The second season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” kicked off on Sunday night. Last year’s running of the show raised over $1 million for charity. This year, 16 contestants are divided into two teams, men versus women. Among them is Poker News Daily columnist and World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Annie Duke. Her team outsold the competition in the show’s first episode, as comedian Andrew Dice Clay was fired during week one.
Last year’s “Celebrity Apprentice” was won by “America’s Got Talent” judge Piers Morgan, who played for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Foundation. Appropriately, this season kicked off in New York City on the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid. Teams are faced with a task each week. The losing group is sent into the board room where one member is dismissed by show host and real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Duke’s squad included TLC member Tionne Watkins, reality television star Khloe Kardashian, talk show host Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa, “Deal or No Deal” and “The Price is Right” model Claudia Jordan, Playboy Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick, and professional golfer Natalie Gulbis.
The teams were tasked with designing, baking, and selling as many cupcakes as possible. Whichever team generated the most revenue won. The men’s team, dubbed Kotu (derived from Kings of the Universe) set up shop in Times Square. The squad included R&B artist Brian McKnight, five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman, Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker, country singer Clint Black, comedian Tom Green, former “Monster Garage” host Jesse James, figure skating legend Scott Hamilton, and Clay.
The women initially discussed selling cupcakes around Penn Station, which would mean a high volume of traffic. Project Manager Joan Rivers wanted to locate nearby, prompting Duke to interject, “They did Penn Station last year for the hot dog task and it was really bad.” The elder Rivers told “Celebrity Apprentice” cameras, “I’m a New Yorker, so I know where to go. Annie didn’t think it was a good idea, so that was the beginning of the friction.”
Heading into Season 2 of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Duke told Poker News Daily that she rented the first season on DVD in order to derive a game plan for raising the most amount of money for her charity, Refugees International, an off-shoot of Ante Up for Africa. Duke explained Trump’s reasoning for chastising the female team during Season 1 for selling hot dogs at Penn Station: “While there was a lot of traffic there, it’s not people who have a lot of coin.” Jordan, who has been successful in real estate in addition to modeling, admitted, “Annie Duke just kept bumping her gums. It was like, ‘Who the hell are you?'” The skirmish ended when Roderick suggested parking the team’s cupcake truck outside of Playboy’s offices.
During the process of making the cupcakes, both teams suffered setbacks. The women’s team’s chocolate cupcakes didn’t rise in the middle; instead, they sunk to form a cup. Duke explained, “I’m not saying that [Gulbis] caused the problem, but she mixed it all together. If it’s a problem with the way it’s mixed, that would have to fall on her.” The men’s team failed to add sugar to the mixture. Alleviating this hurdle involved coating the cupcakes with syrup. During the challenge, a taste test conducted by Crumb’s Bakery awarded $15,000 to whichever team had the better cupcake. The women consequently won in a landslide, as Crumb’s judge called the men’s team’s cupcake “disgusting.”
Throughout the task, Duke was outspoken, causing her teammates to question her effectiveness. Jordan quipped, “I admire strength in women, but Annie Duke talks way too much.” Joan Rivers added, “Mussolini made the trains run on time, but no Italian smiled at him when they got on and off.”
Duke attracted a wealth of poker players to fork over thousands of dollars for a single cupcake. Among them was Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel, who paid $5,000. Duke talked up the industry, noting, “Poker players are one of the most generous groups of individuals that you will ever meet.” The throng of players Duke brought in even resulted in the admiration of Joan Rivers. The women’s team also attracted a purchase by Kathy Lee Gifford from the “Today Show” and a $5,000 donation from Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
The end of the task featured a final showdown between Duke and her teammates. This time, Roderick’s high rollers from Playboy wanted to buy an entire flat of cupcakes, about two dozen in total. Duke commented to Roderick before the sale occurred, “We need to give them as few cupcakes as possible.” Roderick told NBC cameras, “Annie was out of control. I couldn’t believe how rude and mean and condescending she was to my big donors.” Duke was concerned about running out of cupcakes and not being able to accept a big sale. In the end, the women’s team ran out of product to sell 15 minutes before the task was scheduled to end.
In the board room, Trump asked Jordan who was the weakest link on the women’s team. Jordan responded, “Personality-wise, Annie. They are some issues. Joan is our leader and Project Manager and at times I felt like Annie took over Joan’s role.” Trump replied in defense of Duke, “Here’s a woman who has taken money away from men at poker tables her whole life.” In the end, the woman raised $61,267, while the men mustered just $49,449. Rivers charity, God’s Love We Deliver, earned over $125,706.
Comedian Andrew Dice Clay was fired after trying to quit in the board room. The next episode airs on Sunday, March 8th at 9:00pm Eastern Time and runs for two hours.
