The Apprentice Season 6

I’ve been watching the Apprentice for a couple seasons now and I’ve always thought it was an interesting show. Obviously with its ratings going down, they’ve tried a couple new things this season to kind of shake things up. I gotta say this season’s been pretty fun to watch as well. Too bad the show’s not doing well.

Who I’m Rooting For
I’ve been rooting for James for kind of obvious reasons but he’s clearly shown that he’s determined and competent. He seems fairly articulate too. With the final four I think James and Frankie (New York, holla!) have the best shot. Unless they do well on the final task, I don’t think Nicole or Stefani have a chance because they’ve never really stood out.

And Why
Stefani has never been PM and taken a leadership position. Trump has already shown a favorable impression of Frankie - I gotta say Frankie does seem to think on this feet very well in the boardroom, especially with Heidi trying to spin things in the last episode. Nicole just doesn’t strike me as someone who’s very capable, I would say she hasn’t really proved herself. And James, is there really anything bad you can point to with James? He won a couple of tasks as PM and has never done anything to cause a loss. There was the one task where some of his teammates said he brought up issues at the 11th hour - but note that his arguments were completely valid and he pointed out the exact reason they lost that task (the soccer game halftime show - their concept/story was hard to follow). If you look at the previous seasons, most of the winners are the ones who’ve gone the whole way without any major negative highlights.

On Presentations
About that last episode, I had to do a ton of business proposals/presentations in school (Cornell AEMers can attest to this) - exactly like the one you saw in that episode - and I can tell you that a smooth presentation requires a lot of practice and preparation. There are probably natural presenters who can improvise and what not but for most people if you don’t prepare, you’ll choke under pressure and it’s so obvious those 2 losing teams did NOT prepare enough. You think you know what you’re going to say but it comes out all convoluted and choppy. You should practice enough that you’ve committed most of your presentation to memory and barely have to refer to note cards or other reference material.

04/24/2007 UPDATE: Stefani won out over James for the Apprentice which to me only makes sense because she’s a lawyer for developers while James doesn’t really have hands-on experience with real estate. If you watched the finale, Trump didn’t really give a reason for not choosing James. James is running Zoodango.com anyway - I don’t think he really needs to be the Apprentice.