I can’t believe that either of these teams of dilletantes is actually having an effect on either of these events. Both are huge, especially in terms of public relations value for the Trump organization, which is not going to risk the possibility of a major screw-up. Both would have required enormous amounts of lengthy pre-planning and logistics. So my guess is that the regular Trump employees are actually doing all the real work. The Apprentice Wanna-Bes are in a situation where they’re essentially responsible for minor tasks that can’t really hurt the outcome of the events. Lose Jessica Simpson? Right! That was probably planned, too, to provide an interesting storyline. Do I sound cynical? I’m afraid I am cynical about this career-making task!
I think Trump was a little surprised that Amy fell down in the interviews but that he trusted the judgement of the interviewers. They obviously knew what they were doing and they were not going to make evaluations based on snap judgements or arbitrary bias.
Plus, from what they showed of the interviews, Amy did very poorly. It seemed like she wasn’t responding to what she was being asked but kept trying to make non-sequitur arguments for how great she was. One interviewer kept trying to get her to tell him what she knew about how Trump was structured and organized, what she knew about construction, etc. These are obvious job interview questions for someone who wants to run a Trump company. It seemed like she wasn’t listening to the questions. She kept saying stuff like, “I think you need somebody who can…”
It was like she had never been to a job interview before and was stunned that at some point she might be asked what she actually knew about the company she wanted to work for. The question about a hypothetical contractor telling her “lady, you don’t know what the hell you’re doing” was asked in frustration, trying to get her to explain why she should be put in charge of a hypothetical construction project (and when you get right down to it, Trump is about putting up buldings, isn’t he? So asking what an applicant knows about construction seems more than fair to me).
I think Amy needs prep time. Remember, she got on the computer and prepped for the board room. If she had been given a day or two to research and prepare for the interviews I think she would have done a lot better but she doesn’t seem to able to think on her feet very well and gets flustered under pressure.
I also think that the interviewers pretty well nailed it with their assessments of the others. They were right about Nick. He’s all upfront bluster and salesmanship with no real substance. They were right that Kwame is likable and smart but low-energy and passive. They seemed to think that Bill would “hit the ground running” and do well quickly with little supervision and that’s probably true as well. It was instructive how Bill handled that box snafu quickly and efficiently, even if he had to be a prick about it, while Kwame was reluctant to confront Omarosa. I have to think that Bill would have reamed her a new one and put her in charge of the coats or something.
Even if Kwame loses, he should go into business with Troy. They seem to have synergy together. Troy is obviously a good front man for a business with great people skills, and Kwame would be perfectly suited to handling the financial heavy lifting and the paperwork. Kwame would make a good CFO to Troy’s CEO.
Successful Show = $$$$$$
Ratings = Successful Show
Drama = Ratings
Confrontation/Dilemas = Drama
casting/mainpulation/editing = confrontation/dilemas
Don’t get me wrong I’m hooked on this show like everyone else. But I take it as pure entertainment. It’s contrived, manipulated, and edited for entertainment and drama. By taking continuous footage of these folks a week at a time then condensing it into an hour show, they can make anyone look like a fool or a hero.
Insert a quick shot of Nick yawning and it’s “oh, he doesn’t care anymore”, insert a quick shot of a closeup of someone cutting their eyes at someone else and it’s “ooo, they’re pissed at that person”. “Kwame’s too laid back and unconfrontational.” Well, if there’s no footage of him doing so in this weeks hour long show, we MUST come to that conclusion.
It’s entertaining but pieced together the same way MTV’s Real World is. To believe this is how corporate America is run and that these people would actually be candidates for CEO positions is funny.
A real life selection process for someone to run a branch of a company would probably showcase some non-dramtic people and some non-dramatic interview/selection procedures and be somewhat over the head of the “Must Watch Thursday” crowd and bore them to tears.
But it is a lot of fun 
I definitely agree – and am sure they’ve discussed it.
Picture of Omarosa and her husband Aaron (choose the Family & Friends picture gallery).
If you’ve never been to http://www.omarosa.com – well, you’re in for a treat.
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
I think Amy needs prep time. Remember, she got on the computer and prepped for the board room. If she had been given a day or two to research and prepare for the interviews I think she would have done a lot better but she doesn’t seem to able to think on her feet very well and gets flustered under pressure.
[QUOTE]
That is exactly what she said on the Today show this morning, but in real life you don’t always have days to prepare for situations, sometimes you have to think on your feet.
Yeah. Before the show I was thinking the final two would be Amy and Bill, but once the interviews got underway I was pretty sure it would be Bill and Kwame.
As we’ve seen before, Amy doesn’t do well when asked direct questions that require her to take a stand. Even with her prep time, she did just well enough in her one boardroom appearance to beat Katrina, and that was more because Katrina had historically proved less competent than Amy. (I doubt Trump was impressed when she said she couldn’t remember who suggested the car rental promo; even if that’s true, she would’ve been better off clearly accepting responsibility.)
Bill, in contrast, clearly doesn’t like having to answer questions like “who should I fire?” but he’s able to do so, as is Kwame. The final nail in Amy’s coffin was her response to Trump’s last question of her: “What would you do if you were in my position?” She had nothing to lose by answering the question in any way favorable to herself, but she basically refused to take a stand and punted it back to Trump.
When it became clear that she was unwilling or unable to clearly answer the questions that were being asked of her, I knew she was toast.
To inject a note of, err, reality, about this show,
Both events were held on October 25, 2003. Here’s a link about the golf tournament.
http://www.trumpnational.com/celebrity_golf.html
None of the instructions on NBC’s web site say anything about not being able to fire/marginalize somebody. Clearly, however, there must have been some additional instructions, especially in Bill’s case.
