'All-Star Celebrity Apprentice' star Donald Trump fires former champion Bret Michaels

All-Star Celebrity Apprentice star Donald Trump fired Bret Michaels from the franchise's first-ever all-stars edition during Sunday night's broadcast of the celebrity reality competition's sixth-season premiere on NBC.


Trump fired the rock star and reality TV star after his "Power" mixed-gender team lost the season's first task, which required "Power" and the opposing "Plan B" team to each make signature meatballs and sell them to paying charitable donors and customers at their own little meatball shops. 

"I chose a team that took a big chance on [Omarosa Manigault]. She is an absolute manipulative villain and she got into Brande's head. But you know what? I'd be back here in a second. If I got asked to come back tomorrow, then I come back and fight again," Bret, who won The Celebrity Apprentice's third season, said following his ouster.

All-Star Celebrity Apprentice's first episode began with Trump meeting with the season's celebrity cast and revealing he would be breaking them up into two teams by designating two team captains -- Bret, who won The Celebrity Apprentice's third season, and country star Trace Adkins, who finished as the runner-up on its first season -- to pick their own teams and telling the celebrities they would have to choose a name and a project manager for their assigned team.

Trace got to pick first and selected comedian and magician Penn Jillette. Bret then picked Omarosa, who originally competed on the first season of The Apprentice. Although he knew she was best remembered as being an outspoken villain, he figured it would be best to have her fighting on his side. Trace then picked rock star and former Growing Up Twisted star Dee Snider, and Bret selected rapper Lil Jon.


Trace then chose actress Marilu Henner and Bret called out former Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick. Trace picked actor Stephen Baldwin, Bret picked singer La Toya Jackson and then actress and former Harry Loves Lisa star Lisa Rinna was asked to be a member of Trace's team.

Afterward, Bret selected model Claudia Jordan and Trace picked actor Gary Busey. Finally, Bret was left with retired NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman. It apparently didn't bother Dennis he was the last contestant picked.

While announcing their team names, each team also revealed its first project manager of the season. Bret's "Power" team had Brande serving as the project manager and Trace wanted to be his "Plan B" team's first leader. Omarosa openly disagreed with her team's decision, as she thought it would be best to have Bret lead the pack considering he had already won the show and was knowledgeable of how things worked. Omarosa called Bret out for his lack of gumption.

Trump told the celebrities that the team to raise the most money for charity by making the highest profit would win the task. In addition, both teams had to present one of their meatballs on the Live with Kelly and Michael show. The better tasting meatball would win that team a bonus sum of money. All the proceeds would go to the winning project manager's charity.

Both teams had to overcome some small problems and setbacks in order to run their meatball shops successfully. Bret thought he might've made a mistake in delegating Brande as the project manager because of how she was running things and Dennis contributed little to Bret's team physically. Brande also had one big donor, a billionaire, who failed to come through, and she thought it was going to ruin her chances of winning.


Trace's team had no one coming in, as the country star put signs up in the windows saying "closed for a private function." Most of his teammates thought he was making a big mistake because they could make extra money by opening the store to the general public. Trace, however, was just relying on big donors. And although that was a risk, he was confident in what he was bringing in.

After both teams were finished running their meatball shops for the day, they met with Trump and his advisors Ivanka Trump and Piers Morgan in the boardroom.

Dennis announced Brande did a better job than Bret would have as project manager and then Omarosa called Bret out, saying he had orchestrated one of the biggest fronts in The Apprentice history. Omarosa told Trump that Bret had promised Brande he was "stacked" and could collect a lot of money for her as long as she stepped up to the plate as the team leader. Omarosa was suggested Bret set Brande up.

Penn then noted he thought Trace was a brave, inspiring and fun project manager. Trace acknowledged Stephen was the weakest link on his team and would most likely be fired if they were to lose the challenge. Stephen admitted he didn't bring in a penny, so if they lost, he accepted his position on the chopping block.

The teams then learned Kelly and Michael both decided they liked Brande's meatball better, so they gave her team an additional $20,000 to her team's total. Before revealing the amount of money each team had collected, Trump told them more money was raised by both teams in the first episode than any other prior season.


Ivanka then announced Brande's team raised a total of $230,533, plus the $20,000 from Kelly and Michael, totaling just north of $250,000. Trace's team raised $419,539. Trace's team was the declared the winner and Trace received over $670,000 for his American Red Cross charity.

Trace's team then left the boardroom and Brande was in the line of fire because as project manager, she wasn't ontop of who was bringing in the most or least money -- nor did she keep track of numbers. She assigned accounting to Omarosa and completely trusted her with the job.

Therefore, Brande blamed Omarosa for blindly collecting the money and not keeping her updated throughout the day on which contestants were bringing in the most cash, claiming her teammates weren't being truthful about how much money they really racked in. Ivanka, Trump and "Power" agreed Brande simply should've had a stronger grasp on what was going on at all times.

Brande then opted to take LaToya and Bret back into the boardroom with her, assuming they had raised the least amount of money -- although she didn't have proof. Trump was confused as to why Brande left Omarosa, her team's accountant out of it since the numbers didn't add up correctly, but Brande said she didn't think Trump would fire her because he liked her a lot.

LaToya suggested Brande should be fired, but Trump noted Brande's redeeming feature was that she raised the most money on her team. Trump said in the history of his show, he's never fired the person who raised the most money, and Brande brought in a whopping $132,000.


"You're asking me to pick you as a winner again, which I thought was crazy... You're the only one [of my winners] who agreed to come back, which is bravery or not-so-smart," Trump told Bret. "But look, deep down, even if you did great, psychologically, it's awfully hard for me to pick you again. That's why I was so -- it was incredulous to me that you came back."

"Stealers won six times. I'm from Pittsburgh," Bret argued.

"No, I know that. But it's different," Trump interjected.

"It's not different to me. I'm back here as a fighter, as a winner," Bret insisted.

"But Bret, you've been a winner. You are a winner. You're great. Bret, you're fired. I'm sorry. Go, thank you. I cannot fire somebody that raised that kind of money," Trump explained. "Bret, you're a great guy."


Trump then looked at Brande across the table and told her to get a little more street-smart because she wasn't too good in the task and came across a little naive.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski