by David McAlpine

Last night on The Celebrity Apprentice, it was a marathon, to say the least. The three-hour long episode left three stars by the wayside, narrowing the field to just four in one of the most heated seasons we've seen yet.

Now, I thought three hours, three tasks, right? Wrong. The first elimination came within minutes of the beginning of the show, with NeNe Leakes quitting the competition. First, Trump switched her and Meat Loaf so that her and Star wouldn't have to be on the same team. At the very least, Trump was trying to be understanding and buy into her complaints that Star was an awful person.

But, instead of going along with it, NeNe just disappeared. Gone, no trace of her. Needless to say Trump was pissed, and he called her a quitter, giving the unofficial win to Star in this epic battle.

There was no time to celebrate, however, as a task was upon the final six: the teams needed to put on a charity comedy show. LaToya decided to take the reins for Backbone, while Meat Loaf took the lead for ASAP.

Since they were celebrities, they got to pull some fairly large celebrity performers and both shows ended up being funny. But that wasn't what the focal point was. Instead, it was Meat Loaf, who kept breaking into tears during the entire task because he didn't want all the money that they raised not to go to his charity.

Star Jones even goes so far as to call Trump to ask him if the money could go to both charities instead of one because Meat Loaf was so emotional. Trump's answer: no, winning comes first.

But for Meat Loaf, winning did come first, as he was able to pull ASAP through the task with a win, sending Lil' Jon, John and LaToya to the boardroom. All signs pointed to the Project Manager, so LaToya had to take the fall again, leaving just five.

The second task was making a promotional television spot for OnStar, the auto service that's available by pushing that button right below your rear view mirror. John Rich stepped up to lead for Backbone, while Marlee Matlin put on the captain's hat for ASAP.

Marlee immediately realized what quicksand she had stepped into when Meat Loaf and Star both went at it with their creative juices. Meat Loaf won out in that battle, but Marlee gave all the creative power to him, instead just administrating the task. He got panicky, and it seemed to overwhelm Marlee and Star.

On the men's team, John got sick with a sinus infection, leaving Lil' Jon with a huge task on his shoulders. However, Lil' Jon took it and ran with it. Even though their video didn't have a woman wearing her seatbelt, the executives thought their message was better, giving them the win.

In the boardroom, it was Meat Loaf versus Star. Now we've seen this all play out before: anyone versus Star results in Star swiftly crushing them with her words. It's almost painful to watch. But Meat Loaf had emotion on his side. Tears. You know, I don't think Star has seen those in years, now that I think about it.

Marlee even sided with Star on this one, but I think Trump really had an affinity for the guy. Star came off as disrespectful and a little cold, plus she snapped at Trump for calling her "sweetie."

It was all she could do to seal her fate, giving Trump no choice but to fire her.

The Celebrity Apprentice airs Sundays at 10/9c on NBC.

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

Follow David on Twitter: @DavidMcAlpine