This week I was disappointed the girls were put in team Eventus together, and the boys were put in team Pinnacle. It was a bit like the first episode’s gardening challenge you kind of knew who was going to win from the start. I am notsaying that men cannot sell art, it was just the men left would be too heavy handed to be able to sell it that well.

This week’s challenge according to the delicious Mark Bouris was about having a good eye and knowing what people wanted to buy in relation to art.

The teams had to visit six Australian artists at their studios and choose two artists to represent in a one night only exhibition where the team that bought in the most money wins.

Sabrina was the project manager for Eventusand for the boys it was Gavin. Gavin’s philosophy was “The art of selling art is similar to selling cars,”. He cannot be serious was he going to wear sunglasses and chew gum. Also will he make the team wear polyester suits?

Heather did not have to worry about that stupidity but she was concerned that Sabrina was a bit weak in her leadership style. Something Mary Ann also appeared to have a problem with.

Eventus’sstrategy was to pick the works they liked regardless of price, and they did have the ability to strike up a rapport with the artists something that team Pinnacle lacked.

Ben Frost the pop artist thought Morello and Sam were like Laurel and Hardy.  He did not like having to deal with insensitive corporate lackeys. But then again Morello and Sam did not like him. Why was Morello limping?

Heather dealt with Ben much more smoothly and also asked for his contact list, which was an extremely smart move.

Pinnacle wanted Shannon and the Kings sisters, but got to the sisters after team Eventus so they settled for landscape artist Laura Matthews. It would have been interesting to see the two artists that missed out on being picked just to make a comparison.

Mary- Ann started fighting with Sabrina at the gallery. First she wanted to separate the pop art from the Indigenous art something Sabrina did not want to do. Mary-Ann was right ” If you don’t get the hanging right you won’t be able to sell as the paintings will be crap”.

Meanwhile  Pinnacle had started their marketing campaign which I thought was bit strange handing out leaflets on a retail street. Also going into shops. Don’t they realise that most retail assistants get about $15 an hour, so buying art would be out of their price range?

Whereas Eventus’s targeting art buyers was much more strategic, with Heather hitting the phones to ring Ben Frost’s client list.

On the night Mary-Ann was getting annoyed at Sabrina for not being ballsy enough. And I did agree with Mary-Ann I thought the indigenous art and the pop art should have been hung separately. Also if you don’t know Mary-Ann is pregnant on the show, something she did not know at the time so  she was probably hormonal, and tired so no wonder she was feeling slighty psychopathic towards Sabrina. Sabrina always appears so tentative.

Pinnacle had a lack of people at their exhibition with Sam finding it difficult getting into the sales pitch. Morello who I thought would be bad in this area was a bit too full on but he does has charm, something I found Gavin’s sales pitch lacking.

By the way I really liked Shannon’s pieces and if I had been there they would have got a sale out of me.

However they then auctioned a piece of her art to try and boost sales. I thought Morello’s house selling style of auctioning was too over the top for his audience.

It was time for the boardroom and the gloves were off.

 Mary Ann said that Sabrina’s rule by consensus was annoying as she did not make decisions. Something Sabrina disagreed with.

Team Eventus won making over $30,000 whereas Pinnacle only made $5000. The prize for winning was to being sent to Herringbone where they will be fitted up with new clothes. Heather and Sabrina thought this was fabulous whereas Mary-Ann had to fake enthusiasm as she knew the chances of her finding something in the shop that fit would be very small.

Mark then told off the guys. He said the boys over analysed it. After Morello told Mark it was Sam who put the kybosh on Ben, Sam defended himself by saying he thought  his fans may not like the other art work. 

The boys team were criticised heavily for their dealings with the artists, as both Ben Frost and the Kings sisters did not feel they would have even liked the guys to sell their art.

Sam admitted he was a weak link as a nineteen year old trying to sell art to older patrons.

Gavin said “Sam still has a lot to learn.”

Sam shot back saying “Gavin was responsible for not getting the indigenous artists first and that cost us $26,000.”

Gavin said that Morello was more suited to real estate not corporate life in Yellow Brick Road. Morello refuted this.

Sam was predictably fired, however he was told by Mark Bouris to come and see him in his office after the show is over.

“You’ve been in here to many times,” Bouris said to Gavin, and told him he had been close to being fired.

There was no house scenes this week either the before the challenge bathroom shots where we normally saw Gavin’s pecs, but also no shots of them waiting to see who would be coming back in. Obviously it was no surprise that Sam was sacked.

Next week a double episode and Bouris sacks someone who he thinks has been flying under the radar.

Morello yells out “I love the Cross” – why am I not surprised.

After the now obligatory shot of Gavin topless  the contestants meet up with Mark Bouris in Kings Cross.

Where he tells them the challenge is for the teams is to make up a TV commercial for the new Microsofts Window 7. They must write, produce and direct the commercial and the best one will win. My slogan would have been “It has to be better than Vista.”

Bouris did his usual team swapping, which I really like as it changes the team dynamics from week to week and no one can get too comfortable. Mary Ann was swapped into Eventus team, and Heather into Pinnacle. Carmen was project manager for Eventus, and Heather for Team Pinnacle.

Then they episode turned into the Gavin and Carmen show, and unfortunately the episode was edited to fit into an hour, but I reckon they would have had a ton of quality footage for at least a 90 minute episode. But the bottom line seemed to be that Gavin was being a passive-aggressive mixed a bit of manipulation, and Carmen was being too aggressive mixed with some illogical behaviour.

It all started when Gavin took the lead in the boardroom, and Carmen was not happy, but thought it would look bad to try and cut across him, but her she was unable to hide her irritation so the Microsoft executives picked up on it. 

Heather was not fairing well in her presentation as it appeared she had not realised she had been using the product, on the laptops they had been provided with, so was caught out when they asked her what she thought was their best feature. In fact Heather’s management style is a direct opposite to Carmen’s she does not appear to take responsibility for anything. She just always appears to be writing stuff down in her notebook.

Morello came up with a “Tell a mate” tagline for the ad, and then produced and directed it.

Anyway back to Team Eventus. Carmen when they got home attempted to “clear the air” but she started it aggressively and told him she did not like him dominating in the challenge. Gavin called Carmen paranoid, which I actually thought was a tad immature. But then he was probably trying to wind her up which worked. She then fired him from the challenge. Isn’t that Mark Bouris’s job? Big call and possibly a fatal one.

He then bitched about her to the household and said “She cannot control her emotions,”. Gavin McInnes and Carmen Parnos are polar opposites. Everyone of her emotions shows in her face, which is what make her such great reality TV viewing, whereas it appear Gavin only has one facial expression.

I did have to laugh when she said she wants to be a great role model to her kids – her management skill are appalling. Did she actually manage workers in the “real” world? Maybe she is just a super control freak.

Team Pinnacle filmed at Oceanworld, and Heather handed the reins over to Morello. In fact I thought she did not take much responsibility at all. Whereas Carmen was all over it. Neither of them showed very good project manager skills at all.

Back to team Pinnacle what did Sabrina do? And what did Heather do? She put her hand up for Project Manager and then abdicated responsibility. And why did Heather, Morello and Sabrina put themselves in the ad? It was a tad narcissistic.

They then had to pitch to Microsoft. 

Morello turned their pitch into an Anthony Robbins seminar by getting the executives to chant after him. Something they were probably used to from team building sessions away. The executives were surprised there was no product ie a computer in the ad.

Eventus in their pitch was criticised for playing the ad first. Apparently not the correct etiquette. I actually thought their ad was pretty good.

Then it was time to the boardroom.

Now next season I would like to be the receptionist, I would be playing solitaire and saying guys “you are so in trouble get into the boardroom”. By the way speaking of changing personnel.  Where was Diane, Mark Bouris’s PA, did the producers flick her half way through the shoot?  She has not been around for two episodes?

Anyway it was gloves off once they were in the boardroom Carmen said Gavin was undermining her.

Pinnacle got caned for not having a product in the ad, and Eventus for the conflict between Gavin and Carmen.

Pinnacle won because they liked the tag line “Tell your mates” and Microsoft thought they would be able to work with that team.

I actually thought the result was a bit rigged, and it was decided Eventus was going to lose because of the obvious conflict. Really if companies were not going to hire or operate because of conflict corporate Australia would come to a standstill.

It was then down to Gavin against Carmen. And Mark Bouris got it in one when he said “two egos clashing against each other”.

Gavin said he did Jedi mind tricks as to why he spoke to the executives before Carmen. He said “they looked into my eyes” his behaviour in that first meeting was out of line.

But Gavin is arrogant and  is also condescending in the boardroom. If we are seeing the real Gavin it is a bit bland, and I loved it when Mark Bouris basically told him to stop being so obsequious.

Gavin to save himself understandably threw Carmen under the bus, and she really could not give any good reasons to save herself so she was fired.

Bouris told Gavin to stop playing the game.

Back at the house Sam was guessing /hoping for a double elimiination, Mary Ann wanted Gavin to go. I was not sure if this was because she seems him as a threat or if she trully does not like him. Or maybe a bit of both. 

Carmen did need to go, but The Apprentice may just be a little bit more boring without her, and her and Gav won’t be Facebook friends anytime soon.

If you are reading this through a feed on tv.com please come and join the discussion and check out the blog at www.realityravings.com

Tonight I could not work out if they were really manipulating Sabrina’s editing as she came across  badly in fact out of all of her little stuff ups on this episode I thought her insincerity was the greatest sin. I don’t think a service industry career is for her.

Tonight’s challenge was to run a floor at the Marriott Hotel. The teams had to prep the rooms, welcome the guests, and look after everyone of their needs. Well not everyone…..

John was the project manager for Pinnacle, and Sam  the project manager for team Eventus. They were picked as they had not had this role before.

The team that has the happiest guests wins as judged by a survey. Tonight Mark Bouris was looking increasingly confident in front of the camera.

The teams  were not thrown into the deep end they did get a 45 minute tutorial on how to run a five star establishment. I loved the way they were told the rooms should take 33 minutes to clean, sure if you were a cleaning professional. So theoretically if four of them were working on a room together it should take less than 10 minutes. I don’t think so.

Mary-Anne who I thought rocked this challenge was having to step up as John was floundering. However I did think their strategy of splitting up the cleaning roles a good one. For example John did kitchen and bathrooms, whilst Morello and Mary Ann did the bedrooms. However Mary-Ann not checking on John’s cleaning was going to be her boardroom archilles heel.

Pinnacle were slow with the rooms, but Team Eventus were even slower.

Sam start as leader had a few hiccups.  But Carmen was not making any friends with either her team mates or the guests as none of the rooms were ready. There was also some set up scenarios with a “record executive” and him needing to be on a conference call in a certain time.

But where were Pinnacles guests? It was going much more smoothly with Sabrina and Morello who were doing much better with the customer service. However Sabrina should work on her geography as when two girls told her they were from Orange, she responded “How are you finding Australia?” Huh? A lot of the time on the desk she came across as insincere.

Meanwhile John’s bathrooms were below par and Mary-Ann was again working to cover his mistakes.

Sabrina was having problems as concierge as it was taking her ages to get a list of restaurants together for a couple celebrating their anniversary. They were starting to get irritated. It was obvious these guests were set ups. I presume all have been picked and briefed to be as difficult as possible.

John is just a complete moron, why would he think it was ok to go have a cigarette at a busy time, and also at the front of the hotel. That is a firing offence.  John does not appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed, and lacks charisma.  Mary-Ann and Morello  should get at A+ for work ethic. I think Mary-Ann could have marked herself as a front runner in the competition.

Though Team Pinnacle had the party room, with Gavin dealing with the drunken boofheads quite well. Though I was hoping one of the drunks would puke in the lift just to see how they would handle it.

Sabrina came across as a bit fake with the guests particularly the disgruntled couple. She did not get that they were completely peeved, and then trying to sell them the Marriott card was just plain bizarre. Also because she thought they were high maintenance it showed she did not think any of their complaints were valid.

In the board room Heather praised Sam, but he told Mark Bouris that she was a weak link because the rooms were not ready, this was a bit rough.  I thought the General-Manager of the hotel lied to Bouris when she said that gambling with the guests would be a sackable offence. Sam only was playing along with the guest, when he flipped a phone to take the tip from $20 to $100, it was not like he was sitting down to fleece him in  poker.

John put the boot into Sabrina in the boardroom, but she and Mary-Ann were far too kind to John about his project manager skills.

Team Eventus won by three points and their reward was to go to a wine bar and be treated to some wines.

Mary-Ann got a pasting for John’s poor cleaning because she did not look over his bathrooms. I thought this was a tad unfair as she would have presumed he could clean a toilet.  Sabrina was criticised for her room service stuff ups. She said to Mark that she had no experience in “crisis management”. Christ if she thought fucking up room service dockets was a crisis, I would hate to see her how she would react if there was a product recall in a company she may be employed in.

I like the way Sabrina thought she was managing the project. I am not sure what she did outside her own area?  Her attitude to the customers got her a bollocking from Bouris. However she was far more articulate than John when it came to fighting for her life, and that was what got John fired. It was no surprise.

I liked how he said in the cab after his elimination that he thought he had skills he did not know he had. Well I had not seen any sign of it in the series.

Carmen Parnos and John Van Yzerloo At the Cox Plate

Some of The Apprentice cast were at the Cox Plate yesterday enjoying a punt, however they still do not know the winner of the show.

Apparently two endings have been filmed, supposedly so the winner cannot be leaked before the final episode, but also it is rumoured Mark Bouris is still deciding on a winner.

This week the challenge involves working in the Mariott Hotel.

In great news for the The Apprentice, and fans of the show will be happy again that the show is starting to gain traction with viewers. On Monday night The Apprentice again improved in ratings with 999,999 viewers  Australia wide. This is a huge improvement from their first episode, and the consensus is from fans that this show is really starting to hit its straps.

Also Nine will be pleased that Ladette To Lady had a good first episode with ratings of over 900,000. It appears Channel Nine are finally getting their reality TV formatting right.

Can we expect a MasterChef like rating figures for The Apprentice? Highly unlikely due to the late timeslot.

However regular commenter on this blog CG was spot on when she made these comments about The Apprentice:

One issue I think Ch9 needs to address if the availability of replays.

As I’ve said before, Monday at 9:30pm is not a great time for a reality show that is just getting off the ground. But what I really don’t understand is why the website for The Apprentice is so crappy.

Fremantle is behind both MC and The Apprentice, right? So you would think they would have some role or influence on the internet site supporting each show. MC was brilliant in that you could go to the website within an hour of each show and watch a replay without any problems. But I still can’t get The Apprentice replays to work. Just getting to the episode and trying to load it is really difficult. And once there, I’ve tried to watch the episode I missed last week several times but the video just won’t work. It spins and spins and spins and won’t play. And yes, I’ve got all the software and very high-speed BB.

They really need to think about changing the night of the week the show is played..or show it at a couple of alternative times.

I agree with all of the above. One thing I have noticed for sometime, with the exception of Channel Ten and sometimes Arena, is that the TV shows are not harnessing the potential of engaging their reality TV audience with an interactive website. Reality TV and the internet have a symbiotic relationship, and I am sure some smart person could put forward an arguement that the rise in reality TV coincided with the use of the internet.

The advent of twitter has also meant people are interacting about the show as it is on, something which must miff viewers in  different times zones. In fact Project Runway Australia judge Henry Roth tweeted throughout an episode under a Project Runway twitter account, and it was a great promotion for the show.

In fact I am considering applying for a research scholarship (Churchill Scholarship) to examine the relationship between Reality TV and other multimedia platforms, particularly examining how the US TV stations and production companies use these platforms to enhance the viewing experience, and how it attracts and retains viewers.  It would also be interesting to examine the role of reality TV bloggers and fansites in this context.

It was a crackerjack episode tonight as the contestants are really getting the hang of the this reality TV gig, they are negotiating harder, were slicker in the boardroom, as well as prepared to throw people under a bus more willingly in front of Bouris. And speaking of Mark Bouris he was on fire tonight.

I have two issues with the editing of tonight’s episode. Firstly you could tell from the outset who was going to be eliminated, and secondly NO more shots of John in his jocks. If you are going to do that give us Gavin for christ sake.

This week there was a team swap again so Team Pinnacle was Morello, Mary-Anne, John, and Sabrina with Mary-Anne as the project manager.

Eventus’s project manager Heather, Gavin, Blake, Sam and Carmen.

They were heading to Mudgee for the challenge which was to get as many punters in as possible to the pub with a special event. And you guess it the team that made the most money wins.
Team Eventus decided on a Mudgee Carnivale theme – I was hoping they were not going to wear g-strings to really get in on the spirit of the event.  They decided they were going to charge $85 for the food, however in the end Sam and Carmen talked her down to $60 a head. Which was just as well as the menu consisted of pumpkin soup, apricot chicken, and bread and butter pudding. Not that you could expect them to do gourmet as none of them are caterers.

Pinnacle’s theme was to use Sabrina as the attraction, as apparently Miss World Australia 2006 is considered celebrity these days. But then again so are reality TV stars. Sabrina did not even blush when Mary-Anne suggested it as a marketing strategy, and gushed to camera that it might bring the team over the line.

Their theme was an Italian trivia night, and their price was only $30 a head. Which even though their menu was  garlic bread, spaghetti bolognaise and gelato, they also included in the trivia night.

Eventus marketing was left to Gavin and Blake, and Gavin did the pitch. Now is Blake just really flying under the radar or does he not have much to say. I am still trying to get a handle on this guy at what his actual strengths are.

Sabrina and Morrello did great work with the marketing, and props to Sabrina for suggesting naming rights to the  printer, and Morello for negotiating the $800 payment fee.

Meanwhile Gavin was auditioning the “dancers” for the Carnivale night. Why weren’t alarm bells going off at this stage. They moved like tired hookers trying to entice a client for the evening. I did expect poles to be procured for them at one stage.

Pinnacle had a marketing issue with the posters, as it incorrectly said the current Miss World Australia was going to be there, not the 2006 version.

Team Eventus’s evening was an embarrassment. And some old aged pensioner agreed, he said the food was worth about $10, and then he saw the entertainment. Zero out of ten he awarded it. I hope they didn’t charge the poor bugger in the end, as he looked like he was the only one that ate a meal there.

Now the entertainment was bad, the girls danced even worse than at the audition, however why did Heather and Gavin get up there and think by joining in that it was going to improve it. I oscillated between cringing and laughing.

They did recoup money at the bar, plus they tried to make more money with some raffles.

In the board room Mark Bouris  appears to be really getting into his role now. He gave them a slapping about the stuff up on their marketing, and mentioned the ACCC to them this time – what a mentor.  But seriously how much of having a former beauty queen being there was a draw card? Did Sabrina sign one autograph that night?

Pinnacle made $3930.05 which was apparently $1000 more than Eventus.

Mark Bouris threatened to forfeit their win, but in the end didn’t because the team was all contrite particularly Mary-Ann. I think Mary-Ann is a dark horse in this competition and has been impressive when she has been in her comfort zone of the last two challenges.

Who to fire? Well Mark Bouris had a plethora of choices. Gavin for hiring the “dance company”, Blake for not making an impact with marketing, and Heather for pricing the menu to high.

The only two that should be safe were Carmen for doing a lot of the cooking, and also raising concerns about price early on, and Sam.

They all turned on Heather about the price except Blake who said it was a group decision.

