Stewart’s ‘Apprentice’ fired

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It’s a fade out for “The
Apprentice: Martha Stewart” after next month’s finale.

Sources said that NBC has passed on ordering another round
of episodes of the Stewart-hosted edition of “The Apprentice,”
which has struggled in the ratings since its September 21
premiere. A spokesman for NBC stressed Sunday that the show
always had been scheduled to run for only one cycle.

NBC and “Apprentice” executive producer Mark Burnett tapped
Stewart to helm the spinoff in an effort to capitalize on
public curiosity about the lifestyle maven after her release
this year from a five-month prison term for lying to
investigators in connection with an insider-trading stock
probe. Plans for Stewart to host the spinoff were announced in
February while Stewart was behind bars in West Virginia.

Like the original “Apprentice” and its gregarious
entrepreneur host Donald Trump, Stewart’s version of the show
set up a competition among 16 would-be executives to win a
$250,000 prize and a year-long “apprenticeship” job at
Stewart’s Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia company. Stewart’s
panel of judges each week include Charles Koppelman, chairman
of the board at MSLO, and her daughter, MSLO consultant Alexis
Stewart.

While Trump’s “Apprentice” was an instant hit last year on
its debut, Stewart’s opened with little sizzle, drawing just
7.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. For
the season-to-date, the show has averaged 6.8 million viewers.

“Apprentice: Martha Stewart” opened the season for NBC in
the Wednesday lead-off slot, and then shifted to 9 p.m. in the
line of fire of one of primetime’s biggest hits, ABC’s “Lost,”
as of October 5. Its two-hour live finale is set for December
21.

Burnett and Stewart also are partnered with NBC Universal
in a daytime syndicated show, “Martha,” which has delivered
fair to middling ratings since its September premiere.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter