The Apprentice, Episode 4: The Bar is Lowered

In an interview, Katrina, the member of this group of supposedly smart and successful women who has been put in charge, gleefully says, “We modeled our Planet Hollywood Shooters Girls after the Hooters girls. Hooters is so successful because of the women. Sex does sell.”

I am officially embarrassed by these women. Thousands of women were interviewed, and the eight that were chosen to go on this show are supposed to be some of the best and brightest business women in the country. But the only strategy these supposedly successful women seem to know is “sex sells.” I have never, ever seen a woman in a professional environment behave the way these women do. I am utterly disgusted that their Wiggle Your Ass School of Business knowledge is being shown as an example to girls and women everywhere.

It’s time for our Trump Segment of the Week. The title is “A Deal’s A Deal.” Trump says that if you make a deal, you should try to keep it. If you shake on a deal, you should plan to follow through on it. These are pearls of wisdom, people.

At Planet Hollywood, the girls follow their usual strategy of wearing tight tops, shaking their butts, and giggling. George asks Katrina what their plan is, and she coos, “We’re passionate!” Tammy says in an interview that Katrina didn’t have an answer for George because she had no real plan.

Apparently just showing off their cleavage is not working for Protégé Corporation; the sales figures so far are unimpressive. Ereka suggests that some of them go out and pass out coupons to tourists picking up theater tickets. Jessie isn’t sure if it will work, since coupons given away on the streets are rarely redeemed that night. Still, the girls and their tiny shirts hit the streets in an attempt to drum up business. They flirt and promise “a huge party” at Planet Hollywood, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Amy notes that the crowd seems to be used to coupons, so they’re not offering anything special. One potential customer says that he might go to Planet Hollywood the next night. The girls lie and say that the restaurant is closed that night. How ethical! As the women head back to Planet Hollywood, one of them says, “I feel like I’m pimping it out!” That’s funny, because I thought they were whoring it up.

Back at the suite, the men engage in some team bonding. They run on treadmills, play basketball, and then the real action comes when they bust out the Donald Trump board game. It’s also worth noting that there are bottles of Trump water on the table as well. Mmm, refreshing and Trump-licious! Troy says that Bill started criticizing his moves and attempted deals in the game, so Troy decides to do the same thing to Bill. The two guys pick apart each other’s strategies, and the attitude is semi-friendly, but it’s clear that both of them are getting annoyed. Finally, they agree to a truce – they’ll each stop criticizing the way the other plays the game – and they shake on it. But a few seconds later, Bill is right back at it again. In an interview, Troy says, “Bill broke the handshake deal. Bill is a snake.” I like Troy, but I think that’s taking things a little far. Bill wasn’t being a snake; Bill was being a bit of a blow-hard who got over excited at the game. Does that make him obnoxious? Absolutely, but it doesn’t make him a snake.

Back at Planet Hollywood, Jessie has decided to try something different. She brings a few tables downstairs and offers them to customers for fast service for drinks and appetizers. In an interview, Jessie says that Katrina seems mad because she moved the tables without talking to her first. Katrina tells Jessie that the tables downstairs aren’t working, so she should bring them back upstairs. Katrina thinks that Jessie is offended that she told her to move the tables, and Jessie says that she thinks Katrina is offended that she moved them without asking first. As the two of them argue about which one of them is upset, I can’t help but wonder if Katrina would have been okay with the idea if Jessie were offering lap dances instead of fast service.

It’s time to check the numbers again, and things still don’t look good. The women decide to take things up a notch by pushing shots. Heidi says that it might take twenty minutes to sell someone a $20 t-shirt, but she can see $20 worth of shots in three minutes. Kristi agrees that Heidi is fantastic at selling shots. Heidi’s technique, in case you’re curious, seems to be basically going from table to table badgering people until they agree to buy shots. If someone did that to me at a restaurant, I’d leave.

Ereka tells us in an interview that a group of men bought shots for all of the Protégé women. The women down the shots, much to the distress of the Planet Hollywood managers. One of the managers tells Kristi that employees absolutely do not drink on the job. Furthermore, the restaurant is liable if anything happens to a customer after being served too much alcohol.

The bartender announces last call. Amy is worried. She says that they did well with the shots, but those only made up 10% of their revenue.