Heather chose to bring in Blake, and Gavin into the boardroom with her. I liked the way the contestants are getting the hang of the board room now and Gavin was particularly good at throwing Blake under the bus. Which was a good choice as it was obvious, because of the editing all throughout the episode that Blake was the one that was going to be fired.

Kudos to Blake for giving his reason for staying as being someone who actually wanted to work with Mark Bouris in his business Yellow Brick Road, something some of the other contestants are not interested in doing.

I thought it was interesting the other contestants thought it was a strategy to take Gavin in to the board room with Blake to ensure he was fired. The theory being Gavin is a stronger contestant so he will be safe. But really who else could Heather take in?

And didn’t Mary-Anne looked pissed off when Heather walked in with Gavin, she was clearly not feeling the love for either of them. Carmen is showing why she was not fired in the first episode, as she continues to give reality TV gold, when she called out Heather for not nominating Blake because he had kids. As she said the same courtesy would not have been given to her.

Great show that is really hitting its straps, lets hope it increases in ratings so they make a Season Two.

Gavin McInnes and Amy Cato, both contestants on Channel Nine’s reality TV show, The Apprentice, recently contacted me, requesting comments made by readers be removed from the site.

Both Gavin and Amy contacted me concerned about comments that were made on the site by readers. Obviously I have no idea whether the reader’s remarks were defamatory, however my blog’s policy is that any reasonable request of removal of comments will be considered.  

Both contestants own businesses and are probably concerned about comments which may cause a question mark about their integrity. 

Viewers of reality TV shows can sometimes be forthright in their opinions about performances, or how the “character” is edited. Fan forums, both official and unofficial, and blogs are an important part of reality TV. Chances are contestants not going to be loved by all. Criticism will range from minor, like the clothes people are wearing, to major where people dissect personality traits.

Gavin McInnes, who requested only one comment be removed, is a corporate lawyer, who has started his own company Stone Leaf Capital, a corporate advisory and capital raising company. 

In an interview with www.Sofix.com.au he also states he is in the process of setting up Stone Leaf Finance, which will broker all types of commercial finance solutions to businesses and companies in a range of industries. The interview would also indicate if he wins the show he may not take up the prize of working with Mark Bouris for a year.
Amy who is a partner in recruitment company Cato and Hall also requested comments also be removed from Reality Ravings.

Reality TV has become a vehicle for people to promote their businesses or themselves to obtain some long term benefit for themselves or their companies.

This can have some success, for example, MasterChef Australia contestant, Chris Badenoch successfully promoted his beer business Beer Masons whilst on the show.

However conversely there is a risk if you are portrayed badly on the show your brand may become damaged.

I have just posted this article on The Punch.

The TV stations are in the final throes of the ratings year and over the past few weeks they have launched the shows to lead them into the Christmas break.

 The big three stations have included some new reality TV shows in their arsenal to win over the viewers and therefore gain advertising dollars. 

The Apprentice:

One of Channel Nine’s highly promoted new programs, made by reality TV gurus Fremantle Media. The show started off to very poor ratings of under 700,000, but this week it improved and look like it is gaining traction. The problem with attracting viewers may not be the show but people lacking faith in Nine not sticking with the program. 

Channel Nine this year have had a history of not treating their reality TV shows very well, and not giving them time to gain traction with their audience. They have pulled programs after one episode, like Dance Your Ass Off, changed the time they have been shown, Home Made, or even just shorten the programs to 30 minutes like Australia’s Perfect Couple. Or in fact just haven’t shown programs at all, like Superstars of Dance, and Survivor Gabon. 

Personally I think viewers were sceptical on whether to put the effort into watching the show when they think it will be pulled at a moments notice. 

The Apprentice is an entertaining well produced reality show. Mark Bouris who is now settling into his role, is entertaining and charismatic. There is a good mix of personalities in the contestants, with perhaps my only criticism is the likeability of a lot of them is questionable. The challenges are diverse and fun, and the boardroom scenes have the requisite amount of backstabbing in them.

