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Trump to Martha: 'You're hired'
Lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart will star in a prime-time spinoff of NBC's hit reality show "The Apprentice" sometime after her release from prison next month, the network said on Wednesday.
No air date was given, but executive producer Rob Burnett said production on the series may begin while the domestic diva is under home confinement following her scheduled release in March.
Burnett said the show would follow the format of the original "Apprentice," which features Trump and a group of would-be tycoons competing for a high-ranking executive post in one of his companies.
On Stewart's spinoff, which Trump will have a hand in producing, contestants will vie for an unspecified job somewhere in her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Burnett said.
Trump said he doubted Stewart would use the signature phrase he has made famous on his own program.
"She's probably not going to say, 'You're fired.' She's probably got her own expression that's different from what I do," the real estate magnate said. He said he had not decided whether he would appear on her show.
Trump said he and Burnett, the man behind the CBS reality hit "Survivor" as well as "The Apprentice," began discussing a prospective "Apprentice" spinoff several months ago.
"I'm a good friend of Martha's. I have been for a long time," Trump told reporters in a conference call announcing the deal. "And I've learned one thing fairly recently over the last couple of years. She's a very brave woman. Very few people could have withstood what she's withstood. She's gone through a tough time. And she's done it admirably."
SECOND SHOW
"The Apprentice" spinoff is the second TV show Stewart has agreed to do after her five-month prison term for lying to investigators about a stock sale. Two months ago, Burnett announced he will be producing a syndicated homemaking show hosted by Stewart.
NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker acknowledged that controversy surrounding Stewart's conviction would help spark interest in the show. But he said her self-made success in building a catering business into a multibillion-dollar empire was at least as compelling.
"There's no question that each of us is fascinated by the rags-to-riches story and the comeback story ... and no one is a better example of that than Martha," Zucker said.
Despite a soaring stock price, analysts say Stewart's company faces an uphill battle to win back advertisers to its magazines and television shows on the heels of her legal woes.
They also have questioned the value of its shares, which were trading at multiyear highs and erasing all the losses tied to her stock scandal.
Burnett said Stewart's "Apprentice" deal was struck prior to the start of her five-month prison term. But Zucker said the announcement was put off until now partly to avoid confusion between the two shows.
He said the syndicated homemaking program, an update of her previous, "Martha Stewart Living," has been sold to local TV stations reaching about 70 percent of the United States and is slated to debut in fall 2005. That show will be distributed by NBC Universal Domestic Distribution, which like NBC is owned by General Electric Co. .
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