All-Star Celebrity Apprentice star Donald Trump fired Brande Roderick during Sunday night's eighth episode of the celebrity reality competition's sixth season on NBC.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump fired the former Playmate of the Year after her "Power" team lost the season's eighth task, which required "Power" and the opposing "Plan B" team to each create an interactive travel expo for South Africa in order to accelerate tourism.
The teams were judged on the following criteria: creativity, feedback from travel professionals and overall presentation.
"I would like to say thank you to Mr. Trump for giving Promises to Kids $20,000, because you know what? You didn't have to do that. And if you did that for everybody, you'd probably go broke if you kept giving everybody money. I wanted to stay and fight for my charity. But I really thank you for that and appreciate it," Brande said following her ouster.
Brande and comedian and magician Penn Jillette then opted to serve as their teams' project managers this time around, and the winning project manager would receive a total of $20,000 for his or her charity.
ADVERTISEMENT
Brande's team -- which also featured country star Trace Adkins, rapper Lil Jon and actress Marilu Henner -- were given the "adventure package" to execute, which it had hoped to receive in a coin-toss, while Penn's team got stuck with the "romantic package." Penn's team was also comprised of actor Gary Busey and actress and former Harry Loves Lisa star Lisa Rinna.
Once in the boardroom, Trump and his advisors revealed the positives and negatives of both teams' expos. Penn's team allowed the travel professionals to feel transported back to South Africa by utilizing all five senses. They also created authenticity through dancers and imported wines. However, they didn't offer the specific locations or travel information required to sell South Africa as a travel destination.
Brande's team made a brochure that highlighted activities you could do in South Africa, and the judges liked how they started off the interactive expo with South African tea. The big problems were that it "seriously lacked unique experiences" and was called a "juvenile exhibit" -- like something you'd see at an amusement park.
In the end, Penn's team was victorious and his winnings would be going to Opportunity Village.
Lil Jon told Trump the romance angle of the expo presented Penn's team with an advantage, as it was the easier of the two tasks. However, Lil John originally fought to receive the adventure theme, so Trump jumped on him for being inconsistent. Trump said that maybe it was Lil Jon's fault his team had struggled because he initially insisted he wanted to present the adventure expo.
ADVERTISEMENT
Brande then noted she honestly couldn't say whom should be fired. Despite Trump's short beef with Lil Jon, Brande asked for the rapper's dismissal from the boardroom. Brande announced she felt she owned Lil Jon loyalty because they had been on the same team together since the first day of the competition.
Therefore, Brande brought Trace and Marilu back into the boardroom with her simply because she didn't have another choice.
Brande wasn't pointing fingers at anyone because it became clear that no specific person was to blame for anything in particular that went wrong in the task. Likewise, Trace and Marilu were reluctant to say Brande should be fired because they liked and respected her. However, the task's failure ultimately weighed on Brande's shoulders since she was the project manager.
Trump told Brande it would've been smart to replace Marilu or Trace with Lil Jon in the boardroom.
"[Lil Jon] came up with the word 'adventure.' He chose it over 'romance' and then he complained that that's the one they chose -- that they should've chose 'romance.' That's why I thought you should've brought him back instead of maybe one of these two. Does that make sense to you?" Trump asked Brande.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Well only because... there were a lot of things he contributed that were great that they liked," Brande said.
"This was your baby. There were certain things they just didn't like. At the same time, they thought you did a wonderful job... Do you find it's tough to defend yourself in this case? You're with two people that probably don't deserve to be fired. Do you agree?" Trump asked her.
"Absolutely," Brande replied.
"You know what that means, right? Brande, you're fired," Trump noted. "Great job. Thank you very much."
Because Brande had raised so much money the first time she had served as project manager this season but lost that task as well, Trump gave her Promises to Kids charity $20,000 in honor of her hard work.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski