Candidates

Weekly results

Weekly summary

Week 1: "Meet the Billionaire"

• Air date: January 8, 2004
• Task: Starting with seed money, purchase supplies and sell lemonade on the streets of New York.
• Protégé project manager: Ereka
• Versacorp project manager: Troy
• Winning team: Protégé Corporation
  • Reasons for win: The women won by 3-1 margin of earnings. They stay in Midtown and use the promises of kisses to sell lemonade for five dollars a glass.
  • Reward: Visit Donald Trump in his penthouse suite, taking in the pleasures of true fortune.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: The men choose to sell in the Fulton Fish Market area.
  • Sent to boardroom: Troy, David, and Sam
  • Trump's comments: The men are excoriated for choosing a horrible location, where there is a putrid smell of fish.
• Fired: David, for not showing Trump anything as leader or follower.
• Dramatic tension: Sam, one of the members of Versacorp, begins to get on the other's nerves by his crazy antics, including fruitlessly trying to sell a single glass of lemonade for $1,000.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • Though originally 90 minutes long, the repeated airing of the episode was cut to 60 minutes.
  • 18.5 million people watched this episode's initial airing, fulfilling NBC's expectations for the much-anticipated premiere. In fact, the series premiere came in 7th place for the week it aired.
  • When Versacorp enters the boardroom, Trump is already sitting in his chair. This is the only Apprentice episode ever where Trump arrives in the boardroom before the candidates.

Week 2: "Sex, Lies and Altitude"

• Air date: January 15, 2004
• Task sponsor: Marquis Jet Card
• Task: Both teams are to design an advertising campaign to sell private jet service, which they must pitch to the owner of the company.
• Protégé project manager: Amy
• Versacorp project manager: Jason
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: The women take Donny Deutsch's advice to "swing for the fences" by creating a sexy and edgy print and screen ads. They design a campaign showing depicting parts of the aircraft in black and white artistic shots with sexual overtones and pitch it to the owner wearing flight attendant outfits.
  • Reward: A dinner in Boston.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: The men, lagged down with Jason's commanding and overly aggressive leadership style and Sam's inability to focus on the job, choose a safer route, something that all ad agencies have seen before. They design a functional campaign with photos of the cockpit and a passengers designed to illustrate the utility and convenience of the service.
  • Sent to boardroom: Jason, Nick, and Sam
  • Trump's comments: Trump is aghast that Jason, the Versacorp project manager, did not meet with company's owner at the beginning and thereby learn that he wanted a flashier campaign.
• Fired: Jason, for not meeting with the client at the start of the task. Trump felt that the decision was tough but had no choice but to fire Jason since it is really important to meet up with the client in the business world. Since Jason didn't meet up with the client and Trump apparently liked Jason, Jason had to go since to Trump, what is called "a firing mistake" was made.
  • Dramatic tension: Sam further aggravates his team members and is excoriated for taking a nap on the floor during the afternoon.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • Controversy surrounds this episode because Omarosa claims that Ereka called her the N-word. However, Ereka denies the claims, going so far as to take lie detector tests to prove that she did not verbally assault Omarosa.
  • This episode is the first time that the Project Manager has the words "Project Manager" in their name at the bottom of the screen instead of their job.
  • 20.2 million people watched this episode's initial airing. The episode, which came in 5th for the week it aired, converted about two million more Apprentice-wannabees.

Week 3: "Respect"

