The Apprentice is the ultimate, sixteen-week job interview, where eighteen Americans compete in a series of rigorous business tasks, many of which include prominent Fortune 500 companies and require street smarts and intelligence to conquer, in order to show Donald Trump, the boss, that they are the best candidate for his companies. In each episode, the losing team is sent to the boardroom, where Trump and his associates, Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross, judge the job applicants on their performance in the task. One person is fired and sent home. Who will succeed? Who will fail? And who will be The Apprentice?
The third season of NBC's The Apprentice included a new twist: there are already two teams, "Street Smarts" and "Book Smarts" (Networth Corporation and Magna Corp, respectively). They went head-to-head to see which team was smarter. In the end, the question was answered in the showdown of the century - Tana, an original Street-Smarts candidate faced off against Kendra, a college graduate. While in the end, Kendra was given the grand prize, the experiment of season three showed that both groups of people can be very successful.
Season two of the reality series pitted men and women against each other again, but with several changes. The winning Project Manager, or leader, receives an exemption the next week should his or her team lose the task. The tasks became tougher, the judging became harder, and the contestants became fiercer. By the end of the season, Kelly Perdew, though met with tough competition by Jennifer Mancini, took his well-earning place with Trump on the other side of the boardroom table.
The first, and now classic, season of The Apprentice asked the age-old question: which gender is smarter? Packed with memorable contestants and mesmerizing moments, the first season was an enormous hit, garnering some of NBC's best ratings in years. By season's end, Bill Rancic was told, "You're Hired!" and all of the cast members became instant celebrities, Donald Trump, as always, at the head of the pack.
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