The Apprentice (U.S. season 5)

Infobox Television The Apprentice
season_name = The Apprentice 5
first_aired = February 27, 2006
last_aired = June 5, 2006
filming_started = September, 2005
filming_completed = November, 2005
winner = Sean Yazbeck
number_candidates = 18
number_episodes = 15
previous_season = The Apprentice 4
next_season = The Apprentice 6
teams = Gold Rush and Synergy

"The Apprentice 5" is the fifth series of "The Apprentice", with Donald Trump as the Executive Producer and Host. Applications were available online [ [http://www.nbc.com TV Network for Primetime, Daytime and Late Night Television Shows - NBC Official Site ] ] (as in previous seasons) and filming occurred in the fall of 2005.

Sean Yazbeck was named the winner and hired by Donald Trump as the new Apprentice during the season finale. Lee Bienstock, the runner-up to Yazbeck, proved to be very competitive and was hired outside of television a few months later.

This season of the show was the first to not rank in the Top 50 according to Nielsen ratings and the first to garner less than 10 million viewers on average; it ranked #51 with an average of 9.73 million viewers.

"The Apprentice 5" was the last season to have George H. Ross and Carolyn Kepcher as main boardroom judges and also the last original-concept one to take place in New York City, although the Celebrity Apprentice edition returned to Manhattan. The show moved to Los Angeles, California the following season and Donald Trump's children became the most prominent judges after him.

"The Apprentice 5" premiered on Monday February 27, 2006, right after the new hit game show "Deal or No Deal". [ [http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|99664|1|,00.html NBC Shakes Up Post-Olympic Schedule] , Zap2it.com, January 22, 2006] NBC, facing a ratings slump, opted to put future seasons of the show on Monday nights (as opposed to its past Thursday 9 pm ET slot). The network hoped to build the show's audience by making this move, as the program had witnessed a fairly substantial erosion in ratings since "The Apprentice 1". However, the show faced tough competition with the Fox's fifth season of "24". The finale for "The Apprentice 5" took place in Los Angeles on June 5, 2006. Season 5's finale was the lowest rated ever, down 23% from season 4 and down 28% from season 3's final episode (in the important 18-49 demographic). [ [http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_5186.asp Trumped: Finale - fizzle for 'Apprentice' - Down 23 percent from last season, to a 4.4 rating] , "Media Life", June 6, 2006]

"The Apprentice 5" marked the debut of Donald Trump's children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as boardroom judges when either George or Carolyn were unavailable. Season 1 "Apprentice" Bill Rancic, not a stranger to the boardroom scene, also filled in for George when George or Donald Jr. were not available. [ [http://nbcumv.com/entertainment/release_detail.nbc/entertainment-20060213000000-nbcannounces18new.html NBC ANNOUNCES 18 NEW CANDIDATES FOR APPRENTICE SEASON 5] , NBC, published February 13, 2006] Jack McConnell, the First Minister of Scotland, makes an appearance in one of the episodes. [ [http://holyroodchronicles.blogspot.com/2005/10/archie-mcpherson-on-bad-day.html Holyrood Chronicles: "Archie McPherson on a bad day" ] ]

For the first time in "Apprentice" history, all episodes of this season (including the Clipshow with never-seen-before footage) could be obtained at iTunes for indefinite viewing after the episode has aired.

Candidates

In this season, candidates were not exclusively American: the cast contains cast members from Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. As with Season 4 of the show, Trump hand-picked the candidates. Furthermore, Trump hand-picked Tarek and Allie, in an "Apprentice first", to be "lead-off" Project Managers and to draft their own teams before the first task is issued. This is the first time in Apprentice history that the teams were formed regardless of gender (Seasons 1, 2, 4) or educational status (Season 3), giving the Project Manager flexibility to form who they want on the teams. Because this process was conducted after only preliminary introductions, some reasoning was a bit arbitrary—such as Tarek picking Dan because he is a dad, or Allie picking Tammy because she was a real tiger.

The Winning Project Manager, throughout the season, was "not" exempt from firing, therefore everyone had to do a satisfactory job and not be responsible for the loss in order to be safe.

The final regular-season records were Synergy defeating Gold Rush more times, 8-5. However, for Synergy, two of those losses came in the final two tasks of the interview process after one of its original members, Sean Yazbeck, switched to Gold Rush in Week 11, and Synergy became the second company shut down by order of Donald J. Trump as of Week 13. Yazbeck reverted Gold Rush's losing streak in the final weeks and was a significant factor to Synergy's shutdown.

Lee Bienstock stayed on Gold Rush the entire time, and finished 5-8, with a Project Manager record of 3-1. Sean Yazbeck finished 9-4 (7-3 while at Synergy, 2-1 when transferred to Gold Rush), and held a spotless record as Project Manager (2-0). Trump (including the home viewers) opted to hire/coronate Sean Yazbeck as opposed to Lee Bienstock at the end of the finale.

Weekly results

:colorbox|navy The contestant hired the competition:colorbox|cornflowerblue The contestant won as project manager on his/her team:colorbox|orange The contestant lost as project manager on his/her team:colorbox|pink The contestant called at the final boardroom:colorbox|tomato The contestant was fired:colorbox|magenta The contestant lost as project manager and was fired

Episodes

Week 1: Summer of Sam's Club

*Airdate: February 27, 2006
*Sponsor: Wal-Mart and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company
*Prologue: Trump arrived at Republic Airport in New York where George and Carolyn were waiting to introduce him to the new candidates aboard his jet. Back on the tarmac, Trump had each candidate say a few words about him or herself.
**As an "Apprentice" first, Trump chose Tarek and Allie to be project managers for the first task and asked both of them to form the teams.
**After being picked by Project Manager Allie, Pepi suggested the name for their team should be "Synergy" despite the fact that Brent wanted it to be "Killer Instinct", whereas Project Manager Tarek named his team "Gold Rush".
*Project: Teams had to promote a Sam's Club store by giving out freebies and to be the team to sell the most memberships. Teams could use a Goodyear Blimp for promotional purposes. The team emerges as the winner by just simply selling the most new or upgraded memberships.
*Gold Rush project manager: Tarek
*Synergy Project Manager: Allie
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: Lunch at the Penn Club with Donald Trump.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Summer's attitude was questionable, giving up during the task and making only one phone call while she was supposed to make as many as possible. She also demonstrated a lack of confidence in her team's ability to win before the boardroom, in spite of the fact they lost by less than an 8% margin. Tote bags were also misrepresented as gift bags (with nothing inside them) and were also given away for free, not in exchange of a new membership, as declared by Tarek to Carolyn during the task. The reasons for the loss were also the week's Pain of the Task.
**Sent to boardroom: Tarek, Summer, Lenny and Lee
***Firing decision: After Lee and Lenny exposed Tarek as a leader with no common sense before Trump, Summer suddenly interrupted Trump to make a correction to one of his statements, and it was not a good time for that because, as Trump said, he "was practically ready to fire" Tarek. Summer's interruption caused Trump to lose his patience, and given Summer's lack of judgement and poor contribution power in this task, he fired Summer without hesitation. Summer's poor boardroom strategy, lack of contribution to the task and poor attitude made her the obvious target and the first apprentice fired by Donald Trump this season.
**Fired: Summer for her bad attitude, virtually doing little or nothing to help the team throughout the task and for poor strategy and logic in the boardroom.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week1_p1.shtml#main Episode One Recap on NBC.com]

