New "Celebrity Apprentice" Contestants Announced

Yes, the Donald Trump reality franchise still refuses to die (then again the show airs on NBC, so you can't expect the plug to be pulled any time soon). The network has just announced 16 'celebrities' who will take on the egotistical billionaire come March 1, including Joan and Melissa Rivers, Dennis Rodman, Brian McKnight, Khloe Kardashian and Tom Green.

The show will again begin putting men against the women.

The male team will include: Clint Black, Andrew Dice Clay, Tom Green, Scott Hamilton, Jesse James, Brian McKnight, Dennis Rodman, and Herschel Walker.

The female team will include: Annie Duke, Natalie Gulbis, Claudia Jordan, Khloe Kardashian, Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Brande Roderick and Tionne Watkins.

The show was originally a major ratings success in its first season which aired January-April 2004.

Subsequent cycles paled in comparison, and the show plummeted from 20-30 million viewers to 6-7 million by 2007.

Last winter Trump and producer and reality guru Mark Burnett reinvented the franchise, replacing regular businessmen with mostly has-been and has-never-been celebrities.

The format of the show has also changed, as the contestants now battle to win money for a charity of their choice. Originally, a supposedly lucrative position within the Trump organization was at stake.

Although the show did perk up in the ratings a bit last year, it all happened during the strike, when most of the competition was forced off the air or into repeats. Will this be the final season for Apprentice?

VIDEO: Trace Adkins Meets Backstreet Boys on NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice"

Tonight, country star Trace Adkins and former tabloid shark Piers Morgan battle it out in one final showdown as NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" ends its 3-month run with a 2-hour finale featuring the appearance of the Backstreet Boys. Check out the boys' supposedly unscripted meeting with Adkins who is bamboozled by their demands.

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Trump to NBC: "You Can't Fire Me, I Quit!"

MAY 19, 2007: All these months as I watched the sixth cycle of Donald Trump's reality show "The Apprentice" sinking in the ratings I would envision a post that read: "NBC to Trump: You're Fired!" Alas, no such luck - the catfighting billionaire says he has just quit.

The corporate-themed competition, which aired in dozens of countries around the world, featured young, aggressive entrepreneurs in a weekly game of elimination as they competed for a real-life job in Trump's business empire.

An instant hit in its inaugural 2004 season, "The Apprentice" pulled in an average of 21 million viewers throughout its four-month run with the first season finale bringing as many as 28 million viewers.

But the series dropped steadily in the ratings in successive cycles, losing nearly two-thirds of its original audience by the time it wrapped up its sixth installment last month.

The series was criticized by some viewers for losing credibility and basically turning into a one-hour infomercial filled with product placement for Trump's real estate and golf courses, as well as sponsors of the show.

Earlier this week, when NBC announced its new schedule at the Upfronts in New York it failed to include "The Apprentice" saying they have yet to make a decision about the show's fate.

Donald Trump however won't be waiting for NBC to do what he had been doing to dozens of power-hungry entrepreneurs.

Late Friday night, the Trump organization released a statement that ends any doubt "The Apprentice" would get a last-minute reprieve.

"It looks like viewers will have to wait to see what Mr. Trump plans for the future," the statement said.

"But if Mr. Trump's past TV success is any indication of the future, then one can anticipate that millions of 'Apprentice' fans will be migrating to his new television venture."

Earlier this week, there was a rumor that series creator Mark Burnett and Donald Trump were shopping the series around Hollywood looking for a new network.

Now it appears if Donald Trump does go back to weekly television, his format will have to undergo a significant makeover.

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How Donald Trump's "Apprentice" Fell From Grace

APRIL 21, 2007: NBC's "The Apprentice" concludes its lowest-rated season ever on Sunday night with a live special from the Hollywood Bowl. Does anyone even care? Mark Burnett and Donald Trump however refuse to put the tired franchise out of its misery.

Three years ago when NBC concluded the first red-hot season of TV's campiest job interview, it recorded massive a viewer turnout making the event its highest rated entertainment telecast of the entire season.

Not only did NBC destroy its 22-year old Thursday night Must-See TV sitcom line-up to make way for Donald Trump's reality show, but its inaugural season ended with a 3-hour live finale which pulled in 28,1 million viewers.

The extravaganza named Internet entrepreneur Bill Rancic winner of a $250,000-a-year job with Donald Trump and it generated the highest 18-49 rating for NBC in 18 months.



No wonder NBC aired that week additional 5 hours of "Apprentice"-related prime time programming.

But it all went downhill from there, with the latest L.A.-based season generating an embarrassing 6-7 million average.

The loss of viewer and possibly network interest is visible in the program itself - "The Apprentice" was banished to Sunday nights at 10 and its rushed shorter season comes to a close with a one-hour show tomorrow night.

Normally, the contest culminated with the ultimate 2-episode battle of the final two candidates who had to stage an enormous PR event with the help of previously fired contestants.



This year however we get 4 remaining candidates who were given the final low-budget task to shoot a movie theater commercial and they are all going to the final boardroom. There is no time or budget to extend this any further.

Did the novelty wear off? Or was it Martha Stewart and her Apprentice fiasco in the fall of 2005? Maybe the public got tired of Trump's cocky behavior and constant catfights?

British tycoon Sir Alan Sugar who is the man behind the UK version of the show publicly criticized the original version saying "they’ve made the fatal error of trying to change things just for the sake of it and it backfired." Sugar refers to the show's move to LA, Trump's children replacing his advisers and the losing team being asked to live in tents.

Whatever the case Trump still believes he has the #1 show on television and the show's producer reality guru Mark Burnett said to New York Post: "If you think I'm going to let The Apprentice end... that's not going to happen. [Donald] Trump is too big of a name." He also noted that he and Trump are actually impressed with how well the show is doing in its sixth cycle.

That means the show may ultimately survive with a smaller budget on a cable network the way FOX's "The Simple Life" found its new life on the E! network. And even if the show then generates just one third of the audience it pulls in on NBC, those may still be the ratings a number of cable networks can only dream about.

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Donald Trump Vs. Dr.McDreamy

First NBC announced the premiere of "The Celebrity Apprentice" on January 3, then ABC said they would air the last new episode of "Grey's Anatomy" in the same timeslot, then NBC moved "The Apprentice" to January 10, then ABC responded by also moving "Grey's Anatomy" to January 10, and now NBC says they are moving "The Apprentice" back to January 3. I say Donald Trump is afraid of Dr. McDreamy!

With 13 days left till the first of the two aforementioned time slots, it will be fun to watch if the networks continue to play the game of rescheduling. ABC has only one episode of "Grey's Anatomy" left in the can, but they sure want to use it to damage NBC as much as possible. Of course, the true test is coming January 31, when TV's sexiest duo Fox and Lilly return in an all-new season of "LOST."

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C-List "Apprentice" Replaces "The Office"?

As Tripp Darling would say, 'Who are these people?" Fourteen "celebrities" including a couple of media whores will battle it out over a $250,000 prize bonus to donate to charity on the 7th cycle of NBC's Donald Trump reality show "The Apprentice." The fading series appears to be taking over the plum Thursday at 9 timeslot from the critically-acclaimed comedy "The Office."

The show will premiere on Thursday, January 3 at 9/8c. According to The Futon Critic the remaining 13 episodes will also air in the timeslot, although NBC has yet to confirm that. With a job with the Trump organization no longer at stake, will the viewers tune in?

"The Apprentice" originally aired on Thursdays at 9 in early 2004 with season 1 finale pulling in 28.1 million viewers. The 6th cycle of the franchise which aired last spring averaged 7.49 million viewers, ranking 102nd on the final Nielsen chart for the 2006/2007 season.

Can the strike-induced lack of original scripted programming along with 14 C-list celebrities help rejuvenate the tired series?

Although I personally enjoyed the first couple of seasons of "The Apprentice," I have since lost interest in the series as it gradually deteriorated over the past couple of years. And pulling out the celebrity card most certainly turns the show into an utter parody of its former self.

