Donald Trump To Battle "Desperate Housewives"

NBC has confirmed the sixth cycle of Donald Trump's reality contest would go against ABC's monster hit "Desperate Housewives". Can The Donald survive a clash with those vampy sexy shady ladies on Wisteria Lane?

When NBC's "Apprentice" premiered in January 2004, it quickly rocketed to Nielsen super-stardom scoring over 20 million viewers in its inaugural season.

The network had been so thrilled with its success and so afraid of the loss of "Friends" that it destroyed its long-running two-hour comedy block "Must-See-TV" on Thursday nights and gave The Donald and his wannabe apprentices prime position on the schedule.

But the novelty wore off during the 2004-2005 season as NBC kept the series going all year round unleashing not one, but two new cycles.

To make matters worse, in the fall of 2005, NBC - desperate for better ratings - launched Martha Stewart's version of the series that failed miserably and may even have hurt the original series whose ratings plummeted to a little over 10 million.

In March, 2006 NBC removed "The Apprentice" from lucrative Thursdays for a brief run on Monday nights.

Now NBC has decided to use the same strategy that made "American Idol" such a blockbuster. It rested the series all summer and fall long scheduling its return for January 7, almost 7 months after the last finale.

Will the viewers who used to watch Sunday Night Football tune into the new edition of the series that moved production to Los Angeles or will some of them flock to Wisteria Lane making "Desperate Housewives" an even bigger hit than it already is?

In related news, Microsoft has announced earlier this week that they have hired Carolyn Kepcher to help them find the best small-business idea in America.


The winner of the Redmond, Washington-based company's "Ultimate Challenge" contest will get $100,000 in seed money, a storefront or other space in Manhattan for a year rent-free, and software to help get their business started.

Kepcher and fellow judges began hearing ideas on Tuesday in a computer-equipped recreational vehicle parked in Midtown Manhattan.

Dozens of people waited in line for a chance to make their pitch.

A long-time manager at the Trump Organization, Carolyn parted her ways with Donald Trump earlier this year for undisclosed reasons.

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