NBC 'fires' Martha Stewart
2005-11-15 09:48
New York - US lifestyle guru and former prison inmate Martha Stewart has failed to make the grade in the competitive world of reality television.
The Hollywood Reporter said on Monday that the NBC network had passed on another series of the Stewart-hosted version of The Apprentice, in which the homemaking maven had sought to replicate the success of the original series helmed by New York property tycoon Donald Trump.
While NBC sources told the Hollywood Reporter that a second series had been canned; a network spokesperson insisted that the show always had been scheduled to run for only one cycle.
Like its Trump-hosted namesake, the show set up a competition among 16 would-be executives to win a $250 000 (about R1.7m) prize and a year-long "apprenticeship" job at Stewart's company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
Trump's Apprentice debuted last year and was an instant hit thanks, in part, to Trump's catch phrase dismissals of hapless contestants: "You're fired!"
The opening show of the Stewart version drew a disappointing 7.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, and the series has since averaged 6.8 million viewers.
Reality TV supremo Mark Burnett had tapped Stewart to helm the spin-off in an effort to capitalise on public curiosity following her release earlier this year from a five-month prison term.
Stewart was convicted last year of lying to federal agents investigating the sale of nearly 4 000 shares in biotechnology company ImClone Systems.