The teams were tasked with creating three, thirty-second (3 x :30) radio commercials for a home service company; each ad promoted a different brand: a plumber, an electrician and a heating/air conditioning service.
As usual, Rock Solid were the fun bunch, with Bret Michaels as Project Manager. Bret was in his element, combining his script and salesperson talents with his musical side as the lead jingle writer. Sharon Osbourne was as wild as Michaels and, with Maria Kanellis joining in, there were plenty of laughs to go around.
Tenacity was a nightmare out of the gate, for two reasons: Holly Robinson Peete and Summer Saunders. Peete was still riding high from last week’s huge win for her charity; sometimes good things happen to bad people, I guess, which just boosted her ego even further (if that’s even possible). Summer was supposed to the PM this week but, I swear, if you tuned in after that decision was made, you’d think Holly was running the show, which she ultimately did, anyway.
Peete really is a piece of work: she’s an expert in everything and basically told Saunders how to manage the task, while they both worked on telling Cyndi Lauper how to do her job (singing!) and what was expected of her. And Saunders – wow – can’t make a decision to save her life; how did she become an Olympic swimmer without a backbone, anyway?
The whole reality side of the ‘reality tv’ thing is interesting because the camera simply reveals what’s there: after last week’s show, I questioned whether or not Peete even realized how she comes across on international tv, but I’m sure her ego wouldn’t care.
Rock Solid delivered the ads in the live presentation superbly, with a sincere and personal introduction by Michaels, and there was no doubt that their fun was infectious: when played back in the boardroom, Tenacity were even laughing and smiling about them, and I’m sure Lauper would have rather been on the other team.
This was another good/bad week for Lauper: good, because she delivered a strong performance with the creation and performance of the jingles, but also bad, because of the continued disrespect she had to endure from Saunders and Peete. We’ve probably all dealt with levels of disrespect in our lives at one time or another, but never before cameras and an international audience; I give Cyndi huge credit for remaining cool under fire while dealing with these clowns.
Rock Solid won, earning $40,000 for Bret’s charity, the American Diabetes Association.
And then things got stupid and really hard to watch with Tenacity: despite losing the task because their scripts were too busy – which was Peete’s responsibility – Saunders friendship with her clouded her judgement and she let Holly out of the final showdown. Incredible: the one time on the show that Summer makes a decision and it’s unquestionably the wrong one – there’s no way to justify it.
And bringing Lauper into it made no sense at all, especially since the clients loved her so much and actually wanted to hear more of her in the commercials; fortunately, Donald Trump saw this and excused Cyndi right away, leaving chef Curtis Stone and Saunders to try to talk their way out of things. When asked point blank by Trump who should be fired, Saunders said “I can’t answer that,” when I think she meant to say “Holly didn’t tell me.”
Sense finally prevailed and Summer was sent packing.
SCOOP FOR NEXT WEEK: looks like Trump reshuffles the deck, again, trading Bret and Curtis, leaving the teams as follows:
Rock Solid – Sharon, Curtis and Maria
Tenacity – Bret, Cyndi and Holly
Methinks the final is shaping up as a Michaels/Osbourne showdown…you read it here first.
Poison - Flesh & Blood - Ride the Wind Poison – Ride The Wind
Live, Raw & Uncut (2007)
