Five years ago, four-time Grammy nominee Trace Adkins was a runner-up on the show.

In 2013, he's the winner of All-Star Celebrity Apprentice.

With the victory over legendary Las Vegas magician Penn Jillette, Adkins won $250,000 for his charity, The American Red Cross.

The road to the win was not an easy one.

In their final task, both Jillette and Adkins had to create their own flavor of ice cream for Walgreens "Delish" brand. Both competitors also had to promote their brand with a 60-second commercial and hold a launch party. For the commercial, Adkins enlisted Gary Busey to dance to a hip hop track that they hoped would go viral. After the ad ran, Adkins performed "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk."

"That's probably the nastiest song that's ever been played at an ice cream social," Adkins said.

In a surprising move, Adkins then had the entertaining, but unpredictable Busey perform "Not Fade Away," a reprisal of his Academy Award-nominated role in "The Buddy Holly Story." Leading up to the event, Adkins was confident, but was worried about what Jillette was up to.

"Penn Jillette is the most ethical atheist I've ever met," Adkins said with a smirk. "He's got magic, but I got Jesus."

Jillette got off to a great start during the Ice Cream social after a former Las Vegas mayor donated $250,000. But Adkins wasn't far behind, after sizable donations from Wynonna Judd and Billy Ray Cyrus. Adkins' ace in hole was former New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow, who promised to make a $200,000 donation to Adkins' charity, but was stuck in traffic. At the last second, Tebow arrived and donated $300,000 instead.

Jillete had plenty of weapons and tricks in his top hat too. At the start of his presentation, the magician announced a long list of celebrities in attendance including Wayne Newton, Taylor Hicks and the Blue Man group. Jillete's biggest magic trick however was how he managed to avoid a scary situation in the editing room for his ad. Forced to cut his ad, which ran over two minutes, to 60-seconds for the social, Jillette used additional time to show the "rest" of the ad that they were forced to cut.

Once the party was over, both groups headed back to the board room. Jillette's and Adkins' team members said they enjoyed their time with the finalists.

"He was cool, man," Dennis Rodman said of Jillette. "He was right on point. I just watched him do his magic."

"I think Trace should win," Marilu Henner said.

After the pleasantries, Ivanka Trump told Jillette that the Walgreen's executives loved his presentation and had a hard time finding negatives. Special guest Joan Rivers told Adkins that Walgreen's also enjoyed his presentation, but wasn't a fan of the name of his flavor, Maple Macadamia Mash Up . That didn't stop his fundraising effort; Adkins raised $564,000 to Jillette's $503,000. As far as who had the best selling ice cream, Jillette won that part of the challenge and took home $100,000 for his Opportunity Village charity, courtesy of Wallgreen's. Combined, the duo sold over 400,000 pints of ice cream in just a week.

But before a decision was made, Adkins performed "Love Will" with the Harlem Gospel Choir and Jillette on bass.

Finally, Adkins and Jillette had a minute to plead their case, but neither stood out. Joan Rivers said she thought it should be a tie, but ultimately sided with Jillette. Ivanka picked Adkins. But before a decision was made, in a shocking move, Trump called up Lil John, who had been fired a few weeks earlier, and donated $100,000 to his charity, The American Diabetes Association.

With no other loose ends to tie up, Trump then cut to the chase and quickly named Adkins the All-Star Celebrity Apprentice Winner.

Adkins has been a supporter of the charity after his home was destroyed in 2011 by a fire. During one segment, Adkins visited with one of the volunteers that helped his family during the disaster.

With the IRS scandal dominating the news this week, "Saturday Night Live" closed out their 38th season with a political bang.

The show began with a PoliticsNation segment where host Al Sharpton (Kenan Thompson) discussed the IRS scandal. Regardless of what the political analyst or Tea Party activist guests said, Sharpton wondered what the GOP was so angry about. Sharpton even mistook Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for actor Matthew McConaughey. Sharpton then shared stories of his own dealings with the IRS and displayed bar graphs that made the IRS scandal a race issue rather than a governmental one. According to Sharpton, African-Americans were subject to more IRS scrutiny than whites.

