There are two words everyone dreads being on the receiving end of on Celebrity Apprentice: “You’re fired.”
WATCH BELOW: Celebrity Apprentice 2021: David Genat turns on Michelle Bridges
In each episode, the celebrity candidates take on a business challenge in teams and at the end, one member of the losing team gets fired by billionaire boss Lord Alan Sugar.
Fitness queen Michelle Bridges, radio powerhouse Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, Married At First Sight‘s Martha Kalifatidis and The Veronicas’ Jess and Lisa Origliasso are just some of the names competing to win a grand prize for their chosen charity but can they avoid a firing?
Keep scrolling to see the unlucky famous faces whose business skills weren’t quite up to Lord Sugar’s satisfaction.
Alex Hayes
At 23, Alex was the show’s youngest candidate but became the first casualty of the board room.
After the first challenge, Lord Sugar criticised his photographic art piece that commented on the destruction of the environment and when Alex promised buyers offering bids of $50,000 and they fell through, that was the final straw.
The artist, action sports athlete and social media influencer, whose chosen charity was mental health foundation Batyr, even took a dig at Lord Sugar on Instagram.
“The problem nowadays is all these ‘billionaires’ only care about profit for themselves and not the impact on earth. I guess that hits a nerve for some…” he penned on his Instagram Stories.
“Lord Alan Sugar fired me out of nowhere with no reason,” he said in his exit interview with 9Entertainment.
“Bit of an easy cop out because I’m young, but I thought that he would have understood that. He’s been in my position before looking up at a long future ahead in business and entrepreneurship and he just didn’t see that. I think it’s a huge mistake on his behalf.”
Rob Shehadie
Under project manager Camilla Franks, Team Fun-Raisers’ historical tour of Sydney failed to bring in the cash, but despite Camilla’s feud with Ross Noble, it was comedian Rob, who took on the role of tour guide, who was sent packing.
“I still don’t believe I did anything wrong in this task,” he revealed after his elimination, explaining that he was more annoyed at advisor Janine Allis and Lord Sugar than the PM.
“One thing that got to me was I was reading off my phone [while acting as a tour guide in the challenge]. I didn’t realise it was a Year 12 exam that I had to study everything — interesting, because other people had clipboards and were reading off clipboards, so it doesn’t make sense, so I just don’t get it.”
Rob added that what hurt most was not being able to provide a donation to his chosen charity Save Our Sons.
“That’s hurt the most but I have raised some awareness for what they do and their fight to solve the condition Duchenne muscular dystrophy.”
Olivia Vivian
After being appointed by Lord Alan Sugar himself as the Project Manager for Team Momentum, Australian Ninja Warrior competitor Olivia Vivien took charge in a task to run a successful Yum Cha service.
The challenge included cooking dumplings and setting the price, with the team who made the highest profit from the night, wins, and unfortunately for Olivia, her team didn’t make the cut.
“I made a truck load of mistakes but did the best I knew how to in that moment – If I can spread awareness for @melanomainstituteau and motivate even one person to go get their skin checked then this gruelling task was worth it,” Olivia said after her elimination.
She took a moment to thank her teammates for giving every task “100%”, and that she loves and respects them all so much.
“You made this experience enjoyable in the toughest of times,” she said of her teammates.
“As much as I tried to fight for my charity in that boardroom, I believe mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow. I messed up on this one and I’ll take this experience and move forward with a briefcase of new found knowledge.”
Anthony Callea
After a tense showdown with Project Manager Martha Kalifatidis following the Budgy Smuggler challenge, it was singer Anthony Callea who was sent packing.
“That was my first experience of a Boardroom and I don’t believe that I should be in the firing line,” the 38-year-old ARIA Award winning singer told 9 Entertainment as he left the competition.
“Overall we ticked so many boxes in terms of design and delivery. I actually don’t know what went wrong in that task.
“From a design perspective and from a runway perspective we were totally on point. Apart from a lack of direction, essentially.”
Despite getting fired, Anthony revealed he “wouldn’t have done anything differently” and was happy to raise $20,000 for his chosen charity, the Children’s Cancer Foundation.
Michelle Bridges
After Project Managers The Veronicas controversially chose to bring Michelle Bridges and intruder Scherri-Lee Biggs back into the boardroom rather than sneaky Survivor champ David Genat, fitness guru Michelle became the first to go in the double firing.
“I shouldn’t have been in that room at all. David should have been in there. There’s no question about that in my mind. I knew from the get-go he was playing a game. I just didn’t realise how much he was snuggling up to the Project Managers,” Michelle revealed after her elimination.
“If Dave spent more time working on the task rather than working on his relationships, we might have won that task. I did everything that I was asked to do and we had all of our pieces completed on time.”
The mum-of-one even revealed that her five-year-old son Axel called out David but they’ve since come full circle.
“He’s definitely playing that guy. I love him but he’s playing and he’s very strategic,” Michelle told WHO.
“Everyone’s like ‘Didn’t you watch Survivor? He’s very strategic!’ But it’s always in good fun – we’re all very serious about it because we all want to win for our charity.”
The Veronicas
In the surprise double firing, it was Project Managers The Veronicas (a.k.a Jess and Lisa Origliasso) who became the second “entity” to get fired.
