Apprentice Castoff Scott Hamilton: I'm "Absolutely Grateful" for the Experience

Scott Hamilton has no regrets about participating in NBC's Celebrity Apprentice (Sundays, 9pm/ET). Although his elimination came early, in week two, Hamilton called it a life experience he's "absolutely grateful for." TVGuide.com checked in with the Olympic gold medalist to find out how it was to work with some interesting personalities, who should've been fired, and why he decided to take on Trump's tasks on television.

TVGuide.com: What happened?
Scott Hamilton: My strategy was never to be project manager, especially on a marketing task, so early in the game. When your name comes up from your team and they're looking at you, if you say no, there's blood in the water. They're going to smell it and jump all over you. I felt somewhat trapped, so I did it and I thought I'd make the most of it, and I tried to pull these guys together as a team. I did the best that I could, I made the error that cost our team the win, but when I look back on everything, we were really close.

TVGuide.com: Why didn't you use the letter Z for your Zappos comic character?
Hamilton: It was a typo. [Laughs] No, we should've and looking back on it, we were in the throes of everything, you're tired, you're trying to make these deadlines, you're worn out and I made this goofy decision. It was my decision to go with the whole E thing, but, except for Tom, anyone could've stood up and said, "Why don't we put a Z in front of it?" We were over an hour late and they said we're not leaving the room until we have a name. I looked at my notes from Mr. Shea and it's like, you can get everything, they'll go everywhere to get it, and they'll do it every time. That's what they're trying to get across. So we're staring at all the Es and we had a little tagline at the end — Because E puts the ease in E-commerce — and I thought that was kind of cool. But without the Z to support Zappos, I was hung out to dry.

TVGuide.com: How hard was it managing Tom Green?
Hamilton: Tom was putting on a show and from the second we got into that war room, he was working me. It's his comedy, he makes people uncomfortable. I like Tom, I have nothing but love for Tom, it's just in that particular case, I wish they would have shown how he kept going back to his same idea ad nauseum, to the point where I couldn't listen to him anymore. By the time he started coming up with suggestions that were probably something I should've listened to, it was over. He wore me out. If you're familiar with Tom's style of comedy, you know he creates chaos, creates discomfort, creates nuttiness.

TVGuide.com: And what about Dennis Rodman?
Hamilton: Dennis was with me the whole time, helped me come up with the schedule and was very helpful. The first episode they showed him laying on the couch, they showed Dennis going off. He worked his tail off, they never showed that. They didn't really tell the tale of Dennis as well as they could have.

TVGuide.com: What made you want to do Celebrity Apprentice in the first place?
Hamilton: They ask Bill Cosby why he had children and he said, "Because it seemed like a really good idea at the time." I thought I can bring a sense of kindness, it would be fun and I could get my charity out in front of people, talk about cancer, and hopefully drive some funds toward cancer research through the Cleveland Clinic.

TVGuide.com: So no regrets?
Hamilton: Why have regrets? I didn't stab anybody in the back, my issues with Tom were upfront, and I spoke about them from my perspective as best I could. I'm still here, I'm really happy, I've got a great life and I'm okay. How many people get the opportunity to get fired by Donald Trump? So that's one I can put on my list of life experiences I'm absolutely grateful for.

TVGuide.com: What's up next for you?
Hamilton: I have a book, The Great Eight. I've been trying to be 100 percent dad, I got a 14-month-old and 5-year-old, they're unbelievable kids, and I've got a great wife, so life's good. I'm raising a lot of money for cancer. Another thing about my early dismissal was that my cancer benefit was scheduled to be five days after the final episode was shot in New York. We raised over a million dollars for cancer research, so ultimately [if I had stayed, I would have won] $250,000. Or... I could raise over a million by being engaged in my event. So it all kind of worked out perfectly.

TVGuide.com: Will you be heading over to the Winter Olympics?
Hamilton: Yes, I'll be doing Vancouver 2010. It will be my sixth Olympics as a broadcaster. Torino was my favorite Olympics by far and we have pretty much the same crew coming back to Vancouver. I can't wait.

TVGuide.com: Anyone you're rooting for?
Hamilton: Honestly, it's a crazy sport right now with the new scoring system and it's hard to wrap your head around who's going to be dominant this time. All you can do is see where the momentum is headed and see who's having a great year. I don't really love the new scoring system but the performances and the athletes and their stories are wonderful, so that really gets great coverage.