Published July 9, 2007 - Metro News - Rick McGinnis Idiot Box.
NBC bringing back cancelled Apprentice?
TRY, TRY AGAIN: Like Rasputin, struggling to his feet after being shot, stabbed and strangled, The Apprentice seems to have almost frightening powers of regeneration. Rumours began swirling at least two weeks ago that the show, which had dropped precipitously in ratings, been dropped from NBC’s fall schedule, and had even been publicly abandoned by its host and figurehead, Manhattan developer and erstwhile human brand name Donald Trump, was going to be renewed for a seventh season.
On Friday, a Reuters story reported that network sources — “on condition of anonymity” — were sure that NBC would be announcing the show’s renewal at this month’s TV critics’ press tour. This isn’t official, mind you, but NBC, Trump and producer Mark Burnett had all admitted that negotiations to revive the show were happening, and new NBC programming head Ben Silverman had been candid about his desire to see the show return to NBC — an ambition easily overlooked among Silverman’s publicized wish list, which seemed to include everything from bringing Judd Apatow and Rosie O’Donnell to the network, to staging live gladiatorial matches and giving R. Kelly his own Saturday morning kid’s show.
It’s tempting to speculate that Trump was playing a game of chicken with NBC by making a big show of abandoning the show that, for at least one season, made him a prime time reality TV star, and that NBC was somehow frightened that, if Trump exercised his option to take the show to another network should NBC drop their option, it might miraculously be transformed into a hit again — a phenomenon that this writer can only imagine involving naked chorus lines, cannibalism, and the threat of entombment for each week’s losers.
