After coming to the realization that last season's three-hour-long Apprentice finale perhaps bordered on overkill, this time around, the Donald plans to wrap up the business of selecting a new underling in a measly one-hour finale on May 19.
"At my insistence, I wanted it to be a one-hour finale," Trump said at a press conference Tuesday. "We ended up with a reunion and all of this nonsense. Nobody wants that. What they want is a finale where somebody gets fired."
During the press conference, Trump also expressed his condolences for Apprentice contestant Chris Shelton, who was arrested last weekend for disorderly conduct, saying he felt "very badly" for Shelton.
"He's got a problem," said Trump. "He's got an anger-management problem. We talked about it on the show. He truly is an angry guy."
Trump said that Thursday's episode will coincidentally feature more of Shelton's short-fused nature.
"By circumstance, it happens to involve Chris to a large extent," said Trump. "He has a very interesting time on the show."
Meanwhile, Trump has been pleased enough with the work done by the original Apprentice winner, Bill Rancic, that he has renewed his contract for another year.
"He's done everything I've asked him to do," Trump said.
Rancic will continue to work in sales and marketing at the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. He'll also occasionally fill in for George and Carolyn in the boardroom during the fourth season of The Apprentice.
Of course thats just my opinion....I could be wrong. (Dennis Miller)
"You might be the toughest little whacker. . .but in my world, you're about as worrisome as a cloudy day." (Dutch Dooley)
Last year in Season 2, Trump claims he had a very difficult time deciding between Kelly Perdew and Jennifer Massey. So he took an audience survey during the three hour TV finale and almost everybody told Trump to dump Jen M and go with Kelly P instead. So it was a given.
Donald's New Apprentice: Kelly -by Kimberly Potts Dec 16, 2004
"Last year, I had Bill and Kwame, and they were both exceptional, but I actually thought, long before [the finale], that I was going to be choosing Bill," Trump told the crowd. "But this year, at this moment, I have absolutely no...I just don't know. I don't know what it's going to be."
But as business exec after business exec, plus former Apprentice contestants and even Massey and Perdew's real-life bosses, voiced their opinions to ubiquitous guest announcer Regis Philbin about which candidate should be hired and which should be fired, it quickly shaped up to be The Kelly Show.
Both Rancic and Jackson threw their support to Perdew, as did season one fan favorite and "country bumpkin" contestant Troy McClain and nearly every corporate exec who had starred in episode challenges throughout the season.
And, as the pretaped, competition of the show ended and the cameras panned to a live audience in New York City's Lincoln Center--that included last year's winner Bill Rancic, runner-up Kwame Jackson and newly minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the O'Jays, who performed the show's theme song, "For the Love of Money"--Trump claimed to be completely at a loss as to which of the finalists he should hire.
This year in Season 3, Trump has his mind made up before the showing of even the #13th episode as to who should win. He fired Angie last week saying she's mentally unstable and choked under pressure. This season many here following The Apprentice TV shows know that Trump has to even the score a bit and chose a female to win.
Tana To Win NO DOUBT. So Trump doesn't need someone to tell him to hire Alex over Tana. Anyway, the nielson ratings are down and perhaps having a difficult time selling enough TV ads and promos to last 3 hours long.
Therefore, Alex, Bren and Craig remaining don't really have a chance of making it. If Net Worth loses, Bren will be fired.... no ifs and/or buts about it.
Kendra automatically will make the final four with her exemption from this week.
So no matter how hard Craig works and if his team Magna loses, CRAIG WILL BE FIRED in the upcoming week.