Trump is of course still tossing around superlatives: "This will be the most exciting season of 'The Apprentice' yet - maybe even better than Season One. Our fourteen celebrity contestants are incredible individually, and as a group they will make 'The Celebrity Apprentice' one of the hottest shows on television. I promise you a fantastic new season!"

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NBC Announces Celebrity Apprentice

NBC may be more desperate than we had thought. Refusing to go back to the original concept that made their artificially resurrected reality franchise a hit back in 2004, the network just announced the seventh cycle of Donald Trump's "Apprentice" will pull the old D-list celebrity card.

The question is - how hard will NBC have to work to find fading celebrities willing to put up with Trump's aggressive putdowns and crass boardroom manner? The fact that Peacock has opted to pull yet another stunt to keep the dying series alive should lower the bar on viewer expectations.

Silverman has of course wasted no time to tout the new cycle as "the highest-profile competition in the groundbreaking series' run" and "the most explosive version of 'The Apprentice' that anyone has seen."

The participating celebrities will be announced at a later date, although Silverman has already said Trump asked him to extend the invite to Rosie O'Donnell. Apparently he was serious about that.

Trump's children return as his boardroom advisors. No word on where the new season takes place, although I suspect the production returns to New York. Also, the celebrities will be playing for charities.

The show will return at a midseason point, but Silverman would not elaborate on a more specific premiere date.

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NBC Renews "The Apprentice"

You didn't seriously think he would just go away, did you?

While NBC's former prexy Kevin Reilly, who supported the renewal of his darling Texas-based drama "Friday Night Lights" but wasn't too sure about a new season of Donald Trump's "Apprentice," negotiates his new job with FOX, his successor Ben Silverman has made a decision that NBC go into business with The Donald again.

After Reilly presented NBC's new fall schedule at the Upfronts in May, the media was confused as to the fate of the 6-cycle old reality contest because it was ominously missing from the new grid. Reilly informed the reporters NBC would make a decision about the renewal of "The Apprentice" by June 1, but Trump's over-inflated ego was faster.

Days before NBC's deadline, the controversial billionaire announced that "NBC wanted to do another season of 'The Apprentice,' but [he] didn't have time to do it." There were rumors Trump would partner with the new FOX Business Channel on a new reality venture.

Now, TV Guide reports NBC's Silverman has made a decision to renew "The Apprentice," but it is not clear whether only for a 7th season with an option to do an 8th season, or if the show will immediately get a green light for 2 more seasons. In any event, the announcement in expected to be made by July 16 at the Television Critics Association press tour.



As someone who has actually enjoyed the show in the first couple of cycles, I certainly hope Trump and the show creator Mark Burnett will come to their senses and nix all changes that had been made to the original formula.

That means - ditch those ridiculous tents, the winning Project Manager does not go into the boardroom, Trump's kids do not get to assist daddy dearest and the production goes back to New York. Oh, and pretty please - give the teams more compelling business tasks and make sure the show does not ridicule itself by turning into one giant infomercial for "The Apprentice" sponsors.

Trump's British counterpart Sir Alan Sugar, who has recently concluded a very successful third cycle of the UK version of the show on BBC, has criticized the original series for "trying to make changes for the sake of it, which backfired."

But when has Donald Trump listened to anyone else but his own ego?

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Trump Has No Time To Do "The Apprentice"

This guy sure knows how to crack us up. As I wrote on Saturday Donald Trump has quit "The Apprentice." Now the power-hungry billionaire with falic-shaped ego the size of Trump Tower explains NBC wants to continue, but he has "no time to do it."

Trump, who is rumored to be in talks with Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Channel to develop a new format said in an interview to TV Guide Online this morning:

"It has been such a success and they [NBC] wanted to do another, but I just don’t have the time. I just can’t do another one."

NBC omitted "The Apprentice" from their fall 2007 schedule saying they have yet to make a decision about the show's fate.

"Three networks want me to do a certain show that I may do," he says, "We will announce something over the next couple of weeks. And if it happens, it is something that will be very big."

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Stefani Schaeffer Is The 6th Apprentice

32-year old defense attorney Stefani Schaeffer from Los Angeles, CA, has become the 6th apprentice to Donald Trump in last night's live conclusion of the reality show's lowest rated season.

