On the one side was Matchstick, a team of "creative" types; on the other was the jarringly named Primarius, packed with "business" sorts. Matchstick was a bundle of bickering, nervous-energy misfits who rarely seemed to get their act together long enough to complete a task.

Primarius was the buttoned-down alternative — always managing to get the job done. Not in an interesting way, granted, but when you're up against the hapless Matchstickers, victory is a bunch of low-hanging grapes. Remember when Amanda's so-so hotel suite design won because Matchstick's furniture never showed up?

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Such was the theme Martha quickly established in her "Apprentice," and rarely wavered: Creative may be useful, but unless you have the professional types there to keep disaster at bay, you'll never accomplish a thing.

She stayed true to form Wednesday night when she picked magazine publisher Dawna Stone over natural foods chef Bethenny Frankel to be her first — and only — Apprentice.

"I think it's all going to boil down to who you think, Martha, is going to fit in," said adviser Charles Koppelman at the very start of the show, the first of many nods to Martha's on-again, off-again catchphrase. That theme stuck throughout, as Martha kept making Bethenny defend her creative impulses and lack of business acumen. (But never her former relationship with Charles' son, an issue that vanished quickly after the first episode.)

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Bethenny was nothing if not zealous about her desire to win — and her passion for the task. "I'm the only person that really understands and connects with the brand," she said before her final trip to the conference room.

She was so convinced that she was channeling Brand Martha (right down to her Clintonesque aside, "There's no way Martha's giving it to that girl, Dawna") that she overlooked her fatal flaw: What Martha wanted was executive material, not an artiste, and despite Martha expressing concern about Bethenny's shortcomings in that department, Bethenny thought the best approach was to attack Dawna for not creating a little Martha shrine on her mantel.

Dawna wasn't so eloquent (or at least so talkative) but her message was clear. In a polished way, she kept referring to her business skills and publishing experience — all things Martha wanted to hear.

"I am calm, I am professional," Dawna said. "Bethenny sometimes rubs people the wrong way."

Indeed, and in the end, Bethenny was stuck defending those personality flaws. Her approach was to position herself as the girl from the streets, a bit quirky but willing to grow and mature on the job: "I'm manic and I can be a little chaotic, but I have always been a fighter."

Feisty doesn't cut it in Martha's world, and there was that bit of delicious irony in assigning Bethenny the final task of coordinating a charity circus.

No major gaffes
Actually, neither candidate really stood out in the final tasks. Dawna's charity fashion show for Liz Claiborne almost fell apart when Dawna inexplicably left Amanda in charge of the runway show. Not only did Amanda manage to irk the Claiborne executives — misidentifying clothes, even mispronouncing the designer's name — but she ran down to the wire with endless changes, to the point that the show's glossy brochure was reduced to a dull coverless handout when Primarius ran out of time.

About the time that one exec chewed out Amanda for her ensemble descriptions ("This isn't a sweater, it's a cardigan ... there's a real difference") you started to wonder whether underneath Dawna's professional façade lay an all-thumbs delegator who couldn't match people to their tasks.

Yet Dawna somehow leveraged all her endless checklists and game plans, and efforted a similarly flawless show.

Not that Bethenny had it any easier. Her charity show featuring the Big Apple Circus started off as a mess, as she tinkered with the layout of Pringles and juice bottles while ignoring the increasingly agitated circus performers. (Management tip: Never aggravate people who throw other people for a living.) Yet she smoothed over the differences, somehow managed to duck ever-vengeful Carrie — whose desire for a showdown with Bethenny never materialized, at least on screen — and presented a flawless show to Martha, Charles and Alexis. "Good job," Charles was forced to acknowledge.

CONTINUED: Idea Man need not apply

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