Beauty And The Geek:

Channel Seven premiered Beauty and The Geek last week, this is a take off of a US program of the same name. The premise is the Geeks (the guys) teach the girls “academic” subjects, while the Beauty’s teach the geeks about girls. One team is eliminated each week. For what is a fluffy premise it really is entertaining, particularly the geeks who are witty, both intentionally and unintentionally, and who will find themselves chased by girls once they are out of the house.

 The girls most whom will be vying for Ralph photoshoots at the end of the series are not quite as engaging, and I seriously hope they are not at stupid as they are playing up to the camera. Oh and if anyone knows which airline, stewardess Jenna works for please tell, as I don’t want to be on her plane when an emergency occurs, as my confidence in her remembering the emergency procedures are low. I would guess she is playing dumb to get on the show.

 The show is rating well with an opening audience of 1.05 million last week, and they are holding and gaining viewers with 1.067 last night, with a win in most demographics. Also following on from this show is the highly entertaining The Amazing Race which deservedly wins the best reality TV show at the Emmy’s each year. 

Celebrity MasterChef:

Celebrity MasterChef was never going to live up to MasterChef Australia hype, but this Fremantle Media production is delivering solid, but not stratospheric ratings like the original did earlier this year. I think one of the reasons why Celebrity versions of shows are not as popular is because one of the great things about reality TV is seeing ordinary people breaking out of the everyday mediocrity or their lives, or discovering new personalities, and talent.

 However it is a watchable once a week show, with a nice mix of celebrities to hit their key demographics. The entertainment is in watching the contestants tackle a difficult dish which is a signature of a well known celebrity chef this week was Kylie Kwong’s delicious duck recipe. Expect to see an Adriano Zumbo creation with a high degree of difficulty later in the finals to really ensure the celebrities are really under pressure. Who can forget the chocolate cake from the last week of MasterChef Australia? It will be interesting to see if Channel Ten do another Celebrity version next year. 

Australian Idol:

Channel Ten traditionally finish their year with Australian Idol and it is not new and and is struggling with it not making the magic one million viewer mark. See a previous The Punch post on here on what has gone wrong on Australian Idol here and whether this is going to be the final season is currently the $64 million question.

Finally a new show that started a few weeks ago on Arena deserves a special shout out – Tabatha’s Takeover Salon. The reason it is hosted by Australian now living in USA, hairdresser Tabatha Coffey. It is like the Gordon Ramsay of hairdressing shows where she “takes over” struggling hair salons to make them a viable business again. Tabatha’s direct manner without the famous Ramsay aggression, and an Australian sense of humour actually makes her likeable and entertaining. It is not just a reality TV show for girls. 

At this stage none of these Australian shows have been renewed and the stations will be watching viewer demographics keenly to see if they deserve another series.

This week’s challenge was to create, make, market and to sell a completely new flavour of pie.

The winning team is the one who makes the most profit. They were given $2600 for the challenge. 

But first project managers had to be chosen Amy Cato, a business woman from South Australia was one, and Gavin McInnes the buffed lawyer was the other.

I loved how the narrator had to point out to the viewer the pro’s and cons about being the project manager, you don’t have to be a member of mensa to work that out.

Then their was a surprise twist where Amy and Gavin had to swap teams, and lead them.

Gavin said this week “it is time to bring out the personality.” which if by the following comment is anything to go is a tad chauvinistic. When talking about the women he said “They need to be controlled as the fly off the handle easily….”

The girls settled on a vegetable curry pie. Which I don’t think was actually a new flavour of pie, but maybe just not one sold at Hannah’s. They had the advantage of having Mary-Ann on the team who had been in catering and knew the tricks of ordering already peeled and washed potatoes. Also both her and Carmen were accomplished cooks.

Back at team Pinnacle Amy was doing market research on where they are going to market the pies so this delayed the discussion on what pie to make. Sam showed his frustration and Amy bawled him out about it.