Week 2: The Razor's Edge

*Airdate: March 6, 2006
*Hosting Company: Procter & Gamble
*Project: Teams had to promote the Gillette Fusion razor blade by asking people to text message a key word to a number. The winner would be determined by the number of text messages produced.
*Gold Rush project manager: Lee
*Synergy Project Manager: Pepi
**Pain of the Task: Stacy felt threatened by Brent during a product advertisement planning conversation and made a big deal out of it, causing a lot of friction and wasting a great deal of time for the team. Pepi could not control the situation and animosity spread throughout the team.
*Winning team: Gold Rush
**Gold Rush's reward: Aiding non-profit organization [http://www.careergear.com Career Gear] in its mission to motivate Disadvantaged Men, helping them find and keep jobs that will support them and their families and dressing them in better clothes.
*Losing team: Synergy
**Reasons for loss: Synergy didn't wake up as early as the other team to get started on the task. Trump claimed Gold Rush already had received 100 text messages by the time Synergy got out on the street. Gold Rush had scouted a location beforehand but Synergy relied on native New Yorker Stacy to pick the location (which she did using a map). Gold Rush's location was clearly superior. Michael's idea of wearing bathrobes to market the Gillette Fusion was not seen as an appropriate way to represent the product.
**"Apprentice First:" Usually, Donald Trump performs unannounced multiple-firings outside the interview portion of the boardroom but since the initial boardroom hearings stated that the team lost because of overall unsatisfactory teamwork and team performance (not to mention other reasons described above and that Synergy lost by almost 50% margin, as declared by Bill Rancic, "a pretty rough beating"), Trump had enough information to fire two people and made it clear before the final boardroom.
**Sent to boardroom: Pepi, Brent, Stacy, Michael
***Verdict: Trump tells Michael that while screwing up due to the bathrobe suggestion was bad, he had potential and deserved another chance. While Brent was in jeopardy at Pepi's discretion (for confronting Stacy and causing animosity), Trump gave him a second chance because it wasn't his responsibility to lead, it was Pepi's.
**Fired: Pepi and Stacy for their individual "firing mistakes" described below. While the boardroom candidates performed poorly, Trump focused on the following key areas:
***Stacy is fired for choosing the wrong location, and for her exaggerated reaction to Brent's confrontation.
****Location is extremely important, as Trump deduced the wrong location to be a critical error.
****Trump also refused to believe that a criminal defense attorney could be "scared" of Brent.
***Pepi is fired for not leading the team correctly, not being able to get his team out to a good start, and for losing the respect of the entire team after not knowing how to handle the Stacy-Brent conflict.
*Special note:
**This is the first time that neither George or Carolyn appear with Donald Trump; instead Ivanka Trump fills in for Carolyn, and Bill Rancic fills in for George on this task.
**This is the fifth time two or more people were fired in one week in the history of "The Apprentice".
**Andrea was extremely hurt, cried and locked herself in the bathroom when she saw Brent return back from the boardroom. An instance where a candidate's feelings became so hurt due to a candidate coming back from the boardroom had not been shown before.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week2_p1.shtml#main Episode Two Recap on NBC.com]

Week 3: Get It In Gear

*Airdate: March 13, 2006
*Hosting Company: General Motors
*Project: Teams had to promote the new 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe by creating a corporate retreat for the General Motors (GM) executives. The winner would be determined through judgment by the GM executives, rather than by score. [http://www.business-journal.com/WarrenChevroletDealerJudgeTVApprentice.asp]
*Gold Rush project manager: Theresa
*Synergy Project Manager: Andrea
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: Going to [http://www.atlantismarineworld.com Atlantis Marine World] , to swim with the sharks
***Sean felt the reward was a nice way for the team to bond and pat each other on the back for a job well done. He also said how everybody thought the sharks would eat Brent, including Brent himself, who was frightened by the sharks and believed they would eat him because he was a big guy.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Charmaine sabotaged the project when she ignorantly hired crude Cory Kahaney to entertain the GM executives during lunch. Kahaney's sexist and prejudicial jokes offended the executives and ruined the event. Theresa named Tarek creative point person and put him and Bryce in charge of the golf event. However, she blocked every suggestion made by Tarek about getting some astroturf for the poorly developed golf course, and ignored Tarek's warning that they needed a theme for the event. Instead, Theresa thought their retreat needed to be "classy" and came up with a horse and buggy idea which was out-of-place with the 2007 Chevy Tahoe. Theresa also failed to have someone from the team explain to the executives the Chevy Tahoe's new features, and left some inexperienced models hired by Charmaine to do the explaining. Theresa told Bryce he had to educate the models 20 minutes before the event started, not leaving enough time for the task.
**Sent to boardroom: Theresa, Lenny, Tarek
**Fired: Theresa, for not bringing Charmaine to the boardroom, who was responsible for the ultimate reason they lost the task: hiring the lewd . In Charmaine's absence, Theresa' lack of knowledge, weak overall leadership skills, not coming up with a theme for the Chevy Tahoe retreat, and lack of focus as a leader were also mentioned as the reasons why she would be fired..
***Although Tarek suggested a theme for the Tahoe event and astroturf for the golf event, Theresa did not bring it up in the boardroom.
*Special note:
**This episode was taped October 3-5, 2005, during the observance of Rosh Hashanah. In an "Apprentice first", two Jewish contestants took the task off in observance — Lee Bienstock and Dan Brody. Bill Rancic replaced George H. Ross during the task because he also observed Rosh Hashanah.
***Lenny revealed during the episode that he was Jewish, but didn't take the day off, citing the fact that Israel Defense Forces soldiers stay on duty during the High Holidays and managing to annoy Dan and Lee. Brent Buckman and Allie Jablon also were of Jewish heritage, but didn't take the task off either.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week3_p1.shtml#main Episode Three Recap on NBC.com]

