The Celebrity Apprentice ended its season last night, and the results were a pleasant surprise.  Not just last night, I suppose, but the entire season.  My expectations were considerably low coming into the season.  My affection for the original Apprentice format was mostly due to the dominant persona of Donald Trump and his willingness to tear apart wide-eyed contestants.  On the network reality television landscape, The Apprentice was the rare show where one man wielded all of the power.  Trump acts as the judge, jury and executioner.  Every other reality competition series employs at least some aspect of democracy in its eliminations.  On The Apprentice, Donald Trump often fires people arbitrarily and it makes great television.  My worry coming into The Celebrity Apprentice was that having people of high regard and some semblance of fame involved would soften The Donald, not allowing him to ruthlessly execute his will at every board room.  While this turned out to be somewhat true, it didn't end up standing in the way of my my enjoyment.  This is because The Celebrity Apprentice was a completely different series compared to the previous incarnations. 

The competition, for the most part, kind of took a back seat to the “reality” of the show and the best parts involved the clash of personalities on screen.  My other concern coming into the season would be that the “celebrities” wouldn't take the game seriously enough to make an entertaining season.  On this point, I was way off.  Anyone who watched The Celebrity Apprentice can attest to the fact that the contestants gave ample effort, especially the ones who made it deep into the season.  It was because of this considerable effort put forth that the entertainment came.  For all of the blasé participants (Tiffany Fallon, Nadia Comaneci, Jennie Finch...don't mean to beat up on the ladies, it's just the way it was), there were a number of larger than life characters whose interactions made for great television.  Piers Morgan, Omarosa, Stephen Baldwin, Trace Adkins, Tito Ortiz, Gene Simmons and Lennox Lewis all proved to be worthy competitors and fine sources of conflict.

Piers Morgan, despite my initial accusations of NBC collusion (he's a judge on NBC's summer hit America's Got Talent), was a genius bit of casting.  His abrasive ruthlessness made him the sort of lovable villain that reality TV thrives on.  Piers vs. Omarosa, Piers vs. Trace, Piers vs. Lennox, Piers vs. Stephen...these were all great rivalries at some point in the season.  Omarosa, as detestable as she was, gave viewers a true antagonist.  Stephen Baldwin is a bizarre human, capable of ample intentional and unintentional comedy.  Trace Adkins' above-the-fray humor and fish out of water, country boy in New York story made him immediately sympathetic.  And, who knew that Lennox Lewis was as intelligent and capable as he turned out to be?  This is a man who used to get punched in the face for a living.

But, back to the finale.  I thought the Trump clan was going to lose a lot of credibility and end up handing the ultimate Apprentice victory to Trace Adkins.  It made too much sense – the well-spoken, kind country music star with a heart of gold is a feel-good winner.  The problem was that he didn't deserve to win.  The easily despicable Piers Morgan dominated the season.  Donald Trump, against the wishes of everyone in the audience and most of the fired celebrities, gave Piers the victory he deserved, which is why Donald Trump is Donald Trump. 


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)