The Apprentice (U.S. Season 3) - Episodes - Week 16: The Games People Play & Week 17: Into The Stretch

Week 16: The Games People Play & Week 17: Into The Stretch

• Airdates: May 5, 12 and 19, 2005
• Sponsors:
  • Book Smarts: PlayStation, Best Buy, and Electronic Arts Sports Division
  • Street Smarts: NYC 2012 Olympics Board/Committee with the City of New York
• Book Smarts Finalist: Kendra
• Street Smarts Finalist: Tana
• Project:
  • Book Smarts: Best Buy Fight Night Promotion.
  • Street Smarts: NYC 2012 Athlete Challenge.
• Hired: Kendra, for attaining a 3-0 record as project manager, not once being called into the final boardroom by another project manager, and doing such a superb job on her final project.
• Fired: Tana, for insulting her team members and not leading her team well enough, failing to coordinate the NYC 2012 event smoothly, and for falsely claiming all of the success on the Week 12 Solstice task.

• Special notes:
  • The one-on-one interviews aired on the first part of the May 5, 2005 episode.
  • The first part of the final task was aired on May 5, 2005 after Craig's firing in the middle of Episode 15.
    • During the interviews, Kendra threatened that she would "compete" with Trump if he did not hire her.
    • All interviewers unanimously recommended that Craig was not suitable for the Trump Organization.
  • Second part of this episode was the allocation of the final tasks.
    • Since Kendra and Tana started out on opposing teams, it would become the final battle of Book Smarts vs Street Smarts
  • Trump picked three previously fired candidates to serve as the employees of each finalist.
    • Employees hired:
    • Magna (a.k.a. Book Smarts Team): Michael, Danny, and Erin
    • Net Worth (a.k.a. Street Smarts Team): Brian, Chris, and Kristen
  • Although it appeared that Tana and Kendra's employees were going to discuss their employers on the finale (based on the ending to the penultimate episode), the finale went directly to the live hiring instead. It was speculated that because Tana's performance had been completely thrashed, that the producers decided not to show it. This was in light of the criticism the show received for the endless footage on the previous season where most of the favorable comments were towards Kelly Perdew, and most of the negative feedback was directed towards Jennifer Massey.
  • The live finale took place in New York University
  • Before the final hiring decision was made, the two potential winning tasks were announced: the renovation of a massive mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and a managing role with the Trump-owned Miss Universe Pageant. Kendra said she would like the renovation project because it fit with her real estate background and was not far from her home base in Florida, while Tana stated her preference was for the Miss Universe job.
  • In addition to becoming the first female Apprentice, Kendra became the first winner to never appear in the final boardroom (though the previous season's winner, Kelly Perdew only appeared in the final boardroom once, and was exempt on that occasion), along with being the first winner to stay on the original team throughout the entire interview process.
• Episode Fifteen Recap on NBC.com
• Episode Sixteen Recap on NBC.com
• Final Episode Recap on NBC.com