But regardless of his tendency to mish-mash words and not give his guests the time of day, Sharpton seemed to be a fan of "Sen. Matthew McConnell."

"Sen. McConnell seems like a real laid-back fella," Sharpton said. "Why are the rest of these Republicans so outraged?"

On Weekend Update, Seth Meyers wasted no time in addressing President Barack Obama's denying of any prior knowledge of the IRS scandal which allege the governmental department targeted conservative and tea party-affiliated political groups for extra scrutiny.

"It's alright America," Meyers said. "There's just a bunch of stuff the president doesn't know about."

Meyers was later joined by former SNL cast member and "Parks and Recreation" star Amy Poehler in a "Really?" segment.

"Really Obama? You said you heard about the (IRS) scandal when you saw it on TV," Meyers said. "I don't want to live in a world where you have the same sources as my aunt. You're the president. I didn't think you had to watch TV for anything. I assumed you already knew how 'Breaking Bad' ends."

Poehler said the government only keeps the IRS around to "make the DMV look good. In the 'Entourage' of government agencies, you're the Turtle."

But she wasn't much easier on the Tea Party either.

"Really Tea Party? You're surprised that you were targeted by the IRS?" Poehler said. "You named yourselves after a group of people who proudly, who historically violated the tax laws."

Another politically charged skit involved Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's film "Bengo F#ck Yourself," which was supposed to be a look at the creation of Ben Affleck's "Argo." Instead it was an Iranian propaganda film that mocked American culture.

In Affleck's opening monologue, Afleck's wife and actress Jennifer Garner appeared and "discussed" their marriage in relation to Affleck's Oscar speech where he said their marriage was "work." The musical guest was Kanye West.

The final sketch of the night featured a musical goodbye by outgoing cast members Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Fred Armisen, who led the group in character as punk rocker "Ian Rubbish."

Armisen's "Portlandia" co-star Carrie Brownstein, the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones and Aimee Mann were among those who also performed "It's a Lovely Day."

The series finale of “The Office” offered a satisfying mix of the elements that fueled the best big-network sitcom of its time – proving by turns delightfully absurd (Angela and Dwight exchanging wedding vows while standing in his-and-her graves), cringe-worthy (Dwight firing of Kevin, via a message on a cake) and hilarious (Michael’s surprise return to deliver the dirtiest ­– and funniest – “That’s what she said!” line in the show’s history).

“The Office,” over nine seasons and some 200 episodes, gave us all an amazing gift – a show we’ll cherish and deeply miss. (That’s what she said!)

Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.

“It was very important to me,” declares Mel Brooks, “that every film and everything that I did had a modicum of bad taste, or else it wasn't me. I was naturally vulgar and I didn't want to waste it, so I used it in my comedy.” As it turns out, Brooks didn’t just have a flair for hilarious jokes of questionable taste – he has a genius for it, and one he mined for decades.

From a stint behind the scenes as a writer on Sid Caesar’s pioneering 1950s TV sketch comedy “Your Show of Shows” through his 1960s comedy act with Carl Reiner, a string of taboo-tweaking movie genre spoofs like "The Producers," “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “Spaceballs” through the 70s, 80s and 90s, to reinventing his by-then trademark naughty silliness for Broadway in the 2000s, Brooks’ penchant for highbrow use of lowbrow gags is celebrated in PBS’s prestigious “American Masters” series. 

Airing May 20, “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise” explores every aspect of the writer/director/producer’s storied 60-year career – or more aptly, his love affair with showbiz (Brooks is one of the rare few to have been awarded Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony trophies). Brooks himself is rarely given to indulge his industry’s extremely frequent victory laps – “I mean, why waste time doing that when you can write another song or you could write another movie,” he says of the PBS celebration, “but it's nice once in a while to just relax and revel in some of the nice things you've done.”