• Air date: January 22, 2004
• Task: The teams are given a scavenger list of items which they are required to purchase during the day at the lowest possible total price.
• Protégé project manager: Jessie
• Versacorp project manager: Sam
  • In a "put up or shut up" maneuver, Sam is appointed project manager by the men. He splits the men into two teams, with him and two others staying back at the suite to perform reconnaissance by phone and over the web.
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: The women split into two groups, each of which goes into the city. The women used their sexual appeal to seduce the sellers into selling their goods at a lower price, namely the gold bar.
  • Reward: Dinner at the 21 Club restaurant.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: Sam, believing that it is important to purchase the gold bar early in the day, directs the men away from other tasks to purchase it, but they are unable to buy it with any discount.
  • Sent to boardroom: Sam, Kwame, and Bowie
• Trump's comments: Trump is disgusted at the men's failure for the third week in a row and Sam's incompetence, especially in regard to the decision to send his team members away from other tasks to buy the gold bar, which would have a very small discount compared to the other items on the list.
• Fired: Sam, in the "easiest decision yet", according to Trump and his associates. Trump says his trademark dismissal quote, "You're fired!" to Sam four times and for good reason—Sam's leadership was considered to be too weak.
• Dramatic tension: Ereka and Omarosa get into a fight in the last episode, and it continues in this episode, and Katrina stepped in and tried to make them reconcile, but it didn't work.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • Sam's firing in this episode was named number 96 on TV Guide / TV Land's 100 Most Memorable TV Moments in December 2004.

Week 4: "Ethics Schmethics"

• Air date: January 29, 2004
• Task sponsors: Planet Hollywood
• Task: The teams are required to collectively manage the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Times Square on successive evenings, with the performance judged by the increase in profits over the same day the previous year.
• Protégé project manager: Katrina
• Versacorp project manager: Kwame (Nick had restaurant experience but didn't want to take the risk of assuming project manager role)
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: The women go first, and choose to focus on increasing alcohol sales. The women again used their sexual appeal to increase sales.
  • Reward: Protegé won a trip to a top-notch golfcourse where they enjoyed the driving range and the course. There, Donald Trump informed the ladies that they have more to show than just their sex appeal and that he would like to see more of that.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: On the next night, the men keep several of their members on the sidewalk hawking coupons and sell basketballs autographed by Kwame, who is African American, with the tacit assumption that he is a basketball star (although never stating so). Nick gets disgusted at the ploy, which had been originally suggested by Troy, and is attacked by his teammates and Trump for quitting the challenge and his lack of enthusiasm.
  • Sent to boardroom: Kwame, Bowie, and Nick
  • Trump's comments: Increasing alcohol sales was the key, which the men missed.
• Fired: Bowie, mostly by process of elimination. Bowie's firing is one of the rare instances which Trump elected to fire someone through an elimination process. Trump stated that he saw qualities in Kwame that he knows he could do something good with it. He also wanted Nick to be project manager for the next week. Trump, giving no further explanation for the firing of Bowie, later mentioned how much he liked Bowie and what a difficult decision the firing had been.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • 18.9 million people watched this episode's initial airing, which came in 6th place for the week
  • In this episode, Trump talks to the women of Protege about their selling tactics, and how in all of the tasks so far, they have relied upon their sexuality

Week 5: "Trading Places"

• Air date: February 5, 2004
  • The teams are reorganized by "corporate restructuring", with the names retained but now mixed by sex.
• Task: Starting with seed money, the teams are required to purchase items and sell them at the greatest profit return at an open-air flea market.
• Protégé project manager: Kristi
• Versacorp project manager: Nick
• Winning team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for win:
  • Reward: A tour of the Yankee Stadium.
• Losing team: Protégé
  • Reasons for loss: The Versacorp team yielded a profit of over $600, whereas Protégé finished in the red. Additionally, the members of Protégé lost $183 on this task, and its location could not be accounted for.
  • Sent to boardroom: Kristi, Heidi, and Omarosa
• Fired: Kristi, for not defending herself, poor decision making styles and leadership. She was heavily criticized for failing to secure the money.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • Donald Trump warns the new teams sex appeal won't cut it in the real world in reorganising the teams.
  • This episode marks the first time that women are ever pulled into the final boardroom. Versacorp's Project Manager, Kristi, chooses to bring Heidi and Omarosa into the final boardroom, where Kristi becomes the first woman fired on The Apprentice.
  • George Ross does not appear in this episode because of a business trip. He is replaced (temporarily) by Bernie Diamond.