Unlike the previous five top-2 battles, the 6th live finale from the Hollywood Bowl last night featured the top 4 contestants, two of which had been fired before the runner up web entrepreneur James Sun tried to persuade Trump to hire him instead.

Stefani had already been accused of being under the radar all season long, so Sun argued she was more of a behind-the-scenes player, not a leader. Trump however wasn't convinced.

Schaeffer had the choice of working on Trump's new resort development in the Caribbean or a condo project in Atlanta. She choose the Caribbean.

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VIDEO: There He Goes Again!

Oh I get it now! He's not serious. He's just poking fun at himself. Wait. Donald Trump doesn't know how to poke fun at himself. Does he now? He's just doing that to piss people off. Then again he might be delusional after all.

On Sunday night, on an all new "Apprentice" on NBC, Donald Trump was preparing his squad of obedient wannabee execs for a marketing showdown tied to Universal Studios and Theme Park.

Meeting his program's participants at Hollywood's Grumman's Chinese Theatre, the real estate mogul said he was a bigger star than anybody and... yes, he called "The Apprentice" the #1 show on television.

Meanwhile, Mediaweek reports that for the week ending March 25, 2007, cycle 6 of The Apprentice ranked #46, drawing less than seven thousand total viewers. Among viewers 18-49, The Apprentice 6 ranked #37, with a 2.7/7.

Oh, no! Are his lawyers going to threaten me with a lawsuit? OK, I'm about to do that comb-over thing now.

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Will NBC's "Studio 60", "Crossing Jordan" And Donald Trump's "Apprentice" Get Canceled?

Things are not looking very bright for the trio of NBC's prime-time shows and recent developments seem to indicate they may not necessarily be back next season.

We all know Donald Trump would get down to catfighting with Martha Stewart, bitchslapping with Rosie O'Donnell or even shaving his hair off Britney-style in a wrestling bet all to keep the Apprentice buzz going.

But the recent Nielsen performance of the reality series which has been hitting a new series low week after week has forced the network to push the series out of the way of ABC's blockbuster "Desperate Housewives" and into the new 10pm timeslot.

The move gives the network an all-reality line-up on Sunday nights as it is also shifting the Wednesday night edition of "Deal Or No Deal" to Sundays at 9pm while moving the drama "Crossing Jordan" to Wednesdays at 9pm.

"The Apprentice" which averaged over 20 million viewers in its first red-hot season has lost its way with the most recent episode attracting a very disappointing 6 million viewers.

If the reality contest does not improve the ratings performance of its sixth cycle in the new timeslot pronto, not only will Donald Trump be forced to stop bragging about "The Apprentice" being the #1 show on TV (good Lord!), but he may himself be hearing those infamous words he has been saying for three years to others with gusto.

As for "Crossing Jordan", does the drama that has performed badly in the 18-49 demo despite being a minor hit in overall viewers have any chance against FOX's "American Idol" and CBS' "Criminal Minds"? The answer is clear.

Finally, it saddens me to say the return of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" for a second season seems highly unlikely at this point. NBC has stuck with the drama throughout February sweeps giving it the final chance to strike a chord with viewers.

Aaron Sorkin-penned series however seems to have gone downhill since its exceptional yet also low-rated Christmas episode.

The focus has shifted from TV business to romantic relationships of the characters. That may not necessarily have been the best choice as many of them lack chemistry and give viewers plenty of reasons to fall sleep or switch the channel.

This is also reflected in the ratings - the drama premiered to over 13 million total viewers in September and kept bleeding week after week, before it leveled off in November to just under 8 million.

Since then, however, "Studio 60" lost another million or so viewers and the viewer erosion in the second half hour is significant. That means many of the viewers who do give "Studio 60" a shot at 10pm end up not seeing the episode all the way through.

Also, the lack of promotion of the drama on NBC, practical unavailability of spoilers and very little if no buzz around the series also indicate the viewer interest has been minimal.

This is why the drama is off the schedule and will be replaced next Monday by the new midseason series "The Balck Donnellys". If and when "Studio 60" returns will depend on how well the new show does in the timeslot.

