And the Apprenticeship Goes To...

Bill Rancic.

Yes. The Donald's latest enterprise has been a guilty pleasure of mine, at least off and on. I even stuck with it when they lost Troy and Nick--my favorites after the scrappy saleswomen whose mother had health issues.

I thought some of the finale show was brilliantly staged--for instance, the moment Trump announced Bill was the winner, and all the boardroom walls fell down to reveal the principals were on a stage in front of a live, cheering audience. Very nice.

Two hours was still a hell of a long time for this show. I know they could have done it all in an hour and a half. During the tasks, I found myself wondering to what degree the show's producers created or at least facilitated some of the snafus Bill and Kwame encountered. And I'm starting to really wonder whether Amarosa is getting paid extra on the side to continue to hang around and foment trouble. It's hard not to wonder whether someone could really be willing to behave that badly with cameras running--unless they were getting a little taste for providing extra drama, and for being the Diva Americans love to hate. She was caught lying on camera. Twice. Weird. I'm sure Mark Burnett would like to have her back, and The Donald would not. Perhaps they'll arm-wrestle for it or something.

It is interesting to feel like we, the American people, are getting to know Trump as something other than a developer of large properties featuring decent-to-indifferent design.

There is something about this show that captures the imagination: what if you did this crazy thing, staked everything you had--along with your dreams--on one roll of the dice? America would love you, because America loves those who win the long shots. That is, after all, how we got our country: through facing down the longest odds ever seen--and winning.

And, hell--we like to see people win anyway.

Lucky Bill was given a choice of which project he would manage: a golf course here in LA (but where, exactly, are they building it?) that is apparently right on the ocean and will feature mansions a way from the fairways that they expect will fetch 5 mil and up.

Second choice: supervise the construction of a huge tower in Chicago, at the site of the old Sun-Times building, which will be demolished to create this new thing. The rendering did look pretty.

Bill went for Chi-town. It's where he's from, he explains.