Celebrity Apprentice
"Celebrity Apprentice" judges Raff Spero, Evan Kramer, Donald Trump, George Ross, Donald Trump Jr. stepped up for the first task of the night. NBC / Celebrity Apprentice

After firing home Keshia Knight Pulliam, “Celebrity Apprentice” premiered its second episode, which saw two of the remaining 15 D-Listers fired from Trump’s boardroom. The tasks included making a commercial for a tech brand and organizing a taste testing. However, the real star of the episode was the budding feuds, especially with Geraldo Rivera and … well … everyone.

The first task saw the men and women teams produce a commercial for a technology company. Kevin Jonas and Kate Gosselin stepped up as Project Managers for their respective teams. The first challenge, however, was really a big contest to see who could be more irritating, Gosselin or Rivera?

It was apparent early on that Gosselin was not well suited to be a project lead for a technology-based commercial, which put the burden on her teammates, especially Brandi Glanville, who continued to second-guess the mom of eight after being thrown under the bus by her last week. Despite hiccups, the women’s team won the first challenge of the night, leaving the pressure on the men to pick up the pieces and explain their failure.

Building on the Jonas/Rivera conflict from the first task, the journalist took every opportunity to undermine his younger leader and cause problems for the team. Jonas was patient with Rivera and his ego but blamed failure solely on him when the time came. He was so sure that Rivera was his team’s weakest link that he brought Ian Ziering in as his second choice to be fired. Jonas’ hope was that Trump would be forced to choose Rivera if both he and Ziering were advocating for him to go. Unfortunately, Jonas learned the harsh lesson that you don’t try and out-think Trump on his own show. If failing the task as Project Manager wasn’t enough to get him fired, bringing Ian Ziering into the board room sealed his fate.

After the Rivera/Jonas drama was settled, the teams took on their second challenge of the evening. Team Infinity and Vortex were tasked with organizing an entertaining taste-test for a frozen-food company. Terrell Owens took up the mantle of Project Manager for the men’s team while Vivica A. Fox stepped up with confidence for the women. The men entered the challenge thinking they had an ace-in-the-hole with professional performer Gilbert Gottfried. Unfortunately he proved to be one of their biggest detriments by bringing sexually explicit comedy to a family event and professional pitch.

Joining Gottfried in the boardroom hot seat was Project Manager Owens and, once again, Geraldo Rivera. Rivera came up with the team’s slogan, which the brand hated, putting him in Trump’s crosshairs for elimination. It’s worth mentioning that the biggest champion against Rivera in the second round was Jonas’ former anti-Rivera champion, Ziering.

Comedians bomb all the time, but Gottfried’s colossal tone-deaf performance is what forced Trump’s hand in sending him home, despite making a long speech about how he could never fire someone just for being inappropriate.

With the men down two and the women only one, Team Vortex will need to really step up its game to ensure that they don’t fall drastically behind the ladies. Meanwhile, Team Infinity needs to keep an eye on their in-fighting if they want to maintain their lead.

Odds And Ends:

- Geraldo Rivera is officially the heel of this season. His ego is one of the most fascinating parts of the show thus far.

- Although Kevin Jonas is gone, he left an enemy for his rival in the form of Ian Ziering. The feud continues!

- Anyone else feel like Kate Gossling was falling a little too hard on the Project Manager sword given that she was, self admittedly, totally unqualified? Being the martyr only works if you’re… you know, helpful.

- Biggest lesson of the night: Don’t cross Vivica A. Fox. The woman can rabbit punch using only her words.

- “There is a time and a place for sex jokes” is a lesson Gilbert Gottfriend probably still hasn’t learned. But check him out on the “Today” show tomorrow or whatever.

- We came uncomfortably close to shaming Shawn Johnson simply for having her period. Johnson and Fox probably aren’t done throwing shade at each other, so keep an eye on Team Infinity next week.

- Brandi vs. Kate, taking all bets!

“Celebrity Apprentice” Season 14 airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.