The second season of NBC's smash hit, "The Apprentice," will this time feature 18 candidates from all walks of life, including both Ivy League MBA graduates and street entrepreneurs with no college education. In the first episode, star and executive producer Donald Trump will split the candidates into two teams of nine. Each week, they will endure rigorous business tasks while living together in a hip Manhattan loft apartment. Prominent Fortune 500 companies were enlisted to participate in many of the tasks. The tasks will test their intelligence, chutzpah and street-smarts. They will face the challenges of living in close quarters and must complete sometimes humorous, but always difficult, job assignments and will be forced to think outside the box in order to outshine each other to get to the top. The competition and the boardroom drama will all be taken to the next level during the second season. The candidates will face far more intense tasks and the stakes will be much higher. Donald Trump and his trusted colleagues -- George Ross and Carolyn Kepcher -- will frame each episode, beginning with the task delivery and ending with the climactic boardroom showdown. And, each week, one person will hear those dreaded words -- "You're Fired!" As the winner of the competition, the second "apprentice" will be granted the dream job of a lifetime with The Trump Organization and a hefty six-figure salary.

As described in an interview with applicant Tammy Lee, during the first season of "The Apprentice" (2004), the ending clip each week showing the fired applicant exiting the Trump Tower and entering a cab had actually been filmed during one of the first few days of production before the contest started to cut down on the cost of having to set up for such a shoot each week. Every contestant had this clip filmed regardless of whether they were actually fired or not. From the second season onward, the fired contestants were actually filmed leaving the building after they were fired.

John Gafford:
[noticing Danny wearing a red suit and carrying a guitar case] The guy in the leisure suit obviously dances to the beat of a different drummer. Apparently, that drummer loves polyester.

Continuity: In several of the episodes, when the fired apprentice leaves Trump Tower they get into a cab in which the hack number is clearly visible; however, when the cab pulls away there is a different number on the side of the cab.

by The O'Jays