Jo’s Cafe

We don’t watch the Apprentice or American Idol in this house. We do watch Survivor and Amazing Race. Why? At least with Survivor and Amazing Race, the winners get “money”, not an “opportunity” that may never pan out.

According to CNN & The New York Daily News this morning:

CNN: Report: First winners of reality show spend as much time promoting the Donald as building career.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The first two winners of the Donald Trump reality show “The Apprentice” seem to be at least as focused on promoting the show’s star as making their way up the corporate ladder, according to a published report.

The May 23 issue of Newsweek, due on newsstands Monday, says first-season winner Bill Rancic and second-season winner Kelly Perdew spend lots of their time doing personal appearances in support of Trump projects. Their responsibilities don’t seem to match those touted when the two emerged victorious from the show, whose third winner will be chosen later this week.

New York Daily News: Reality bites for Trump’s chumps

Bill Rancic, 32, was supposed to run a huge Trump complex in Chicago, but instead spends most of his time giving pep talks to brokers and salespeople, Newsweek reports.

Kelley Perdew’s office is a small, windowless space next to the assistant to Donald Trump’s wife, Melania - and Perdew has no gofer to call his own. The walls are bare, except for a dry-erase board and a map stuck with pins marking the distributors he’s signed up to buy his boss’ new line of Trump Ice spring water, Newsweek said. “This is going to be big,” Perdew, 38, vows with typical “Apprentice” aplomb.

On Survivor, the winner gets a $1,000,000 check (and usually a vehicle), as does the winner of the Amazing Race. These people/couples can use this money any way they want. They aren’t promised pie-in-the sky dreams. Other than Clay Aiken, I know of no other person from American Idol who has become a house-hold name.

In the business and music world, you may win “events”, but it’s your skill and talent that gets you further. You cannot become a JL or Toby Keith overnight - and if you talk to them, they didn’t do it overnight either. Okay, maybe the shows help these people get noticed, so yeah, that’s a good thing, but if they were so good, why has Trump regulated the first two winners to do-nothing jobs? Hell - from the sound of it, “I” have more responsibility at my job as an Assistant than they do!