Apprentice: Summer Leavin' Happened So Fast

Here we are but one week into a new round of NBC's The Apprentice, and already people are doing silly things like interrupting the Donald just as he's about to fire someone else. In this instance, a teed-off Trump instead made the call to can Summer Zervos, the gal who seemingly refused to make the calls. Did DT and "genius" project manager Tarek get Summer's number wrong? She of the luscious curls rang TVGuide.com to share her side.

TVGuide.com: Help us understand exactly what you were supposed to be doing in your role for the Sam's Club task. They kept saying you were supposed to call restaurants  to accomplish what?
Summer Zervos: To let them know what Sam's Club can do for small businesses and how the Plus membership can help them.

TVGuide.com: Ah, if I'm a restaurant owner, I can do my food or supply shopping at Sam's....
Summer: There's so much more to it than that. They offer credit-card processing, payroll... a lot of things that can help small businesses. Being that I have a small business [Sunny's Restaurant in Huntington Beach, Calif.], I would have been a great person to make them aware of that.

TVGuide.com: But what happened? You made the first phone call, got a lukewarm reception....
Summer: Unfortunately we didn't get the list of phone numbers until the dinner rush [and] I did not feel comfortable making calls to a restaurant at that time.

TVGuide.com: When you saw that the phone-call thing was going south, did you volunteer to help out in any other way, besides riding in the blimp with Lenny?
Summer: Tarek unfortunately decided not to use our budget, and anything you'd suggest would cost money. I'm sure you saw the frustration on our faces. He would rather not have done anything and still have a budget and be a "hero," as opposed to putting some of the budget out there and giving us something to do.

TVGuide.com: But there weren't any "bonus points" for "saving budget."
Summer: You know what? I can understand his point of view, but it didn't work in this particular task.

TVGuide.com: Having grown up in the O.C., were you bummed that you didn't wait around for Season 6, which is being done in Cali?
Summer: Isn't that a hoot? I am a little bummed. But being in New York, living here... I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

TVGuide.com: We have a nice town.
Summer: It's like, whoa, completely different.

TVGuide.com: Isn't it kind of funny that you're a girl named Summer from the O.C.?
Summer: [Silence]

TVGuide.com: Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? The TV series on Fox? There's a character on The O.C. named Summer.
Summer: Yeah, with the dark hair. Forgive me, I've never seen the show, but I hear about it often.

TVGuide.com: On a purely superficial note, I noticed that some of you Apprentice wannabes looked sweaty. Was this my new hi-def TV signal simply showing me new things about The Apprentice, or was it a particularly warm summer when you were taping?
Summer: No, I really think it was my nerves.

TVGuide.com: It wasn't so much you as Brent. I just wanted to take a towel to him.
Summer: Brent and I are the sweaters of the group, so I tried to look out for him. I really took a liking to Brent.

TVGuide.com: That's cool. Did "Mr. Mensa" underwhelm you as much as he underwhelmed Trump on the first task?
Summer: You know what? I'm not trying to be a kiss-ass, but... Tarek had all these plans laid out for what he would do, but they didn't really apply to this task. If he just went with his gut instinct, he would have been a lot better off.

TVGuide.com: Maybe the liability of Mensa types is that their thinking isn't fluid, it isn't adaptable.
Summer: I'm not one to speak on that really.

TVGuide.com: Were you kicking yourself for speaking up at the end, when Trump appeared to be gearing up to fire Tarek?
Summer: Not at all. I had gone a couple of days with people doing things to me that weren't 100 percent truthful. So when I had the opportunity, and I saw something being said that wasn't truthful to someone else, I decided to be the first one to step up.

TVGuide.com: You thought the ill will toward Tarek was getting a little carried away?
Summer: Tarek wasn't perfect in my eyes, obviously, but what he was [almost fired for] was not truthful. I could go out sixth and have told some lies, or I could go out first and know I stayed true to myself.

TVGuide.com: That's refreshing to hear. We don't always get the honorable types on The Apprentice.
Summer: Aww, that's very kind of you.

TVGuide.com: What do you think of my title for this story: "Summer Leavin' Happened So Fast"? I was very proud of myself when I thought it up last night.
Summer: I'm proud of you, too. I'm really wary of plays on my name now. I'm still getting over the fact that the title of my Apprentice episode was "The Summer of Sam's." I was prepared to be presented as a lunatic, but it worked out all right.

TVGuide.com: What's next for you? Still plugging away at the restaurant?
Summer: Yes. I'll be doing that for a while. It's something I enjoy.

TVGuide.com: What do you recommend at Sunny's?
Summer: The fresh-turkey dinner. The chef goes in at 4 o'clock every morning to make it. [Changing topics] If you could do me a favor, I just want you to know that Lenny is one of the best people I've met in my life.

TVGuide.com: Oh, really? "The Russian"? we didn't really get a good read on him in the premiere.
Summer: Oh, but you will.

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