Week 6: "Tit for Tat"

• Air date: February 12, 2004
• Task: This week's task is to raise money for charity at a Sotheby's celebrity auction. The teams are told to sign up celebrities for an auction to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. The celebrities that took part in the auction were Regis Philbin, Rocco DiSpirito, Carson Daly, Tiki Barber, Ed Bernero (an Executive Producer of Third Watch), Russell Simmons, Kate White (the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine), Nicole Miller, the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Isaac Mizrahi.
• Protégé project manager: Omarosa
• Versacorp project manager: Bill
• Winning team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for win:
  • Reward: None, as this was a charity event, Trump decided that the feeling of raising money for a charity was reward enough.
• Losing team: Protégé
  • Reasons for loss:
  • Sent to boardroom: Omarosa, Heidi, and Jessie
• Fired: Jessie, for not defending herself after being insulted by Omarosa.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • A romance began between Nick and Amy.

Week 7: "Dupe-lex"

• Air date: February 19, 2004
• Task: The teams restore and rent out apartments.
• Protégé project manager: Troy
• Versacorp project manager: Katrina
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: Protégé Corporation finally won after leasing their apartment with a 27% rent increase.
  • Reward: A trip to Donald Trump's mansion in Bedford for a picnic.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: Versacorp only gained 10% in the rent.
  • Sent to boardroom: Katrina, Bill, and Tammy
• Fired: Tammy, for being disloyal to her team.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • Omarosa received a bump on the head by a falling piece of plaster.
  • Heidi finds out her mother has cancer.
  • Amy, who was originally reshuffled onto Versacorp, is brought back to Protégé Corporation because of the 6 vs. 4 deficit

Week 8: "Ice Escapades"

• Air date: February 26, 2004
• Task: Both teams sell bottled water called "Trump Ice" with Donald Trump's photo on each bottle.
• Protégé project manager: Heidi
• Versacorp project manager: Ereka
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: Protégé brought in more money for the win.
  • Reward: A helicopter tour of New York City in Mr. Trump's private chopper.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss:
  • Sent to boardroom: Ereka, Bill, and Nick
• Fired: Ereka, for letting her emotions influence her decision-making (she let her friend Katrina go back up to the suite so she could fight in the boardroom against Bill).
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • 20.0 million people watched this episode's initial airing. Despite the big numbers, the installment came in at No. 11 on the weekly charts.

Week 9: "DNA, Heads and the Undead Kitty"

• Air date: March 4, 2004
• Task: This week's task is to pick one artist from an array of controversial and strange painters, sculptors, and other kinds of artists, and then sell the art at a gallery. Protégé Corporation picks a surrealist artist named Meghan Boody. Versacorp sticks with a more mainstream artist named Andrei Petrov, who specializes in abstract art paintings.
• Protégé project manager: Kwame
• Versacorp project manager: Nick
• Winning team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for win: Versacorp sold 8 pieces for $13,600, blowing Protégé out of the water.
  • Rewards: Nick is awarded with 10 minutes alone with Mr. Trump, talking about the tricks of the trade.
• Losing team: Protégé
  • Reasons for loss: Protégé sold one piece for $869 whereas Versacorp sold only 8 pieces for more than $10,000.
  • Sent to boardroom: Kwame, Heidi, and Omarosa
• Fired: Omarosa, for making too many excuses.
  • Trump's comments: Trump apparently is fed up with Omarosa's horde of excuses and felt that the team would perform better without Omarosa.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • After a highly emotional board room, where Omarosa breaks down because of her "concussion", she becomes the 9th to be fired.
  • Project Manager Nick chooses Amy to come to his side, Versacorp, for this task.
  • Midway through Trump's discussion with Carolyn and George, Omarosa walks in and complains. This marks the first time a candidate has interrupted Trump and his viceroys midway through a discussion.