Week 4: Cereal Killer

*Airdate: March 20, 2006
*Hosting Company: Post Cereals
*Project: Teams had to design billboard ads to promote a new addition to Post's ever-famous Grape-Nuts cereal: Post Grape-Nuts Trail Mix Crunch. Once again, teams would be evaluated by the Post executives, rather than by a score.
*Gold Rush project manager: Charmaine
*Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
**Pain of the Task: Tammy didn't delegate any major duties to Brent, refused to take any of Brent's ideas, and severely segregated him from Synergy.
*Winning team: Gold Rush
**Gold Rush's reward: Getting to prepare a meal with the world-famous chef, Jean-Georges at the Trump International Hotel and Tower.
***Lenny, a former restaurant owner, decided to add some cayenne pepper to one of Jean-Georges' signature dishes. Bryce didn't approve of it.
*Losing team: Synergy
**Reasons for loss: Tammy's concept was too dense, and Andrea's graphic design was too cluttered. As a result, Synergy's billboard was too complex. It had too many colors, too much text, a lack of energy or freshness, pictorial messages that were out of place with the cereal's intended use as a healthy, delicious cereal, and the male model was too young to play a father figure in the ad.
***Synergy didn't give Brent any good tasks—Isolating a teammate won't cut it in the workplace, leading to Synergy's defeat.
**Sent to boardroom: No final boardroom, Brent
**Fired: While Tammy missed the mark as project manager, created a slogan that was too long and allowed a cluttered billboard with too many graphics and too much information, and Andrea was in charge of graphic design, responsible for executing Tammy's ill concept, Brent attracted attention to himself after saying Tammy "stank" as as a project manager, something the Trumps considered aggressive behavior by a potential employee. While Brent was not responsible for the loss in any fashion after being segregated by his team, Trump fired him because the rest of his teammates could not stand him and thought they didn't function very well because he was too much of a negative influence on them.
*Special notes:
**This is the fourth time a candidate is fired without a final boardroom in the history of "The Apprentice"
**Tammy was the second project manager this season not to be fired after losing.
**Roxanne rubbed her roommate Andrea the wrong way in the boardroom by saying Tammy was the best project manager they'd had yet, and when Trump asked if Tammy was better than Andrea, she stated Tammy was indeed better than Andrea, and that she had "sincerity". However, Andrea took it personally and retaliated in the following task, questioning Roxanne and her lack of organization as project manager, which in turn led Roxanne to call out Andrea's rudeness and disruptiveness. This would be the beginning of the Roxanne vs. Andrea conflict that would be used by Roxanne, Allie and Tammy to get Andrea fired in ), in spite of efforts by Sean to stop it from happening.
**Ivanka Trump filled in for Carolyn Kepcher in the Post Cereals task.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week4_p1.shtml#main Episode Four Recap on NBC.com]

Week 5: Cruise Control

*Airdate: March 27, 2006
*Hosting Company: Norwegian Cruise Lines
*Project: Teams had to create a 30 second commercial to promote Norwegian Cruise Lines "Freestyle Cruising".
**For the third time in a row, the teams would be evaluated by the Norwegian Cruise Lines executives, rather than by a score.
**The teams had to be finished filming and compiling the scenes of the commercial by 3 pm Eastern Time, since that's the Norwegian Cruise Ship Jewel's departure time. Instant failure would occur if filming was not done by the 3 pm deadline, as the first part of the task was strictly crunch time.
*Gold Rush project manager: Dan
**Pain of the Task: Dan didn't balance out the duties and didn't delegate any duties to Lee, Lenny, Charmaine and Leslie, which bothered Gold Rush's members.
*Synergy Project Manager: Roxanne
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: Getting to visit the Brinks vault, and taking home $30,000 worth of diamonds.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Although both teams had bold introductions in their commercials, Gold Rush's concept was not clear, using Lenny's idea of a castaway that is rescued by the ship. Dan and Tarek used text instead of voice-over, which was Tarek's idea. Lenny disagreed with both of them and thought they should have used voice-over instead of text.
**Sent to boardroom: Dan, Lee, Tarek
**Fired: Dan, for being afraid of Lenny's attacking his leadership and not bringing him back to the boardroom for his bad "Castaway" idea. Dan also showed poor quality leadership, listening only to Tarek and refusing to pay attention to the rest of his team throughout the task. Although Trump was unhappy with Tarek's using text instead of voice-over, Dan was fired because the commercial concept was wrong, it was Lenny's idea and Dan didn't bring him back to the boardroom.
*Special notes:
**Bill Rancic filled in for George H. Ross for the third time in this season of "The Apprentice"
**This is the second time in the season a Project Manager got fired after not bringing the candidate Trump wanted them to bring back to the boardroom.
**Trump made fun of Tarek and the requirements to be a member at Mensa, given that Tarek made too many mistakes.
**Trump, after Dan's firing, requested Lee and Tarek to warn Lenny that he would not last long
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week4_p1.shtml#main Episode Five Recap on NBC.com]

Week 6: King Of The Jingle

*Airdate: April 3, 2006
*Hosting Company: Arby's
*Project: Teams are asked to create a 30-second commercial "jingle" (short song) for a brand new line of chicken products offered by Arby's—Arby's Chicken Naturals
**Teams are given access to recording studios, and professional musicians
**For the fourth week in a row, the winner would be determined by the judges in the form of Arby's executives
*Gold Rush project manager: Bryce
**Pain of the Task: Gold Rush procrastinated during the exec meeting phase of the task—a "huge" error in the business world
*Synergy Project Manager: Sean
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: A chance to sample a very expensive six-course truffle meal at the Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, valued at $4000 USD/lb—issued from Alba, Italy
***Donald Trump admits that even though he's privileged to eat very expensive food (like the Truffle that he mentioned at the dawn of Synergy's victory), he still prefers Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches any time of the day.
****There is only one Arby's restaurant on the island of Manhattan, in the Manhattan Mall
****Trump also mentioned that the Alain Ducasse at the Essex House is a restaurant people wouldn't go to every day
****So far in the history of "The Apprentice", Trump's favorite foods are sandwiches from Arby's, hamburgers, and even pizza.
*****Recalling from Season 3 of the show, teams had to sell innovations of Trump's two favorite foods—hamburgers and pizza as a part of their job interview.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Gold Rush was 25 minutes late to their 10:15am appointment as per Bill Rancic, a key catchphrase was missing in Gold Rush's jingle
***When Bill Rancic brought up the tardiness issue in the boardroom, even Donald Trump was surprised to know that Bill Rancic took an initiative to discuss the tardiness incident with the two Arby's executives.
****In New York, it is vitally important to allow ample time to approach an important event, meeting, or whatever the engagement would be
****In business, it is also vitally important that people are at least 10-15 minutes early to the meeting—apparently the Arby's executives were especially upset when Gold Rush arrived to the meeting 25 minutes late.
**Sent to boardroom: Bryce, Lee, Lenny
**Fired: Bryce for bringing Lee and Lenny to the boardroom instead of Tarek and Charmaine, who were both responsible for the bad lyrics and music of the jingle, being 25 minutes late to the appointment with the two Arby's executives, and for terrible decision-making.
*Special note:
**The episode was aired 10PM Eastern/Pacific, 9PM Central/Mountain.
**Task 6 was filmed around Yom Kippur, as mentioned by Lee, who takes one day off per observance.
***Because George Ross also had to observe Yom Kippur as well, Bill Rancic fills-in for the Arby's task.
**Before the final boardroom, Charmaine was seen sobbing as she took the elevator back to the candidates' suite.
**The Internal Review, a scene which viewers usually watch Trump and his judges discuss the candidates before the final boardroom, was apparently cut from the Episode 6 viewing.
**This is the third time in this season of "The Apprentice" that the Project Manager was fired for not bringing the candidates responsible for the team's defeat.
**This is the first time this season a team has won two consecutive tasks.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week6_p1.shtml#main Episode Six Recap on NBC.com]

Week 7: It's More Than Decor

*Airdate: April 10, 2006
*Hosting Company: Ace Hardware and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
*Project: Teams need to renovate and remodel an old recreational room and transform the space into an "interactive" recreational room for use in the New Faces for Helpful Places program hosted by both Ace Hardware and Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
**Judges will be grading the teams based on Creativity, Functionality, and Upgradability
**For the fifth week in a row, the sponsors will be the one who will determine the winner based on the three criteria.
*Gold Rush project manager: Lenny
**Pain of the Task: Lenny could not even say a word to the execs and left his teammates to do all the talking during the meeting.
*Synergy Project Manager: Michael
**Obstacle: Michael came under fire from Synergy due to his indecisiveness (he apparently had to consult Sean, Allie, and Roxanne merely to choose paint schemes, which made them burst into laughter). Sean claims Michael is such a "wanker" and his fury could be seen physically as he was backstabbing Michael. Before the winning team was declared, Andrea and Tammy told Michael he had been a horrible leader and a Synergy win would be in spite of his presence and not because of it. Michael was visibly wounded by this assessment of his abilities.
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: Allowing an 8-year old girl named Dasheaira to engage in a Toys-R-Us shopping spree, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Dasheaira is diagnosed with cancer.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Synergy's recreational space provided more variety as opposed to Gold Rush, and Synergy's theme promoted an important business-based asset—teamwork. Gold Rush only spent 10 minutes with the executives as opposed to Synergy's 45 minutes, Gold Rush's theme was too narrow.
**Sent to boardroom: No final boardroom
***Reason for foregoing the Final Boardroom: Although Trump allowed Lenny to bring between 1-3 people back to the boardroom, Lenny made a fatal mistake when he wanted to bring Lee back to the boardroom since Lee was Lenny's advocate. Trump, Bill, and Carolyn declared the leadership to be too weak, grounds for termination of Lenny's candidacy without a final boardroom.
**Fired: Lenny for not being behind his team during the crunch time period (he deserted his team when Tarek, Charmaine, and Leslie were preparing the room for recreational use), poor leadership skills throughout the task, inability to take initiatives, terrible decision-making, not communicating with the executives well during the meeting, and for not getting his ideas in clearly.
*Special note:
**Bill and Carolyn (Bill Rancic fills-in for George Ross once again) informed Donald (after Lenny's firing) that it was a no-brainer because Lenny lacked focus, substance, and direction.
**This is the second time this season someone was fired without the need for a final boardroom, the first time was when Brent had to be fired.
**Lenny's firing mirrored the firing in Season 2, Week 8 when Elizabeth's leadership was too weak.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week7_p1.shtml#main Episode Seven Recap on NBC.com]

Week 8: A Slice of Heaven

*Airdate: April 10, 2006 (second show)
*Hosting Company: 7-Eleven
*Pre-Project Restructure: Since Gold Rush was down to four members, Michael volunteered to join Gold Rush to even out the teams. When Donald Trump asked for a volunteer to switch sides, every other Synergy team member stood silently and looked pointedly at Michael until he raised his hand to join Gold Rush.
*Project: Launch a promotion based on 7-Eleven's brand-new Pizza Sandwich called P'Eatzza, by simply using a 7-Eleven Store provided by both The Trump Organization and 7-Eleven.
**The winner will be determined by the amount of increased sales
*Gold Rush project manager: Leslie
**Pain of the Task: Lee wants to bulk-sell the P'Eatzzas at a very low but more reasonable price, but Leslie forbids it—Some 7-Eleven Supervisors/Managers complained that the P'Eatzza product was priced abnormally high.
*Synergy Project Manager: Andrea
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: A Luxury flight to the Washington DC at a privileged hotel with New York Senator Chuck Schumer
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Gold Rush placed the price of the P'Eatzza too high. At $7.99 for one piece, $8.99 for two pieces, Gold Rush overpriced the product.
***Gold Rush increased sales by 608%
***Synergy increased sales by 997%
***Although Carolyn didn't like the hat idea, the prices of $4 for one P'Eatzza and $6 for two P'Eatzzas helped Synergy secure a win
**Sent to boardroom: Leslie and Lee
**Fired: Leslie for setting the price of the P'Eatzza too high, not fully understanding the price points, not understanding 7-Eleven's ideal market, and for not listening to Lee's suggestion to lower the price of the P'Eatzza sandwich.
*Special note:
**For the first time in the history of "The Apprentice", "usual judges" George and Carolyn will join the candidates later on as Donald Trump met with the candidates alone at the beginning of the task.
**Lee surprised members of both Synergy and Gold Rush when he wept upon his return from the Week 7 Boardroom because he was distraught over Lenny's firing. His team noted it was the first time he had shown his youth during the process, while Sean and Andrea could not see why anyone would be upset over Lenny's leaving because they did not have high regard for him.
**Indy Racing League driver Tony Kanaan was an official with 7-Eleven, the sponsor of his Andretti Green Racing #11 Honda, and the sponsor of this task.
**George Ross returns back as a judge for the 7-Eleven task
**Leslie is the first candidate to be fired on her birthday.
**After an unprecedented see-saw battle the first four weeks which had seen teams alternate wins, Synergy has broken through with a four-week win streak and a 6-2 corporate win record.
**Andrea admitted that she was a vegetarian throughout the P'Eatzza task
**The P'Eatzza's introduction date of April 18, 2006 at American and Canadian 7-Eleven stores was based on the assumption that this episode was going to air on April 17, and then releasing the product the next day. However, a programming shift moved up the show.
**As with Week 6, it appears that Trump requested the internal review be cut from both Yahoo's extended footage and the actual NBC airing.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week8_p1.shtml#main Episode Eight Recap on NBC.com]

