The Apprentice 3 Finale: Live From New York

Welcome to the finale of The Apprentice 3. I’m sure everyone who watched the finale of The Apprentice 2 joins me in being very glad that this is only an hour and not three. We start with a recap of the show, giving us the results of each and every task, highlighting in particular the accomplishments of our final two candidates, Kendra and Tana.

In the end, each woman had served as project manager three times. Kendra’s 3-0 record beat Tana’s of 2-1. Kendra is the president of a real estate company, is undefeated as project manager, and excels at marketing. Tana is the mother of two, owner of a successful clothing business, and one of the top Mary Kaye salespeople in the country. In her time on the show, she demonstrated a positive attitude and incredible negotiating skills. For their final tasks, the two candidates were given a staff of three challenging former teammates. Tana was bombarded with problems, whereas Kendra had a brief problem with a sponsor, but overall did a great job. Who will win?

Trump welcomes us to the live finale and says, “Let’s get to work.” He accuses Tana of losing control of her team and of mocking them. Tana denies losing control and admits that she poked fun at her team, something she now regrets. She says she should not have prejudged her teammates, that they really pulled through in the end for her. Trump points out that she acted superior, in particular when, at the end of the task, she hung back until they left so she could get in the limo alone and avoid the riff raff. Tana says that she was just being funny. Trump doesn’t think Tana’s team likes her very much. Tana acknowledges that she made a mistake.

Trump asks her, then, why she should win? Tana says that she learns from her mistakes and says that she apologized to her team for the way she talked about him. I think Trump believes it’s all well and good to learn from your mistakes, so long as you don’t do it on his dime. He hints at that by telling her that she has “an uphill battle” if she thinks she’s going to win.

Trump then asks her about the missing American flag. Tana says that looked bad, but that she had a volunteer check beforehand to make sure there was an American flag in the box. It must have been misplaced. She says she had to keep going and that she regrets letting the governor down.

Things aren’t looking so good for Tana, are they? But now, Trump turns his attention to Kendra. “I don’t like crying, especially in the boardroom,” he barks. That’s funny, because in last week’s episode, he said there was nothing wrong with crying. He asks Kendra if it’s a sign of weakness. Kendra says absolutely not, that she’s seen linebackers cry when “as the Super Bowl trophy is raised.” That’s a fantastic answer, and as far as I’m concerned should be the end of the discussion, especially because it’s not like Kendra was crying in frustration or anger. Kendra says that her team was great, and that she was touched and proud of the results. Trump says that it was nice “as crying goes.”

Then there’s an awkward segment in which Trump asks Kristen what she thinks of Kendra. Kristen doesn’t answer, and across the room, Erin wonders if he meant her, since she worked with Kendra and Kristen didn’t. Trump insists that he meant Kristen, because when you have as much money and power as Donald Trump, you do not make mistakes. Kristen says that she has never worked with Kendra, so she can’t say much about her. She has, however, worked with Tana. She reports that the Olympians said that Tana’s event was one of the best they’d ever attended. She thinks Tana did very well and appreciates Tana’s apology.

Now it’s time to really talk to Erin. Erin says that Kendra was amazing. When Erin was fired, she and Kendra weren’t on speaking terms. She says that she, Michael, and Danny really had no reason to do well on the task as they had nothing at stake. But Kendra inspired them. “We certainly weren’t stooges,” she says, referring to Tana’s calling her team the three stooges. “We were valued employees.” Kendra says that she’s very flattered by what Erin has to say.

While we go to commercial, I find myself wondering when Tana morphed into Ellen Degeneres. All of a sudden, Tana’s hair, clothing, and mannerisms totally remind me of Ellen. Is it just me?

Trump says that he takes hiring a new person very seriously. He introduces the first two Apprentice winners, Bill and Kelly. We see the projects the two guys have been working on, and suffice it to say, Trump thinks the projects are “huge.” He asks Kelly how his military experience prepared him for the job. Kelly says that it gave him discipline, taught him teamwork, and gave him a passion for work that help him now. He says that he loves working for Donald Trump, though what else would you say if your boss asked you that question? Bill says that Kendra and Tana should feel honored to be the final two. He says that Tana is a good leader and a hustler, but he doesn’t think she brings out the best in her staff. Tana disagrees and says that she did motivate her staff. Trump says he doesn’t think Tana’s team likes her very much. She invites him to ask them, which he says he will do after the commercial.

I hope you weren’t waiting anxiously for Trump to ask that question, because we’re back and he’s not asking. Instead, he says that he has two choices for the winner’s new job, and he’d like to hear which job Tana or Kendra would take if hired. The first job is working for the Miss Universe Pageant. The apprentice would work to choose a host city, then secure and set up all of the sites. The other job is in Palm Beach, overseeing the renovation of the Palm Beach Mansion, a ginormous and beautiful mansion on the ocean.

Tana says she’d do the Miss Universe job, no doubt. Kendra says that she’d love to work on the Palm Beach Mansion. It’s in her home county, she loves real estate, and it would be a fantastic transition for her into the Trump organization. Man, Kendra seems about a million times more polished than Tana, doesn’t she?