All-Star Celebrity Apprentice Power Rankings: Busey Takes The Wheel

On paper, Gary Busey vs Trace Adkins is about as lopsided of a Celebrity Apprentice project manager match-up as the show has ever given us. In actuality, however, the slugfest turned out to be pretty back and forth with the final decision coming down to details rather than giant mistakes.

This week, the teams were given a task from Australian Gold to make a forty-five second to one minute long silent film to advertise the wide array of skin care products the company offers. Trace’s team (newly bolstered with the addition of Marilu) decided to charge forward with a caveman time travel theme. Their main character caveman, played by Trace, discovered portals linking him to the 1920s and 1986, the year the company was founded. Obviously, the first two places were dreary disasters filled with plenty of sunburns and the latter was a giant party thanks to Australian Gold.

Busey’s team, conversely, decided to keep its film more modern. Stephen Baldwin took on directing duties, and they put together a project that featured Gary as some kind of Australian Gold fairy who comes upon a couple on the beach and uses the product to turn their black and white flirting into a more heated scene of color.

Team Busey definitely featured the product more throughout the entire commercial, but because they only dealt with the bronzer and Lil Jon smartly included a hero shot of all the products at the end, Trace Adkins’ squad walked away with the victory. In the boardroom, it was back and forth between Gary and Stephen until the latter made the fateful mistake of calling his project manager excellent. Trump couldn’t understand why Baldwin would praise someone so much when it was between the two of them, and for his failure, he decided to send him packing.

The Celebrity Apprentice Power Rankings are an ordered compilation of weekly lists put together by TV Blend writers Mack Rawden and Jessica Rawden. Each week after viewing the episode, they each rank the competitors in order. Fourteen points are given for a first place vote, and this week, eight were given for a last place vote. Seven competitors have already been eliminated; therefore, those already eliminated automatically occupy the bottom slots. Here is how this week’s voting panned out, complete with analysis on how the celebrities might fare moving forward.

The Favorites

#1) Lil Jon (27): Lil Jon was a rockstar again this week, taking on his team’s directorial role in the Australian Gold challenge. He actually even took over for Trace in the product meeting with the Australian Gold representatives. Between leadership capabilities, creativity, and a generally calm demeanor, Lil Jon has been one of the top players throughout the competition, and should continue to achieve success.

#2) Penn Jillette (26): When Donald Trump asked Trace who he wanted to join his team, there was little dealt he would choose Penn. In fact, the cowboy picked the magician first when he was a captain at the beginning of the season. Alas, Trump vetoed that proposal this week and Jillette remained with his current team, largely taking a backseat this week to Stephen and Gary. Look for him to be a little more aggressive next time around.

#3) Trace Adkins (25): Trace has been a top player throughout the competition, but he did show a few problems this week. First, he let Lil Jon take the meeting with the Australian Gold reps due to believing learning about the project was a “waste of time.” Trace has won two challenges, now, and he should be a strong contender, but his “my way or the highway” attitude could get him into trouble at some point.

#4) Marilu Henner (22): Even though Marilu didn’t do a ton on this task on paper, her switching over to Trace’s team may have actually been the reason why her new team won. She offered a flutter of ideas throughout the filming process, and something tells me, had she been on her old team, there’s no way she would have let them complete the commercial without offering some kind of hero shot with the full array of products at the end.

The Contenders

#5) Brande Roderick (20): Brande has been a solid contributor for weeks and weeks. This week, she kind of sat back and let Marilu handle the details while she modeled. She still needs to take another shot at leading the team and with some strong players above her, we’ll see if she has a shot at the finale.

#6) Lisa Rinna (18): Lisa showed off a pretty sweet bikini body and some solid modeling skills this week. Those two things were enough to win her raves from the Australian Gold executives, but unfortunately, they won’t be enough to win her a spot in the finale. She needs to really take the bull by the horns and contribute some good ideas over the next few weeks or sadly, she may get eliminated as a very good but not great player.

#7) Gary Busey (16): Gary Busey brings some wild ideas to the table and one of those wild ideas was actually turned into an Australian Gold commercial this week. As project manager, Busey was a madman who didn’t particularly delegate. Because he didn’t really take care of business, he probably should have been fired due to being a poor boss, but Trump didn’t see it that way. I can’t imagine Gary making it to the finale, although we’ll have to wait and see.