Undercover Boss Recap 1/8/16: Season 7 Episode 4 “Muscle Maker Grill”

Undercover Boss Recap 1/8/16: Season 7 Episode 4 "Muscle Maker Grill"

Tonight on CBS their Emmy award winning reality show, Undercover Boss continues for an all new Friday January 8, season 7 Episode 4 called “Muscle Maker Grill,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, Muscle Maker Grill chairman Tim M. Betts works undercover at his restaurants.

On the last episode, Sam Dushey, President and CEO of Shoppers World, worked undercover at his discount apparel and merchandise retail stores, and discovered a security deficient store where shoplifters were walking away with lots of items. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.

On tonight’s episode as per the CBS synopsis, “Muscle Maker Grill chairman Tim M. Betts works undercover at his restaurants. Rod Silva, the high-energy founder of the company, secretly gives Betts ongoing commentary as he observes the action via a live video feed.”

The show airs tonight at 8pm on CBS and we will be live blogging all the details. So don’t forget to come back and refresh your screen often for live updates.

Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!

#UndercoverBoss is unique tonight with two bosses participating. Tim Betts of Muscle Maker Grill is going undercover and founder Rod Silva will be in his ear guiding him. Muscle Maker Grill has headquarters in New Jersey and is a healthy dining chain with 600 employees.

Rod started the company and he sold it to Tim Betts recently. Tim says they kept Rod on as the face of the company. Rod talks about his passion for working out and eating right. He says they were founded in 1995 and started franchising in 2007.

They are 12 states now and want to add eight locations a month in the US and internationally. Tim and Rod meet and Tim says he’s nervous about this. Rod is high energy and crazy and Tim is more calculated. They are the yin yang.

We see they are both dads but they take different approaches to life. It’s time for Tim’s makeover and they decide to go surfer for his new look. Tim agrees Rod can’t go undercover since everyone at the company knows his face and they won’t expect Tim.

The stylist starts to work to make him into slacker surfer Dusty and takes him light blonde. He’s all ready to go and takes off to job one in Clifton, NJ to visit a top store. He says it’s a top producing store and he wants to see what they do to use it in other stores.

Tim gets an ear piece so he can listen to Rod as he goes. He says he’s expecting to see great customer experience. Kristina greets him and he says he’s from Venice. She puts a t-shirt on him then shows him how to be a cashier.

Tim was surprised at how complicated the POS register system is to use. He thinks it should be simpler. Kristina says it gets really busy and lunch is a rush. He thinks she didn’t train him long enough and he got swamped.

She tells him he’s too slow and he thinks she’s riding him hard. Rod thinks she’s great at training him. Tim says it wasn’t adequate. He thinks she’s being unprofessional in front of the guests because she critiques him harshly.

Rod thinks she makes the customers feel good and she tells him heavy flirting is good but Tim doesn’t like it. Rod does. Tim thinks no one has told her to be more professional. He says they are a growing company and they need to behave properly.

She says she’s been there a year and a half and she’s quitting to go to California on Monday. She says she wants to stay in LA. Tim says they can’t help turnover and thinks it’s natural in the restaurant biz. He leaves and goes to talk to Rod in the trailer.

Rod asks what he thinks and Tim says she’s warm but not professional enough. Rod says her enthusiasm is great and says she was entertaining the customers. Tim says the flirting isn’t good but Rod seems to have a different opinion.

Next is Tallahassee, FL with a franchise owner. He says this is a great meal plan store. Guests can get five meals a day home delivered. Rod is with him and in his ear as Tim goes inside to meet Nishan.

Nishan says they’re going to work on some meal plans. He thinks Dustin is too laid back and seems too California. He asks if he knows how to cut chicken and shows him how to cut chicken and says they use 2000 pounds of chicken for the meal plans each week.

Tim cuts chicken and goes slow. Nishan doesn’t think he’s used a knife before. He’s worried Tim is going to cut his fingers off. He instructs him on portion size. Nishan says he and his business partner Mike came up with these names and says corporate may have something complicated.

Nishan says he and his partner created this revenue stream and says they sent stuff to corporate but then they swept away their ideas and then came out with something similar but not as good. Rod gets mad and says the guy is lying

Rod says this guy is a rogue franchiser. Rod tells him to ask why the sauce isn’t portioned and how you know how many calories are in it. Tim says Nishan has passion and great ideas but it’s not okay for him to go off menu because inconsistency hurts their bottom line.

He says they built a website out of their own pockets and if there was an e-commerce system it would be better then complains about the corporate tech team and says it’s the bane of his existence.

Tim realizes he’s hearing good info. Nishan says they believe in the food and he works 16 hours a day and takes little time off. Rod says he’s off the road map and is working too much by not using the system.

Rod thinks the guy is out of control and says he was pacing and ready to go in there. Rod says they can’t have him working like this and Tim calls him a rogue operator that’s driving outside the lines.

Tim goes to the original Muscle Maker store that Rod started and he’s working as a delivery driver. Tim says this position is a brand ambassador. He meets Justin the driver. He tells him to put on the uniform and hands him a shirt.

Dustin says all deliveries must be 45 minutes to an hour. They have three orders to deliver and set out. He says days can get hectic and orders can just pour in and they are spread out and they have to all be done fast.

They make all the deliveries and Tim realizes that he didn’t get paid for an order. He has to go back and knock on the door and feels like an idiot. Justin says if you don’t get paid, it comes out of your pocket.

Tim asks about his training and he says he got none and was just thrown into it. Tim doesn’t like to hear that and then he asks Justin about his background. He says he’s an only child and says he never knew his dad – he says it made him tougher.

He says he’s in college and working. He says he’s studying sports psychology. He says he and his mom took out a ton of student loans but says the job is great because it’s flexible. Tim likes Justin and says he’s a go getter.

He says if he had money, he’d put a Muscle Maker on his campus. They hustle off to pick off another. Tim goes to the final place in Dallas to work with the food truck manager. They have just one food truck in his system. He meets Meika and she says they have to get going.

They go inside the truck and she says it’s just like a restaurant and they offer three bowls and three wraps. He says it’s really hot inside and the food truck driver is cook, cashier and their own manager.

He makes small talk and Meika tells him to talk less and move more. She says he needs to hurry and serve more people. She says small chat and cute but the line needs to move. Tim says the food truck is harder than he could imagine working in the food truck.

Meika says they can’t have people walk away and a line is building. She fusses at him for not getting the hang of it faster. He says Meika was great and had a positive attitude and was a great trainer.

Later they talk and she says she’s a chef. She says she was in corporate American and was unfulfilled and her dream was to cook and got this opportunity, She says she loves to cook and this makes her happy.

She says she doesn’t have any consistency in earnings and says you need a following and they need social media so people can know where they are. She says they are the only Muscle Maker truck in the US.

She says she’s talked to the managers and is working with them to bring someone in to take her place so she can take the next step. She wants to own her own business. She says Muscle Maker is great but her husband is the only one with a steady paycheck.

She says her son is graduating and she’s got to pay for college. Tim likes Meika and doesn’t want to lose her and says it’s their fault for not giving her enough tools for success. Now he’s all done with the outings.

Tim goes to meet Rod at the gym and says they need some fixes. He says the training is non-existent and they need better tech and need to talk to the franchisees more. Rod says he’s all in for this.

Now for the #BossReveal. Tim washes the blonde out and gets ready to meet the people. Meika says he looks like Dusty and he says he’s the CEO of Muscle Maker and this is Undercover Boss. Nishan is nervous.

He tells Nishan he likes his energy for the brand but the meal plans aren’t following corporate policies. He says the difference in the meal plans bothers him because consistency is key. He says he can’t let every store be different with the meal plans.

He says they need his commitment to follow their plans. Nishan says he respects that. Tim then mentions him being ignored by corporate. He says he saw his ignored plans float back up later with corporate taking credit.

Tim says he’s going to spend money to improve their tech. Nishan says that will make things easier. He also says Nishan shouldn’t have to work that much and gives him and his partner $10k to go on vacation and taking a break. He says he feels appreciated again.

Meika is next and Tim says she impressed him and was shocked to hear they’re not marketing the truck. He says he wants her input on the food truck program. He says he wants to help with her son and gives her $5k for her son. She says that’s an amazing start.

Then Tim says he doesn’t want to lose her. He says he wants to buy her a food truck all her own and will make her a franchisee and will waive the franchise free so that’s $185k value. She says he handed her a business. She says she can’t turn that down.

Justin is next and Tim reminds him how he forgot the money for the food. Tim mentions the lack of training and says they need to do a better job. He says he’s putting $100k to assemble some training videos.

Then he tells Justin that he overcame a lot of odds and says he’s going to help him with $10k to help some of the financial problems. He’s all teared up and Justin says this helps a lot since he only has half of his school books. The poor guy is bawling.

Then Tim says he has an idea for him then says he’s going to buy him a store worth $250k and he’ll go in as a franchise partner then when he gets out of school, he’ll have a store waiting for him. Justin just bawls and Tim is all teared up too.

Justin says that would be huge and he can’t wait. He says he thinks he can be very successful and Tim didn’t have to do this. In the weeks since, Kristina moved to California, Nishan went on a road trip. Meika started a college fund for her son and Justin is back in school debt-free.

THE END!