One points a finger and says "You’re Fired!" calls his candidates into the "boardroom" lets the contestants live in a "suite" and asks the opinion of his "executive staff." The other writes a letter and says, "Good Luck" prefers a "conference room" a "loft" and "lieutenants." Donald Trump and Martha Stewart’s twin Apprentice shows basically follow the same format. It’s just that, one is more "feminine" or more "masculine" than the other. In these two shows, gender differences interestingly made a lot of difference!
The program leanings stemmed from the nature of Donald and Martha’s businesses. Donald Trump made a brand out of his name through real estate — a relatively male dominated enterprise. Martha Stewart, on the other hand, became the first selfmade female billionaire through publishing, apparel, and home keeping — relatively female dominated industries. Not that the show encourages gender stereotypes in business, it’s just inevitable for Donald and Martha’s personal business tastes to play major roles in their own reality TV shows. And play, it did.
Last week, the Apprentice Season Four (Mondays, 10 p.m.), and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart (Tuesdays, 10p.m.) which just launched this September in the US via NBC made its Philippine premiere via ABC. Donald Trump’s first order of the day was to let the 18 successful candidates, who were divided into two teams: men (Team Excel) and women (Team Capital Edge), chase after Trump’s esteemed personal helicopter on the 525-acre Trump National Golf Club! So goes the famous Trump megalomania. Their first task was to think up, market and hold a new Fitness Plus class for Bally gym. For this first task, the men earned the most revenues and went away with the reward: Lunch with Trump at the Friar’s Club. The women, aside from losing a member in the boardroom, learned that maximizing the loyalty of existing customers in marketing a new service is better than scavenging for new patrons.
On Martha’s Kitchen, something else is brewing. Martha met with her 16 new "apprentices," and introduced her two lieutenants: Alexis Stewart (Martha’s daughter) and Charles Koppelman (Chairman of the Board) who would be her eyes and ears on tasks, like George and Carolyn are for Donald Trump. Intrigue surfaced at once when Martha learned that one candidate actually dated Charles’ son! (What is it with women and intrigues?). Displaying a more lenient leadership, Martha allowed the candidates to pick their own teams, which ended out to be the Creative Thinkers (Team Matchstick) and the Corporate Thinkers (Team Primarius). The first task was to select a well-known "fairytale" and modernize it for today’s audience. The finished books would be read to a group of first graders. Matchstick’s Hansel & Gretel who sneak away from home and change their names, didn’t go over well with the kids. However Primarius’ "Jack and the Beanstalk" where Jack doesn’t climb up the beanstalk but goes down into the ocean to find a treasure, received cheers from the first graders. Primarius was the obvious winner and they were invited to dinner provided by Martha’s private sushi chef. Jeff, from team Matchstick, became the show’s first casualty to receive Martha’s personal farewell note.
Up Next: Donald asks his tough teams to create a 30-second promotional spot and a print ad campaign for Lamborghini, while Martha provides her creative troops with retail spaces to develop a flower business for a day. If you still can’t see where gender differences apply, just catch these episodes this Monday and Tuesday, 10 p.m. on ABC.
