Celebrity Apprentice Recap: Welch’s Grape Juice Challenge

On the January 9th edition of “Celebrity Apprentice,” Arnold “Governor” Schwarzenegger once again reminded the teams that they are in California, pointing out that it’s all about fitness and healthy living there. So it came to pass that their first task was to create an 8-to-10 minute live showcase for Welch’s Grape Juice. Company reps, DeeDee and Mario were on hand to explain that Welch’s cares deeply about consumers’ health and they want their 100% natural grape juice featured in a way that showcases that. Patrick Schwarzenegger said they would be judged on best brand showcase, creativity and audience integration. Award-winning chef, Rocco DiSpirito, author of “The Negative Calorie Diet” was the guest adviser. Rocco said we never have to count calories if we are eating the right foods, but we do it anyway: an 8 oz. serving of Welch’s Grape Juice has 140 calories, FYI.

Professional boxer, Laila Ali wanted to lead Team Prima to their first victory because she is in nutrition school now and knows all about this. Mixed martial artist, Chael Sonnen, stepped up for Team Arete because he plans to be the last man standing. He must have a good plan because being project manager is a risky venture on this show.

After discarding some outlandish ideas like Lisa’s thought that some wine should be involved and Porsha wanting to turn it into some kind of grape vs. banana showdown, Laila Ali tells them they only have 8 to 10 minutes to get their heathy message across and she doesn’t have any patience with silly ideas. They definitely need to have a live cooking segment in there with their talk show format and Laila planned to conduct it.

The men were also talking about a talk show format, starting off their stuff with a song. Chael appointed Ricky Williams his right-hand man and then found out that Ricky wasn’t really on board with the song idea, yet he didn’t come to Chael about his misgivings. He took that up with Boy George. That rubbed Chael the wrong way for real.

Both teams had their little snafus but we thought the men were a lot more organized than the ladies and you’ve got to hand it to Chael. Even though the men felt beating the women for a third time was going to be a breeze, he still kept his eye on covering his own butt in the boardroom should things go awry.

And awry they did go. Team Arete were very entertaining and certainly nailed the audience participation aspect, something totally neglected by the ladies. The reps for Welch’s acknowledged the men’s strong points: the song, the workout routine, the health message, but they felt that the presentation was disjointed, lacked cohesion and neglected lifestyle.

The women won, despite the lack of audience participation, because the reps felt their presentation was seamless and polished. (Uh, yeah, like how Lisa had to jump in and cut off motor-mouth Porsha so there would be time for Laila’s live recipe). Laila Ali won $50,000 for her charity, Women’s Sports Foundation.

Chael wasted no time throwing Ricky under the bus and Ricky returned the favor. Eric Dickerson thought he did everything he was supposed to do and then some, even though he was shown saying all he had to do was put grape juice under everyone’s chair. Very foolishly, Eric said he doesn’t have a problem with being fired and right then, you knew who was going to the chopper. Eric tried to backpedal but it was too late. Chael felt that he had to bring Eric back because of that “I don’t care” attitude. Ultimately, the Governor felt that the whole purpose of being on the show was to fight for your charity. “There’s people that need that money,” he told Eric and then terminated him.

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