Howie Failed

Okay, Howie failed.  Bethenny's timing seems to be questionable, and Jim... well is he a loose cannon or a sharp shooter?   Someone ought to tell these guys that surviving failure after failure after failure means it's likely to catch up to you.  It's disheartening to watch.

Perhaps that's why so many people aren't.

Back to Howie, just last week Sarah was saying that everyone knew that Howie was a screwup but Bethenny fought her. Perhaps Sarah was right, because this week it seemed pretty obvious that Howie wasn't getting it. He looked tired and distracted.

Whether it was editing or his overall pattern of behaviour on tasks we'll never know but on this episode he simply looked beat and ready to go home.   

He flaked on prepping for the on-air portion of the task, requiring Bethenny to substitute Jim at the last minute and leaving Jim-the-whacky unrehearsed and ad libbing.  Luckily there weren't any "innapropriate comments" this time around, but as Dawna mentioned this could have been a huge disaster for them.  However, Jim may have played this knowing full well that a failure at this point could be pointed directly at Howie as long Jim kept himself controlled on air.

Then during airing Howie didn't seem to have a handle on communicating with Dawna & Jim while they were on-air causing the camera angles to show Jim's back instead of the product in use.  I'll bet that affected the real-time sales chart.

Oddly enough, Howie was fired when 7.22% of The Apprentice Blog readers thinking he was going to win... though at this point more readers - 15.31% of them - simply don't care who wins. 

So the question comes back - is it editing or did Howie just slip up this time?

Comments

[Pamela Ravenwood]

Howie in the end or as everybody likes to say 'at the end of the day' but Bethenny showed lack of leadership in the end when she flip-flopped with the guys, apologizing to them when indeed they had to be called on the carpet for their failures. I was disappointed in her after this. Initially she said what she knew, Dawna was the strongest, and then, when she read the guy's reactions, she began to second-guess herself - not good for a leader to make the whole thing personal.

[Lex]

Pamela,

excellent point. I was impressed both by Bethenny's decision to pull Howie after repeatedly attempting to get him to show his improv/on-air pitch to no avail, and by her direct presentation of why Dawna should head up to the boardroom.

I was disappointed when she started immediately questioning herself and apologizing to the guys, AND for her apology after Howie got fired.

This is a competition. If you are going to win, everyone else is going home, as Martha pointed out when she asked if they were "trying to be friends".

However, I was disappointed in Jim when he counciled Bethenny to walk away without saying anything to Howie. Don't make it personal, but don't ignore the personal side of it.

[Tall_Texan]

I think Jim, Howie and Bethenny had formed an alliance and they really thought they could somehow get Dawna fired. Instead, Bethenny, in a moment of clarity, sent Dawna back to the loft which meant one of the three now had to go. That's why Bethenny was so apologetic. She hadn't calculated on this.

It is silly since everyone knows that all but one will eventually be fired but you see this happening a lot in the latter half of the series where contestants feel like they have to apologize for having a hand in sending a friend home. I think it has to do with a lot of the times they all spend together that we don't get to see. Like fellow prisoners of war, they'll either learn to love each other (in the plutonic sense) or despise each other.

[becky]

You know I never really liked Martha Stewart but then I started paying attention during her indictment and hearings and realized that I do like her she is smart, savy and, knows exatly what she wants. I think at this point she has her favorites and not much will disuade her. Bethenny will not win she doesn't have the drive or the vision and she is afraid of confrontation. As A leader myself I know you can't seek confrontation but you also cannot run from it. No one respects her in the loft and without respect she cannot go very far. I LOVE Marcela she is so sweet, passionate and she too knows what she wants. I am so upset that she won't win, she lacks experience and even though I value her candid honesty and, I appreciate that she will throw herself into EVERY task she lacks something. I don't know what but I don't see her as an executive...yet. However as someone else mentioned so many people wathc that her phone will be ringing within seconds of arriving home. I like Ryan but he is a fair weather friend. He couldn't say enough nice things about Marcela during the Wishbone task, then he couldn't find a single saving grace for her in the Beneful auction, then he comments about how awsome she is during the Tide task and gives her a HUGE role in the QVC task and doens't even bother to check up on her (that is showing a lot of confidence). I don't know if it means anything to Martha but I for one cannot stand it when someone flip flops like that. How will that carry over into an executive role? Your employees resect constructive criticism, when it is presented correctly and correctly is not first mentioning it infront of your boss. I think Leslie is great. She is intellegent, honest and, knows how to present herself and her point of view. I like Dawna as well. She provided Bethenny with the constructive criticism she asked for. Which, if Bethenny had listened too would have served her well in the conference room. Bethenny could say you know I did this, and here is what I learned from it. That will get you so much more resect from both your boss and you employees than saying "I thought everyone was great. I am not sure what we could have done better." I don't see Dawna or Leslie going anywhere soon. Thay are skilled at shining brightly at the right time and knowing what to say and, when to say it.

[Kate Thorne]

I would imagine editing played a big roll in making Howie look incompetent and the obvious choice to be fired. For instance, were the "live" scenes from the control room shot while they were "on air" or were they actually shot during their dry run? During his post-firing interview on Sirius OutQ radio (all the firees are on the day after they lose), he mentioned that he had to be treated by paramedics for the gash on his head during the "hammock incident," which left him with a migraine for the remainder of the task. Feeling subpar I would have opted for someone to replace me too, even if it meant choosing high-risk Jim, if I knew I wasn't able to deliver a superior performance (as was the case in the Random House task). And I'm sure there was more than a two minute discussion in the 11th hour about the decision to do so.

Since we see just a few minutes of what transpires during the hour+ long conference room debate, I'm sure viewers miss a lot of interesting discussion. Overall, it certainly did seem that Howie was ready to go. Though I do believe he meant what he exclaimed back in the loft, "I hate to lose!" (I, too, would have hated to miss out on one of the only real rewards--a helicopter ride!)

It will be interesting to see what transpires in the next task but I will definitely miss Howie.