‘Celebrity Apprentice’ Recap: Winner Revealed — ‘Don’t Have Time for Anyone’s Ego Except My Own’

Welcome back to the season finale of Celebrity Apprentice! It’s between the two finalists, witty pop icon Boy Georgeand ninja master host Matt Iseman. The client is Carnival Cruise Lines. The task is to share the vacation value of cruising. They will each told to produce an ad campaign, host a party, and create a 15 minute variety show. The teams will be judged on the following criteria: overall brand integration, creativity, guest experience, and most money raised from ticket sales.

The Project Manager & Helpers

Team Matt – is joined by Carnie Wilson, Carrie Keagan and Kyle Richards.

Team Boy George – is joined by Porsha Williams, Laila Ali, and Carson Kressley.

Last Week

Ended with a problem. Boy George wasn’t getting along creatively with the keyboard player so Boy George went to the producer behind closed doors, and demanded they fire him or he would quit the show. Boy George ain’t nobody’s bitch. So, hasta la vista, baby keyboard player. 

This Week

Boy George doesn’t have time for anyone else’s ego, too busy with his own. So in comes the new keyboard player and Boy George finds him to be delicious.

The Presentations

It’s party time! Matt is really pleased with his party area that Kyle set up with the couches and a baby kangaroo – which is weird, but adorable. Ten feet away is Boy George’s area that is a “sanctuary within a sanctuary” however they are feeling kangaroo envy. Bonus points to Kyle for thinking outside of the kangaroo box.

Here comes the money. Matt is collecting all kinds of checks. Crazy amounts like $75K and $100K which is annoying Boy George because Matt keeps yelling the amounts. When the big checks come in to Boy George, he claps politely. Carson has a theory that more people must have arthritis than they thought. But don’t worry, Boy Georgehas Caitlyn Jenner on the guest list, along with a $90K check, but she’s late. Boy George is so nervous only his Buddhist chanting will calm him down, as he sporadically calls out, “Where is Caitlyn? Ohm. Where is Caitlyn? Ohm ma lama ding dong.”

In walks Caitlyn and her entourage. She’s dressed up in a tight, black dress. Caitlyn tells Boy George another reason she’s there is to celebrate his eight years of sobriety. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives and Matt practically tackles him with attention and hands over the passport to get their stamps in each of their sections. Arnold gives Caitlyn a half bro-hug and kiss on the cheek. The Gov seems a little confused.

Matt goes first with his 15 minutes. He does a standup act, and though it’s a little risky to make fun of Arnold, it paid off because The Gov laughed at himself. Matt segued his jokes to his message, “One Destination that Takes You Everywhere.” Matt then shares a touching story of why he is competing for The Arthritis Foundation and the pain he was suffering from. He had to quit going to the gym and consequently gained 55 pounds over a year and a half. He felt like a shell of who he was. Matt was lucky, though, because he responded to the medication after learning he had rheumatoid arthritis. But some people don’t respond to the drugs like he did and so Matt competing for them.

Enough of this sad stuff. Now it’s time for the variety show portion and to introduce Carnie Wilson and Wilson Philips who sing Hold On. Everyone claps and sings along. Can I get a do-whop!

Next up is Boy George’s 15 minutes. Carson Kressley steps up as the cruise director to do some myth busting. Then make some noise for Boy George who will sing about cruising. It’s a real jazzy sort of feeling about joy. And then another jazzy feeling song. Then Boy George welcomes to the stage, Natasha Bedingfield, who wore hear deep cut bathing suit top and sings about her Pocketful of Sunshine. The crowd seems to be vibing on it. Boy George jumps back in and sings his hit song Karma Chameleon and the crowd gets on their feet – even Arnold is dancing with Porsha – sort of.

Boy George says this will go down as one of his most favorite performances and thinks it’s a lovely way to end this journey.

The Boardroom Feedback

Both project managers and their teams are in the boardroom for the last time. Arnold gives another boring speech about himself competing and his unbelievable competitive spirit, which is why he was blown away by both performances. Matt explains he didn’t know his team but was impressed by them to no end with their collaborative abilities. Carnie says Matt is gracious and humble yet strong and smart. I think Matt may finally have scored a date! Matt says that at first he wasn’t going to share his arthritis story, but because so many people stepped up and helped him raise the gobs and gobs of money, he felt he had to share it with others.

Boy George is asked about how he assigned the tasks and he says that since Carson worked for Ralph Lauren he could do anything. And Laila and Porsha did the room and the photos. Porsha sings Boy George’s praises and says how creative and collaborative he is. Carson says they were so lucky to have an artist as their leader because Boy George was able to make this an emotional journey – which is what a cruise is. Good job for continuing that pitch, Carson. Funny story – Boy George raised $120K for Vince Neil’s charity, but when Boy George called Vince to ask him to donate to his cause, Vince didn’t return the call – to Boy George or Matt Iseman.

Arnolds says that the competition was very close. Here is what the clients had to say:

The evaluation for Team Boy George: The clients were impressed with the presentation, felt the party was on point and thought the photos were phenomenal. They also loved that the variety show stayed on the theme of cruising and the performances were amazing.

The evaluation for Team Matt: The clients felt Matt was super engaging and super fun, loved the party and the animals, and the passports were a great special touch. Overall they felt Matt stayed on theme and they were very, very pleased.

Monies raised were as follows:

Team Boy George – $445,925

Team Matt – $573,329

The Winner of Celebrity Apprentice

Arnold tells the rest of the celebrities to leave and go have a cocktail upstairs. Arnold then tells Matt what an underdog and nobody he was, but he was always giving his best. During the final presentation he exploded and blew everyone away. Plus Matt raised over half a million dollars for his charity.

Arnold then tells Boy George how he started with a bang, winning and winning, until he fell with a whimper in the middle. Boy George had to look deep inside and find the gear to shift. And shift he did and he came back with a bang. Congratulations is given to Boy George for how much money he raised for his smaller charity, but worthy none the less.

And the winner is…not yet. Arnold firsts asks each of the finalists why they shouldn’t be fired and why they should be the Celebrity Apprentice. Matt says the message from the beginning for him was work hard consistently. He learned when to be a leader, when to be an organizer and how to bring out the best in everyone, which is why he did so well. In the end, he set an impossible goal of fundraising and beat it.

Next up, Boy George says he showed up thinking he wasn’t a business guy, but more of a creative guy, but now he thinks he’s a creative business guy who can dig deep when needed and be a team player when needed and get out of his comfort zone when needed. Boy George says he already feels like a winner for raising so much money for his charity and that didn’t believe he would make it to the end.

Arnold says nice things about both men getting motivated and doing an extraordinary job, but there can be only winner, and that winner is Matt Iseman!!! Nothing is mentioned about the additional $250K that was supposed to be given to the winner’s charity, but if you add that amount to what Matt already raised — the amount is $823,329. Matt says this was a dream come true. So did Boy George have to get to the choppa? If he did, they didn’t show us. In fact we never see parting words from Boy George which is a shame. Congrats to Matt Iseman! If people didn’t know your name before, they know it now, for a few weeks.

 

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