Week 10: "Wheeling and Dealing"

• Air date: March 11, 2004
• Task: The teams take over a pedicab shift. Protégé Corporation sells prepaid punch cards. Versacorp sells advertising on the rickshaws that they ride. Amy uses previous contacts made in the game to quickly amass a large amount of advertising commitments. Kwame spends much of the afternoon as a driver but without being able to land a single fare. After one of the ads (for a restaurant) is found to have fallen off one of Versacorp's pedicabs, Nick angers his teammates by going back to the restaurant owner and returning the full amount paid. When Troy sees Versacorp's pedicab advertising, he realizes Protégé is sunk and in a rare moment of humility states, "It was a great idea. I didn't have it." With Protégé's victory disappearing into thin air, Heidi begins swearing under her breath at passersby when she is unable to convince them to buy rides.
• Protégé project manager: Troy
• Versacorp project manager: Bill
• Winning team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for win: Versacorp sold $3680.
  • Rewards: A ride around Manhattan on a yacht name Calypso.
• Losing team: Protégé
  • Reasons for loss: Protégé earned a little over $380.
  • Sent to boardroom: Troy and Heidi
• Fired: Heidi, for not doing her best in each task and for "not having her head in the game", according to Trump. She was criticised by Carolyn.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • There are ethical battles and morale-boosting schemes.
  • A new rule is imposed in this episode: when a team is down to 3 members, the Project Manager sends 1 person up to the suite, and goes into the final boardroom with the other.

Week 11: "A Look Back"

• Air date: March 18, 2004
• Notes:
• Recap of first ten weeks, along with previously unaired footage.
• No new task, no firing.
• This episode was added because NBC did not want the show to compete against CBS' coverage of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship first round games, knowing how the ratings of the tournament, would be too hard to compete against because of the heavily regionalised coverage of the tournament. Likewise, Mark Burnett Productions refuses to let The Apprentice compete head-to-head against CBS' Survivor, which is also a Mark Burnett production.
• One particularly humorous outtake was the one featuring Omarosa calling in the doctor to get advice on her "terrible head injury". When the doctor said it was nothing serious, she was not satisfied, and proceded to check into the hospital.

Week 12: "Circus, Circus"

• Air date: March 25, 2004
• "Corporate Reshuffle": Having faced losses in the last two tasks, Protégé Corporation is down to two candidates against four on Versacorp. As in the past when the teams have become overly uneven, Trump has the smaller team choose a player from the winning team. Kwame and Troy select Bill, breaking with the "tradition" of picking Amy. Versacorp now consists of Amy, Katrina and Nick.
• Task: The teams head to Atlantic City, New Jersey where they will be responsible for registering gamblers at the Trump Taj Mahal Resort and Casino. The team whose registered gamblers wager the most money wins. Protégé's priority was to get the people to gamble as much as possible, rather than to attract as many gamblers as possible. In a bid to get people to stay, Protégé decided to raffle off $1,000 cash late in the evening. Versacorp also raffled off a prize at the end of the night where the lucky winner could either have a drive in an expensive sports car or collect $300, this prize however was far less effective of making the people stay. Protégé decided to send in two caged tigers where the people gambling for Versacorp were to distract them from gambling. At the end of the night, Protégé attracted slightly fewer gamblers than Versacorp, but the gamblers of Protégé wagered much more each.
• Protégé project manager: Kwame
• Versacorp project manager: Amy
• Winning team: Protégé
  • Reasons for win: Protégé is able to earn over $123,000.
  • Reward: Stay in The Trump Taj Mahal with $3000 in gambling money, and also is allowed to stay in the best suite there.
• Losing team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for loss: At the end of the task, Versacorp takes in over $105,000.
• Sent to boardroom: Amy and Katrina
• Fired: Katrina, by default. The team members all performed poorly. Given past results, Trump decided that Amy was the better leader and that Katrina should be fired.
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • This is the first time Amy has been on a losing team, breaking her ten-week streak. She currently holds the record for longest time ever without losing a challenge.
  • George Ross does not appear in this episode. Mark Brown replaces him while he is away.
  • Katrina tried to use her sexuality to convince the Chrysler executive into letting them auction off the Chrysler Crossfire.
  • 22.8 million people watched this episode's initial airing, rebounding from last week and building upon the recap episode by five million viewers, pushing it far enough to take second place for the week.
  • The "showmance" between Nick and Amy reaches a climax when Trump finds out about it in the boardroom.

