Celebrity Apprentice winner: Trace Adkins is the Winner of 'All-Star Celebrity Apprentice'

Celebrity Apprentice winner is tall, ponytailed entertainer. Trace Adkins, the gruff country star who returned to "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" holding his nose, squeaked out a win against magician Penn Jillette, a creative whiz who had more wins to his name but didn't raise as much money in the final task. Trace won $250,000 (plus his earlier winnings) for the American Red Cross, which aided his family when their house burned down in 2011.

Penn did add to his earlier winnings as well, with $100,000 for his charity, Opportunity Village, from Walgreens for developing the better selling ice cream in the last challenge, which tasked them with creating a unique ice cream flavor, packaging it, creating a 60-second promotional video and selling up to 50 tickets to a VIP event they must organize.

Trump judged the pair on flavor, brand messaging and creativity of both the video and project packaging, overall presentation and additional money raised through ticket sales.

Let's return to where we left off last week with Penn's "crisis" about his too-long video. Solved in about three seconds when Lisa Rinna tells him they've got to take out Dennis Rodman, who is hiding underneath the table and catches the ice cream in the Penn & Teller trick. Penn wants that comedy beat for the video, but decides to sacrifice Dennis. He realizes he can still talk about Dennis' role in the magic trick during the presentation. Whew. Dodged a bullet there.
There's some concern about whether Tim Tebow and his check will show up on time, but that's probably as manufactured as Penn's video crisis.

Penn says he's bringing in Debbie Harry, Blue Man Group, Taylor Hicks and Wayne Newton with their checkbooks. (Hmmm, which one of those does not belong? And who knew that guy had $10,000 to spare?) Trace claims he's got Tim Tebow, who is bringing $200,000. Obviously this was before his sudden unemployment. There's some concern about whether Tim and his check will show up on time, but that's probably as manufactured as Penn's video crisis.

The donors pour in: Penn gets a $250,000 check from Jan Jones, the former mayor of Las Vegas. Billy Ray Cyrus gives $50,000 to Trace, and Wynonna Judd ponies up $80,000. No sign of Tebow. And then there he is, with an extra $100,000. Whew. Dodged a bullet there.

The executives loved almost everything about Team Penn: the name swurtle and the flavor, the video and the presentation — particularly that it was all about the ice cream. Their only negative: They felt the packaging didn't pop. As for Team Trace, the executives loved Gary Busey's performance at the presentation and the use of "mashup" in the name, because it would appeal to a younger demographic. They didn't like maple as a flavor. Penn raised $503,655. Trace raised $664,000.

Trump also gives $100,000 to Lil Jon, essentially the third-place finisher, for his charity, the American Diabetes Association, and $20,000 each to the contestants who failed to win any money at all for their charity. Of the requisite reunion, there is little to be said except Dennis Rodman blonde mohawk wow.

Source: NJ.Com