The men took the first challenge with celebrity chef Curtis Stone in the lead on the season three premiere of "Celebrity Apprentice." The show premiered on NBC Sunday, March 14, 2010.
The men raised nearly $58,000, and that money, along with the money the women had earned (nearly $40,000), will be given to Bret Michael's charity of choice - the American Diabetes Association.
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For the first challenge, Donald Trump had the teams choose project managers for the opposite team. The men chose Cyndi. Bret said Cyndi would be perfect because, like him, sometimes things don't make it functionally from her head to her mouth. Bret knew that the women would choose him, and he was absolutely right. They said it took them about 30 seconds to decide that the man who only slept one hour the night before would be the perfect person to get them (the women) a win.
Diner challenge
The first challenge of the season was to create and run a restaurant. The celebrities had to put together every thing from the menu to the decor and every little detail in between. This seemed like it would be an easy challenge for the men with restaurant chef and owner Curtis Stone on their team.
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The men and women had completely different ideas of what their restaurant was going to be like. Curtis decided that the men would have an upscale diner that would serve people willing to drop $100 on one burger. Darryl had them covered for guests by immediately calling a friend of his to let him know what was happening. The women, on the other hand, were less concerned with the food and more concerned with the celebrities that would be at the diner. They wanted to keep things simple in the food department.
The real project managers
Bret and Cyndi may have been the project managers on paper, but they didn't seem to be the project managers in real life.
Bret was doing an OK job of delegating tasks to his teammates, but the real star of their show was Curtis. That wasn't a surprise, and you really can't fault Bret for using Curtis to his advantage. In fact, it was probably a great business decision to give Curtis so much power. He is the restaurant authority, after all.
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Cyndi wasn't so great at delegating. Holly made a comment that she put herself in charge of the menu because her project manager wasn't giving anyone any specific thing to do. Cyndi felt Holly was being bossy when she shot down Cyndi's idea for fruit salad over French fries, but Holly was completely right in her thinking that a burger joint without fries is ridiculous! She also did a great job getting some of her rich friends to commit to stopping by the diner for a bite to eat. Another strong voice on the team was Sharon. She wasn't buying most of Cyndi's ideas, and she was smart enough to use a paparazzi to her advantage having him take pictures of the group for their flyer.
The doors are open
Each of the restaurants were only open for three hours, so the celebrities were in the mind set to get as many people in and out as possible and to get the people who are willing to donate the most to the front of the line.
The women's diner was unbelievably packed from minute one. Carol had done a great job creating a crowd before the restaurant had even opened, and Cyndi was all about entertaining the customers with a few songs once they were inside. Donald Trump, Jr. thought the restaurant seemed a little chaotic when he stopped by, but he also saw a lot of important, wealthy people in the restaurant. At one point, the women's diner was actually so packed that Holly had to pull Carol inside to help and to stop bringing people in. One huge problem, Holly felt, with the women's team was that they weren't turning tables fast enough, they weren't putting their big donors at the front of the line and they were constantly stopping to chat with customers and take pictures. Carol was annoyed with Holly's pushy, bossy attitude and felt Holly was doing nothing but hand out orders.
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The men's opening didn't go so well. They didn't have anything on their menu for less than $100, and normal people walking down New York City streets can't afford that! They had a lot of people walk in, see the menu with the prices and walk right back out. Ivanka Trump had actually questioned their high price decision when she stopped by the day before, but Bret and some of his teammates were confident that it was more important to get 100 people in willing to spend $100 than 300 people willing to spend $20. Things did eventually pick up for the men. In fact, they had a lot of people giving $1,000 and $1,500 a pop when all they had was a turkey sandwich. Al Roker even showed up! Donald Jr. was really impressed with the men's teamwork and organization and he was quick to notice that this was really Curtis' task.
Joan Rivers, on Donald Trump's behalf, visited each of the restaurants. At the men's diner, Joan's burger sat under the heater for more than nine minutes because Rod was too busy trying to prove his innocence to other customers. She said her food was cold and way overpriced. Joan was impressed with the line at the women's diner, and she seemed to really enjoy the food. She also loved that the prices were reasonable. Later, Joan picked her favorite restaurant and they were given $10,000 toward their final total. Unfortunately, that $10,000 wasn't enough to keep the women out of the board room.
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