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But Newton native Tim Urban, a contestant on the sixth season of Trump’s reality TV show, “The Apprentice,” heard those words on this past Sunday’s episode, after his team failed in a mouthwash-promotion task.

The NBC show was filmed last summer, and Urban’s actual firing episode was taped on the Fourth of July. Urban, a 25-year-old Los Angeles resident, musician and tutoring-business owner, finished seventh out of 18 candidates in the competition.

Urban took a lot of heat from Trump and his teammates, who questioned his loyalty after Urban’s fellow candidate and love interest Nicole D’Ambrosio, who owns her own real estate corporation in Chicago, had to switch teams. Teammates called their relationship a distraction; Trump listened to Urban’s arguments, but in the end let him go.

But Urban has no regrets about his choices on the show. In fact, he has a trump card of his own: nearly a year later, he and D’Ambrosio are still dating.

“Who would have thought?” Urban said. “After all the dust settled, we realized we really did like each other and had a really good thing. I really, really like that girl — what can I say? It wasn’t for show.”

He’s already brought her home a few times to meet the folks in Newton. “She’s the life of the party,” he said.

Nonetheless, “I still think this whole thing about a distraction is pretty ridiculous,” Urban said of his firing “I feel like Trump kind of had his mind made up before [the boardroom] because of the whole Nicole thing.”

Added to that was his colleagues’ consensus contention that he should be fired. Trump “doesn’t go against the consensus very often,” Urban said.

Given the reputation of reality TV shows, did Urban feel that his depiction on television was truthful?

“Unless you’re a finalist, you’re not going to be quite fairly represented,” Urban said. “In the firing situation, they have to make it look like Trump made the right decision.”

However, “Some people got really one-sided edits. That didn’t happen to me,” Urban said. “I got my side of the story out — they showed it pretty well.”

But Urban doesn’t regret a moment of his time on the show, even if he didn’t win.

“For me, it was basically a monthlong game that happened to be on television with 18 other people that I wanted to win,” he said. “That’s really fun, in my mind, which is why I wasn’t crushed when I was fired.”

Urban graduated from Newton North High School in 2000, where he was class president, and Harvard University in 2004, where he majored in government and graduated cum laude. His parents, Andy Urban and Robin Bass, still live in Newton. One sister, Jordan, is a senior at Newton North; his other sister, Lindsay, is a sophomore at Tulane University.

While his family watched from home, Urban watched a live East Coast feed of his firing episode Sunday night with a group of friends and “a lot of alcohol … They laughed at me, we had a good time,” Urban said.

Looking back, Urban said he has trouble believing how much happened in such a short time period.

“What an insane month June of ’06 was,” Urban said, noting that he met rapper Snoop Dogg and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, took part in challenges that required dressing up as a boxer and marketing everything from swimwear to mouthwash, and, of course, romanced D’Ambrosio on national television.

“One month in a situation like that is like six months in a normal relationship,” Urban said.

“I’m exhausted just thinking about it — just watching the episodes makes me exhausted,” Urban said.

On the first day of filming, executive producer Mark Burnett, who also created “Survivor,” told the “Apprentice” candidates that “Survivor” is easy in comparison because at least those contestants generally get some sleep. Trump’s candidates, meanwhile, regularly pull all-nighters and are expected to be awake enough to make presentations to top executives the following the day.

On top of that, the losing team this season had to sleep outside the mansion in tents. Although it was “hard to get a good night’s sleep … I thought it was fun,” Urban said, adding that it brought his team closer together.

Although he was in it to win it, Urban didn’t view being Trump’s Apprentice as the be-all, end-all of career moves.

“I think that if someone really wants a job in real estate, it can be a big break,” Urban said.

But music is still Urban’s passion. He grew up playing piano and moved to L.A. to pursue that dream.

Last year, he met Grammy-winning producer Glen Ballard, who has worked with the Dave Matthews Band, Alanis Morissette and other famous musicians.

“I played piano for him and he said, ‘I like it, let’s do an album,’” Urban recalled. “I couldn’t believe he just said that. It was like being told Michael Jordan wants to coach you in basketball.”

Urban’s first album, “Turning Home,” is now available at timurban.com or on iTunes.

“My goal is to use this exposure as much as I can to get people to hear that music and hopefully they like it,” Urban said.

At the same time, his tutoring business, The Cartim Group, which he started with a partner at age 22 and now sees revenues of more than $1 million a year, is still thriving.

Urban was not allowed to give interviews and was not supposed to tell anybody about his status on “The Apprentice” prior to the airing of Sunday’s episode. He says he was “pretty good” and only told a friend, his mother and his sister, Lindsay, about the results.

“Everybody else was very surprised last night,” Urban said. “They didn’t think it was going to happen.

Urban will be back on “The Apprentice” for the show’s live finale, and may even return a week from this Sunday if he is one of the cast members called back to assist in the final task.

No big surprise here: “I do think [D’Ambrosio] is perfect for the job,” Urban said. “She’s crazy successful at what she does. I’m rooting for her.”

And although his career is blossoming in L.A., Urban’s hometown may someday see the aspiring “Apprentice” strolling the streets of Newton once again.

Returning to the East Coast is “a long-term goal,” Urban said. “In the end, it’s where I belong … I don’t like having to watch the Red Sox on my computer.”