There was much speculation about whether Joan Rivers would return to the NBC reality show Celebrity Apprentice after her daughter Melissa Rivers was fired last week. Joan stomped out behind her only child and said she wasn’t coming back. Apparently she got over her dramatic snit because she was on hand when Donald Trump handed out tonight’s new task for the dwindling two teams – video below.
Team KOTU was still three strong with Joan, Clint Black and Jesse James, while Athena was down to just Annie Duke and Brande Roderick.
This week’s task was to create a 30 second Chicken of the Sea tuna jingle and 30 second commercial. Annie assumed the role of project manager. She and Brande knew it would be an uphill battle. They decided to attack their 30 second commercial spot first in order to gain some confidence. Neither woman could carry a tune and Annie was visibly rattled. Things finally started to click and by the end of their review by the Chicken of the Sea executives, Duke was nearly giddy with positive vibes.
Clint Black was project manager for KOTU and was happy to be spending a few days in a recording studio. He created the jingle very quickly and Jesse and Joan put together the commercial and brought in two voice-over people to record it. Joan determined that she and Jesse could do a more credible job and sent the hired help packing.
Jessie and Joan both tried to interject more humor into the jingle and wanted Black to speed it up. He blew off their suggestions and stuck with a ‘lazy, sing songy’ tune.
The Chicken of the Sea executives liked both team’s efforts but ultimately decided that Clint Black’s jingle was too country – which they felt would not resonate with all of their potential customers.
Team Athena won the task, and Annie immediately switched from ‘we’ to ‘I’ mode, wanting all of the credit. KOTU ended up in the boardroom and with very little dissension, it was determined that Clint Black would take the fall as project manager and he was fired.
The final four were then interviewed by last season’s winner Piers Morgan, who was tasked with whittling down the group of four to the final two. Brande was fired because Morgan didn’t think she had what it would take to become the next celebrity apprentice. Then Trump went after low key Jesse James, who has been flying under the radar the entire season and fired him because he had not been effective at fund raising.
The final face off will be between arch rivals Annie Duke and Joan Rivers. It promises to be the final culmination of a feud that has been building. Anyone who didn’t see this match up coming clearly wasn’t paying proper attention.
The three hour NBC finale will air on Sunday May 10, 2009, beginning at 8:00 ET.
See more photos below.