It’s quite true that Bill and Kwame weren’t really responsible for organizing things. That would be impossible since these events require months of advance planning. Also, both teams were given $1000 in seed money – basically nothing.
I think, however, the idea was to put them “in charge” of actual Trump employees. Their main task, at this late stage, would be to handle last-minute problems as they arose. I’m quite certain, however, that anything that would have turned into a major disaster was cut-off by some lower level employee and was never passed up to Bill or Kwame. It’s not like Trump’s people haven’t organized concerts and golf tournaments before.
I’m kind of puzzled by how different these tasks are. Bill’s seems much more logistically complex and intense than Kwame’s. Any concert promoter can organize five rock concerts a week. Bill is going to have to deal with a day-long event (that includes an awards dinner) and a whole pile of celebrities, including Trump himself. There seems to be much more potential for mayhem than holding a Jessica Simpson concert in one of Trump’s own properties.
Well, that’s true; she didn’t always seem to be answering the questions directly. But to be fair, she’s been primed, they’ve all been primed, for the past 13 weeks to be ready to tout their own strengths and abilities in the crucible of Trump’s boardroom. I’d hardly fault her for starting to answer one question with, “Well, I think I could…” when she’s been fighting for her life for the past three months.
And some of those “insights” in the boardroom were just crap- her being a Stepford Wife and shallow comments like that. As a friend of mine who watched it with me pointed out, at least two of those people made statements about her looks- which says they were forming judgements about her as soon as she walked in.
I also wouldn’t discount that these undoubtedly talented but, until yesterday, completely anonymous employees may have wanted, either consciously or unconsciously, to make an impression on the big show.
I really like Dio’s analysis of Amy’s interviews. I think that’s exactly how she came across. I do not cut her any slack for not knowing the company. She could have chosen to spend her time reading up on the industry instead of pursuing Nick. In fact, she should have started that research from the moment she got the word she was going to be on the show.
Y’know Kwame’s getting heat for choosing Assaroma, but I don’t see that he really did. Or at least I don’t see where he had any choice in the matter. If I remember correctly, Bill chose first. This means that no matter what he did Kwame would get the last person chosen.
He had to know that Assaroma would be last. All he had left to decide was whether to let her be last, or pick her one slot ahead. Given her enormous ego, I can see why he would have preferred to not have her burdened with the attitude of the last one chosen. It was a way of making the best out of a lousy situation, knowing that he would have her no matter what.
To be fair, the interview panelists were particularly confrontational with her and did not respond well to what they regarded as a young upstart’s fumbling attempt to control the interview process, finesse their questions, and give the ol’ Razzle Dazzle. This hard-boiled gang obviously favors direct responses and was playing to the camera. I got into “The Apprentice” midway through the season, but suspect that Carolyn might be prone to more harshly evaluating any attractive, assertive, competent woman.
One moment that make me laugh found Bill chatting with Trump’s EA and telling her that his Big Weakness was never being satisfied.
Her: “I completely disagree. I see that as a strength.”
Bill: “You do?!”
A last question, Trump is always blabbing about how brilliant these contestants are, claiming they have sky-high IQs.
Which of the four finalists are mega-geniuses? Enquiring minds want to know…
By the way, did anybody happen to buy a New York Post today?
Woof!
The best part about her site is when you click a topic button, her head goes flying off the top of your screen. 
I think Carolyn is prone to more harshly evaluating these particular attractive, assertive women because of their antics in the early part of the show. The entire crew of them spent the single-sex tasks acting as though they’d graduated from GiggleJiggleSmile School of Business. Trump actually had to make a special trip to reprimand them over it. They weren’t acting like assertive, competent businesswomen; they were acting like brain-dead skanks with only two business assets–one on each side of their chest. With something like that in her history, Amy has to show she’s really, really, really got the goods to overcome her self-imposed handicap. She’s got the goods, maybe, but not nearly enough so to overcome her boobilicious tactics at the beginning.
After the scolding about too much “use of sexuality” by Trump and Caolyn, wasn’t Amy the one who whined something to the effect that “It’s not my fault I’m attractive” or some such nonsense? That’s definitely not an attitude that was going to endear her to Carolyn.
This article came to my attention. It’s pretty interesting, especially regarding Amorosa.
It included this
Now that’s *bad.
Has anyone seen any of her reaction to being caught telling a blatant lie on national television?
The article above also mentions (as do other sources today) that Ereka is considering filing a lawsuit against Omarosa for accusing her of using the ‘n’ word. If Ereka is telling the truth then she certainly has reason, though proving damages would be very hard.
And Oprah… we expect better. You were a lot more fair when you were fat.
Very much so! I’ve found myself wondering if Trump’s executives weren’t instructed either to come down hard on her, or were just flat told what to say in order to justify her firing. I can’t see where she’s anywhere near as bad as their alleged perceptions of her would indicate.
I dunno, the parts of her interviews I saw were pretty unimpressive, as compared to the others. She herself felt like she didn’t do so well, and told the others that she wasn’t making a lot of sense, so she had to hope they were going less by what she actually said, and more on how she said it. When you get to that point of relying on them being impressed with the way you said nothing, you’ve lost the job. It’s just that simple.
I don’t think the interviewers were unduly hard on her, compared to everyone else. They were all grilled pretty hard about their perceived weaknesses, like Kwame’s laid-back managerial style. That could be a real liability working for an in-your-face guy like Trump, so they hammered him on it, but he handled that series of questions rather well. One of Amy’s perceived weaknesses is that she relies on her looks too much without enough concrete stuff to back it up, so she got hammered on that topic. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t handle her questions so well.
Dio, I’m guessing her “you’re just jealous 'cause I’m so cute” attitude didn’t endear her to the personal assistant, either. Women who’ve gotten where they are solely on their talent and skills tend not to take kindly to those who consider cute to be a business strategy.