With 2006 drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at the year that was. The following is Reality TV World's 2006 Reality TV Year In Review, a month-by-month listing of some of the past year's reality TV highlights, lowlights, and milestones.
Officially confirming reports that began emerging last fall, former The Apprentice 2 candidate Raj Bhakta has formally announced that he's now a candidate for something else -- the United States House of Representatives.
Despite being one of the few project managers willing to accept blame for his team's mistakes, the skirt-chasing Raj Bhakta became the ninth casualty of Donald Trump's "boardroom" on NBC's The Apprentice 2 -- though it appeared that Raj's biggest mistakes came in the boardroom, not the task.
Maybe flip-flopping is the new trend in reality TV, but California consultant Elizabeth Jarosz found out that, as a strategy on NBC's The Apprentice 2, it's a dud. As a result, in the season's eighth episode, Elizabeth became the eighth candidate fired by Donald Trump.
In the seventh epsiode of NBC's The Apprentice 2, the teams "restructured," and diminutive lawyer Stacy Rotne became the seventh of the original eighteen contestants to be fired by Donald Trump.
In the sixth episode of NBC's The Apprentice 2, the all-women Apex team finally broke its four-challenge losing streak, leading to the firing of John Willenborg, the project manager for the men's Mosaic team. Three men and three women have now been fired by Donald Trump from the original eighteen contestants.
One of the ongoing worries about the "tribal swaps" on Survivor is that a swapped contestant will promptly be booted by his or her new tribe. That same scenario occurred on the fifth episode of NBC's The Apprentice 2, and the swapped contestant, 32-year-old hedge fund manager Pamela Day, became the fifth person fired from the game.
With its season premiere quickly approaching and promotional commercials featuring the cast having already been airing for several weeks, NBC has finally officially revealed the identities and backgrounds of the eighteen new contestants that will be competing in The Apprentice 2.