The reporter had previously arranged to rent the pad at a lower price, but played along when the show's producers asked her to sign a lease at a 27 percent mark-up, the apartment having been spruced up by one of the apprentice teams as that week's assignment. It was also made to look like Young saw the apartment moments before the 5 p.m. deadline, when she was really at the apartment mid-afternoon.Further investigation on Google lead me to this article on Staten Island Live by the reporter, Deborah Young, where she explains how she didn't pay the 27 percent mark-up price!
I didn't end up paying that inflated amount for the one-bedroom plus office in Carroll Gardens.Whaaaaaaaaat!?!?!
That apartment had been promised to me earlier at a lower price, in the days when "You're fired," had yet to enter the lexicon.
A few days before I was to move in, the real estate agent called, saying the landlord had given the place to a reality TV show. I decided to show up, even though she warned me they'd fill it with $2,000 worth of tchochkes and try to wheedle a higher price... Off-camera, before I signed the lease, the landlord promised he'd make good on the original price.
This means that the results of the show, with one member getting voted off and the award picnic on the grass were all based on a lie!
Mr. Trump, I'll see you in the boardroom to explain.