Strange days in Trump’s world
The Celebrity Apprentice has been afflicted with a serious case of Mad Cow this season, which is one reason why tonight’s appearance by last year’s winner, country star John Rich, and runner-up, actor Marlee Matlin, comes as such a welcome relief. There’s nothing like a little sanity and reason to bring an out-of-hand situation under control, and Rich and Matlin together are nothing if not sane and reasonable.
Tonight’s outing aired in the U.S. last weekend, where it went largely overlooked here. The handful of viewers who’ve followed this season’s Celebrity Apprentice from the beginning know, though, that tonight’s show is the final act before the grand finale.
One of the remaining celebrity contestants is sent packing at the end of the first hour. It doesn’t take much imagination or forethought to guess who, even with access to the Internet. The real crunch comes shortly after that, at the midway mark of the twohour broadcast. That’s when The Donald turns to Rich and Matlin to interview each of the remaining four celebrities in turn, and then “advise” His Worthiness on the two he should send to the grand finale, and the two he should graciously open the door for and show the way out.
By now it’s clear that, of the five celebrities who are still there at the start of tonight’s show, two are clearly sane and the other three . . . well, sometimes sanity is a matter of interpretation.
Trump’s world, for example, is big, bold and deliberately over the top. The meek may well inherit the earth one day, but not while The Donald has anything to say about it. The Celebrity Apprentice has fallen on hard times this year, in the ratings, but you’d never know it from all the bluster and bombast. Parent network NBC unveils its 2012-13 schedule Monday, and, while nothing has been confirmed, The Celebrity Apprentice is sure to be on it. The word “cancellation” just does not exist in Trump’s universe.
Interestingly, one of the two celebrities vaulted ahead to next week’s finale is featured briefly in next week’s fascinating PBS biographical profile of the late late-night legend Johnny Carson. That, in itself, is an example of how much TV has changed from the years when Carson hosted The Tonight Show and a certain Arsenio Hall had a rival upstart, late-night talk program that, according to filmmaker Peter Jones, gave Carson his first real fright in the now hyper-competitive world of late-night TV.
It’s hard to imagine the late, great Carson ever agreeing to compete on The Celebrity Apprentice, no matter how much money he could raise for charity. Then again, times have changed. Trump, for example, was embroiled at the time in a little venture called the Taj Mahal, the casino, not the palace in Agra, and the banks were preparing to call in their loans.
Today, Trump is a TV star, Hall is a would-be Trump employee and Carson is a late-night legend. Enjoy the show! (Global – 8 p.m.)