Mid-Season Highlights

*Airdate: April 23, 2006 and April 24, 2006 on CNBC
*This is mainly just a recap of the first eight episodes of this season plus footage that wasn't seen in the first eight episodes
*More backstabbing, more issues brought up by Trump's trusted associates
*As with all Season Highlights from the past, Donald Trump is the narrator
*This is the only episode that can be downloaded without a charge at the iTunes Store
*There's also a preview of what to expect in the final weeks of the "ultimate job interview"
*While Canadians will not be able to see the episode on iTunes (because viewing this indefinitely requires a US-based address and credit card in order to access the episode online) the typical CNBC blackout was removed on the 12:00am ET airing only, due to this episode broadcasting only on this channel. [ [http://www.channelcanada.com/Article1339.html CHANNEL CANADA :: CNBC blackouts of The Apprentice: No longer makes sense! ] ]

Week 9: Assault on Battery

*Airdate: April 24, 2006
*Hosting Company: Ameriquest
*Project: Spend the day at Ellis Island to create a souvenir for a National Park at New York City, and sell their souvenirs.
**Each team are given access to certain graphics designers for their souvenirs.
**The winner will be determined by the amount of sales committed.
*Gold Rush project manager: Lee
*Synergy Project Manager: Allie
**Pain of the Task: Synergy's late start deprived them of any Battery Park sales, therefore their Plan B involved going to Ellis Island to sell the brochures, a very bad idea according to Donald Jr. Andrea mentioned Bulk Sales at the last minute. Overall, Donald Jr. is extremely disturbed at Synergy's careless selling strategies.
*Winning team: Gold Rush
**After losing four in a row to Synergy, Gold Rush finally breaks through with a win.
**Gold Rush's reward: Play golf with Trump Sr. and Vijay Singh, with Golf Clubs from the PGA Pro Golf Player himself
*Losing team: Synergy
**Reasons for loss: Allie and Tammy had to go back to the Ellis Island Museum to retrieve Tammy's notes—a really bad idea for crunch time purposes (This was an act of carelessness according to Ivanka). Andrea designed a really bad brochure after saying for weeks that she specialized in computer design. Synergy got to a very late start (Gold Rush started at 5 a.m. ET), mirroring what happened during the Gillette task (where Lee also led Gold Rush), Synergy attempted to sell their brochures at Ellis Island, a very bad idea considering that most people come to Ellis Island from Battery Park since the Ellis Island visitors already obtained their goods from Gold Rush.
***Gold Rush's sales stands at $1548.68
***Synergy's sales stands at $843.40
***Margin was 45.5%
***Dramatic Tension: Andrea suddenly having lost the respect of many people, since before the judgment.
**Sent to boardroom: No final boardroom
***Reason for foregoing a Final Boardroom: Allie stated that she sold more P'Eatzzas than Andrea during the 7-Eleven P'Eatzza task. Andrea's concentration lay more in business operations as opposed to sales, design, and other clerical skills. Andrea didn't deliver any of her promises, and the team, with the exception of Sean, had little or no appreciation of Andrea whatsoever.
**Fired: Andrea for a lack of business chemistry, designing a terrible-looking brochure, and for only giving lip-service skills throughout this task. Allie did very poorly as Project Manager for the week (i.e. leaving the design team to take matters in their own hands and not inspecting them), though Andrea was found to be ultimately responsible for the loss.
*Special note:
**Charmaine isn't happy that Leslie was the one fired from the boardroom in the previous week.
**This is the second time George and Carolyn were not available to evaluate the candidates—Donald's elder children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, will be observing the candidates for this task.
**This is the third week Ivanka Trump will be filling in for Carolyn
**This is the first week Donald Trump, Jr. will be filling in for George
**This is the first week NBC and Donald Trump Sr. invites cell phone users to text their predictions who would be fired for a particular week in this season of "The Apprentice". The promotion is similar to Deal or No Deal, which precedes "The Apprentice", and its Lucky Case text game, where cell phone users may text guesses for a case with $10,000. In both cases, all correct entries with the $10,000 case (Deal) or the fired candidate (Apprentice) are drawn at random, with one player with the correct answer winning $10,000. An alternate Internet-based voting process (free) is available because some states declare this type of sweepstakes a "lottery" because of the entry fee.
**Charmaine was unhappy with Lee's victory, as she felt he got lucky by choosing to be PM. They are the only two players to have led Gold Rush to victory as Project Manager.
**With Andrea's firing, Lee seizes the lead as Project Manager by being the only player still in the game with a 2-0 record as Project Manager.
**Coincidentally, this board was similar to Brent getting fired; the whole team ganged up on Brent, with Andrea aiming for him strongest, whereas Synergy now teamed up (excluding Sean) to fire Andrea.
**This is the longest in any Apprentice season in which no teams have switched members entirely (Michael volunteered to go to Gold Rush, but no teams have actually shuffled).
**This is the third time someone was fired after winning the previous week as a project manager. (Bradford, Series 2, after waiving Exemption used in Series 2, and Clay, Series 4. Since then in Season 6, Aaron, Aimee and Surya and Heidi also held the distinction after)
**Donald, after firing Andrea, thought that his children did a terrific job, with Ivanka having the honor of playing judge with her brother this time around.
**This is the third time someone got fired without a final boardroom for this season alone; six if you counted other on-the-spot firings in the history of the show.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week9_p1.shtml#main Episode Nine Recap on NBC.com]

Week 10: Blow Out

*Airdate: May 1, 2006
*Hosting Company: [http://www.haircuttery.com/ The Hair Cuttery]
*Project: To celebrate a grand opening event of two Hair Cuttery franchise salons in the New York area by executing a sales event.
**The winning team will be determined by the amount of sales committed on their franchised salon
*Gold Rush project manager: Charmaine
**Pain of the Task: Tarek and Lee hated Charmaine's style of leadership and organization while they were executing their flyer task, Charmaine made a very fatal mistake by getting a hairdo during the final three hours of the task.
*Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: Write a song at the Steinway Hall with a well-respected musician Burt Bacharach
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: Gold Rush lacked a lot of direction throughout the planning phase during the task according to Bill Rancic. Synergy had $1005.47 worth of sales which include $363 worth of hair products. Gold Rush only had $700 in sales, Synergy outsold Gold Rush by $305.47. Charmaine got her hair done while she was supposed to be giving direction—she was stealing away task time just for a hairdo. No hair products were sold at Gold Rush's Hair Cuttery whatsoever. Furthermore, Gold Rush should have been marketing the day before opening when they decided to keep organising the store.
**Sent to boardroom: No Final Boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
***Boardroom Tension/Reason for foregoing a Final Boardroom: During the remaining time of the airing, Charmaine and Tarek viciously attacked each other as Trump silently hears the exposure both Charmaine and Tarek bubbled out against each other. The heated argument exposed both Charmaine's weak leadership during this task and Tarek's inability to be led during this task and in the past.
**Fired: Charmaine for a series of bad decisions, "slacking off" during the task while she should've "had her hands dirty" during the final three hours of the task, and lackluster leadership throughout the Hair Cuttery task, and Tarek for being excessively hard to work with in this task, and for his series of insubordination in the past.
*Special notes:
**While this was not really a pain (and technically not eligible for the Excedrin Pain of the Week), Sean was under fire for lambasting Allie for her awful performance during the Ameriquest task.
**Tammy, in spite of flirting with Sean during the task, garnished her much-needed win as a Project Manager.
**This is the sixth time Bill Rancic fills-in for George Ross
**This is the seventh time in the history of the show two or more people have been fired outside of the interviews. Unlike the Gillette task, this multiple-firing was unannounced.
***This is the second time this season two people were fired in a single week.
**This is the second time in the history of the show the fired candidates didn't speak inside the taxi regardless. (The infamous Series 4 quadruple firing was the first.)
**This is the fourth time someone gets fired without a final boardroom for this season alone, seven if you counted past "sans-boardroom" firings. This is also the first time two or more people got fired without the need for a final boardroom.
**Similar to the Series 4 double firing of Felisha and Alla, one was fired first, and then as everyone was expecting to return to the suite, Trump holds everyone back and then fires the second person.
**After ten weeks, the original draft of 18 players is fairly one-sided; Lee is the last original member of the original Gold Rush Corporation to stay alive. Of the other five remaining players, Allie was the original Project Manager for Synergy, and she drafted the other four players remaining on her team originally.
**Both Hair Cuttery locations were in Nassau County, Long Island (about half an hour's drive east of Manhattan.) Gold Rush worked at the outlet located at 15 Old Country Road in the village of Carle Place. Synergy's store was at 3574 Long Beach Road in Oceanside.
**A few days after this episode aired, Charmaine received a franchise offer from Hair Cuttery to run at least one or two franchised salons with the Hair Cuttery name. [ [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/may06/article050206-12.html Apprentice Contestant Gets Franchise Offer From Hair Cuttery ] ] [ [http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2006/05/01/daily10.html?from_rss=1 Trump fires, Hair Cuttery hires - Washington Business Journal: ] ]
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week10_p1.shtml#main Episode Ten Recap on NBC.com]

Week 11: Back to School

*Airdate: May 8, 2006
*Hosting Company: Outback Steakhouse
*Pre-Project Restructure: Sean volunteers to transfer to Gold Rush to even out the teams, tilting the job interview back to its inaugural roots of men versus the women dating back to Seasons 1, 2, and 4.
*Project: Host a tailgate party by selling Outback Steakhouse food during a football game using separate tents, lots, and cooks, located at Rutgers University
**The winner will be determined by the amount of sales obtained.
*Gold Rush project manager: Lee
**Pain of the Task: Michael focuses too much on the events rather than on sales, and attempted to give up some of the cheerleaders to Synergy.
*Synergy Project Manager: Roxanne
**Task Turning Point: The all-male Gold Rush secured an exclusive deal with the Rutgers cheerleaders and had the better marketing strategy from the beginning. The all-female Synergy were apparently out of luck but devised an emergency plan that involved bulk selling and lot delivery to make up for their marketing handicap. This Plan (Bulk Selling and Lot Delivery) paid off for the all-female Synergy. Although Lee, as Gold Rush PM, had the upper hand and organized a great event that attracted a lot of people, he forgot the goal of the task was sales, and converting more of those people into customers. In business, it's really important to place all energies into what the task and/or job is all about.
*Winning team: Synergy
**Synergy's reward: To create their very own signature wine at the Rafael Vineyard Estate of Long Island, New York.
*Losing team: Gold Rush
**Reasons for loss: According to Carolyn, Gold Rush focused too much in their events rather than converting their guests into sales. Synergy sold $2750 in food, while Gold Rush sold $1000 less. This was a surprising defeat for Gold Rush as Gold Rush was ahead in their marketing plans throughout the task, but failed once their event took place. Lee was an overconfident project manager, and failed by not having a better sales plan once he had so many potential customers at his event.
***Recalling from the 7-Eleven P'Eatzza task, Leslie set the P'Eatzza price too high for a target audience focusing on college students, which Lee had criticised; Lee wanted items priced affordably low, hoping that the low price will boost up sales based on the audience, which Lee perceived was the same audience for the game (the tailgating lots in question would be mostly college students). The low pricing backfired due to Synergy's Tailgating To Go strategy.
**Sent to boardroom: Lee, Sean, Michael—Gold Rush were all under internal review as Trump requested the entire team to wait at the reception area.
***Internal Review turning point: Carolyn had issues regarding Michael and his attempt to give up on Gold Rush's exclusive deal with the cheerleaders and his lack of competitive edge against the women's team.
**Fired: Michael, primarily for attempting to share the cheerleaders with the all-female Synergy and for lacking a competitive edge. He also focused too much on the events, but this was due to Lee's strategy as well. While Lee did not maximize his sales after all the marketing events his team organized (Gold Rush focused too much on the events and forgot about sales, only Sean did the sales), asset-sharing is considered a serious oversight in the business world. This flaw in Michael's character was too much of a critical error and could not be ignored in the boardroom.
*Special notes:
**Although the majority of the viewers billed Allie as a big pain, given Synergy's win in this task, none of Allie's actions qualify for the Excedrin Pain of the Week.
**As a result of this task, Michael joins Andrea as the second undefeated Project Manager to be fired (Michael was 1-0; Andrea, 2-0). Sean and Roxanne were the only candidates left in the competition with spotless records as Project Manager. (Sean was 1-0 at the time, Roxanne 2-0).
**The internal review was filmed for the first time since the Norwegian Cruise Line task.
**Sean calls Michael a "wanker" for the second time in the season.
**The use of the correct British spelling ("whilst" instead of "while") was noted during the printing of Gold Rush flyers, when Sean used the British spelling. It was noted by Lee and changed to the American version.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week11_p1.shtml#main Episode Eleven Recap on NBC.com]

Week 12: Backs Against the Wal-Mart

*Airdate: May 15, 2006
*Sponsor: Wal-Mart and Microsoft
*Project: Create an interactive and three-dimensional in-store display area at Wal-Mart for customers to demo Microsoft's followup to the original Xbox, the "Xbox 360"
**The winner will be the team that creates the most compelling in-store Xbox 360 promotion to be judged by both Wal-Mart and Microsoft executives.
**The scoring goes back to the Judgment System, dating back from Week 7 (Ace Hardware task)
*Gold Rush project manager: Sean
**Gold Rush's concept is to outsource the building of the display of the Xbox 360, leaving the duet to focus on merchandise inside the set.
**Obstacle: Adrian (an employee of the firm Gold Rush hired to construct the set) was not making Sean pleased with his apparent delays and broken promises, plus Sean and Lee were facing a lot of crunch time moments due to Adrian's supposed hidden agenda.
*Synergy Project Manager: Tammy
**Tammy's idea is a Hollywood theme, which both Roxanne and Allie didn't somewhat like
***The team domestically built their own display
**Pain of the Task: Allie and Roxanne were not focusing their energies on the task while Tammy was shopping around for the Xbox 360 layout when Bill Rancic checked on them, plus Tammy had a discussion with the two to curb Allie's and Roxanne's insubordination, but Tammy was not strong enough to curb the insubordination completely.
*Winning team: Gold Rush
**Gold Rush's reward: To go to Hollywood to meet Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of DreamWorks' Animation Studios Executives and conduct voice-overs in the animated film Over the Hedge.
***The The Internet Movie Database's [http://imdb.com/title/tt0327084/fullcredits full credits] for the film lists both Gold Rush participants as the voices for "BBQ Barry" and "Lunch Table Larry", respectively.
** [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/may06/article051106-17.html See the Pre-Episode Citation]
*Losing team: Synergy
**Reasons for loss: The lack of price points hurt Synergy's 3-D Display (people wanted to know how much each item cost), plus there were not any real-life examples on how people can use the Xbox 360; plus the living room theme wasn't retail-friendly. Gold Rush rushed their display but provided a more retail-friendly display that more than made up for Adrian's inability to meet Sean's Crunch Time demands.
**Sent to boardroom: No final boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
***Boardroom Tension: Trump brought up the Project Manager record, but was not pleased that Tammy lost twice as Project Manager. Trump also hated Tammy's way of designing the Xbox 360 display, which he thought "stunk", somewhat mirroring Brent's harsh treatment of Tammy back in week 4, but in a more civilized manner. Trump also took note about Tammy's failure in curbing Allie's and Roxanne's insubordination and keeping both of them on-task.
**Fired: Tammy, for overall weak leadership throughout the task, bad overall design of the Xbox 360 display, losing the respect of plus failing to completely curb insubordination issues with Allie and Roxanne.
*Special notes:
**This is the second time Wal-Mart has sponsored an "Apprentice" task, making them the first company to ever host a task twice in one given season.
**The episode aired one hour later than its normal scheduled time
**Bill Rancic and Ivanka Trump fill-in for George and Carolyn for the Wal-Mart/Microsoft joint task
***This is Bill Rancic's seventh and final time filling in for George as a Boardroom Judge
***This is Ivanka's fourth stand as a boardroom judge
**Tammy had lost twice as a Project Manager before she was fired, a feat that happened with Season 4's Felisha.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week12_p1.shtml#main Episode Twelve Recap on NBC.com]

Week 13: Who Wears the Pants?

*Airdate: May 22, 2006
*Hosting Company: Embassy Suites Hotels
*Project: Create a new line of uniforms for four different departments for the hosting company
**Each team has access to design studios, clothing designers, and even models
**The employees will be the ones who will determine the winner via a fashion show
*Gold Rush project manager: Lee
**Gold Rush design their uniforms based on market research and key "things" employees wanted to change. A key move here was shown when Lee and Sean collaborated with their designer on fabrics (something which later would become crucial as fabric choices greatly helped them ultimately).
*Synergy Project Manager: Allie
**Pain of the Task: Synergy uses their love of fashion to execute the task, but Roxanne has some issues with Allie's designs. In addition, Allie (according to Roxanne) offended clothing designer Mark Ballard during the design phase of the task.
***Task Issues: During the Fashion Show, Sean and some of the Embassy Suites employees became aghast at the clothes Synergy was offering Embassy's employees.
*Winning team: Gold Rush
**Gold Rush's reward: An intimate dinner with Ivanka and Donald Jr. at the Aquavit plus advice on how to become Trump's fifth apprentice. This is the final reward for the season.
*Losing team: Synergy
**Reasons for loss: Gold Rush's uniforms are more comfortable and professional than Synergy's; Synergy's uniforms won't fit with all employees. Both Ivanka and Donald Jr. declared a very huge beating when Ivanka said that 83 employees preferred Gold Rush's uniforms over Don Jr.'s 37 "pro-Synergy" employees.
**Sent to boardroom: No final boardroom at the discretion of Donald Trump
***Key Firing Points: Customer Relations issues were being heard about during the hearing. Ivanka lambasted Allie for being too drastic on the designs.
**Fired: Both Allie and Roxanne for not differentiating work from friendship throughout the task, and for exposed hidden disloyalty with each other in the boardroom. While Allie was responsible for Synergy's loss (because of her flamboyant designs and her rudeness to Mark Ballard), Trump had to let Roxanne go as well since both Allie and Roxanne were too close during the job interview.
***Trump's lesson of the week, "Work and Friendship", covered the differences between friendship and business, and neither Allie and Roxanne had an idea about that.
*Special notes:
**This is the final "normal" task of this season.
**Because both Allie and Roxanne were fired on this task, there won't be one-on-one interviews this season. This is also the second time in the history of the show that a company
** [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/may06/article051906-6.html See the Pre-Airing Citation]
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week13_p1.shtml#main Episode Thirteen Recap on NBC.com]

The Final Task: The Mother of All Tasks

*Starting Airdate: May 29, 2006 ("Week 14: Final Battle")
*Ending Airdate: June 5, 2006 ("Week 15: Season Finale")
*Universal Sponsor: Pontiac
*Beginning:
**Lee and Sean received a call from Robin to report back to the boardroom immediately after Allie and Roxanne got fired
**In the Boardroom, Trump said that the boardroom is not a place people want to be, but Trump made the Boardroom pleasant by announcing both Lee and Sean as the Final Two among over one million applicants for Trump's fifth apprentice.
**Following the special visit, Lee and Sean were asked to proceed back to the suite and to assemble the teams.
**Unlike the first four seasons, Lee and Sean get to talk to each of the sixteen fired candidates before the next morning
**As with Season 4, Lee and Sean can assemble their teams in the manner they want
*Lee's Final Project: Host a Pontiac-sponsored Celebrity Ice Hockey game at an assigned place at the Chelsea Piers to benefit the Leary Firefighters Foundation.
**The Ice Hockey game MUST utilize AT LEAST one fundraising component, and any fundraising component MUST be approved by the charity.
**All net proceeds in the Ice Hockey Game will be remitted to the Leary Firefighters Foundation
**Lee's Corporation Name: Gold Rush
**Lee's Recruits: Lenny, Pepi, Roxanne
**Gold Rush Cliffhangers:
***Lys didn't like the ideas Gold Rush gave for the charity event, and Lys was giving Lee not only a list of events he was to run in a short amount of time, but apparently neither Lys nor Lee were getting along with each other.
***Carolyn was concerned about Lee's leadership abilities at this point of the job interview
***Carolyn was also concerned about Lee's selection of employees. Furthermore, Jaime Pressly was lost in one point of the task.
*Sean's Final Project: Host a Barenaked Ladies concert held at the Trump Taj Mahal at Atlantic City, New Jersey to benefit the World Wildlife Fund.
**All net proceeds from the Barenaked Ladies concert will be remitted to the World Wildlife Fund
**Sean's Corporation Name: Synergy
**Sean's Recruits: Tammy, Andrea, Tarek
**Synergy Cliffhangers:
***Andrea was forced to leave the task in order to check in with a doctor because she was seeing a lot of blood coming from both her mouth and nose. Although it seems that Andrea was suffering from tuberculosis or laryngitis, this wasn't the case because it was actually a minor sinual irritation that Andrea needs to be very careful of. Afterwards, Andrea bounced back.
***The Pontiac Execs were also concerned about the lack of the Pontiac badging during Sean's event.
*Special notes:
**Each Executive Director has a seed budget of $5000 USD.
**No interviews are needed given that both Roxanne and Allie were fired on the Embassy Suites Hotel task, so Lee and Sean are automatically named the Final Two.
**Neither Trump nor Carolyn seemed to remember who Pepi was, and they were concerned with Lee's choice of him as a recruit.
**The Mother of All Tasks promises to be the most difficult task of all time
**While both tasks were successful, there were a couple of mistakes as described:
***Lee chose Lenny and Pepi, who seem to be very weak links. Lee unfortunately didn't give enough direction and apparently directions were considered to be too vague.
***George thought that Sean was not overlooking his employees closely, which bothered him. However, Sean appeared to pull the team together.
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week14_p1.shtml#main Episode Fourteen Recap on NBC.com]

Decision Time

*Airdate: June 5, 2006 ("Week 15: Season Finale")
*The episode aired at a special time, 9:30pm ET/PT, 8:30pm CT/MT.
*See the Final Task for cliffhangers and the outcome of it.
*Both Lee and Sean chose the same job, a Trump International Hotel in the trendy SoHo neighborhood of New York City.
**Sean chose New York because he needed to "learn a lot" from Trump
**Lee chose New York because he has to work close to where he lived
*The Apprentice finale was broadcast live from the legendary Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles (foreshadowing the next season?)
*Hired "in television": Sean
**Coronation Reward: A 2006 or 2007 Pontiac G6 Hardtop Convertible
*"Not hired on television:" Lee
**Postmortem: Although Bienstock was not hired on television (and much to the audiences' and viewers' surprise that Lee heard "You're fired" from Trump), due to his tenacity and credentials, he was "hired outside of television" by Trump [ [http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/19377/Donald_Trump_Hires_Lee_Bienstock.html Donald Trump Hires Lee Bienstock ] ] to work for Trump Mortgage as an associate vice president for corporate development approximately three months after Yazbeck was "hired inside of television".
*Special notes:
**This is the first time viewers were able to help Trump decide who should be hired. Trump said only that it was "a one-sided decision" but that he agreed with it, ultimately hiring Sean.
**While the finale was aired live, as in previous seasons, Season 5's finale was held in Hollywood, California. Season 6, scheduled to air after the NFL season, filming is scheduled to begin shortly after the finale.
**In "Apprentice" fashion, the final candidate to be fired from the interview generally don't hear Trump's trademark coup de grace. Because the viewers were asked to help Trump make the ultimate decision, Trump made an exception. While Trump liked "both" Sean and Lee, he told the viewers and the audience that he can't break any rules (by doing a double-hiring) this time around, and said that he had to agree with the viewers by firing Lee and hiring Sean. Jennifer Massey from Season 2 and James Sun from Season 6 are the only other people who heard Trump's trademarked coup de grace.
***The only rule Trump was allowed to break was his trademark application firings
**The five people Trump hired consecutively had spotless project manager records.
**Sean denies rumors that he would marry Tammy Trenta [ [http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/new-apprentice-winner-sean-yazbeck-clarifies-he-not-engaged-4172.php New 'Apprentice' winner Sean Yazbeck clarifies he's not engaged] , "Reality TV World", June 7, 2006.] [ [http://www.celebrityspider.com/news/june06/article060906-9.html Apprentice Winner: "I'm Not Getting Married"] , "Celebrity Spider", June 9, 2006.]
* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/recap/week15_p1.shtml#main Final Episode Recap on NBC.com]

References

ee also

* Season 1
* Season 2
* Season 3
* Season 4
* Season 6
* Season 7

External links

how-related sites

* [http://www.nbc.com/The_Apprentice_5/ NBC Official Site]
* [http://apprentice.tv.yahoo.com/trump/05 Yahoo's Apprentice 5 Website]
* [http://www.3a-shirts.com/llsquad.html Lenny and Lee selling T-shirts for charity]
* [http://orthodoxapprentice.blogspot.com/ The Orthodox Apprentice]
* [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2006/0508-xbox360onapprentice.htm X-box Interviews]

Candidate websites

* [http://www.seanyazbeck.com/ Sean Yazbeck]
* [http://www.leebienstock.com/index.php Lee Bienstock]
* [http://www.theresaboutross.com/ Theresa Boutross]
* [http://www.danielbrody.com/ Dan Brody]
* [http://www.brentbuckman.com/ Brent Buckman]
* [http://www.gahagan-eddy.com/ Bryce Gahagan]
* [http://www.charmainehunt.com/ Charmaine Hunt]
* [http://www.alliejablon.com/ Allie Jablon]
* [http://www.andrealake.com/ Andrea Lake]
* [http://www.michaellaungani.com/ Michael Laungani]
* [http://www.tsaab.com/ Tarek Saab]
* [http://www.roxannewilson.com/ Roxanne Wilson]