Why Did Trump Choose Stefani?
After an exhilaratingly short finale, Donald Trump decided to hire Stefani Schaeffer as his newest Apprentice last night, proving my prediction wrong once again. For the record, I’ve only been right twice - with Bill Rancic and Kendra Todd. Not a great track record for yours truly.
Now, in her personal and professional life, Stefani is obviously what Trump likes to call a “star.” But on the show? We didn’t even get to see her in action until halfway through the series. And even then she never stepped up and took charge of anything. We know she was never a winning project manager (or a losing one, for that matter), but one doesn’t have to be PM to shine on a task. She never took a single risk, playing it safe from week to week. That’s all well and good, and as a strategy it’s probably smarter than coming out of the gate with the energy of a toddler on Hershey bars.
But let’s look at this from Trump’s point of view. He’s said repeatedly, in several seasons of the show, that he hates people who play under the radar. Stefani is the epitome of under the radar. She banked on the fact that no one disliked her or kept her around in the boardroom to potentially be fired, but that’s only because she never took enough responsibility to shoulder blame for a loss. And the kicker is that Trump and his kids seemed to know this all along.
So why, then, did Stefani beat out James, and to a lesser extent, Frank and Nicole? Well, Nicole wasn’t seriously an option, so we won’t get into that. Frank would have made a great Apprentice, but apparently I’m one of the only ones who thinks so. Yeah, he’s a bit rough around the edges, but that’s what makes him different from all of the others. James has a proven track record as PM, which for some reason he chose not to play up during the finale. Did he not really want the job? Hard to say - it didn’t look to me though that he was fighting for his life up there.
Trump justified his choice by alluding to things James has said in the past that didn’t sit right with him. What were those things? I don’t have a clue, but I’m hoping that it will all come out sooner or later. Ultimately, perhaps Stefani was the “safe” choice. She’s not a loose cannon - on the contrary, she’s very reserved and professional. And she’s single, which means that she’ll be available not only for the actual work she’ll be paid to do, but also for publicity appearances to promote the show.
The Apprentice has been renewed on NBC, and will return this fall. Photo courtesy of NBC.
Don’t forget to check out my recaps of The Apprentice at Reality Shack, and stop by SirLinksALot: The Apprentice for even more.
Tags: the apprentice, donald trump, stefani schaeffer, reality tv
i read this and a number of other comments after wondering what trump was alluding to re: james comments..doesn’t anyone remember how much he slammed other people in the little interludes..he constantly cut down other competitors with little justification. he’s what we call in my business, a hallway assassin. and rightly so, a hallway assassin get’s their’s, eventually. i really didn’t feel until the final task that he really showed he could lead anything, yet he would constantly kick anyone, especially when they were already down!
Nicole and Frank cut everyone down and they still made it to the finals… in fact, Trump calls it fighting for themselves to cut others down especially in the finale.
So cut the crap on James being negative… he was no more negative and probably less than many others including past winners.
Burt, there’s a difference between cutting the others down in the boardroom where they can defend themselves (which Trump does indeed encourage), and doing it in confessionals. That said, I agree with you that James wasn’t any worse than many of the other candidates from this season and those prior.
Terry, what you’re describing sounds more like a gossip than anything else, and I don’t think James belongs in that category.
I’m not saying he should have won - I was rooting for Frank. But everyone involved, including the viewers, deserved a better explanation than a veiled reference to “certain dialogues” to justify his firing.