Make no mistake about it. Geraldo Rivera was almost single-handedly responsible for the resurgence of The Celebrity Apprentice.
The journalist and talk show host was a dominating presence on the show’s seventh season as every episode, quite literally, centered around his actions on any given task. In addition, the host of Geraldo At Large offered many memorable one-liners throughout the duration of the show including “Screw The Terrorists!,” “Nice Over Ice” and “Full Frontal Nudity.”
It was certainly because of his strong personality that Geraldo clashed with many of the other contestants. Most notably, Geraldo wasn’t able to see eye-to-eye with Kevin Jonas, Ian Ziering and Lorenzo Lamas but managed to squash feuds with the latter pair when the actors were placed on his team to help him with the final task.
In the end and despite losing five straight tasks as a member of Team Vortex, Geraldo was able to survive boardroom after boardroom, finishing the season as the runner-up to Leeza Gibbons.
I caught up with Geraldo at Monday’s Celebrity Apprentice finale where I asked him what he thought his most memorable quote on the series was. Geraldo also elaborated on how tough it was to raise all the money that he was able to (despite it looking like he had a well of cash that would never dry). Finally, I asked Geraldo if he thought the teams were evenly matched as it appeared Mr. Trump had given Leeza a huge advantage by allowing her to work with three of her allies while he saddled Geraldo with two of his most noted critics on a task that asked the teams to raise money for their respective charities and produce a promotional video in support of Universal Orlando.
Check out the video above!