The Apprentice: Martha Stewart

Before going any further, I have to admit that I only saw the first episode of this show. If I had the time, I might have considered watching it every week, if only to see how the season played out. However, it was very clear to me from the beginning that Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice" just doesn't "fit in." Martha Stewart made a career of being a happy homemaker, a domestic diva of the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Julia Child. It was only since her scandalous legal troubles and subsequent incarceration that her public image began to reflect the true roughness of her character. Sure, she was compelling for a while, and this entire series poses the interesting question of what it means to be a woman in business. Does she have to come off as cold and tough? