by Gina Scarpa and Mike Bandy

 

This week, on The Celebrity Apprentice, teams were asked to create an outdoor camping experience in the middle of Manhattan. Led by Gary Busey and Niki Taylor, each side faced their own set of difficulties but the men ended up coming out on top. In the boardroom, Niki refused to name a weak player and sited herself as the sole reason her team lost. Trump had no choice but to fire her and today, she spoke to RealityWanted and reporters in a conference call about her experiences on the show.

 

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: Marlee said she wished you had fought for yourself to stay. Are you satisfied with your decision?
A. Niki: I am. I think it was the right decision. Each girl worked their butts off. They did everything that I asked and made their space that they were assigned to beautiful. They learned everything about an RV and camping that day. I think we beat the boys. I think we should've beat the boys. I couldn't sing a jingle and I didn't have a green turf. I think that's why we lost. We had amazing branding. We gave everyone hospitality. I think we should've won.

 

Q. Mike, RealityWanted: Were you nervous about calling out Dionne to Donald Trump for being difficult to work with?
A. Niki: A little bit, yeah. First, I've never seen a 70 year old person act like that. Maybe someone a lot younger but she was doing that all week. She was doing it to Marlee and Hope off camera. She was attacking everyone the whole time so I knew my turn was going to come up. Finally, I was like, "Okay, here it comes. She's going to do it to me on camera." All I did was show her respect and I was sweet to her. I was kind to her. Not even a kind person can get kindness out of Dionne. I had to tell Mr. Trump like it was and I think you're going to see in this next show coming up how Dionne handles things.

 

Q. Was owning up to the loss a strategy of yours, to not throw anybody under the bus?
A. Niki: Yeah, I think that was kind of my thinking on the whole thing. You know, I don't know if you watched the week before with Lisa but it was really testy waters. You wanted to pull them aside and make sure they knew what the job was, what the task was, because they attacked. I didn't want that. The way they edit everything, you miss a lot of the stuff of me talking with them. There was really nobody I could bring back into the boardroom. It kind of had to happen like that.

 

Q. How did you handle Star Jones so well?
A. Niki: Star and I have known each other a few years. I don't know. I know she did say that I lacked in leadership but that's the way Star plays the game. You just kind of really have to keep your distance. It's kind of hard to learn everyone's personality in a short amount of time. There's all these Type A personalities and then my personality. You have to have the perfect tone with the right words and it's really exhausting.

 

Q. A lot of fans have been upset about the negative tone this season, complaining that bullies are being rewarded. What's your take on that?
A. Niki: I think that's due to editing. That's what makes good tv and what makes this a reality show. Unfortunately, you usually bring back two people back into the boardroom who didn't do their job or work as hard as the others. Unfortunately, you saw with Star and Dionne, they showed their true character. That's truly how they are. That's unfortunate and I feel bad for them.

 

Q. Was it tougher being project manager than you expected?
A. Niki: Yes! I probably should've waited a little longer but it kind of fell into my lap. I was the only one that had been camping and I'm glad I did choose it. It was outside, we were always busy, always moving, there was tons of stuff to do. If I was in a confined room like Lisa was the week before, I would've been attacked a lot. This was actually a great task for me. I'm glad I chose it. I'm upset I didn't win any money for my charity on this task.

 

Q. How was it balancing the different personalities between telling them what to do and what they wanted to do?
A. Niki: Exhausting! You knew Star was playing the game. You knew Dionne hated you. But all the other girls were amazing but you always had to watch out for those two. It was like, "Really? Come on. I just wanna beat the guys. Let's just get along."

 

Q. Why were you unsure whether your team had won or not?
A. Niki: I was unsure because, after we got back to our war room, I heard that John Rich had come up with a jingle. During one of my interviews, I saw that they had had green trees and hedges and beautiful turf. I was like, "Oh my goodness. That's what I wanted!" It's hard to go up against an amazing person who can come up with a jingle. The green, I think, was pretty eye popping.

 

Q. Who surprised you the most on both teams and why?
A. Niki: Nene Leakes went above and beyond every time I asked her to do something. She was just fantastic with me. At first, I was sa little scared meeting her just because of everything I had heard about the Housewives of Atlanta. On the guys' side, I knew John was going to be amazing.

 

Q. What did you learn about yourself?
A. Niki: I need to speak up a little more... maybe take someone aside. Definitely speak up more.

 

The Celebrity Apprentice airs Sundays at 9/8c on NBC.

 

(Image courtesy of NBC)

 

 

Follow Gina @ginascarpa