‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ review: Should Keshia Knight Pulliam have called Bill Cosby?

It has been a while since we’ve had a new season of “Celebrity Apprentice”, but the show is back on NBC with a pretty good cast that has all the potential to drum up a lot of money for charity along with some pretty intense drama: We do after all have a few reality stars that are known for their fights (we are looking at you Kenya Moore and Brandi Glanville) and a few that aren’t, but that doesn’t mean new rivalries won’t be born tonight.

The first challenge is through Pie Face where basically they make pies, raise money and smash their competitors. The guest judge is Buddy from “Cake Boss” who will pick the team with the best tasting pies and that team will get a financial advantage.

Team Infinity (The women): Kenya Moore came up with this name, much to Brandi Glanville’s dismay since she wanted it to be Team Gold. Keshia Knight Pulliam is the first team manager (something that we predicted may happen in the pre-show podcast and was worried she would be the first one fired). When the team made it to the Pie Face venue Keshia seemed to have a tough time delegating tasks and Kate Gosselin and Jamie Anderson stepped in and started getting pies made and were really in charge of the pies in general. We were surprised that Keshia didn’t call Bill Cosby to make a big donation… her reason behind it was that he’s not local, but can’t he send money? On the day of the fundraiser, Keshia’s team didn’t seem to have as much money coming in as the men’s team.

Team Vortex (The men): Geraldo came up with this name and it seems that he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with on this team. Geraldo ends up being the project manager, which was a surprise to no one. When they get to the Pie Face venue, Geraldo and Kevin Jonas seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot as Geraldo likes to go over the details many times over and Kevin feels that saying it once is enough and that they are going to get behind because they are not actually making pies. Sig was in charge of making pie crusts and burnt a good 600 pies, putting the men even further behind (we did like Gilbert Gottfried’s touch on the pies which all had Geraldo’s face on them). Team Vortex had some good donors coming in with some big cheques, but it seemed that they weren’t having as much fun as the ladies were since Geraldo was corralling people through as quickly as possible.

The Boardroom: Lorenzo Lamas and Kate Gosselin both brought in no money to their respective teams, but both worked extremely hard to help during the challenges and it would be disappointing if either of them left because of that. It was surprising to hear Shawn Johnson say that she feels that their team didn’t win, but unsurprising to hear Kenya throw Keshia under the bus as the weakest player on their team. When it came to the men, everyone was confident that they won, but when Lorenzo was brought up as someone that only brought in $100, the idea was floated that he was saving his big donations for when he’s project manager (we think he just doesn’t have the Rolodex). The winner of the $25,000 bonus chosen by Buddy for the best tasting pie went to the ladies.

Who won and who got fired: The men won by over $100,000 and the ladies were up for a firing. As for the women’s team – Jamie, Kate and Shawn were thrown under the bus by Keshia saying they didn’t raise money (Kate didn’t raise one dollar), but Kate retorted by saying that Keshia didn’t manage the team. Kate is shocked when Brandi Glanville calls Kate lazy, saying that she didn’t do anything (she cooked most of the pies, so this was strange to hear). Kenya brought up the fact that Keshia didn’t call Bill Cosby for financial support, but Keshia reveals that they hadn’t spoken in so many years that she felt weird about it.

Keshia chose Kate and Jamie to come back into the boardroom with her, and while it was her best choices out of the women on her team she still went home (but not without a personal cheque for $25,000 out of Trump’s own pocket).

Over all this was a great first episode – did it really need to be 2 hours long? It was a little long for what it was, but watching Kevin Jonas and Geraldo Rivera go at it was so entertaining! Episode grade: B-

What did you think of the premiere of “Celebrity Apprentice” and do you think that this cast is going to make for a great season? If you are looking for more coverage on the show then just head over to the link HERE where we have reviews, previews and podcasts all about “Celebrity Apprentice”. Also if you want even more great TV coverage sent straight to your inbox then make sure you sign up for the CarterMatt newsletter. (Photo: NBC)