Unfortunately, it seems the loyal "Studio 60" fans will be happy if they even get to see the remaining 6 episodes of the drama burned off on NBC later this spring.

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Rosie Trumps Donald

First he attacked Rosie, then he wouldn't shut up, then he went after Meredith Vieira, Barbara Walters and even Conan O'Brian, and now that his inept promotional efforts clearly backfired as "The Apprentice" hit all-time low, he still claims his show was "#1 in all of television from 10:30-11:00".

No wonder Barbara Walters called him a "poor, pathetic man" this morning.

As we have already seen earlier this week, the 6th season premiere of "The Apprentice" was crushed by "Desperate Housewives" and "Cold Case" on Sunday night, even finishing behind a "Family Guy" rerun.

More painfully, the show lost a considerable portion of its lead-in, a never-before seen reality show with Broadway wannabes competing to be in the next production of "Grease".

Donald Trump has, of course, always been somewhat of a campy and over-the-top figure who lacked class, but those are the qualities that, when shown to a moderate extent, ultimately made him a suitable reality television star. However, that was back in 2004.

Three years on, "The Apprentice" has turned into a tired and aging product-placement vehicle that may have finally jumped the shark.

Ironically, it may not necessarily have been the desperate on-screen ratings-grabbing twist with tents that put the final nail in its coffin, but rather the over-inflated ego and the barbaric manner of the man whom decent people will no longer be able to take seriously.

The Apprentice Hits Season-Low

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VIDEO: Trump Attacks O'Donnell

Donald Trump calls Rosie O'Donnell a fat, ugly, disgusting slob and a loser.

Donald Trump Stoops Again

Donald Trump has once again verbally attacked a woman two weeks before the premiere of a new season of his ratings-challenged reality contest "The Apprentice".

Earlier this year when the fifth season of "The Apprentice" was about to premiere, the infamous entrepreneur lashed out at his former friend and accomplice Martha Stewart for driving the ratings of his series down with her lackluster version of the program.

The PR stunt was observed with little interest as the NBC network moved the once red-hot series away from its premium Must-See TV line-up on Thursday nights to Mondays.

When "The Apprentice" premiered in early 2004 it attracted well over 20 million viewers who tuned in on weekly basis to see Trump say "You're Fired!" to yet another one of his servile contestants.

The routine quickly grew tired as NBC shelled out two cycles of "The Apprentice" the following season and lost the powerful blockbuster "Friends" which had successfully anchored Thursday nights.

By early 2006 only about half the audience that had once watched "The Apprentice" regularly remained loyal to the show. Desperate to see the ratings perk up, Trump attacked Martha Stewart.

Now the billionaire has done it again. On yesterday's Access Hollywood, the man with the ego bigger than any one of his self-titled towers attacked Rosie O'Donnell for her commentary of the Miss USA controversy.

In the raw footage that you can see by following the link HERE, Donald Trump calls Rosie O'Donnell a loser, says her talk show did poorly, her magazine was a total failure, she herself is a failure as people can not stand watching her, she is a very unattractive woman both on the outside as well as inside, she would say anything that comes to her unattractive mouth, she is not smart, and he is looking forward to suing her, and he will send one of his friends to pick up her girlfriend and he thinks it will be very easy.

Caught in between the fire, the executive producers of "The View," Bill Geddie and Barbara Walters weighed in on the verbal fracas releasing the following diplomatic statement:

"Both Rosie and Donald are high-spirited, opinionated people. Donald has been a friend of "The View" for many years and Rosie, of course, is our enormously popular moderator. We cherish them both and hope the New Year brings calm and peace."

In his tirade, Donald Trump said the ratings for the daytime talk show "The View" went down since Rosie O'Donnell joined the program. The businessman known for his erroneous ratings analysis who had called his series "The Apprentice" the biggest hit on network television on numerous occasions, was wrong once again - the ratings of "The View" actually went significantly up since the Star Jones/Rosie O'Donnell switch.

The reality show returns on Sunday January 7 at 9:30pm and will now go head-to-head with "Desperate Housewives" on ABC.

Donald Trump To Battle "Desperate Housewives"

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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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