Saturday, October 09, 2010

#851 - The Apprentice

ENGLISH

One of my favorite reality show is The Apprentice. If you do not have anything else to do or you feel bored, you can do some research in this blog and you will find several Apprentice-related entries written by me. I was also happy when the Indonesian version of it was made about five years ago.

Anyway, so I have been watching the newest season of the US Version of The Apprentice. and I am extremely happy that for this season, the format was changed back to its original one, where ordinary people were cast to be the candidates. I think this is waaay more interesting because we watch real people work real hard to get something done, in an ordinary and daily-basis situation. I mean, I don't think we will see a burgershop sells burgers for 250 dollar a piece and ask tips for up to 1,500 dollar for it. Puhleeeaaassseeeee. That's not business at all, I think :-) Anyway, if you do not trust me, just look for an older episode of The Celebrity Apprentice and you will find an episode where one team sold burger for 250 dollar and asked tips up to 1,500 dollar. In fact, in the end, most of their revenue came from the tipping (of course)!! Who would be willing to buy a 250 dollar burger and give tips up to 1,500 dollar?? Not an "ordinary" customer, of course, but their contacts!!

So, yeah, I really dislike the concept of The Celebrity Apprentice because it significantly diminishes the essence of The Apprentice as the theme of the show was shifted from business to "celebrity exploitation". Plus, because they ARE (already) celebrities, some of them might not feel the need to "respect" Donald Trump. In other words, Trump lost his "power" in the boardroom and his presence on the show has waay less meaning.

So far, four episodes of this new season have been aired and something comes to my attention. Somehow I do not feel that the tasks given were really "The-Apprentice" typical tasks. I mean, the "business feel" is not felt as "strong" as in previous seasons. For example, this week, the task was to create a viral video. Team Fortitude lost because their video was more like a commercial for the product and not "extreme" enough. In the original season(s) of it, the highlight would have been in the word "commercial", not "extreme". Another example, last week, the task was to run a doggy day-care. Okay, good I thought, but then the winner was determined by the owner of the daycare and a dog expert rather than the actual sales teams could make that day. C'Mon!! I am afraid having runned three seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice, the producer has already forgotten the essence of the "original" The Apprentice.

About three weeks ago, a friend of mine recommended me to watch the British Edition of the show. As a refreshment activity to do in my weekend, I decided to go for it. The British version apparently offers a different atmosphere. It seems that playing "low" is seen as a very despicable thing to do and participants need to focus more on the task, playing it in the "highway". Even in the original US Version, playing "low" is considerably okay until several degrees. The tasks given in the UK version were "s0-business". This "so-business" atmosphere is even more felt now, after comparing it to the newest season of the US version. This is really refreshing!! I think I will watch several more seasons of the UK version.

By the way, some hours ago, I found a youtube video about one very classic moment that happened in the Celebrity Apprentice. It involved Omarosa (no wonder), and this is the reason why I really love the appearance of Omarosa in this show :-) See the video below. My comment: Omarosa is a classic!! :-)



BAHASA INDONESIA

Satu acara realitas favoritku adalah The Apprentice. Kalau misalnya kalian lagi nggak ada kerjaan atau merasa bosan, bisa deh melakukan riset sedikit di blog ini dan kalian kana menemukan beberapa postinganku yang terkait dengan topik The Apprentice. Aku juga merasa senang ketika versi Indonesia darinya dibuat sekitar lima tahun yang lalu.

