The Apprentice 5 Weekly Performance Review, Episode 6

Lenny: When Lenny continued to have no clue what a jingle was, I was reminded of American Idol’s Kelly Pickler, who is confused by ballsy minks. Even before Bill Rancic said it, I noted in Lenny’s biography that he has been in America for over a decade. Surely he’s heard a commercial before? Well, if he’s ever watched this show, he has!

Maybe Trump is right and Lenny is playing possum and avoiding work. However, he was very ready to be put up in the boardroom for lack of substantive contribution. His ideas were so lame I was wondering. Perhaps he can’t come up with rhymes as quickly as some of the others, but we’re not talking Shakespeare here.

I just don’t know what the true story is about Lenny this week, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and rate him as SATISFACTORY because he stayed positive. But he’s still on “thin ice” with Trump.

Tarek: Tarek spoke right out at Bryce’s first meeting but came across as smug by strongly implying that all the others knew he was the best candidate. Further, his assertion to Charmaine that he’d change his ways was sarcastic and not creditable - and reinforced what she was saying.

Hard-working Tarek took full charge of the recording session and the result was good. Despite what Carolyn said, he didn’t “miss the mark” and the task was not lost on the music or its arrangement. To expect more from the music is not realistic. I’ll call those two a wash and Tarek’s rating is SATISFACTORY.

Bryce: I’ve given Bryce “NO RATING” three of the first five weeks, and he was another one who needed to step out. The good news is that he did and the bad news is when he did it. This was a tough week to be the PM on Gold Rush; with Lee absent and Lenny confused, they were essentially two members short.

I think Bryce had a good idea to try and pull the team together to work out personal issues before they started the task. Alas, things probably got worse. Bryce not answering to the Arby’s execs as to why they were late was not good, and admitting he didn’t know when the meeting actually was or finding out how long it would take to get there was even worse.

Bryce definitely did the right thing in recognizing his personal shortcoming and assigning the creative songwriting task to Charmaine and Leslie. But sitting back and supervising, he should have been sure that it covered all the salient points. However, the second team meeting Bryce called to thank his team before they went into the boardroom was also a good touch for much-needed team unity.

Another place Bryce went wrong was his choices of who to bring to the second boardroom. The team lost because of the lyrics, and that was the product of the two ladies. Further, Charmaine was responsible for messing up the meeting with the execs. She ought to have been there instead of Lee, and I wonder if Bryce’s decision not to bring her back was a non-business one. However, I expect the point is moot and the outcome would probably have been the same.

In the boardroom, Trump could NOT get it through his head that it was Leslie and not Tarek who worked with Charmaine on the lyrics. Bryce stood up to Trump and his weekly misconceptions about what had transpired like no PM this year, and his final comment in the taxi was right on.

Being late was important, there was an omission in the lyrics, and Bryce brought the wrong people into the boardroom. But for standing up to Trump in a classy and classic exit, I will assign him a rating no lower than UNSATISFACTORY.

Final Comment:

This was another week where the losing task wasn’t a horrible disaster, so I didn’t have a lot of harsh ratings to give out. However, after the boardroom there was only one way it could, as Bryce didn’t present Trump with any options. Only two losing PMs have survived so far this season and Brent is responsible for one of those. No wonder no one wants to step up.

Brian lives in Toronto, where he can be reached at uncle_bto@rogers.com. He spent a couple of decades working in middle management at The Prudential, primarily hiding behind the coffee machine to avoid his pointy-haired bosses. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email! Or, write him if you’d like to know what 100 billion seconds works out to!

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