The Apprentice: Los Angeles Weekly Performance Review, Episode 9

However, Arrow’s performance in the Boardroom was horrible, one of the worst ever. First off, many questions were asked that never got answered. If this was the editing, then fine, the blame goes there. But, that didn’t seem possible in the case of Ivanka’s first two questions. This means that information that may have changed the result never saw the light of day.

The kicker was when Trump asked them all who should be fired. Is this a new question for this show? Neither Angela nor Heidi had prepared a response, nor could they deliver an opinion on the spur of the moment. As it was, together it took them three-and-a-half minutes to come up with a name – and then, the topic was revisited!

If Trump asks if they’d rather have Mays or Mantle on their baseball team, to him, not having an answer even after being pressed for a response, that’s the worst scenario. He wants people with opinions, not wafflers. What we saw exhibited poor pre-meeting preparation and ineffective decision-making. I think both Angela and Heidi damaged themselves in Trump’s eyes by handling this foreseeable predictable moment so badly.

Angela:
Trump called Angela out for being UTR (under the radar) this week – incorrectly! He seemed to feel that people not on camera were not contributing, whereas she worked all day behind the scenes. I do note the option of Angela taking on an acting role never came up.

Angela was active in the initial brainstorming session, and was the one who voiced the idea that the “timings” task was good for Muna. She also made helpful editing suggestions when they were trying to salvage something useful from the filming.

Angela needed to step forward if she wants this job, because based on the résumé’s of the others and what we’ve seen to date from her, she’s not going to win. This week, we got an indication that she can in fact make contributions. I’m going to give Angela a SATISFACTORY rating.

And can someone please tell Trump that the Russians are not a force in International Women’s Hockey? It’s a two-team sport, Canada and the U.S., with the next best teams not even on the radar at this point. In fact, only once in the history of the sport has another team (Sweden, not Russia) finished better than third in any major event (hence, Angela’s bronze medal)! Phew, rant over!

Heidi:
Heidi came up with their basic idea, which they called “Washing up dirty little Seacrest.” Oh, sorry, wrong show – make that, “Washing up dirty little Secrets!” Great idea, and it could have developed into a winner with decent execution.

This week, Trump referred to Heidi as, “My former superstar. Former.” She’s quietly been taking those shots with a smile and a laugh. Does she have a rebuttal she’s saving for a time when it matters more, or is she defenseless to the charge? She needs to rid herself of the label of “former star” soon, because it’s a negative image that is sticking in Trump’s mind.

As far as her performance in their webisode, the camera loved Heidi and she said her lines well. I’m not sure this is a skill Trump is seeking, but of them all, Heidi was the best actor.

In the Yahoo webisode Heidi told us she tried to get Muna to slow down her delivery. Good for her for trying to take corrective action, that hasn’t happened on this team much of late.

Pre-boardroom, Heidi told us, “I’m going in there to be honest and fair, and keep my mouth shut as much as I can.” That didn’t work out so well, with Heidi scrambling even less successfully than Angela. The important question of what Heidi may or may not have told Muna about keeping her in the game never got resolved, as even Heidi’s responses seemed conflicting. What is clear is that Heidi let that question handcuff her, though.

As Muna left the show, Heidi said, “Wow, a lot of pressure on Heidi. That was like the hardest thing I had to do in my life.” If that’s true, I would like to trades lives with Heidi.

Considering the positives of her task work and offsetting for her iffy work in the Boardroom, I’ll assign Heidi a solid SATISFACTORY rating.

Kristine:
Kristine got the team off to a good start brainstorming a plot for their video, and contributed to it herself, knowing there had to be a slut in there somewhere. But then it all broke down for her.

Kristine was faced with a difficult decision this week. Muna was reluctant to take the role she was assigned, and in the name of team harmony, Kristine took what she called “the path of least resistance” and made the decision to put her in front of camera instead. Trump wants to see backbone, not knuckling under to try and make everyone happy.

Trump himself said, “This was either very good leadership, or very bad.” Understanding both sides of the decision had pitfalls, I tend to lean to the latter. Muna might have been moody, but she’d have performed the tasks she was given without sabotage.

Although requests can always be considered, the PM makes the task assignments. Working for a living often means you have to do things you don’t like, and this was only for a day. When Muna gave her a half-hearted way out, Kristine should have jumped on it and put Muna behind the scenes.