On Sunday night, the finale of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice Season 2 saw comedy icon Joan Rivers defeat World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Annie Duke in a complex task featuring a silent auction prior to a performance of Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk. On Monday, the poker industry reacted to the decision by real estate mogul and show host Donald Trump.
On the online poker community PocketFives.com, the mood was mixed. Many of poker’s faithful sided with Duke, while others noted that Rivers won the show’s featured task. One PocketFiver noted, “Joan did win the final task. Standard TV entertainment. At least some charities benefit.” In fact, Rivers’ charity (God’s Love We Deliver) and Duke’s charity (Refugees International) earned over $1.2 million combined from the reality series. They will also experience residual exposure from Celebrity Apprentice in the future. On the finale, Celebrity Apprentice Season 1 winner Piers Morgan boasted that his charity, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, was able to construct a $60 million wing at its offices by virtue of the publicity on popular reality program.
Other poker players took exception to the terms used by Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, to describe poker players during the season, which lasted 11 episodes. The Rivers family labeled Duke a “whore,” “pit viper,” and “Nazi” and called poker players “trash.” Duke compared Rivers to a “cancer” in a battle of words. One PocketFives.com poster noted, “Annie deserved to win. And I believe there are a LOT of poker players (who also dabble in the world of business) that may want to b**** slap Joan and Melissa sometime… borderline slanderous statements may come back to bite her.”
Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu weighed in on the outcome of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. In a blog posted on Full Contact Poker, Negreanu noted, “Going into the last task, it was pretty clear that Annie was a huge favorite to win. Of the five criteria, she had one of them in the bag- fund raising.” Negreanu revealed that Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, donated $100,000 during the silent auction. Ultimate Bet’s Phil Hellmuth told Poker News Daily that he contributed $80,000. In total, the event raised $460,000, which was triple the take of Rivers’ gala. Negreanu questioned Duke selecting ally and Playboy Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick with her first pick: “She could have picked Brande last, as Joan did. I was surprised to see this obvious mistake. Seriously, it was a major tactical error. Herschel ended up being a rock star on the challenge.” The elder Rivers selected her daughter with her third and final pick, knowing that Duke would not draft Melissa Rivers to her team.
In the final boardroom, which played out in front of a live studio audience in New York City, the two finalists from Season 1, Morgan and country music star Trace Adkins, were asked for their opinion on who should be the next Celebrity Apprentice. Both favored Rivers, with Morgan claiming that she deserved to win after taking down three of the five criteria on the final task. Adkins’ answer was more cryptic; the singer merely said that Rivers “had that charitable thing.” Negreanu hypothesized, “His vote, and this is all speculation, I think had a little bit to do with the charity chosen. That’s just a total guess on my part, but I think with him being a full-blooded American, he preferred a charity that would benefit people in the U.S.” Duke was playing for Refugees International, an organization that she works closely with as part of Ante Up for Africa.
World Series of Poker (WSOP) Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack extended his congratulations to Duke even though she did not win the reality program’s second celebrity installment. In his Twitter feed, Pollack commented, “Proud of [Duke] 4 an incredible season on C.A. + representing the poker community w/smarts, style + grace! U r our champion + hero!”
The Celebrity Apprentice will return in early 2010 for Season 3, the ninth installment of the show overall.