MANILA, Philippines - “You’re fired!â€
Those are the dreaded words popularized by Donald Trump, who says that line at the end of every episode to eliminate a contestant in the reality show, The Apprentice.
After The Apprentice made waves on American TV with Trump firing the contestants one after the other every week, The Apprentice Asia was launched, this time with Malaysian airline tycoon Tony Fernandes as host and “big boss.â€
Following the British edition (with Sir Alan Sugar), The Apprentice Asia started last May with 12 contestants, six men and six women, displaying their know-how in running a business.
The contestants are divided into two groups, Apex and Mavericks, who strategize and plan out business ventures every week. They are billeted in a suite in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for the entire duration of the contest.
One member gets to lead the team as project manager, who changes every week. The groups should be successful in mapping out their moves so they emerge as winners and one member can be saved from elimination. Teams have to be aggressive and competitive in every project assigned to them.
Towards the end of every episode, Fernandes is joined by two other Asian bosses as advisors — Mark Lankester of Tune Hotels and Kathleen Tan of Expedia Asia — in the boardroom, where they evaluate the performance of the contestants for the task done.
The team members get to create different tasks every week. They get to experience running a business, like managing part of Hilton Kuala Lumpur for a day (which was their task on Episode 6), creating a 30-second viral video to promote Expedia (Episode 2), producing a live commercial for the iconic Volkswagen (Episode 8) or designing a new set of uniforms for Air Asia guest services staff, flight attendant and ramp personnel (Episode 7).
The winning team gets a reward at the end of every episode. From the losing team, one member who disappointingly performed in the task gets to leave the show. The remaining contestants return to their suite and await their next task.
Now that The Apprentice Asia is winding up, the final two (one of them a Filipino) are ready to face their toughest challenge yet.
The recent ones who got the boot were Celina Le Neindre, a food and beverage consultant from the Philippines and Dian Krishna Mukti, a Miss Universe Indonesia 2003 winner.
The first one to leave the contest was Hendy Setiono, founder of a food and beverage company in Indonesia. Malaysian business owner Hanzo Ng Kian Tat left after the second week of the competition, followed by Dussadee Oeawpanich, a restaurateur from Thailand who had to quit on the third week of the competition.
Indian Ningku Lachungpa, an infrastructure development company director, was fired on the fourth week, followed consecutively by Malaysian contestants — auditor Nik Aisyah and financial coach/trainer Nazril Idrus.
The last two contenders who got eliminated were Alexis Lothar Baudin, a liquor company director from China and Samuel Rufus Nallaraj, an IT company executive from India.
Two contestants remain in the running, with Filipino Jonathan Yabut, a senior product manager, still holding the torch for the country. He remains optimistic that he can be the first winner of The Apprentice Asia.
He is joined by Andrea Loh, a litigation lawyer from Singapore.
This early, Fernandes has been saying he will not mind signing up for the second season of the reality show. Apparently, the Malaysian airline tycoon enjoyed his stint on The Apprentice Asia.
The show airs its two-part finale on July 24 and July 31 on AXN.