Watch The Apprentice: Season 11, Episode 9

"Shear Madness"

Task scope: The teams must each produce a hair show promoting hair styling products produced by Farouk Systems, including CHI hair straighteners and BioSilk hair products, emphasizing the safety of the products and the fact that they are made in America.

Task sponsor: Farouk Systems

Backbone project manager: Lil Jon

A.S.A.P. project manager: NeNe Leakes

Judges: Donald Trump; Eric Trump; Ivanka Trump

Winning team: Backbone
Reasons for win: Farouk loved the men's focus on the brand and their cosmopolitan theme. Although he felt that they didn't address the safety of the products well enough, Farouk enjoyed having Lil Jon as the MC.

Losing team: A.S.A.P.

Reasons for loss: While the women did focus on the safety of the products, and Farouk loved having Marlee Matlin as their model and the representation of the products, the women's team did not have much of a theme. Farouk also felt that NeNe Leakes was a weak MC who did not address the brand fairly well, and was not impressed with Hope Dworaczyk's modeling. Despite praise for their stylists, Farouk believed that they were ones running the show, and not A.S.A.P.

Sent to boardroom: NeNe Leakes, Star Jones, Hope Dworaczyk

Fired: Hope Dworaczyk - for being seen as a weaker competitor than NeNe Leakes and Star Jones and for "flying under the radar" for too long. Despite the fact that this was the second time that NeNe had failed as a project manager, Trump felt that NeNe and Star could be a dominant force to beat the opposing team.

Notes:
This was the first time in the history of The Apprentice that a previously fired candidate had been reinstated into the competition; La Toya Jackson, who had been fired in the previous episode, was brought back to the show as a replacement for Jose Canseco (although he had quit several weeks prior).
John Rich called previously eliminated contestant Niki Taylor to help the men's team with the task, which she happily accepted. Marlee Matlin later said she liked Niki as a friend, but felt this as a sign of betrayal.
The ending of this episode was disrupted during its airing in the Eastern United States, and preempted on the West Coast due to coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden.