‘The Apprentice’


I have a confession. Except for network news, newsmagazine shows and sports, I rarely watch television. But…last year, I got hooked on “The Apprentice.” No, not because of Donald Trump, an overrated blowhard, but because of the strategy and creativity needed each week to solve problems.

With that confession out of the way, I feel that I am an authority on why Trump picked Randal Pinkett, a successful and well-educated African-American businessman, over Rebecca Jarvis, an impressive young financial reporter based in Chicago.

For those who missed the final episode Thursday night, Randal was selected by Trump and then was asked if he were in Trump’s shoes, would he also hire Rebecca. Randal replied, “Mr. Trump, I firmly believe that this is ‘The Apprentice,’ that one and only one apprentice, and if you’re going to hire someone tonight, it should be one. It’s not ‘The Apprenti, it’s ‘The Apprentice.’”

Trump said, “Okay, I’m going to leave it at that then. I think I could have been convinced, but you feel that’s the way it should be, I’m going to leave it that way.”

For that, Randal has been roundly criticized. He was booed by many of the audience and Andy Dehnard, writing for MSNBC, claimed, “Randal chose selfishness over selflessness.”

Hold on. Time out. Wait a minute.

All season, Trump has stated that out of the 1 million original applicants, he would select one person to be his apprentice. He did that and now Rebecca’s supporters are saying Randal should have endorsed her also being selected.

Why should he support her?

No one on the show had been nicer, more respected or more coveted as a teammate than Randal. Let’s not forget that even though Randal had been extremely supportive of Rebecca, she double-crossed him in the boardroom, apparently in an effort to get rid of her strongest competitor. Even after that, Randal was loyal to Rebecca, helping her win when she was team captain instead of sabotaging her efforts. In the end, he had no obligation – or reason – to change the rules initially established just so that the runner-up could also be declared a winner. In the three previous episodes, there had been only one winner and even though the competition was close this time – it always is – the best person won.

Finally, as a team leader, Randal was undefeated – three wins and no losses. Rebecca, on the other hand, won only one (working with Randall) and lost two. I’ll concede that Randal stumbled in the last assignment when he did not have an alternative plan for his rained-out charity softball game. But he recovered quickly and raised $11,000 for Autism Speaks, his assigned charity. Rebecca showed flashes of brilliance in her final planning, but failed at the major task: Raising money for her charity, the Elizabeth Glaser AIDS Foundation. She did not raise one cent. Nothing. Zilch. Yahoo ended up making a $100,000 donation, to be split between each of the show's charities, but nothing was raised at the event. And that was the task. In the end, of the competitors that had been on both teams, all of them supported Randal as the better leader. Trump agreed, saying: “Randal, you’re an amazing leader. Rarely have I seen a leader as good as you, and you lead through niceness.”

Trump was right when he said, “Randal, you’re hired.”