Week 13: "The Price is Height"

• Air date: April 1, 2004
• Task: This week's task is to rent out a luxurious penthouse for one evening at Trump World Tower for no less than $20,000 for one night. The catch is it must be rented for at least $20,000.
• Protégé project manager: Troy
• Versacorp project manager: Nick
• Winning team: Versacorp
  • Reasons for win: Versacorp took in $40,800 for the win.
  • Reward: A flight and lunch to Trump's Mar-A-Lago private club in Palm Beach, Florida. Amy's sister and Nick's father surprised them on the plane.
• Losing team: Protégé
  • Reasons for loss: Protégé took in $35,001.
  • Sent to boardroom: Troy and Kwame
  • Firing verdict:During the boardroom, Bill, Kwame, and Troy were asked about their education. Troy only held a high school diploma, while Kwame held a Masters degree from Harvard, and Bill has a college degree from Loyola University, both schools Trump knew well. Troy would fire Kwame, so Bill was not nominated onto the Boardroom. Troy and Kwame would face the final wrath of Trump after Trump took time to review the performance of the Boardroom Nominees.
• Fired: Troy, for being a loose cannon
• Notes:
  • Episode recap from NBC.com
  • 20.2 million people watched this episode's initial airing, just edging into the top five for the week.
  • In this episode, a man is fired, the first time this has happened in 8 weeks.

Week 14: "Down to The Wire"

• Air date: April 8
• Last episode before April 15 live finale
• The final four candidates face demanding interviews with four Trump advisors.
• Nick got fired first because he was a respected sales representative, but he lacked leadership. This caused Trump to seal Nick's fate. Amy later on got fired because not too many people respected Amy and Trump's advisors had nothing but negative comments about her.
• Bill and Kwame are the finalists.
• The last six fired candidates return to be "employees" of Bill and Kwame for the final task. Bill chooses Amy, Katrina and Nick for his staff; Kwame selects Heidi, Omarosa and Troy.
• For the final task, Bill and Kwame will each have to oversee a major event. Bill is assigned a golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, New York. Kwame gets a Jessica Simpson concert at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• Omarosa does not fulfill her duties, and Jessica Simpson ends up being lost.
• Episode recap from NBC.com

Week 15: "Season Finale"

• Air Date: April 15
• Jessica Simpson booked her own transportation, without informing Kwame, and arrived at the hotel safely with her band. At the golf tournament, Bill lost track of some of the inventory.
• Omarosa broke orders and took Jessica Simpson away when she was supposed to meet with Donald Trump. Trump gets impatient as Kwame is unable to locate Ms. Simpson.
• Omarosa continues to make attacks concerning Kwame's handling of the Jessica Simpson concert.
• Both tasks are successful. Trump introduced Simpson at her concert, and donated $25,000 to Operation Smile, an organization which Simpson sponsors.
• Who is hired: Bill, because Trump thought Bill did a very good job and Carolyn had nothing but positive comments about Bill. He gets to choose from two jobs, and has only three minutes to decide. He selects the project of overseeing the building of Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, Illinois, on the site of the present Chicago Sun-Times Building. The other option he had was to oversee and manage a new Trump National Golf Course and resort in Los Angeles.
• Who gets fired: Kwame, because Omarosa lied to Kwame twice and for his failure for not "re-firing" Omarosa for those lies.
  • Trump's comments about Kwame's flaws: Trump was aghast when he found out that Kwame didn't fire Omarosa for excessive false testimony and wanted to know why Kwame didn't re-fire Omarosa.
• Part of this episode is taped at the same time as the Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica' second season premiere. Only footage with Donald Trump introducing Jessica at the concert is seen, as footage featuring Kwame and his team had to be removed so everything would remain a secret until the first part of The Apprentice final task would air.

Trivia

• Ereka Vetrini was the co-host of The Tony Danza Show for the first season.
• In 2005's "Hottest Girls in Reality Shows" calendar, Katrina Campins appeared and posed like a supermodel with several New York City towers in the background of her swimsuit picture.
• Bill Rancic was only 4-9 (with a 2-0 Project Manager Record) and Kwame Jackson was 3-10 (1-2 as Project Manager) in the 13 weeks. It is the only time in Apprentice history where the Final Two each had a losing record in all of the episodes throughout the season, because of all of the switching of members of teams.