NBC renews 'Celebrity Apprentice'

Despite toying with the idea of returning The Apprentice to the show's non-celebrity roots, NBC is going to bring back the celeb-stocked version next year.

"When the show first came out, it was commoditizing something that's extremely relevant today: a job," NBC's Paul Telegdy recently said. "Right now, the best thing you could have in America is a job."

So well put. And so NBC is doing the opposite. Bring on the celebs! Celebs on The Celebrity Apprentice. On the upcoming I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! On the panels for the Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality panel show this fall. And on NBC's genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? which is scheduled for ... now, wasn't it? April, right? But NBC didn't like the pilot, sources say, and changed the showrunner and pushed the series to whenever. And with Jay Leno's talk show airing at 10 p.m. in the fall, celebrities should also impressively populate the network's 10 p.m. hour. 

NBC has seemed more starry-eyed, especially on the reality side, since Ben Silverman came on board as co-chair. Except NBC's biggest reality hit is the largely celebrity-free Biggest Loser. And the network's most successful scripted launch this season hasn't been the one with Christian Slater or Ian McShane or Amy Poehler but Southland, which stars Who Again.

Celebrity Apprentice has done pretty well this season, though. It's averaging a 3.5 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.6 million viewers overall despite being expanded to two hour and airing in a tough time period for the network.