Celebrity Apprentice - Joan River's Final Team Picking Strategy Backfires

Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice finale aired on Sunday, May 10, 2009.  The two finalists, comedian Joan Rivers and professional Poker Player Annie Duke went into the last show with palpable hatred for each other.

Whether they really hated each other or if it was all the cameras is hard to know.  However, if they are just acting they both deserve an Emmy.

(Image of Tom Green - NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

At the beginning of the Final Celebrity Apprentice episode Donald introduced some former celebrities for Joan and Annie to select to help them with their final tasks.

(Image of Clint Black - NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

Even though Melissa Rivers was available to be picked on a team, Melissa was the last person picked.  Why?  Melissa explained that she and her mom had discussed a strategy for picking celebrities for Joan's final team.

Melissa explained that she and her mom knew Annie would never select Melissa.  Therefore, it was agreed Joan would pick Melissa last.

As it turned out Annie won the coin toss and decided to pick Brande Roderick first.  Joan wisely picked one of her favorites, Herschel Walker, as her first pick.  Joan then picked Clint Black as her second choice and then her daughter Melissa as her last pick.

Annie had Brande, and then picked Dennis Rodman and Tom Green as her last choice.

Although there were many elements that would be evaluated for the final win, raising money for charity was a major part of the task.  Ironically, shortly after selecting Dennis for her team, he showed up in Annie Duke's war room with an envelope full of cash - $20,000 to be exact.

(Image of Brande Roderick - NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

On the flip side, Joan's pick, "Cowboy" as she called Clint Black, seemed totally worn out and not happy to be back on the show or Joan's team.  He told Joan he couldn't raise any money at all and was completely tapped out.  Not great news for Joan who was determined to beat her arch enemy, Annie.

(Image of Herschel Walker - NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

While Clint seems like the weakest link on Joan's team, Tom Green and Dennis Rodman are up to their old tricks of playing around rather than working hard.  Tom seemed to clash with Annie right out of the gate at a meeting with the Kodak representative who was meeting with Annie's team to discuss the Kodak assignment.

Tom was not happy with Annie's sharp management style and made a comment that indicated he thought if she had people working for her they would all quit.

Meanwhile, Ivanka and Donald, Jr. stopped by to visit with both Joan and Annie and seemed definitely concerned about the direction each team was taking.

Although I would have thought Joan had the strongest team, after watching Clint behave like a limp rag, I changed my tune.  I also was surprised Annie chose Dennis Rodman who was such a loose cannon on the show before he was fired.

(Image of AnnieDuke - NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

Of course all of this makes for great television and Donald announced at the beginning of the show that Celebrity Apprentice had been picked up for another season and he indicated part of the success of the show was to the viscous battle between Joan Rivers and Annie Duke.

(Image of Joan Rivers- NBC Photo: Ali Goldstein- Celebrity Apprentice - All Rights Reserved).

Although I am watching the show live, I am going to wait for a slight delay to announce the winner to avoid spoiling the show for anyone who is watching it in a delayed mode.

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