is it just me, or did Stefani get some work done? She looked a little off and it wasn't just the hair.

I didn't watch this season, nor read any of the recaps before this one, and if this recap is any indication, I didn't miss much (not knocking the recap itself, which I enjoyed quite a bit).

In reading the recap, I kept reading Stefani the same way Gwen pronouces her last name, though I presume her name is pronounced the same as the more mundane "Stephanie", correct? I'm sure she gets pissed when people spell it "Stephanie", much like the girls who say "It's Jen with two N's".

Usually Melania attends the finale - was she there this time?

Worst finale EVER.
Please let it be the end of this painful series.

This was my first season of "The Apprentice" which is probably why - unlike most of you - I quite enjoyed it ;-)... I'm happy that Stefani won because I had the best impression of her out of all the final four candidates. I liked James, too, but he annoyed me a little with his over-enthusiasm.

As someone who has only just started getting into the show I would like to know which season you would consider the best?

After I read over here that most of you considered this the worst season so far, I started getting into last season. I already like it much better than this one but then again I read people on last year's recaps commenting this also was the worst season so far *lol*...

I'm just one episode short of season five's finale and I'm a huge fan of Sean. He's just hilarious :D. Every time he appears on screen and makes some of his weird faces and gestures I pee my pants... literally...okay, maybe not "literally" ;-). I also enjoyed the catfights and the most annoying self-delusional bitch ever - that is Allie. Very funny and entertaining season. Can't unterstand why people wouldn't like it. If former season were really that much better maybe I should get hold of them...

I've also already got season 1 which I will start as soon as I've seen Sean getting hired ;-). The fact that, of course, I know all the Apprentices (Apprenti, is that seriously the correct plural form?) doesn't really make things less interesting for me.

So, a couple of questions I have in mind for long-time Apprentice viewers:

Which one was the best season? How did you like Season 1 and its winner Bill? I'm very excited to be watching it soon especially because I weirdly kind of like Bill. And which one is your favourite Apprentice?

If anyone would answer I'd be very pleased, because I really like this show (and I hardly like any reality programs) and I'd like to get into past seasons as there probably won't be many more of it.

BTW, I read that NBC has already renewed "The Apprentice" for another season quite some time ago...

I agree with carol, Stephanie definately had some work done, I hardly reconized her. And did you notice that Bill was missing from the group of past apprenti as usual. It was the worst season ever!!

Season 1 was definitely the best because none of the candidates knew what to expect. Also, season 1 was before the tasks got so product placement oriented. (The scavenger hunt was wild!) Season 2 was interesting due to the cast of "characters." Who could forget the bitchfest called Maria, or Andy the doofus? TOO fun!

Jordan - good job with the recaps! This season was absolutely horrible and I hope NBC is reading blogs like this and bring it back to what the show originally was!

Also - I want to say that I CRACK UP everytime I see a picture of Nicole and "Shut up." underneath -everytime I saw her on the tv, I would imagine you saying that. It's nice to have something to rely on when reading these posts!

Autumn - season 1 is great (mostly because Kwame worked in my group here so everyone at work was rooting for him) and it was the most believeable. The season with Randall was really good too (esp the finale and FREAKIN'! if I'm not mistaken). Overall, all of early seasons were great (prior to product placement) but I would venture to say that every season EXCEPT this one was really good and felt like a real competition.

I'm fuming right now because after typing a very long, funny and insightful post, I clicked submit and lost the whole damn thing because I wasn't signed in, so here's a condensed version:

Jordan (and Screampillar too), thanks for at least giving us a tasty recap milkshake to chase down the shit sandwich of having to watch each dreary episode this season.

The season sucked. The producers got very lazy with both casting and the tasks, which were pretty much throw out there whatever random company ponied up for the product placement.

The move to L.A. added nothing to the show. You're in the entertainment capital of the world, and the only entertainment-related tasks are selling passes at a theme park and a deodorizer commercial?? WTF? How about doing marketing for a low budge indie movie? How about something with the porn industry, which has revenues greater than the GDP of most countries? Talk about a ratings booster!

Also, I think the show really lost something when George and Carolyn left. The show at least seemed plausably legitimate when real longtime trusted employees of Trumps were playing a part. Just not the same with Trump just throwing his kids in there.

It's hard to care about who won, when it didn't even seem to matter to Trump very much. I have a feeling in most cases these jobs are figurehead positions, with the Apprentice probably spending most of his/her time doing promotional appearances, like Miss America or something.

Autumn_Reeser, in response to your question, hands down the best season was #4, which was awesome beyond description: Randall and Rebecca, Toral and PASSION!, Lambooorghiiini!; "Zenthura!", Alla the tough as nails Russian stripper, and the great megaphone caper of 2005. Definitely check this one out.

D'oh, just thinking about how awesome this show used to be has made me depressed.
-JR

Yeah, bad season.

Why did this recap appear before the Ugly Betty recap which has been up for at least 12 hours?

I'm partial to the Fembots, the magic 8 ball, and the feminine psychosis (the black girl) of Season 2.

What was Trump talking about with the comments James made that he didn't like, the ones that "James knew he was talking about."

DP Hooker (#12), this was talked about in the forums:

http://forums.tvgasm.com/showpost.php?p=48799&postcount=49

What a disappointing season! I'll be sad if the show is cancelled because, wow, what a low way to exit. I'm okay with Stefani winning even though she has never been PM since she really did hold everything together and actually got stuff done in every task.

-Autumn_Reeser_is_hot (#5);

Definitely check out season 4 if you can. It's my fave and probably the best of the whole series, followed by season 1. I'm actually smiling right now, thinking about season 4. "Ladies, if you see us in the club FREAKIIIIN'... join in, it's the RUBBLE MAN!" And there were many more classic moments!

-Jordan;
Thanks for the recaps. you did great, given what you had to work with! :)

@#13 JasonR: Thanks, I was also wondering about that comment. Not a very smart move by James. Makes me all the more confident with Trump's decision about Stefani.

And thank all of you for your input on my questions. I've just finished watching the Season 5 finale and reading the recap. And I'm already very excited about starting Season 1 sometime later tonight. Season 4 is next on my list ;-).

Watching the last two episodes of Season 5 and the recaps to them I have one question that I hope you can help me out with. As I'm not a native speaker in English I had a problem with the term "matching funds" that were used regarding Lee's final task. They obviously addressed this with the Pontiac executives but then headed over to discussing auctioning off two of their cars and one of the executives mentioned because of that Lee might have missed out on something. So, what exactly does "matching fund(s)" mean? Sorry for the stupid question ;-) I was just interested and obviously couldn't find it in the dictionaries...

Autumn, matching funds are just what they imply. You put up $1,000 and the sponsor puts up $1,000. Hope this helps.

Ah, thanks... So that means if Lee's Team would've come up with let's say 40,000 $ in their auction, Pontiac would've donated the same amount of money so Lee's team would've eventually come up with a donation of 80,000 $? I've never heard of that before... Well, I guess you live and learn ;-).