The Apprentice: Season 3 Thoughts
Season 3 definitely boasted more changes and surprises. This time around, to bring some change to the game, the season started as "book smarts" versus "street smarts" instead of male versus female. Book Smarts consisted of candidates who had a college degree; Street Smarts were people who only have high school diplomas.
I always believed in terms of business savvy, books or no books, there really isn’t much difference. And the season played out just like that. Quite a few times the college grads were all talk and no walk, and the street smarts had more social experience as well as plain common sense. The teams were even 5 to 5 when it came to a corporate restructuring after 8 guys were fired.
As a refreshing change, this season’s finale was between two girls. Kendra, from the book smarts originally, faced Tana, from the street smarts, which just goes to show that college degree or not, it didn’t exactly matter in the world of business, as long as you’ve got what it takes.
Overall, I thought the contestants of the third season were more common and plain at a first glance. Some personalities gradually stood out, but compared with the cast of season 1, they really seem to be on a lower level. But that’s just personal impressions, as throughout the weeks we get to see that some of them are indeed really smart. And there are some great people with great personalities, for example Chris, who was hot tempered yet very charismatic. He was in my mind the most lovable person of this season.
And of course there are the annoying characters too. This time around it’s Erin, a former beauty queen and lawyer. She has some looks and also a really persuasive way of talking, and she pushes that edge to help her slip out of the boardroom week in week out. Kind of like Jen C. of season 2, who to my honest delight got her ass kicked beautifully in the final versus Kelly. Erin was too smart for her own good too, trying to flirt to Trump and duly getting fired. So that goes to show that only having the looks and the talks won’t get you far.