Game Show Newsnet | The Celebrity Apprentice: Season 9

The NBA playoffs are on the horizon and fittingly, We have a basketball related task on the horizon. So after Selita delivers her check from last week to Shine on Sierra Leone we learn about the new challenge.

Each team will be charged with creating a 30 sec TV spot and 10 sec viral internet ad for Right Guard Deodorant. Each team will be assigned an NBA athlete (either Scottie Pippen or Clyde Drexler) and will need to sell the fact that this is a high performance deodorant. The Right Guard execs will choose the winner.

The teams pick their PMs and this week it is Curtis vs. Holly. As a second note, the women will be down two players as Cyndi is headed to a Washington D.C. for an event with President Obama and Sharon has become so ill that she is getting treatment. So maybe with even teams the men have a chance.

How about a little physical action first? As a bonus teams we asked to shoot free throws with the first team to sink one winning $10K for their team's charity. The winner: Maria, in 6-inch heels.

Now back to the task.

RockSolid is off and running with Bret Michaels' creative juices flowing. He has an idea where two kids win an NBA all-star for a day and basically get to physically punish him, yet no matter how much work they make him do, he still doesn't stink because of Right Guard. Curtis likes the idea and the team in business.

Tenacity, which this week shall be known as the Holly Robinson-Peete show, is doing whatever Holly says. She wants to be a mom with a child that is getting his first bout of body odor, or funk. Enter Scottie Pippen as the "Funky Godfather" (can't make this stuff up folks). With the help of Right Guard, he cures the odor and the kid can grow up to be a man without the fear of funk.

So with both teams on track, we may have an actual battle on our hands.

Sadly, the party is sombered by Bret Michael getting news that his daughter had blood sugar spill into her urine and may be diabetic. Bret is a diabetic and can't imagine his daughter having to live the same lifestyle. He's hurting, but he sucks it up as he awaits final test results.

Upon arriving at the studio, Bret is freaked that they do not have the apartment setup that he needed for his idea. Bret wants to change the entire idea. Curtis waffles but eventually pushes back and makes the original idea happen. Goldberg is grabbing the props.

Ivanka checks in on RockSolid and Curtis admittedly lies his face off. Ivanka is impressed by the level of calm exhibited by the boys. See folks, lying to your boss is a good thing.

Holly is directing and starring in Tenacity's ads. George Ross chuckles at the acting and the girls take this as a good sign. That's what mom jeans and abusing kids with a magic wand of deodorant can do.

Both athletes do a great job in their acting performances. Especially Clyde who took about 25 basketballs to the gullet.

But acting is nothing if the editing stinks. Holly and Maria butt heads in the edit suite. It seems that Maria just wants to help but Holly reads it as Maria plotting her position for the boardroom.

The guys are perfectly jovial and enjoying their editing. Bret is so happy that he is almost forgetting about the issues plaguing his family. That's it to the guys' story. It's pretty rock solid at RockSolid.

The women are back to fighting now that Cyndi has returned from DC. Holly did a VO jingle of "funky godfather" and Cyndi thinks she can improve it by adding her own voice. I wouldn't be one to argue with a music legend, but then again this is the Holly show. Holly is peeved, but she does relent and guess what. the audio track is much improved.

Meanwhile the audio on the women's project has now regressed. Holly left Maria alone in the editing suite and apparently the final audio track has changed and Holly isn't happy. Maria claimed she asked Holly to look at it earlier, but Holly never did. Will the change cost the ladies?

Both teams make solid presentations (aside from Cyndi's aloofness) and in the boardroom, The Donald airs both ads for both teams. The ads are entertaining and both teams believe that their ad is better. The big differences are that the men did 2 separate concepts for their 30 sec and 10 sec ads, while the women basically edited down their 30 sec spot to a shortened version. Also, the men focused on selling to the teen male audience while the women focused on selling to the mothers.

So who wins? Well, the ad execs explained in early meetings that the person controlling the deodorant purchase is more often than not the young male, so RockSolid, you have staved the bleeding! RockSolid wins.

Yet in the same breath they lose. Michael Johnson heads to Trump's office and quits before he even finds out the men won! He cites "personal reasons". Darryl Strawberry must feel really great about falling on the sword 2 weeks ago now.

Tenacity will be headed to the boardroom for the first time in 3 weeks. Will the claws come out?

So who should be fired? Summer targets Cyndi and Sharon, but Trump says that they are not up for consideration. That's a pile of BS. Holly thinks so too. As the men watching in the suite put it, the love fest is over.

Cyndi then takes advantage of her pseudo-immunity and rails on Holly saying that she was disrespected when it came to the audio mixing. Holly fires back saying that Cyndi should shut her mouth as she's not even in front of the firing squad. Cyndi eventually quiets and can't even answer Trump directly when he asks if he should fire Holly.

Summer is re-asked who should be fired and she will only answer that Holly is the strongest member of the team. Really? You forget about yourself Summer?

Holly brings Selita and Maria back into the boardroom and Maria isn't having it. She and Holly argue over the changes to the audio in the edit, but it wasn't the editing that lost them the task. Selita is criticized for her lack of effort. She did spend a good amount of time getting soda for Scottie, but she doesn't defend herself. Then Maria and Holly argue some more and Trump reaches his conclusion.

While Holly may have been responsible for the task, Selita showed no fire or desire to continue in the competition, so Selita, you're fired!

I'd make the argument that Holly dodged a bullet, but all that matters is that 2 people left the show this episode and she wasn't one of them. The battle continues next week!

To see this episode in its entirety, visit the official website at www.nbc.com/the-celebrity-apprentice.