The men's team led by Paul Teutel wins the challenge in the first episode, while the women's team has to let go one player, Cheryl Tiegs.
- Feb 20, 2012
AceShowbiz - The premiere episode of "The Celebrity Apprentice" has explained the change in cast line-up. Marco Andretti was initially mentioned in the leaked list of contestants, but it's his father Michael Andretti who was announced as one of the official cast members. It turned out that Marco had to drop out of the show because one of his best friends was killed in a horrible accident, and his father came as his replacement.
Before Michael arrived to join the show team, the men had decided to use "Unanimous" as their moniker. Chosen as the project manager was Paul Teutel. The women team, meanwhile, went with "Forte" and had Patricia Velasquez volunteering to be the project manager.
As the first project, they had to raise fund by making and selling sandwiches. The men opted for the carnival style, but Paul got his teammates worried as he set an ambitious goal of bringing $500,000.
Over at the women team, they agreed to use red carpet theme which was proposed by Victoria Gotti. When they decided that three most recognizable celebrities among them, Teresa Giudice, Cheryl Tiegs and Debbie Gibson, would greet customers outside their deli, Aubrey O'Day was upset because she felt that she is the most recognizable one.
As the two teams began serving the customers, Michael arrived in time to join team Unanimous. Clay Aiken was frightened that they couldn't reach the goal set by Paul, while the project manager had already boasted about it in front of Ivanka Trump.
Team Forte, meanwhile, was wondering about Victoria's whereabout, but she showed up later and informed them that she was late because she had an accident the night before. Their famous guests included Wyclef Jean and Russell Simmons, the former of which took time to sing with Debbie before a jealous Aubrey grabbed the mic.
Both teams then came to "The Rachel Ray Show" and let the host taste their sandwiches. Rachel Ray liked the ratio of meat to bread to cheese of the men's sandwich, while she praised texture of the women's sandwich.
At the Boardroom, Donald announced that Rachel preferred the men's sandwich to the women's, so they won $35,000 extra for charity. Team Unanimous eventually came out as the winner in this first episode by collecting $332,120 before being added with the $35,000 prize. Team Forte, meanwhile, raised $126,962.
When asked who should be responsible for their lost, project manager Patricia chose Cheryl and Victoria. As they defended themselves in front of Donald, Cheryl finally admitted, "I don't know if this is right for me, to be honest with you. I'm actually more of a quiet person." The businessman told her he thought she did not fit the group and eliminated her.