I kind of got the feeling that Amy has done business 101 and was not going to diverge from the basic management strategy, white board included. To be honest I thought in this challenge Amy Cato’s likeability was pretty low. They finally decided on a lamb, potato and mint pie, that came out of one of Sam’s brain storming saying anything that comes out of his mouth ideas. He was talking about a roast, and John (I think) expanded upon it. So maybe spewing crap is not such a negative trait after all.

I was very happy they ditched the veal parmigana concept, and some of their more disgusting ideas.

They bought unwashed potatoes which took much longer to prepare. Oh and their prepping technique how much dirt was in their pie?

Then it was onto marketing. Blake’s view was “If you use your personality you don’t need a T-Shirt.” I am not sure if he was talking about his personality, as I have not seen any sign of it yet, or if it was a generic comment. But Amy insisted on T-shirts and flyers.

Gavin’s marketing plan was much more strategic as he got some free t-shirts by offering advertising of the printers logo on them. It would have been nice if Channel 9 had at least flashed the company name once.

Back to Amy and Blake they were handing out flyers at Darling Harbour the day before they were going to sell them there. How dumb was that it is tourist central where it was highly unlikely those people would be back the following day. Oh and the kicker they did not even start selling at Darling Harbour, but at Hyde Park.

At this stage of the show I was starting to wonder where Heather was, but it was later revealed she had the flu so she was staying home.

Team Eventus got to the pie machine first and were very slow, and Sabrina and Gavin disappeared after their marketing prep was done.

This resulted in the teams have a bit of a tiff over when Eventus would get off it. Carmen was tough saying we’re getting our pies done. Amy was whining “It is in the spirit of the competition to be fair,”.

That meat mixture looks disgusting, like pureed dog food. Even though they had a late start Pinnacle ended up producing more pies.

The teams was selling in two locations – Bondi Organic Markets, either Hyde Park or Darling Harbour. Obviously the last two location had to be pre- arranged. But I loved the way the narrator implied the teams had just rocked up there.

In the end the pies were being discounted with Morello selling them for below cost. I am not sure Morello is real smart.

Sabrina and Gavin were giving away t-shirts with their pies but they still had 200 pies left over.

And then it was off to the board room.

Eventus got their heads kicked in for marketing the pies as home made. And Sabrina I thought unfairly got swiped at by Mark Bouris when she pointed out that the t-shirt’s slogan said “for that home made taste”. Bouris thought it was a gray area and he said “we don’t go there”.

Personally I thought it was not a huge sin considering when I think of something as home made I think of it as hand crafted not necessarily made in a house. And the girls did do those pies by hand.

Anyway Eventus made $567.60 but if Mark Bouris thought the Home made sign was so false and misleading he should have stuck a ACCC fine on the for being false and misleading under the Trade Practices Act. Anyway he didn’t and they got to go for a meal at Quay.

Pinnacle’s net profit was $194.70 so a big loss for team Pinnacle, because $20 of that was from Eventus when they bought them out of the prime spot in the markets.

Amy started scapegoat as soon as the team’s loss was announced. But Bouris laid into them for having no pricing strategy and no margin policy. The team had not put a price upas they wanted to allow for pie price flexibility but Mark Bouris scathingly said “I don’t know any business who gives the sales team that sort of flexibility.”

Amy not surprisingly chose to bring back Sam and Morello into the boardroom.Her reasoning for Sam was because he did not express the business maturity the others had, and Morello for selling too low.

Bouris concerned that Morello is one dimensional, but kept him around for another week and it was Amy who got fired. I am not unhappy with that,  as I don’t think I saw anything dynamic or spectcular about her in her three weeks on the show.

There were some comments on this blog about Carmen Parnos and about her knowing she was going bankrupt but still getting people to do work for her knowing she would be unable to pay them.

Well this debate is playing out between the actual players in this drama on Anthill Online go and read the comments. Carmen comes out firing to people criticising her, but I still cannot work out who is telling the truth.

Also there is a link to her website Superleaders but I think the whole concept of her website is all a bit of a wank. Also I can see A Current Affair reporters chasing the disgruntle punters now.