‘All-Star Celebrity Apprentice’ rankings: Penn Jillette hits #1; Omarosa slides

“All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” is certainly turning out to be chaotic, and three weeks in it’s starting to become a little bit obvious just who falls into one of what are now three camps: the contenders, the sacrificial lambs, and the comic relief. We still only contain that a handful of people are actually candidates to win the show, so what will be really interesting is the path in which they take in order to get there.

It’s really hard to rank a show that is scored so arbitrarily, but as we have said in the past, we’re looking at a combination of challenge ability, boardroom prowess, star power, and the “Trump Factor” that keeps the Donald consistently interested in wanting you to stick around for another week.

11. Claudia Jordan (last week: 11)- Claudia could be one of the most competent people ever, but the fact that no one, save for at least “Deal or No Deal” fans, knows who she is drastically lowers her chances of staying in this competition. She’ll be gone in a few weeks’ time, as soon as Trump finds himself a good reason.

10. Gary Busey (10) – The clock is starting to run out a little bit on the Busey. Trump has managed to keep the guy around for three good weeks of craziness, but given that everyone on his team thinks he is the weakest player, how much longer can you keep a guy around?At most, we see Gary lasting a few more weeks.

9. Omarosa (4) – The debate that we run into with Omarosa right now is simple: is she in a good enough place emotionally to be on this show? While Trump typically allows contestants to miss a little bit of time here and there, it is usually planned out in advance. Omarosa’s exit was understandable, but it did create drama; not only that, but Trump claimed that he would have fired her had La Toya Jackson brought her back into the boardroom.

8. Dennis Rodman (7) – Dennis is in some ways his team’s version of Gary Busey: a guy who gets along well with everyone, but is constantly singled out as a weak player. We personally don’t really view Dennis as weak, but instead a guy who just follows the beat of his own drummer. If utilized properly, he’s a huge asset; it’s just all about finding a way to ensure he is used properly.

7. Brande Roderick (6) – Once again, Brande finds herself right smack in the middle of the pack. She’s not performing as well as she did in her first season, but she’s doing enough to not make any enemies, and to always make sure that there is someone else around who is a bigger threat of being fired than her.

6. Stephen Baldwin (12) – Thanks to a win as Project Manager, Stephen moves up a whopping six spots this week. With that being said, did he really do too much, or just rely on Penn’s great ideas? So long as there aren’t any more fundraising tasks in the next few weeks, he is competent enough to last for a little while.

5. Lisa Rinna (5) – Once again, Lisa manages to be the sleeper of the entire competition right now. She’s not necessarily doing anything amazingly impressive, but she’s also not doing anything bad. The downside to this is that Trump could turn around and fire her at any moment, but we can’t see her being a target save for some sort of catastrophic failure.

4. Trace Adkins (8) – His sample size of two episodes (compared to three for everyone else) hurts him enough for him to be ranked outside of the top three this week. However, he was the star of the soap opera challenge for Crystal Light, and we have to assume that he will  continue to rise up this list based on when we have seen him in action.

3. Marilu Henner (3) – Marilu is one of those unsung heroes right now of the competition: while the whole memory thing’s a little strange, she’s so well-liked and almost normal that you question why she is even on the show in the first place.

2. Lil Jon (1) – Lil Jon is dropping to no fault of his own this week, since he really has done nothing other than be a strong player all season. The only question we have in the long-term is whether or not he will have the killer instinct that it takes to make it into the finals, since that is what bit him the last time he was here.

1. Penn Jillette (2) – For this trick, Penn manages to more or less be Project Manager of a task when he is not even Project Manager. He’s one of the more accomplished people on the show, and the reason why is apparent: he’s a mad scientist of ideas, and had Dee Snider listened to him at Universal, his team could be undefeated right about now. While he does operate with a sort of “go big or go home” strategy, he’s hitting home runs every step of the way so far.

Who do you think is the strongest player right now on “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice”? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can also click here to see what Omarosa had to say in response to the Michael Clarke Duncan comments from La Toya Jackson.

Photo: NBC