. Seeing Lil John and Nene give prsentations back to back, you could definitely tell which one had the stage experience and which one didn’t.
Someone should tell the Donald his name isn’t “Little John,” though.
The men’s commercial, while slightly edgy (though it’s not really that edgy anymore), I think pleased the execs because it had that Superbowl commercial type of punchline that gets an ad talked about and watched on youtube. It also tied in with the “no limits” tag.
The use of Marlee on the women’s video was really effective, but I think it could have been better directed over all. The basic idea of showing how the phone coudl allow a deaf mom to see and sign to her kid was a good one, though. It showed a real advantage to the visual aspect. Usually when they do cmmercials on this show, I always think that both commercials sick, but these were both pretty good. The men’s was just executed a little better.
Dionne was useless and the right person to go.
Also, the deaf person angle was used on an iPhone commercial recently. So while it may not have been used by the company previously, it had been used by someone in the industry. It was a great commercial, but nothing all that different from other stuff out there.
I missed the first 40 minutes or so. It took me quite a while to figure out who was in charge of the men. I actually consider that a good thing - everyone was taking strong ownership of what they were doing, as Lil John had clearly done a very good job of leadership on the front end. At that point, I didn’t think they were going to have a chance though - Busey’s antics were projecting to collapse the project, and putting Jose in as the punchline had disaster written all over it. Frankly, I think Lil John’s presentation completely sold it, and it wouldn’t have won without him. Saying, “This works. This is what this company needs. This has ‘viral’ and ‘Super Bowl’ written all over it” was almost unfair!
Not edgy at all. Does Trump even know what “risque” means?
I saw a little bit of the Trump roast. McFarlane joked that Trump’s “at rest” facial expression is “Who farted?” That’s accurate.
I wish he would have let Hope explain her reasoning for firing Dionne.
I checked. She definitely did not ask permission; she stated she was going and Nene basically just said OK (though I thought it was obvious Nene did not like that she was leaving).
Thanks. That was my recollection, but I wasn’t paying full attention because I didn’t realize it was going to be the main discussion point.
Thank you. Ivanka, too. Do they actually know anything about these people before they show up in the boardroom?
NeNe impressed me. I had no idea who she was and took her to be a stereotypical sassy Black female - but she had some management chops. But yes, as others have said, she was way too deferential to Dionne.
This show is a game. I am glad that Star called out Nikki because I agree - if you’re on the regular show, and you sacrifice yourself, there’s some nobility (I suppose) in that. When you’re there for someone else (a charity) it’s totally selfish… so join the club, Dionne Warwick.
It’s like going on Celebrity Jeopardy! and writing the wrong answers. Why fucking do that? Someone else could have gone on in your place and won cash for your charity. And it’s a game. You can always find an argument that swings Trump into your favor; that’s why we watch. That’s how Hatch and Star survived; they weren’t brilliant leaders, but they were great in the boardroom.
I felt sorry for LaToya, but I am actually growing to like her. She’s not as ditzy as it seems and she is a hard worker. Hope is completely useless; why is she there? Has she done anything at all?
I don’t think a celeb has ever had a greater fall from grace than Dionne Warwick. People remember her from the Bacharach days, or the “That’s What Friends Are For” AIDS single, being Whitney’s aunt, or the Psychic Friends Bullshit. Mostly positive, maybe a little batshit crazy. But man, she was such a… yeah, diva. The baseball caps! The constant gum chewing! The sense of entitlement! She was awful… and I’m sure she would say that the editing made her look bad. But of course, they can’t edit what you don’t give 'em.
NeNe did a poor job IMO dealing with Dionne. I know she didn’t give her permission, but if she said, “Everybody else is coming to the editing session; do you think it’s a good idea to leave?” it would have stuck much better. I did feel that she acted as if she was intimidated or subservient to Dionne and that’s pretty poor. I also didn’t like her crying in the boardroom - it’s the kiss of death on this show.
Canseco was somewhat useful in this task, and the guys banged it out nicely. I did think the outtakes of Busey were better than what they ended up using. John Rich did a good job of raising a question without sabotaging or passively aggressively submarining. The Backbone team is doing a really great job… but it looks like 'Loaf is going to try to kick Gary’s old ass. That makes me kind of dislike ML, because I think coming after Gary is like kicking the ass of a kid on the short bus.
Indeed. I have a feeling that the first time anything useful is expected from Hope, she’s gone. She’s just been wallpaper so far.
Agreed. At first I thought NeNe was just going to be Star Jones, Jr., which would have annoyed me greatly. But she turned out to be effective while not being a complete ass. She did mishandle the Dionee situation. If it would have been Hope wanting to cut out early, NeNe probably would have put her foot down. On the other hand, Dionne is 70 years old. You can’t expect much out of her. Other than being a bit confrontational, she was a pretty effective worker.
After the first hour of this show (why is this show 2 freaking hours?) I thought for sure the ladies would win. But after watching Lil John’s performance and the crowd reaction to their commercial, I figured it would be a close one.
Why does it make me laugh that this is one of the things that bothered you?
rhetorical?
Because an hour of it must include Trump. First 15 minutes to introduce the task and 45 minutes of boardroom.
I’ll miss the show if Trump decides to run for Prez.
I wonder if this could be the last season?
I guess Donald, Jr. or Ivanka could take over. But it wouldn’t be nearly the same. The Donald in the board room really is pretty entertaining. He really knows how to work his contestants over.
Work them over, and come up with “omigod did he just say that” inappropriate non sequiturs. It’s the combination that gives the show its charm.
And they are all such pussies in buying into it. I can only hope it’s in their contracts…it’s one thing for average Joes to kowtow to him and put up with his bullshit, quite another for successful people who are only there for the charity and exposure.
This episode is turning out to be fantastic, and we’re 13 minutes into it.
John Rich makes me want to be a country music fan. Verbally smacking Trump’s “oh, that’s surprising” with “why? Country music fans are known to be an amazingly philanthropic group, and incredibly dedicated” was fantastic. Marlee stepping up, telling those bitches to shut the fuck up and produce, and challenging LaToya - excellent.
It’s too bad that Jose had to leave - because he was about to fail miserably. Rich’s demand that “everyone needs to bring something to the table (in terms of donations)” is entirely reasonable. Every single person can attract meaningful donations. It doesn’t matter what the SIZE of those donations are (Hatch and NeNe have an uphill road in that regard), but “meaningful” is relative, and can be based on nothing other than effort. Jose said before he left “I can’t bring anything to the table”. That’s ridiculous. But his dad was dying (and in fact, died a month or so ago), and I cannot blame him for leaving to be with him.
Meat Loaf going off on Busey? Reality TV gold.
Anyone else thought it would have been hilarious if Meat Loaf had yelled at Busey in his singing voice?
Meat’s a passionate guy. I recall a documentary about him. It wasn’t uncommon for Meat to collapse on the floor after a concert. The guy would push himself beyond all reason. Sweat pouring off. Amazing he didn’t have a heart-attack in his super heavy days.
Meat Loaf is a fucking nutjob and should have been cut loose from the production on the spot. I’m amazed that Gary stayed as calm as he did. Meat Loaf didn’t even apologize or acknowledge anything when he found out his accusations against Gary were totally false. Gary has a lot more patience than I do. I would have fucked Meat Loaf up over that shit.