‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ at TCA: Donald Trump, Kate Gosselin, Geraldo Rivera, and more

NBC has found a bit of a surprise hit with “The Celebrity Apprentice” this year, mostly because this is not a show anyone saw succeeding as well as it has in its big revival. Even when you consider the competition this past week (otherwise known as the NCAA Championship Game), the latest two-hour block did draw a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which is certainly impressive.

Is it the #1 show on TV? Hardly, which is strangely what Donald Trump tried to boast during his TCA panel at times this week, though he later (per an Andy Dehnart – HitFix piece) he eventually issued a series of caveats for that. This was still not the most interesting and at times bizarre thing he said the whole time, as he went on to explain at point how responsible the show was for the success of some of its stars after the fact:

“Nobody heard of Trace Adkins when he came on. I love Trace now. He became one of the top country singers. He said to me, ‘Last year I couldn’t get into the country music awards, and this year, Mr. Trump, I’m hosting … [Also,] look at Piers [Morgan], look at Joan [Rivers], look at Arsenio Hall. He blew it! He blew his show. But he got his own show. He went from oblivion to a show back to oblivion.”

We almost feel bad for Arsenio after reading this, but to be honest, we felt that Clay Aiken deserved to win the season that he was on over him, anyway.

Kate Gosselin was also a main attraction of the panel, as she insisted that doing the show was much easier than being a single mother to eight kids. Strangely, Geraldo Rivera was not nearly as hilarious at the panel as he’s been on the show. That is somewhat of a bummer.

Want to receive some other updates right now when it comes to “The Celebrity Apprentice”? Our advice is to simply head over to the link here right away, or sign up to get some further TV scoop on everything we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)