CELEBRITY APPRENTICE 9 - EPISODE #4

SUNDAY, APRIL 4, 2010

9:00-11:00 PM NBC TV

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Donald Trump meets with the teams and informs them that for the first time in the history of Apprentice, the Project Managers will be separated from their team members in accomplishing their challenge. Project Managers:

Rock Solid - Rod Blagojavich, Tenacity - Selita Ebanks.

The Challenge : To create a3 D, interactive display to promote the Universal Studio's Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.

The Project Managers were to fly to Orlando and visit the venue and report back to team members to enable them to put together the display which would be presented to the attractions executives.

Erin Burnett and George Ross were to act as Donald's eye's and ears and report back as to him as to the progress of the project. While Rod and Selita make their trip to Orlando the teams are back in New York discussion among themselves about this type of project and their hopes for success. In particular, members of Rock Solid are particularly concerned as to what kind of Project Manager Rod will be considering he is technically illiterate. This "long distance" communication gives them great concern. At the same time, Cyndi is with the Tenacity team members attempting to institute the use of the "white board" to establish focus on the project. As usual, Cyndi is disrespected by Holly and this creates conflict between team members.

Once in Orlando, Selita and Rod go their separate ways. With information at hand, the Project Managers call their respective team members. Rod experiences difficulty even in making his call back to New York because to start, he does not know what a 3 D display means. Again much of the responsibility for creativity is assigned to Bret. The one thing that Rod can do is to delegate. He was quick to delegate the work for the project to team members. Bret - creativity, Michael - finance, Curtis - technology, Goldberg - graphics. Selita texted information to her team members and impressed them with her apparent leadership ability.

While in Orlando, Rod and Selita were given a tour and allowed to take merchandise from the store for use in their display in New York.

Once back in New York the two teams set out to plan and expedite their projects.

Maria, from Tenacity, seeing the conflict among the other team members steps up and assumes a leadership role for the sake of success of the project. She contacts Selita for help in unifying the team to accomplish this project.

The Project Managers leave Orlando on their return to New York. Selita, using her flight time to research the world of Harry Potter and do preparatory work on the project prepared herself to be the advisor for the project. Rod is just settled back for a good nap - with no apparent effort being expended to learn more about Harry Potter. (Of course, Rod is a fan of Harry Potter and I think he thinks he knows all they need to know and this just gives him time to chill out.) Because Rod lacks the technical skills to text his team members and doesn't want to have Selita hearing any of his conversation with team members he doesn't even call them to check in on the progress of the project.

George Ross checks in with Team Tenacity and gets informed by Summer as to their progress. He seems impressed that they are doing quite well and that their project is an ambitious one. At the same time, Erin Burnett checks in with Team Rock Solid. Although Bret likes Erin, he is not sure that she likes their concept/presentation.

The Project Managers return. Rod seems pleased with the progress and the creative work that Bret and Goldberg have done, but is upset to find Michael and Curtis not helping with the project. He realizes that the team is not too well organized. Rod shares his decision that their presentation will be "unscripted" and that they will improvise. This decision does not set well with other team members. Furthermore, Rod delegates Curtis and Michael to get props needed for the display, yet provides little or no information as to what is needed. Rob stays close to Bret, getting on his nerves . Curtis is becoming annoyed because it is increasingly evident that Rod has difficulty making decisions.

Rock Solid's project was to tell the story of the Professor and the Whomping Willow, the Head Master and some "creepy" guy. They were left to "wing" the story once the initial presentation was made to the executives and fans.

Selita surveys the project's progress and immediately makes changes to things that she feels are not correct. She makes assignments, assuming responsibility for presentation of the project and assigning Maria to the "wand room".

The Presentation

Tenacity - Selita, in her best (which is not good) English accent welcomes the executives and fans after which Sharon escorts fans, through the mouth of the dragon, inside where they are welcomed by Cyndi. and then taken to Summer, in the wand room, where she works her interactive magic.

Rock Solid - They give the executives and fans a brochure and then proceed to give each a magic hat and tell them which school they should be in. The children are ushered into the room with the whomping willow (Goldberg) and with their wand are able to move the whomping willow while Michael stands by like some evil character. The interior of the display is filled with smoke and as it increases it becomes almost impossible to see what is going on. The executives pose a question about the rides that are found at the attraction, but Curtis and even Rod are unable to come up with an answer. ( Bad news, this shows a lack of research into the attraction)

Executives Response to the Displays They felt that Team Tenacity had the more accurate story presentation but that Team Solid Rock's display was more entertaining for the children. The Executives took a poll of the children to see which display they liked best.

The Final Results Donald asked each team about their critique as to team interaction. Rock Solid felt that Rod was hampered by his lack of technical skills and that although he delegated, he did not give "vision" to team members and cast most of the responsibility for the display on Bret. Interestingly enough, Bret complimented Rod and Rod felt that Bret was a great strength of the project. Even Bill Goldberg expressed that Rod was not a strong Project Manager. Erin told Rock Solid about their inaccuracies and inconsistencies. (Obviously, there was insufficient research performed. This was the second time that that fact became evident.) Selita, Project Manager for Team Tenacity was asked who she would bring back into the Boardroom and she said that she would not make that decision until she knew whether or not they had lost. ( smart decision) It was revealed that the children liked Team Tenacity's display best but that the executives felt that it did not tell enough about the theme park. In the end, however, the children liked Tenacity's display the best. Tenacity was declared the winner. Selita was given $20,000 for her chosen charity. . . Shine on Sierra Leone.

Who Will Be "Fired" ? Members of Team Rock Solid remained in the Boardroom while Team Tenacity were dismissed to the "War Room". Michael was the first to speak up and he expressed that he felt that the loss was Rod's fault since he did not give Bret and the team the "vision" to create, even though Rod felt that they had a winning product. Curtis expressed that he felt that Bret was a good creative force but that Rod failed him and the team as a result of poor communication. When asked who he would bring back to the Boardroom, Rod said that he would bring Curtis and Michael. With the three of them facing the Donald, Rod said that he felt that Curtis should be fired because he did not do his part in communication. ( very interesting) Curtis in turn said that Rod didn't even know what was going on because he never texted them and that furthermore he was a poor Project Manager. Rod rebutted and said that he felt that he had conveyed needed information to the team and that he didn't need to know the product. Well, apparently The Donald didn't fall for Rod's brand of politics and issued the order - "Rod, you're fired".

So Much for the Governor - Fired Again! Tsk, Tsk.