The debut of The Apprentice: Los Angeles included some drastic changes to the veteran reality series. Donald Trump was his typical pompous self that you either love or hate. I tend to enjoy the guy; he's putting on a show and is shameless about it. I can respect that. Martin Han Clarke, a lawyer/professor from Atlanta, was the first victim of The Donald's "You're Fired" refrain. His performance in the challenge wasn't memorably bad, but he was later ganged up on by many of his own team members. Martin, unfortunately, will likely go down in Apprentice lore only as the guy who asked Donald if he could use the bathroom during the cast introduction.
After cast introductions at the cast mansion, Donald ordered his minions into the back yard where they had to work together to erect a large tent. Two leaders emerged during its construction, and Mr. Trump named those two (Heidi and Frank) the team captains. They picked their teams. Martin was picked last. The first major challenge was a simple car wash. Each team was handed the keys to a car wash. Whoever made the most money won. Frank's inherently flawed game plan involved disappearing for an hour to create too-small fliers. Martin turned out to be a poor salesman, at least according to his teammates, and this triggered his later termination. The big twists were revealed after the challenge. First, the winning team got to go live in the mansion. The losing team had to live outside in tents. Ivanka Trump, Donald's hot daughter, is going to take over the "Caroline" role this year. The third boardroom adviser will always be the project manager of the winning team. These are all good changes, especially the winning-project-manager-as-adviser twist. It changes the game and strategy, plus adds the possibility of boardroom mind games. Look for a BuddyTV mini-interview with Martin coming early tomorrow. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer