Category — Celebrity Apprentice

When is a spoiler not a spoiler? Well apparently when your own organisation does it. This morning NINE MSN announced the winner of tonight’s finale of Celebrity Apprentice Australia on the site, via a clip.

It is amusing but in fact it really is a major cockup.

NINE MSN has now removed clip of the winner of Celebrity Apprentice Australia.  Of course it has gone viral with people tweeting all about it. TV Tonight gives a good run down on what happened. Don’t worry if you are one of the few people who don’t know and don’t want to, as he has no spoilers on his post, and I won’t be putting one up here either. However for the curious just google or look at other Network publicists twitter feeds.

This goes down with the TEN putting up five episodes in advance of Masterchef on their website last year, which I kindly informed them of just as I pressed play on the upcoming elimination episode.

However TV Tonight also points out that this is similar to this year’s Gold Logie winner, Hamish Blake, being announced in the media before it actually occurred onstage.

I expect NINE MSN did not have Channel Nine’s legal team contact them as they did the lady who had pictures of The Block, but expect the internal phone conversations were quite terse.

Thankfully Mark Bouris doesn’t work for NINE MSN or someone could have gotten FIRED!

Last night the remaining four were fighting it out to be the final team standing on Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

Mark Bouris took pity on the two young guns Nathan and Lauren and pair one each with Dicko and Ben Dark. The challenge was to write a song for to showcase a feel good message.

The problem with this challenge was that not much drama can come from sitting around a table writing a song. Well props to Ben Dark for trying to create some with his mentor John Paul Young. Ben was getting peeved that John Paul was not singing the song loud enough to show them how it was really going to sound. And he finally sheepishly sang it on camera. For a moment there was nearly a Deni Hines moment in the making.

Dicko’s team had a female singer, but it was not Deni, probably someone who is currently on The Voice.

Even though John Paul lay down the track, Ben and Lauryn did not like the result and decided to sing it themselves.  Probably not the best decision but said a lot about JPY’s vocals these days.

Both teams reference “Change The World” and Band-Aid, but the only the plagarism I could pick up was the riff on Dicko and Nathan’s song which sounded vaguely like the Black Eyed Peas “I’ve Got A Feeling”. Anyway don’t expect to see either of those songs on iTunes anytime soon.

Ben Dark and Lauryn Eagle were fired. Ben thought he was winner anyway and in someways he was. He is one of the few that came out with his reputation intact. He appears to be a difficult personality however he did get the job done.

Lauryn Eagle who showed a lot of moxie on the show, will continue to have a media career.

Here is an interview I did with her at Fashion Week where she talks about her feud with Tania Zaetta.

Celebrity Apprentice’s series two is limping to an end. With a cast that looked good on paper they just didn’t appear to be firing up on screen. Dane Bouris has been cracking more jokes than Vince Sorrenti.

One of the issue how obvious some of the scripting has been with The Hoff leaving for “personal reasons”,  Patti Newton falling on her sword, and Jason Akermanis lashing out at how staged the whole show is.

Personally I don’t  mind reality shows having a bit of manipulation as long as it makes it entertaining.

Last night it was a double elimination with the teams of three having to produce a one page ad for BMW. Dicko, Charlotte Dawson, and Vince had pictures taken and put in the photo. Surprisingly Vince was not happy with his shots and had them done again. Even when they were presenting to panel the three just looked like they did not want to be there.

Whereas Ben Dark, who spent most of his talking down to Lauryn, put himself in the photo as a cowboy James Bond and made a pun on his name. Even with a technical error   in their copy writing they won.

Dicko saved himself in the boardroom with it was all my fault speech, whereas Charlotte did the opposite and kept on saying she thought the ad was fine even though she was given multiple opportunities by Mark Bouris to admit that maybe it was not that great. Mark Bouris ended up firing Vince and Charlotte.

I was slightly surprised as this means there are three guys in the final, and Lauryn Eagle is the last woman standing. She has a lot of moxie but she has also had a fair bit of luck on the show and has only been in the boardroom once and this was the time Patti left.

The final will be between Ben Dark, Dicko, he who never smiles Nathan Joliffe, and Lauryn. Ben or Dicko must be favourites to win, and at this stage I think Ben might take it.

If there is a third series it has to be good casting and let the advisors be more relaxed and unscripted both out in the field and in the board room.

Channel NINE apologised yesterday for the TWEET that made to air in last Thursday night’s episode of Celebrity Apprentice Australia. See previous blog post here.

During Thursday night’s show ”The receptionist on #celebapprentice is still working on that spreadsheet?? She must have got her job spreading between the sheets I suspect,” it read.

The Daily Telegraph state:

A Nine spokesman yesterday said broadcasting the tweet was an error and had “slipped” past their social media monitoring.

“Unfortunately, the racy tweet slipped through our censorship net post 9.30pm,” he said.

“The Nine social media team apologised to Caitlin who was not concerned at all.”

I am not sure the issue was that Caitlin would be insulted she was just playing a role, but it does raise the issue of gray area about what could be deemed “humorous” online can be offensive when place on TV.

Viewers are not only subjected to sexist comments from Vince Sorrenti and Ben Dark on Celebrity Apprentice Australia they are also seeing them on screen in the form of a tweet posted by Channel Nine’s social media team.

During the boardroom scene a tweet was posted on screen by @colonelkickhead which said “The receptionist on @celebapprentice is still working on that spreadsheet? She must have got her job spreading between the sheets I suspect.”

Apparently it caused quite a stir on Twitter with viewers being gobsmacked it was screened.  Even the @colonelkickhead said Seriously Channel Nine, I wouldnt retweet my tweets…what are you thinking?!? 

If there is no social media policy at the Network maybe someone in the building should take the time to write one.

Thanks for the tip off @gidgetvonlarue 

Last week we had the staged walking out of David Hasselhoff, and tonight Patti Newton basically asked to leave. There is no tension in this show. Channel NINE have announced a new series of the show, and they should flick the Celebrity and just do The Apprentice again.

Also it was a bit of a no brainer which team was going to win tonight with the choice between people going nude to promote a financial brand or the team sleeping out with the homeless.  The gratuitous versus the noble.

The challenge was to brand and promote the We Care campaign for Mark Bouris’s company Yellow Brick Road.

Charlotte Dawson suggested that Team Fortune go naked to promote the brand as that always garners publicity, a strategy Lara Bingle has picked up as well. I was amazed Vince Sorrenti who was team leader agreed but I think he thought it was only going to be the women getting their gear off. His view on women was interesting he seemed to think his role was to focus them.

However that was not the only sexism that occurred. Charlotte and Lauryn were the most naked, with Vince wearing boxer shorts that went down to his knees. He could have at least got into a pair of Speedos.

Also I noted how the camera crew did close ups on Lauryn Eagle’s body when she was getting her body paint on, and on Charlotte Dawson’s g-string, but none on Vince or Patty.

Obviously the producers thought the idea was a good one and let them roll with it, and it was lucky they could line up body art painters at such short notice.

The rest of the team were a tad reluctant to show their private bits but Charlotte said. “I am 45 years old…. I don’t care what people say about my body.” Deb Thomas said “She does not really care what anyone says about her…”. I would beg to disagree, but moving right along.

As Vince Sorrenti said “I’m never know what is going on in Charlotte’s mind, she is quite enigmatic, I won’t even pretend to understand Charlotte”.

Speaking of trying to understand people, Jason Akermanis mind works in strange ways. Sometimes it is really on point and then other times not so great. He did suggest the idea of sleeping out, in a meeting where no one had any ideas. However he was a bit deluded to think he would be able to get a meeting with the Prime Minister Julia Gillard the next day. Also the PM needs to think about changing her mobile phone number…

However in the end they did get a call back from the Prime Minister’s and the guys dropped the We Care book at Kirribilli House.

But Jason when he was on the task was not very focused he took a sleeping tablet and slept for eight hours, and he also got into a dust up with Ben Dark who considered he was not pulling his weight.

The Ben Dark and Dicko personality clash appears to have settled a bit, and in fact they cooked up an alliance to throw Aker under a bus if they lost.

Once Team Fortune heard what the guys team were doing they must have known they were on a hiding. Ironically it was the ACA reporter that revealed it, and Vince quipped that she wouldn’t get a job working for ASIO.

Also the issue with Team Fortune was there was limited branding of the message. Charlotte changed the concept from yellow to dressing herself as a flamingo which meant elegance and wealth, Lauryn was to dress as an eagle and Patty a Goddess.

Basically the meaning was far too obscure for the general public. However on the plus side they did get a good night sleep.

Unlike the guys who did not fare as well, but as Dicko said it was a humbling experience something that went beyond then just trying to win the challenge. Also him crying meant he turned instantly into the viewers favourite. It was no surprise when Mark Bouris said Team Platinum had won.

Vince slated the blame on Charlotte and took her and Patty into the board room. However when Vince was asked who should go he said Patty saying she basically had too much dignity for the show. Patty fell on her sword and left.

All in all even with naked bodies and the guys having some personal revelations it was a rather dull episode.

Nine Network last week announced that The Voice, The Block, and Celebrity Apprentice will all being doing the rounds again for another season.

The Voice and The Block I am not surprised about, but I am a little about the renewal of Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

Series two has not been hitting the ratings highs as the first series did, however it should be noted the first series was stripped and in the 7.00pm timeslot which may be a big factor. When NINE bring it back next year they should consider screening it then.

However maybe NINE should drop the celebrity and bring back The Apprentice, made up of unknown people who are doing real challenges without having to chase the corporate dollar.

The first series of The Apprentice was never really given a chance with it being buried in the 9.30pm timeslot. With some good casting, interesting challenges, backed by a good publicity campaign and a prime screening time I think it would be a ratings winner.

What is going on with this show? We are four episodes in, and they fire the person who has been creating conflict , who has raised a lot of money, and who appears to be working hard. Donald Trump would have never fired Tania Zaetta for the reason that she was not liked by her other team members. In fact for that very reason he would have kept her on the show.

But then Tania was getting a bit of stick from everyone, Ben Dark basically said he did not like her, and Charlotte Dawson quipped  ”She gives some good looks, she looks like she is twisted…glad I didn’t get that botox done I would have looked really evil”.

Yes I was rather surprised at that comment considering the heated debate that ensued on this blog last week which spilled over into the twitterverse about the viewers in cyber space making negative comments about peoples appearances on the TV screen.

The episode’s  challenge was to create a fairground experience and the team with the most money won.

Jason Akermanis was project manager of one team, and Lauryn Eagle who is described as a “glamour sportswoman” led the other team.

Jason thought his great communication skills would be an asset, whereas team mate Nathan Jolliffe said he could barely understand him. I am on team Nathan on this one.  Interestingly we did learn tonight that even though their was some disagreement about Akers fluency in the english language he was actually proficient in Auslan, sign language.

He revealed both of his in-laws are profoundly deaf. This episode indeed portrayed Jason in a light that most people would not have seen before. Probably much needed after some of his other faux pas in the media.

On Celebrity Apprentice because the teams don’t rely on public donations it does not really matter how good they do the challenge. If the team can get the corporate sponsors in they will win which they did.  Dicko quipped at Aker’s team section that it looked “very eastern european” and it did look depressing. Even Warwick Capper could not bring it any razzle.   I did find it amusing that the corporate guys bringing in the cheques  were wanting to dunk Warwick.

The Ben Dark and Dicko feud was beaten up with Ben putting a spider on arachnophobic Dicko’s crotch. As @gidgetvonlarue quipped on Twitter “Oh Dicko, don’t be such a girl. I’m sure you’ve had much scarier things crawling around your crotch than a huntsman spider”

Dicko did look like he was working up a sweat.

Ben Dark was also working hard with the sponsors, he called Marion Grasby who had previously been fired and she came down with a $2000 and was handing out her products, however apparently she also arranged some more money from other sponsors.

Vince Sorrenti thought this was unfair that an eliminated contestant was able to raise money for another team. I think he had a point. Does this mean Vince can have his friends not on the show ringing around to get the corporate dollar on his behalf? However Mark Bouris told him the money raised was going to charity and hinted he should not be so petulant about it.

Not that Vince needed to worry his team won and they trouped off to the winners room.

Dicko said Patti should be fired and it would be a mercy killing as he thought things were about to get nasty. Tania agreed, but the rest of the team that it should be Tania to go.

In the end it was Tania that was fired.

Clearly Ben Dark is on the Paleolithic cave man diet as he appears to have taken up that periods philosophies as well.

“Women and Men how long have we got….” Ben said. He continued “Men are hunters, women are home what ever it is. I know all the femonazis at home are screaming but from the caves that how it is.” No Ben that is not how it is. However, I don’t see him being a stay at home dad in his future.

Also Ben when he was shopping with Charlotte Dawson for the challenge after he told her he liked a dress he quipped “God I am sounding gay”. I had not realised that using the “gay” word was now a part of our mainstream vernacular. But Ben said it, Charlotte Dawson laughed and it was edited in as a joke, so maybe it was acceptable usage of the word. I am genuinely perplexed on the social acceptability of this.

Not a fan of his but it has to be said that Ben Dark was the outstanding contestant of the episode. He negotiated with Myers and also was sterling as the back of the show support. Also he did come up with one of the best lines of the night when he said “At the end of the day Tania has not been on TV here for ten years and lives in India, and I am not surprised”. Maybe if he had seen the nude pictures of her in New Idea this week he might have not been so caustic.

Also did anyone else notice Ben’s strange ear lobe.

However the whole episode felt like a bit of a farce and lacked tension. First it was pretty obvious the female team would have to do something diabolical to lose, the Hoff “quit” and then after Mark Bouris said “someone will be fired” no one was fired. Why did The Hoff leave? I had thought it was because of other work commitments and his contract had only been to sign up for a limited period. However, entertainment journalist, Peter Ford said on Twitter he would be talking about it on radio tomorrow, so maybe it was for personal reasons.

The challenge was for each team to devise and produce a hair show, using Wella products. They would be judged on brand messaging and showcasing of the products. The winner would get $20,000 for their charity.

The Hoff was placed back in the mens team and Ben Dark got shot up the proverbial with a rainbow when he was told to go with the girls. Charlotte Dawson was project manager for Team Fortune and Nathan was project manager for Team Platinum.

The guys team had their first bit of tension when The Hoff, Vince Sorrenti and Aker wanted to be MC.

Dicko was bemused about this and said “Aker is inarticulate he struggles to get a sentence out, why would you hand him a microphone”. Nathan ended up giving the mike to Vince.

Charlotte as project manager was trying a different tactic with contestant on the outer  Tania Zaetta. She was going to take her on rounds of the shopping centre with her to select a volunteer, however Ben quite rightly pointed out that Tania needed to stay and practice the hair styles they were doing. Also it seemed to be implied that Tania was the reason the women lost the last two challenges. My understanding is Tania has been one of the people that have been bringing in the money.

The girls show went smoothly until Patti tried to crack a joke by pulling out Berts wig, the audience found it amusing.

The guys team did a surprisingly good job with the hair, but badly with the jokes. Also Vince lost his ear piece so could not get prompted by Nathan back stage.

In the boardroom The Hoff quit, Patti got castigated for bring along Bert’s wig, all the other girls backed away from it.

Patty said she went and asked Charlotte about using the wig and she said she said yes. Whereas Charlotte said she was not sure if it was going to occur and Patti started crying saying it had been a bad day. If my memory is correct, her son Matt Newton may have been in court that day.

Nathan put the boot into Jason Akermanis, however when he was asked who the weakest player was he nominated The Hoff, which shows Nathan is not just a pretty face but quite clever as The Hoff had gone.

The girls won, and Nathan took Jason Akermanis and Dicko into the boardroom. His rationale was Dicko was the strongest competitor and he would have to take him on sometime.

Meanwhile back in the winners room Tania Zaetta and Lauryn Eagle  were having a spat  Lauryn ended up exclaiming “Can someone back me up here?” Patty Newton sat there in silence and Charlotte said ”I am just letting you do this.” Maybe this was Lauryn’s initiation into the big girl cat fights.

