The Apprentice: Celebrity Edition wasn't supposed to happen.  Old NBC President Kevin Reilly had originally dropped the Donald Trump/Mark Burnett created reality series from his Fall 2007 NBC schedule, but when wunderkid Ben Silverman took over for Reilly at NBC, he quickly brought The Apprentice back into the fold, but with some changes.  The Apprentice would be brought back as The Celebrity Apprentice.  The unspoken agreement (at least from my perspective) was that Trump would be as shameless in the show's cross-promotions as possible.  This is evidenced already by the show's casting (which includes Piers Morgan and Nely Galan, two people already under contract at NBC).  It turns out that this wasn't the only unspoken agreement - NBC is now going to profit from The Apprentice's product placements.

For every previous Apprentice season, Mark Burnett and Donald Trump split the earnings 50/50.  Now, for the first time, the profits will be split three ways: between Trump, Burnett and NBC.  We can assume this was another stipulation in NBC bringing the show back from the dead.  According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Apprentice is still receiving upwards of $2-$3 million per product integration, similar to what The Apprentice earned when it was a top ten show.  For the upcoming Celebrity Apprentice, NBC was able to help Trump and Burnett integrate products from companies for most of the season's episodes.

Among the companies whose products will be seen on The Celebrity Apprentice include Kodak, Crocs, Dial Yogurt Body Wash, Quiznos, QVC, Nederlander, Pedigree and Serta by Vera Wang.  QVC has been used before, I think maybe as recently as last season.  I'll be looking forward to the Quizno's challenge, but the Dial Yogurt Body Wash?  You can count me out.  That just sounds disgusting.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
(Image Courtesy of NBC)