What a Difference an Episode Makes
Apprentice Commentary
By Matt Eickhoff
May 13, 2005
The whole time I was watching last night’s Apprentice episode, the following things kept going through my mind: “Is this actually happening?”, “What the heck is going on?”, “how did things change so much?”. I’m sure I was not the only one that was flabbergasted by the events of last night. I know that I, and many others, thought that Tana was the front runner to be the next Apprentice. In fact, I said to one of my friends as the episode started “this is Tana’s competition to lose”.
She must have heard me. Because it’s looking like she is going to lose it for herself. What we saw from her last night was extremely uncharacteristic of her, or at least what we knew of her from before. She was short with people (when she is usually over-talkative), she was rude (when she is usually the queen of kindness), and she was extremely unprepared (when she is usually right on top of things). So what happened?
Well I think Mark Burnett and NBC have taken us for a ride this season. It’s a classic case of character development. All season long they have built Tana and Kendra up to be certain personas. Tana has been the kill-‘em-with-kindness type business woman that served as a great face and great voice for whatever team she was working for. Kendra was the fairly subdued, young, wide-eyed girl that worked well but had a few bumps in the road when it came to leading others. So what happened? How to Tana fall apart? And when did Kendra become this great motivator and leader? Did they have these strengths or faults all season long, and it was just not shown to us for sake of plot development?
Yes, the show is “reality”, and they can only take clips from what the competitors actually do, but still the editors have free reign to pick and choose exactly what is shown. That is why, although it’s a reality show, the credits for the show still include people with job titles like “Story Coordinator” and “Writers”. Essentially, you shouldn’t need a “writer” for a reality show… its already written! But these people are used to carve out a certain plot, or lead the viewing public to believe certain things about all the contestants. What has been shown so far has been chosen strategically… and then they went ahead and made another strategic move with last night’s episode.
After last weeks show, I was assuming that this week would be the finale. After they eliminate the finalists down to two, the following show is always the finale (or should I say it has been that way for seasons one and two). So I was quite confused when this episode was hyped as “the countdown to the finale”. Why was it not the finale? Why did we need an extra show thrown in, in between?
One may argue that after the ridiculously unneeded and stretched out finale of Apprentice 2 that they instead decided to break it up because people disliked the three-hour format so much. But, I think instead it was brilliant planning, story development and PR for the show instead.
Now, NBC and Burnett have given us a shocking episode to contradict what we have built up to think all season… and people are going to talk about it! It’s going to water cooler talk all day today. It was discussed on radio shows all over this morning. It’s going to be blogged about all over the Internet (just like I’m writing about it right now). And that is EXACTLY what they wanted. These reality TV execs are getting smart in their old age!
There is so much to discuss and talk about from last nights show! For example: How could Tana forget the American flag? Can you believe how well Kendra managed her team? Did you see when Tana dissed Chris right in front of Carolyn? How did Tana go from such a sweet woman to super bitch so quickly? Did you see how well Kendra defended herself in the board room? How could Tana be so rude to the Governor’s assistant? What the heck is going to happen next week when the team members get to give feedback about their project managers?
All these questions are fodder for the herds of reality fans out there. NBC had to have strategically planned this so that there would be so much buzz about the finale. The buzz is needed. The show’s ratings have definitely dropped, and they need to salvage what they can.
I think it worked. I know that I am going to be tuning in for sure. Not that I wouldn’t, after watching the whole season, but now I’m anxiously anticipating the finale to see exactly all the stuff that is going to go down. It worked well enough to compel me to write a commentary about a show I have never written about before for RTVC.
So for this, I say “good job” to the people at NBC and Mark Burnett’s production company. No one should be firing you anytime soon!
Matt is 24 and currently working in student affairs at his alma mater university in Michigan. His love for both music and reality TV makes him a huge fan of Nashville Star and American Idol. When he's not watching a reality show, he enjoys going to the theater for movies, having game nights with friends, and throwing elaborately planned parties.
Matt can be contacted at icough444@gmail.com
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