I don't know how firing 4 at a time affects the schedule (and I'm too lazy to look it up). I imagine NBC must have calculated the number of episodes prior to the season.
Last night (Nov 3), Markus was finally fired. How he survived this long is a mystery.
From what we were shown, I didn't think Clay's remark was anti-Semitic, he was just following along with what Adam said about himself. But I guess unless you're Jewish, you shouldn't make such comments. But after Clay apologized, that should have been the end of it. No wonder Clay was so angry after the boardroom. Did you hear him say "Don't talk to me" to Adam as they got into the elevator. The fallout should be interesting.
Oh, and Trump was hilarious, comparing being gay to choices on a menu! He looked genuinely confused when he asked everyone if they knew Clay was "a homosexual."
I suspected that Randal would end up back on Excel, figuring that Trump would send someone over, and guessed he'd let Excel choose. Their presentation looked so much more professional than Capital Edge's. I was surprised that the difference in ratings wasn't that big. I expected CE to get in the 3's. I think their class was being kind.