"The Apprentice" -- ownership of, not the weekly thread

Cafe Society
1

I’m chatting on IM with one of my online pals, the only person I know who’s a bigger reality junkie than I am, and we’re catching up on “The Apprentice.” After dissecting the last two episodes and prognosticating on the next two, we started talking about the long-term prospects for the show. I mentioned the rumor that Trump might not continue indefinitely on the show, and she said no, that Trump was making money off the corporate sponsorship since he’s a co-owner of the show.

So, two questions:

  1. Is Trump a co-owner of “The Apprentice”?

  2. Whether he is or isn’t, does anyone know anything about how the money flows in these corporate sponsor deals? Clearly the corporations (Levis, P&G, Mars) wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t great publicitiy – but do they pay a fee to be so featured? If so, what kind of money? And where does it go – to the production company? as additional profit for the show?

Sorry if these are dumb questions…

2

There’s a rumour going around on both Television without Pity and E!Online Ask Kristin/Wanda (yeah yeah, I’m a lame-o) that Burnett is going to make Martha Stewart the focus of the next Apprentice.

I thought Trump was Executive Producer.

3

Okay – but what does “Executive Producer” mean? Does he benefit directly from the show, or is it more a fee-based type thing?

Is there money coming in from sponsorship deals, and who gets it?

4

I imagine some of the fees for product placement is offset by the fact that they make so many of their resources available to the contestants.

I too read that rumor about Martha (Mullinator, I think).

I don’t like the idea. I’d prefer more Trump or someone else. I think the Martha Apprentice would be more about “Life After Prison” than about challenges.

I’d rather see someone like Bill Gates, one of the Waltons, or the Google guys do the next version.

5

LA Times just did an article on the product sponsorship: Products Are Stars in New Ad Strategy (registration required, or bugmenot)

6

Interesting article, SmackFu – thanks for the link!

My original “who’s making money here, and how” question is bigger than just The Apprentice – think I’ll start another thread.