My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss

My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss is an American reality television series broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on November 7, 2004, while its tenth and final episode aired on December 12, 2004. Filmed in Chicago, Illinois, the series depicted twelve contestants in competition for a position at a venture capital firm.
Similar to My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, it was a parody of shows such as The Apprentice. The contestants performed several tasks that they were all told would help them win a job at the Chicago-based conglomerate IOCOR and a $250,000 prize. However, none of the contestants knew that the company – and the position – were fake. The show was usually punctuated by the actions of the "boss" Mr. N. Paul Todd, whose name was an anagram of that of Donald Trump. The contestants learn about his multibillion-dollar venture capital firm IOCOR, and in any episode, he or a member of his "family" could usually be found doing something either to unsettle the contestants or to test the limit of their blindness to truth. The show received low ratings in the United States and was canceled after five episodes. Fox released the remaining 5 episodes online in late March 2005. In 2005, My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss was one of several television programs cited in a class-action lawsuit filed by the Writers Guild of America concerning labor law violations.

Format

The rules of the game were similar to The Apprentice. The teams would then compete in a challenge test the contestant's skills in business-related objectives - however, the tasks are absurd in nature, included selling hot soup on a hot day, creating and selling art they made out of scraps and promoting other ridiculous products. The members of the losing team met Mr. Todd in the boardroom on the next day, where he derided their performance. The team boss nominated two teammates for elimination – Unlike The Apprentice, the losing boss is awarded total Immunity from that week's elimination because Mr. Todd explained that, in real life, the boss is never held responsible.
The audience would then see N. Paul Todd referring to "the real boss" for the decision on who was to go between the bottom 2. The player not eliminated became the team boss, and the winning team named a new team boss.
The real boss was not seen or heard until the final episode and was kept a complete secret from the contestants. The official website suggested that the real boss could be Donald Trump's ex-wife Ivana Trump or Oprah Winfrey, although David Hickman did refer to the boss as a "him." The real boss gave no reason for the decision, so Todd was given free rein to make it up as he went along. In the final episode, "the real boss" was revealed to be a chimpanzee who responded to the name of "Mowgli" and who made his decisions by spinning a wheel with the names of the contestants.

Production

N. Paul Todd was played by actor William August, a graduate of Harvard University and an experienced California attorney. August described Todd as a man who "probably has a number of sexual harassment lawsuits pending." A variety of assistants helped Mr. Todd with his contests. His alleged Vice President Jamie Samuels is sent to hate the women, while the COO David Hickman is "a little too excited about these fresh-faced young men." Mr. Todd also relies on his wife Lynn and his son Kent to help judge the competition when a member of the executive team is not available.
Fox originally announced the legal reality television series The Partner for a premiere date of November 7, 2004, however, it opted to broadcast My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss instead. Gail Berman explained "We had a lot of fun with Fiance, and this seemed like the next logical take on what’s going on in reality right now".

Contestants

Team 1	Team 2
Femron	Concad

Candidate	Age	Hometown	Result
Annette Dziamba – Business Development Executive	24	Whippany, New Jersey	Winner of $350,000
Michael Gregorio – Liquor Distribution Executive	34	Reading, Massachusetts	Runner-up; winner of $200,000
Kerry McCloskey – Media Marketing Director	29	Jersey City, New Jersey	Eliminated in episode 10
Damien Scott – Strategic Financial Consultant	29	Chicago, Illinois	Eliminated in episode 9
David Harper – Certified Financial Accountant	25	Atlanta, Georgia	Eliminated in episode 8
Douglas Dennard – Equity Research Analyst	24	Greenville, North Carolina	Eliminated in episode 7
Whitney LaBelle – Shipping Executive	26	Atlanta, Georgia	Eliminated in episode 6
Robert Hospidor – Mortgage Broker	28	Middlesex, New Jersey	Eliminated in episode 5
Tonia Jacobs – Aerial Construction Worker	35	San Marcos, Texas	Eliminated in episode 4
Elli Frank – Marketing Firm President	26	Jacksonville, Florida	Eliminated in episode 3
Christy Hollie – Entrepreneur	30	Austin, Texas	Eliminated in episode 2
Daniel Richardson – Automobile Finance Manager	29	Lewisville, Texas	Eliminated in episode 1

Teams

The contestants were initially split into a male and female team. Each team was responsible for naming their opponent. The men named the female team Femron, a portmanteau of female and Enron. The women named the male team Concad, a portmanteau of con and cad.
The teams were re-organized in episode 4 based on the contestants' attractiveness. At the beginning of episode 8, the remaining five players were combined into a united team for an elimination, where Damien was named team boss. Afterwards, the four players left over were split into two teams for the episode's challenge. Following that challenge, the three finalists were on their own.

Candidate	Episode 1 team	Episode 4 team	Episode 8 team	Result	Team Boss
Annette Dziamba	Femron	Femron	Femron	Winner	1-2
Michael Gregorio	Concad	Femron	Concad	Runner-up	0-1
Kerry McCloskey	Femron	Concad	Femron	Eliminated in episode 10	0-2
Damien Scott	Concad	Concad	Concad	Eliminated in episode 9	2-0
David Harper	Concad	Concad		Eliminated in episode 8	1-1
Douglas Dennard	Concad	Femron		Eliminated in episode 7	0-1
Whitney LaBelle	Femron	Femron		Eliminated in episode 6	1-0
Robert Hospidor	Concad	Concad		Eliminated in episode 5	1-0
Tonia Jacobs	Femron	Concad		Eliminated in episode 4	1-0
Elli Frank	Femron			Eliminated in episode 3
Christy Hollie	Femron			Eliminated in episode 2
Daniel Richardson	Concad			Eliminated in episode 1

After the show

Annette became a professional model, and ironically, later appeared as "Trump's Executive Assistant" on several episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice. Kerry wrote a book. As of 2007, Elli remained the president of Eye5. Jamie Denbo and Kent Sublette both moved on to late night television programs, with Denbo being featured on The Late Late Show and Sublette joining the writing staff of Saturday Night Live in 2007. Robert appeared on the 2014 reality show Utopia.