Celebrity Apprentice – Donald Trump Learns From MTV’s The Real World

Last year, Donald Trump threw his own reality show under the bus by turning it into a celebrity competition for charity. Theoretically, a somewhat interesting idea, but one that was a little odd. Watching celebrities perform bizarre tasks, and try to “street corner” goods and services might be worthy of a watch, especially if you happen to have any investment in said celebrities. Still, there’s something about the general idea that makes me want a shower. At any rate, thus, Celebrity Apprentice was born.

As you might expect, there were a few “problems” with the show. Several of the celebrities were of the “celebrity except insofar as anyone knows who they are” variety. A lot of the viewership consisted of those who were only watching on the off chance someone might smack Omarosa around. Many of the tasks were boring, and when it came down to choosing something like performing poorly at them were nonsensical. And, on and on.

The show did stumble onto a nice ratings magnet though. It turned out that some of the contestants were a little on the loopy side, and when the nuts go after each other (or one nut goes after everyone) people start chatting at the watercooler. America seemed decently anxious to tune in to see that semi-famous people could flip their lid, and act severely childish at the drop of a hat, just like your run-of-the-mill, ordinary reality show contestant.

Of course, even the regular version of The Apprentice got a healthy dose of its ratings from the mysterious appeal of watching a group of uber-Type As try and out bastard each other, but the technically insane people were somewhat rare, and mostly limited to those we could bring back for Celebrity Apprentice.

But, after that first run of Celebrity Apprentice, someone showed Trump some graphs and let him in on the Real World strategy… More Nuts!

Now, okay, they aren’t all nuts. Annie Duke seems pretty level-headed actually, and Clint Black is mostly there to try and pick up the sweet, Average Joe, country-singer mantle, but at least four of these people were chosen specifically because “I’m Nuts!” is their tagline. It’s not quite as simple as just picking the craziest celebrities you can find though. You’ve also got to stick in a few people for the nuts to go nuts at. More importantly, you’ve got to pick a wide range of people who just can’t possibly get along with each other. If at least half of these people haven’t wished Joan Rivers would just die at some point I’m a monkey’s uncle, and I’m not ruling out Melissa.

Here’s the list.

Annie Duke (poker champion), Andrew Dice Clay (comedian), Brian McKnight (singer), Brande Roderick (playmate, actress), Clint Black (country singer), Claudia Jordan (actress, model), Dennis Rodman (NBA…??? player?), Herschel Walker (NFL star), Jesse James (tv star, motorcycle builder), Joan Rivers (comedianne), Melissa Rivers (Joan’s daughter), Khloe Kardashian (the other one), Natalie Gulbis (professional golfer), Scott Hamilton (ice skater), Tom Green (comedian), Tionne Watkins (of TLC)

In an effort toward viral marketing hopes, there are a slew of clips and interviews available through the Celebrity Apprentice website. To be honest, I’m a big fan of NBC‘s push in the direction of widget advertising, but at some point you’ve seen the whole show. The show is also trying to get some social media exposure, by not only having a Twitter account for the show – CelebApprentice – but by also having a Twitter Widget on the show’s homepage. Very savvy.

The show kicks off tonight, Sunday March 1st at 9:00 pm, and we shoot right out of the gates by having our celebrities bake and sell cupcakes. The show actually looks like it may start off fairly smoothly. I think that owes a lot to the fact that Tom Green seems content to mainly stand in the background and nod knowingly… so far.

Here are a few clips and interviews.