In a lacklustre board room Mark Bouris told the three none of them were fired. In the US version of the show there is much more banter between the contestants, the host and the advisors.  I thought maybe this was because Donald was advised by his children Ivanka and Don Jr, however Dane is the son of Mark.  Dane needs to spark up soon or the viewer is going to start to get frustrated by the nepotism that occurred to get him the advisor role.

Give The Hoff a Nobel Peace Prize, the man brought down a totalitarian regime with his voice. He stood on the Berlin Wall and sang to one million people and lo and behold the wall came down.

I am surprised Obama has not sent him into the De-Militarised Zone in Korea to sort out the tensions there.

However he is not the only person delusional about their charisma on the show.

“I’ve been in the entertainment industry for nearly two decades, I can’t believe I’m still here,” said Tania Zaetta to be honest nor can we. Tania is shaping up be one of the villains of series two which is not a bad strategy as it will ensure she sticks around longer. However in her quest for eternal youth and to save money did she manage to get some work done at this Miami woman’s garage who injected people with cement?

Which does raise the question of which of the Celebrity Apprentice contestants has had the most work done? The Hoff, Tania, and Charlotte Dawson are definite front runners.

Tonight the challenge was to make a piece of art that expresses a life defining moment. The Hoff was moved across to the girls team and Patti Newton was moved across to the males. Marion Grasby was project manager for the girls, and after tussle with Ben Dark, Dicko was the project manager of the mens team.

Ben said “Dicko and I are just finding our place and like any herd you’ve got to find your pecking order”. Clearly Ben thinks he is the alpha male, but hopefully he will soon learn he is really the runt of the litter. His inner sexism is starting to emerge. However it has also been quite a revelation to find out that Dicko’s ego is now bigger than his gut.

However he did think Ben had a problem with authority. However Charlotte and Tania were also having issues with Charlotte even throwing the N word at Tania, calling her a narcissicist.

Though Jason Akermanis also has a huge ego which he revealed when he equated winning a Brownlow Medal with being the President.

With all these strong personalities on the show, the less flashy ones like Marion and Vince Sorrenti are having trouble getting air time. In fact Vince has barely been spotted in either of the challenges.

Marion  confided to Charlotte that The Hoff was going to be hard to manage  particularly because he does not know who I am.

“He doesn’t know Tanya either,” said Charlotte. In fact would he know any of them? The Hoff who appears to have a big ego does have some insight into himself, he said  ”I realised at eight I was not good at anything but I looked good doing it.” So maybe it was his looks not his voice that finished the Cold War.

Nathan Joliffe has been the surprise packet of this competition and has been bringing in the big bucks. He managed to obtain $40,000 from Jeans West who he has modelled for. Also Ben made a deal that for $15,000 Nathan would get his body painted as an olive oil body.

However Dicko was miffed that he was not being painted. As he thought he was more famous than Nathan, and thought he, and old man with a gut, was worth more money and told Ben to pitch that to the company. However Ben said he was not going to renegotiate a deal.

Dicko would have been happy with the air time he is receiving on the show, also helped by his art piece. His piece was an apology to Paulini because of “the gold dress incident’. Most of Australia had forgotten about it until Dicko raised it again by making his piece of artwork. Also Paulini came in and Dicko made an on-air apology.

Patti Newton’s artwork was a homage to Bert, I noted that when she was talking about all the momentous occasions in her life, her children were not mentioned.

In the boardroom it was revealed the men’s team had won again with Dicko giving the line of the night later saying “You want The Hoff, you can’t handle The Hoff”.

Dicko agreed to give a third of his winnings a not insubstantial amount of $74,000 to Marion for her charity, Save The Children.

It was no surprise Marion was fired her boardroom strategy was awful. First she tried to throw David under a bus, by saying he was difficult to manage and then bringing him back in the boardroom with her sealed her fate. He was out here on contract and it would be for a certain amount of episodes there was no way he could be fired.Though when Mark Bouris started talking about The Hoff’s intellect and wisdome, even David looked amused.

Also bringing Tania back in was also dumb, as she is giving good TV, and surprisingly is bringing in the dollars. As Patti Newton said she should have taken in Tania and Lauren.  Mark Bouris had no other option but to fire Marion.

UPDATE: Marion says she did not expect to win Celebrity Apprentice. (Source: news.com.au)