At five, ‘Apprentice’ needs a reorg

In season one, his overblown persona drew viewers and captivated them. He was brutally honest, a Wall Street version of Simon Cowell, and his reputation gave the show an aura of credibility. Trump was also ruthless, dismissing candidates with a terse “You’re fired” and darting his pointed fingers at the unlucky person with his now-famous, oft-imitated cobra strike move. It was fascinating television.

That was two years ago. Since then, his shtick has not changed. After a while, it’s no longer fun to watch him praise a candidate one week and then tear them down the next, as if they’ve suddenly gone from being a brilliant businessperson to a drooling fool. In the boardroom, easily the most popular part of the show, the contestants are held accountable for their actions. Or at least, that’s the idea.

Instead, Trump’s decision-making is arbitrary at best, especially since he’s typically not judging actual work product, but making decisions based upon second-hand information about petty interpersonal conflicts. The firings are generally unpredictable because candidates can get fired for talking too much, or failing to change an incompetent team into a functional one in two days, or for making a single mistake.

In the boardroom, sidekicks George and Carolyn have become more vocal, but whatever Trump does, they support him unilaterally, frustratingly refusing to challenge even his most absurd pronouncements.

Last season, producers at least considered replacing Trump with Martha Stewart, continuing the franchise with a new boss. That didn’t materialize, and Martha instead helmed her own version. The series failed, but ironically, it was a better version of Trump’s show: smoother and more controlled, and far less sensationalized. And Martha seemed much more serious about selecting someone who’d actually “fit in” with her team, as she said repeatedly.

‘Yooge’ overstatements
Trump now denies that Martha replacing him was even a possibility, even though producer Mark Burnett confirms that it was discussed. Trump’s denial gets at a larger problem: his repeated disingenuousness. Do we really believe Donald Trump when he says that this is the best group of candidates ever, just as he said at the start of every other season? When he praises the companies who have paid to be included in the tasks, do we have reason to believe that he isn’t overstating the case just a little?

Moreover, that hyperbole is increasingly coming across as delusion. Trump recently told Newsweek that he has “the number one show on TV,” which of course is far from true. From the third to the fourth season alone, the average number of viewers dropped by about three million; repeats of “CSI” airing at the same time were sometimes watched by more people. “The Apprentice” does continue to draw a sizable number of viewers ages 18 to 49, and it’s the number-one show among people ages to 25 to 54 who make more than $100,000 a year. Still, “CSI” and “American Idol” are the undisputed rulers of network television ratings these days, and saying anything else just sounds like a lie.

By contrast, Jeff Probst has been brutally honest about his show, “Survivor,” sometimes criticizing it (particularly the all-star season) but mostly just discussing it critically. Whether guiding Tribal Council or giving interviews to the press, Probst holds the contestants, the show, and himself accountable. All Donald Trump knows how to do is push his next venture, the next season. He’s terrible at dealing with any sort of nuance, and that take-it-or-leave-it approach is hurting the franchise. Too often he applies extreme labels, and not everything can be “the best” or “the worst.”

As the seasons go by, the candidates’ faces change, but everything else the same, particularly Trump’s exhausting take-it-or-leave-it persona. Thus the show has become predictable and is no longer as compelling as it once was.

“The Apprentice 5” has already taped, and again returns to the boardroom and loft in New York City’s Trump Tower. Next season, however, the series is moving to Los Angeles. That geographical shift offers an excellent opportunity for “The Apprentice” to do what it really needs to do: grow. Just as “Survivor” and Jeff Probst have evolved as a show and a host, “The Apprentice” and Donald Trump needs to push themselves forward. The problem is, the show’s one-note star might not be capable of that sort of evolution.

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