It was another particularly rocky week in the war between Joan Rivers & Melissa Rivers against Annie Duke & Brande Roderick. The chick bickering allowed Clint Black and Jesse James to skate through virtually unnoticed, though they did manage to engage in their own skirmish.
Team Athena was led by Brande this week and KOTU by Clint. The task was to create a four page print ad for a Right Guard product featuring NBA player David Lee. Jesse hated the direction the project was going and had a bad feeling about his team’s chances of winning the task, describing Clint’s layout idea as “graffiti on a bathroom wall.”
Melissa commented that she felt that Annie and Brande were conspiring against her. Duke later relayed the conversation to her partner in crime Roderick, calling it Melissa’s “paranoid fantasy”. She went on to say that they really don’t have to set Melissa up because she’s doing a good job of doing that all on her own.
Right Guard executives gave KOTU high marks for great branding, effective use of their orange color and putting their power strip around the outside of the print ads. They felt that Athena had missed the mark by not starting out their presentation with a strong visual of David Lee, which the team had virtually buried on page three. They awarded the win to KOTU, landing Team Athena back in the boardroom, where things got very interesting.
This week Donald Trump used Jim Cramer as his guest spy. Jim seemed to be gunning for Brande, who he said delegated all of the difficult tasks to Annie. Duke pointed out that she has single-handedly raised $200,000 of the $700,000 collected for charity during season eight.
When Trump asked Melissa who she would fire, she gave a convoluted response, heaping a ton of praise on Annie Duke. She went so far as to predict that Duke would win the season – and was likely a stronger player than last season’s champ, Piers Morgan.
Trump fired Melissa Rivers. She stomped off, hurling profanities as she ran across the set lobby, refusing to give the producers a departure interview. Momma Joan Rivers huffed off as well, but not before railing against the enemy. Then she departed with her furious offspring, saying “I won’t be back tomorrow. I don’t work with scum.”
Joan has been very vocal about the poker players who have supported Duke week after week with their charitable giving, calling them the worst kind of white trash. “Your people, you give money with blood on it.”
It seems likely that Joan will be back to avenge her daughter against Duke, who she called Hitler. The finalists will be named next Sunday, May 5. Who will end up vying for the title? If Trump plays it for ratings (a given), it is sure to be Annie versus Joan….must see TV.
See a boardroom photo and the best four minutes of the show on video below.