The documentary features a plethora of clips from every facet of Brooks’ career, along with interviews with colleagues collaborators like Reiner, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Joan Rivers and Tracey Ullman – but the wealth and depth of Brooks’ prolific output coalesced into a clearer vision of the entertainer.

“What emerged was what a singular voice he is in comedy,” says "Make a Noise" filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg, “because as I did the research, and as I started to talk to people, I quickly realized that from his generation, his concerns were not the concerns of any of his contemporaries. He wasn't concerned with mother-in-law jokes. He wasn't concerned with my-boss-is-so-horrible jokes. He wasn't concerned with I-came-home-and-the-kids-were-blah-blah-blah jokes. He was thinking on a whole other plane that incorporated history and literature and religion.”

Brooks says his humor wasn’t fueled by any childhood angst or inner turmoil – he just loved making people laugh, something Melvin James Kaminsky (his real name) learned as a 16-year-old standup comic working in the Catskills. “I used to go out on stage and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, relax – you're in for a memorable night of comedy.’ I swear to God, I'd say that. ‘I am really good – you don't have to worry. You're going to be thoroughly, happily entertained, and you'll wish that the evening never ended. That's how good this is going to be. So don't worry! Don't murmur anymore about “Who is this guy?” And I was really insanely confident. I had no reason to be, but I just felt it.”

Eventually he found his way onto the nigh-legendary writing staff for “Your Show of Shows” – a pantheon of future comedy rainmakers that included Reiner, brothers Neil and Danny Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin and later a young Woody Allen – and Brooks happily toiled away out of the spotlight. “I had an incredibly talented vehicle for my comedy, for my passion, and that was Sid Caesar,” he explains. “Nobody was as brilliant and as funny as Sid Caesar, so I put my ego aside, and I just wrote my heart out for him. And he always delivered… I learned a great deal from Sid.”

The now classic “2000 Year Old Man” routines – originally derived from improvised skits he and Reiner would do for friends at parties – made Brooks a star, with their comedy albums topping the charts and their live performances a staple of variety TV shows in the early ‘60s – they became icons of cool for pre-hippie coffee house crowd. “It really was a fantastic run,” chuckled Brooks. “I really bathed in it. I loved being with Carl on stage and playing the 2,000 Year Old Man. Believe it or not, I did the least work and got the most return in terms of the laughs, because Carl was the architect. That was the most successful character we created, but he did most of the work. The genius of that is Carl Reiner figuring out what our place was in entertainment.”

A painting featuring a topless Bea Arthur sold for $1.9 million at auction in New York.

Titled "Bea Arthur Naked," the 1991 painting is by artist John Currin and was sold to an anonymous bidder during a post-war and contemporary art sale at Christie's. The estimate for the work was listed at $1.8-$2.5 million.

According to information posted on the Christie's website regarding the artwork, it was derived from a photograph of the actress with clothes on. "Currin mixes nostalgia with provocation," Christie's noted on their website.

Nostalgia and Arthur certainly sit comfortably side by side. The actress, who died of cancer in 2009 at age 86, is famous for her Emmy-winning roles in the 1970s and '80s on sitcom staples such as "Maude" and "The Golden Girls." The latter show continues to be heavily syndicated and can currently be seen on cable networks WEtv and Logo.

In an interview referenced in Christie's lot notes for the work, Arthur commented on the possible inspiration for the portrait. "Maybe [Currin] was attracted to the feminist movement of the 1970s. Because of 'Maude,' I was the Joan of Arc of feminism. He certainly couldn't have done anything with Marlo Thomas of 'That Girl.'"

According to the auction house, Currin, stated that he always considered Arthur "more of a maternal figure than a feminist icon. I watched Maude all the time when I was a kid," he recalled. "She's a genius. She's funny because she's so much smarter than everyone around her"

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