Celebrity Apprentice made its season 8 debut last night on NBC, March 1, 2009. The first order of business was to split the group into teams, give them names and assign project managers for the first task of baking and selling cupcakes on the streets of New York City.
The women, led by Joan Rivers, picked team name Athena. Herschel Walker led the men and they agreed to be called Kings of the Universe – KOTU.
The first task involved creating, baking and selling cupcakes from mobile units that each team had to design. The team generating the most money for their charity would win. The kitchens were located at the Institute of Culinary Education.
The women chose Midtown Manhattan to sell their cupcakes – near Macy’s. The men decided to set up in Times Square. Jesse James and Brian McKnight were put in charge of ‘tricking out’ their cupcake van, while Joan Rivers and Brande Roderick had their cupcake truck wrapped in a star design.
Annie Duke ran the show in the Athena kitchen. Rivers called her Mussolini for her dictator style. The women had a snafu when the cupcakes sank in the middle and they had to start from scratch. The men also had a cooking fiasco, forgetting to put sugar in their batter. Pressed for time, they opted to smother the tops of the cupcakes with sweet syrup to salvage the baked goods that Jesse James said tasted like “ass”.
At 11:00 a.m., the teams began selling their products. The men, who charged $20 per cupcake, snagged an appearance by The Naked Cowboy and also got celebrities Tony Hawk and Donny Deutch to make sizable contributions. They enjoyed a booming business, though Dennis Rodman tired of the selling exercise and ended up sitting in the van. This irritated project manager Herschel Walker, who felt that Rodman would have been a good draw.
Brande Roderick was able to get her Playboy girlfriend to appear in a bunny outfit and pose for pictures with customers. Annie Duke pulled in her high roller crowd, who donated to the cause. This impressed Donald Trump Jr., who stopped by to check on the women.
Both teams had to deliver a cupcake to Crumbs Cake Shop for a taste test. Melissa Rivers brought a ‘chocolate bomb’ and Andrew Dice Clay delivered a yellow cupcake with chocolate fudge frosting. The women second guessed themselves on which of their cupcake flavors they should have offered up.
Back in the boardroom it was announced that the women won the taste test challenge for an additional $15,000 to be added to their sales total for the day. The men took in $49,449 and the women sold $61, 267, which they donated to God’s Love We Deliver charity.
The men squabbled in the boardroom and Herschel picked Dennis Rodman and Andrew Clay Dice as the two he would like to see booted. Trump ultimately fired Clay because he appeared to want to quit, while Rodman and Walker showed tremendous fight.
More photos below.