• by December 16, 2005

"Money, money, money. Monnaaaaaaaaay" is the catchy refrain to the theme song for Donald Trump's "Apprentice" on NBC. The fourth season of the show ended last night with a live finale in New York City.

Last night, while a phalanx of VIPs, Yahoo! executives, advertisers, and others gathered at Avery Fisher Hall to observe the proceedings, we watched from our couch, a distinctly non-VIP locale. We must concede that we haven't followed this season's "Apprentice" that well and have grown bored with the entire premise.

Yahoo!, which has partnered with Mark Burnett, whose production company, along with the Donald, is responsible for all "Apprentice"-like programming, is the online programming presence for the series. This season, Yahoo! also became part of the action as Randal and Rebecca, the last two contestants, competed in the final task.

Rebecca--who, by the way, lost out to Randal Pinkett, a business consultant--ran a comedy benefit for Yahoo! to raise money for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDs Foundation. Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo!'s chief sales officer, along with Beth Lawrence, vice president-Eastern sales, and other members of the Internet giant's ad sales team, were featured in the episode.

Interestingly, the fact that Rebecca didn't raise any money at the benefit (she tucked the donation information into goody bags for the guests), may have prevented her from winning last night. Yahoo! executives had told Rebecca that they were very uncomfortable asking advertisers and others attending the benefit for donations; she listened and respected their wishes. However, Randal raised $11,000 at the benefit he managed on behalf of an autism organization.

In the end, it didn't matter. Last night we watched as Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig announced a $100,000 donation on behalf of the company to both two charities ($50,000 for each).