The musicians and twin sisters passionately fought to raise money for their chosen charity, The Brain Foundation in honour of their mum, who suffers from a rare neurological condition.
However, they were moved when Shaynna Blaze — the Project Manager for the winning team — told The Veronicas that all the money they raised with their team would go to The Brain Foundation.
“Shaynna coming in like an angel and giving us back the money we raised for our charity, there’s no words. She’s just a class act, truly, through and through,” Lisa told Nine Entertainment.
“It already felt worth it for the fact that we got to have The Brain Foundation, the name out there. But the fact that she’s done that, we can go home and tell Mummy that we’ve raised all that money in honour of her. It’s such a beautiful gift.”
David Genat
His sneaky tactics may have worked on Survivor but they didn’t sit well with Lord Sugar!
The international model admitted he was “very salty” about being eliminated and said it should’ve been comedian and Project Manager Ross Noble who went after the Viral Video challenge.
“I think Lord Sugar like doesn’t like me very much. I think he did not appreciate me calling his whatever this is a game. But business is a game, life’s a game, are we not playing a game? Apparently not, it’s very serious,” he admitted to Nine Entertainment.
David later joked on Instagram: “Good news for the first time in @celebrityapprentice history they have fired the boss!! hostile take over!! GG is the new CEO!! Roast me below….”
Scherri-Lee Biggs
She came in late but Scherri-Lee couldn’t make it quite to the end.
The Channel Nine weather presenter and former Miss Universe Australia was fired for her lack of participation in the Koala furniture challenge but slammed Project Manager Ross Noble’s lack of direction as she pleaded her case.
“Ross and I are still friends, as long as we don’t end up in a boardroom together we’ll be fine! I supported Ross all through the show and we did work really well as a team but the wheels came off this time around,” Scherri-Lee later said on Instagram.
“I did go pretty hard on Ross in the boardroom but you know I was there fighting for my charity as well and you have to really fight for your spot there so I wasn’t just going to let that one slide.”
Camilla Franks
Overspending and providing incorrect numbers sent kaftan queen Camilla Franks packing after the kids’ sleepover challenge but she has no regrets about her time on the show.
“It was so amazing to be a part of this group of goofballs and gosh we had fun along the way!” she wrote on Instagram.
“Show after show, I was pushed way out of my comfort zone. Thrown at us were some huge challenges, some inevitable personality clashes and the realisation that not everyone is going to like you. But it’s just TV and real life is sweet.
“To my fellow contestants, you are all such strong, talented, motivating, inspiring and special humans. You all mean so much to me and I had a ball making memories with you all – memories I’ll cherish forever.”
Camilla was also grateful to earn money for The National Breast Cancer Foundation, a charity close to her heart as she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2018.
“It was privileged to fight for a cause so close to my heart and the fight continues. This is my life’s purpose and I thank this crazy show @celebrityapprentice for the opportunity to live it.”
Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli
It was an ice cream challenge that saw radio star Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli in the firing line, after he and his team failed to raise enough money.
“From the bottom of my heart I can’t thank you enough for all the support while representing the @crbfoundation on Celebrity Apprentice,” he wrote on Instagram.
“The moment we won $182,000 was without question one of the greatest moments of my life. Behind the scenes, I left filming that night and while driving home I rang Mum and dad. I was extremely emotional and told them I’d had a really special day. It is hard to put into words how much that moment meant.
When I got home Lisa and I sat on the couch and raised a glass to celebrate Cooper. It was at that moment we realised Cooper was the puppet master, and all I really had to do was turn up. The rest was a power move that Cooper had already hit play on. Nice team work Buddy.”
He also took to thank everyone who “worked their bum off on this wild ride”, tagging all his fellow co-stars, and took a moment to pay tribute to his wife.
“And to my beautiful wife @lisawipfli who kept the family together while I went missing for 8 weeks, I love you.”
Josh Gibson
He made it to the final four but Josh Gibson literally fell at the first hurdle in the “selling the impossible” challenge when he injured himself sprinting to sell tennis balls.
But the intruder and AFL star had no hard feelings about getting fired.
“Sitting in the Boardroom and hearing the comments go back and forth, like oh my God they’re praising what I did, and now they’re paying out on it. What’s going to happen?” Josh told Nine.
“Ultimately Lord Sugar fired me because he thinks that I like to sit on the fence. There’s two ways you can look at that. I feel even in my own business with the gyms I don’t single one person out all the time. We work together.”
Martha Kalifatidis
The Married At First Sight star was one of this year’s most polarising contestants but she seemingly dug her own grave in the Boardroom when she made her case more about herself than the charity she was raising money for.
“Can I say something? This will change my life. It will literally open so many doors,” Martha said during Monday’s episode.
“I’m not just an influencer, I’m not just a beauty blogger, I’m not just a make-up artist, and it will give me so many opportunities.”
She added afterwards however: “I’m not mad about being fired, I think I do have so much to learn.”
The reality star and beauty influencer also said that finalists Shaynna Blaze and Ross Noble are “so deserving” with “amazing stories.”
“Not that our stories aren’t as important or aren’t as personal to us but I really think that both Ross and Shaynna have such an incredible story to tell people and I can’t wait for it to unfold.”
This story originally appeared on our sister site, WHO.
