Why Martha Stewart Is Not in the Hall of Shame for Firing Shawn

In the third episode of The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, Stewart did something unprecedented in four seasons of Donald Trump’s version of the show: She fired a candidate who had not been brought back to the final decision by the Project Manager. When it happened, it set off a flurry of debate among the judges of the Reality TV Hall of Shame. Should Martha Stewart be given a Hall of Shame Moment for breaking the rules of the game? Or should she be let off the hook because she is the one who makes the final decision anyway?

After many hours of discussion and the closest Hall of Shame vote ever, the decision was made that Stewart did not deserve the dishonor of a Hall of Shame Moment. Following in the pattern laid out for previous cases of debatable offenses (such as for Amazing Race 7’s Kelly and Survivor: Palau’s Janu), we’d like to share the debate with readers so everybody understands why the decision was made.

Let’s start with the situation at hand. Shawn (who is getting her own Hall of Shame Moment, I might add) vowed to win the task; she told Stewart’s “eyes and ears” Charles that if her team didn’t win, he could fire her; she then retracted the statement in the Conference Room and uttered her “fake it ‘til you make it” line. None of these things impressed Stewart.

But what was worse was that Shawn was a key part of the sales team for the wedding cake – and that team sold zero cakes. None. Nada. Zilch. Zip. This was a first in Apprentice history. She was the one who told the bakers to make the cake pink, and then complained that she couldn’t sell a pink cake.

David, the Project Manager, seemed to have missed the point of the challenge and brought in the bakers to the final Conference Room session rather than bringing the non-sellers (though Dawn was brought in more because the team’s mantra that she weakens them). If this had been Trump’s version of the show, David would have been lambasted for making a poor decision and would have almost certainly been summarily fired.

But Stewart didn’t do that. From what we saw, she barely even criticized David before letting him and his choices off the hook. Instead, she called back the non-sellers and pointed out that this was a sales task, not a baking task, and those who failed to sell the cake were the ones who really needed to get their comeuppance. Considering Shawn’s major role and her even more major big mouth, she was sent packing.

The first criticism of this decision was that Stewart broke the rules. To this we must ask, “What rules?” Where are these rules written? Like it or not, viewers have no copy of such rules and we must go with what the producers provide us.

There have been previous examples of Trump going against what could be termed “the rules” of the game as well. This season he has allowed Project Managers to bring just one person into the Boardroom rather than two. In an earlier season he fired Elizabeth without even letting her pick people to join her in the final Boardroom session. And in the second season, he took away Bradford’s exemption and then fired him.

Mind you, none of these are quite the same as what Stewart did:

• It could be argued that allowing the Project Manager to only bring one person to the Boardroom hurts only the Project Manger. I wouldn’t necessarily agree, since bringing two people could allow them to gang up on the P.M.
• It could be argued that Elizabeth was going to go to the final Boardroom anyway since she was the Project Manager, so letting her pick people and then firing her would have just dragged out the agony. But maybe in that final discussion Elizabeth could have brought new information to light that she was unable to do in the fully-packed Boardroom.
• It could be argued that Bradford gave up his exemption. But where in “the rules” does it say an exemption can be given up? He might have presumed that he had it no matter what, so he could volunteer to give it up without repercussion. Then he couldn’t back down when Trump called him on it. (Of course, Bradford got his own Hall of Shame Moment for that.)