New Zealand's The Apprentice cometh

"Whose idea was it?", "Who was project manager?" "You're fired". The triumphs and money-spinners, the sloppy mishaps and crappy ideas, the liars, the bad clothes and bad hair (and not just the Don's), all the different receptionists, Ivanka and Donald Junior.

And then finally last season, there was some romantic action between two of the competitors; albeit short-lived and sadly pretty high -school and pathetic. If you enter a competition to win a US$250,000 job, do you put your allegiances with someone you snogged five minutes ago or your team mates who can help you reach the goal you signed up for?

So it was pretty exciting to hear The Apprentice is coming to NZ. It even earned a slot on Close Up, the supposed news and current affairs show. And there's even a fan who started her own You Tube New Zealand Apprentice channel, with Twitter and Facebook pages to go with it.

The host of New Zealand's Apprentice is, unsurprisingly, a man (yawn) and a property developer (snore). "We wanted somebody who was a Kiwi entrepreneur and a self-made man," said the guy on Close Up. Apparently, Terry Serepisos stood out because he doesn't come with jewellery- store branding (Michael Hill perhaps?) and he's not the grumpy old man (do you mean Bob Jones by any chance?).

The tragic titbit newspapers and television keep touting about Serepisos is that he dined right next to "the Don" at The Ivy restaurant in LA. As an inside source tells us, you don't go to The Ivy for the food. Desperados, wannabes and paparazzi cravers go there to reassure themselves they're "somebody".

According to reports, Serepisos is a self-made entrepreneur with an estimated personal worth of $140 million. He's also the owner of the A-League Wellington Phoenix football club.

When asked how important money is by Close Up, Serepisos said, "Money is important enough to be able to … not be in, you know, in hardship and that."

Precisely, Tezza. And there I always thought property developers were a bit on the dim side.

The Apprentice will air on TVv2 early next year. Names of contestants and judges are still hush-hush.

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