Viewers of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice were shocked to see Bret Michaels fired by Donald Trump in Sunday night’s premiere.
“I got hired big on this show, and I got fired big,” Michaels, the only past winner to return for the NBC reality show’s all-star edition, said Monday on CBS’ The Talk.
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On Sunday’s episode, Michaels and Trace Adkins were chosen to select teams, and Michaels’ first pick was villain Omarosa. She ultimately turned against him, saying it would be her mission to take him down, and downplayed how much money he helped raise in the first challenge.
Also not helping matters, Trump repeatedly told Michaels he thought it was a bad decision for him to return as a player instead of a boardroom adviser, as past winners Piers Morgan, Joan Rivers, John Rich and Arsenio Hall chose to do.
In the boardroom, Trump also admitted, “Psychologically, it’s awfully hard for me to pick you again,” and Michaels was sent packing.
On Monday, Michaels — who called being fired “horrible” — reiterated that he wanted to return as a player instead of an adviser to try to raise more money for his charity, the Life Rocks Foundation-National Philanthropic Trust. He also confessed that he didn’t think Trump was serious when he fired him.
“I thought they were punking me,” he said. “I looked around to see what they were talking about.”
Michaels said one of his mistakes was in choosing Omarosa for his team, but he revealed that he had a solid rationale for doing so.
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“She is known as evil incarnate on TV,” he said. “I figured, if I embraced it and unleashed her on the other team, we would win this hands down until we had to fight each other. That grenade blew up in my hand.”
Still, he has nothing but praise for Trump and his family, noting that they have raised millions of dollars for charity.
Next, Michaels is gearing up for the release of his solo album Good Songs & Great Friends and the launch of his new Travel Channel show, Rock My RV.
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