Ngomong2, sekarang aku juga sedang mengikuti hmusim terbaru dari versi Amerikanya The Apprentice. Dan aku sangat senang bahwa musim ini, formatnya kembali ke format awal, yaitu orang biasa lah yang menjadi pesertanya. Aku rasa format seperti ini jauuuh lebih menarik karena kita memang melihat orang biasa yang bekerja keras untuk menyelesaikan suatu tugas, dengan situasi yang biasa dan sehari-hari. Maksudku, aku rasa aku nggak akan deh melihat sebuah restoran burger yang menjual burger dengan harga 250 dollar sebijinya dan kemudian meminta tip sampai 1.500 dollar atasnya. Aduh, plis deh ah!! Menurutku sih, hal begitu itu bukan bisnis sama sekali :-) Kalau nggak percaya, coba deh cari sebuah episode yang agak dulu dari The Celebrity Apprentice dan disitu memang terjadi bahwa sebuah tim menjual burger seharga 250 dollar dan kemudian meminta tip sampai 1.500 dollar. Akhirnya, malah sebagian besar pendapatan mereka datang dari tip (ya iya lah)!! Siapa sih orang yang mau beli burger seharga 250 dollar dan memberi tip sampai 1.500 dollar?? Ya bukan pembeli "biasa" tentunya, tetapi kontak para selebriti itu!!

Jadi, ya, aku memang sangat nggak suka sama konsep The Celebrity Apprentice karena konsep ini secara signifikan mengurangi esensi dari The Apprentice dan tema dari acaranya berpindah dari bisnis ke "eksploitasi selebriti". Plus, karena mereka ADALAH selebritis, jadi sebagian dari mereka mungkin tidak merasa perlu untuk memberi "hormat" pada Donald Trump. Dengan kata lain, Trump kehilangan "kekuasaannya" di boardroom dan kehadirannya dalam acara ini jadi kurang berarti.

Sejauh ini, sudah empat episode yang ditayangkan dan satu hal agak mengkhawatirkanku. Rasanya aku merasa bahwa tugas yang diberikan di musim ini tuh bukan tipikal tugas di "The Apprentice". Maksudnya, aku rasa "bisnis"-nya nggak terasa sekuat di musim-musim yang dulu. Misalnya, minggu ini, tugasnya adalah membuat sebuah viral video. Tim Fortitude kalah karena video mereka terasa lebih seperti iklan komersial dari produknya dan kurang "ekstrim". Di konsep yang asli, tentu penekanannya adalah pada kata "komersial" dan bukan di kata "ekstrim". Contoh lain, minggu lalu, tugasnya adalah menjalankan sebuah pusat penitipan anjing. Oke, bagus, itu yang aku pikir, tetapi kemudian pemenangnya ditentukan oleh pemilik tempat penitipan itu dan seorang pakar anjing, bukan dari nilai pendapatan yang bisa mereka peroleh hari itu. Aduh!! Aku agak khawatir nih karena sudah menjalankan tiga musim The Celebrity Apprentice, produsernya sudah lupa akan esensi dasar The Apprentice "yang orisinil".

Sekitar tiga minggu yang lalu, seorang teman merekomendasikanku untuk menonton Edisi Inggis dari acara ini. Nah, sebagai salah satu aktivitas penyegaran selama akhir minggu, aku memutuskan untuk mengikuti versi ini deh. Versi Inggris ternyata menawarkan atmosfer yang sangat berbeda. Sangat terasa bahwa bermain "kotor" itu sangat tercela di versi ini dan para kontestan harus fokus lebih dalam terhadap tugas yang diberikan, dan menjalankannya dengan cara yang "bersih". Bahkan di versi Amerika yang orisinil, kadang bermain "kotor" itu diperbolehkan sampa taraf tertentu. Tugas-tugas yang diberikan di versi Inggris ini juga "bisnis-banget". Atmosfer "bisnis-banget" ini makin terasa sekarang, setelah membandingkannya dengan musim terbaru dari versi Amerika. Bener-bener menyegarkan nih!! Aku rasa aku akan menonton beberapa musim dari versi Inggrisnya nih.

Ngomong2, beberapa jam yang lalu, aku menemukan video di youtube tentang satu momen klasik yang terjadi di Celebrity Apprentice. Momen ini melibatkan Omarosa (nggak heran), dan inilah alasan mengapa aku sangat suka dengan kehadiran Omarosa di acara ini :-) Lihat deh videonya di atas. Komentarku: Omarosa memang klasik!! :-)

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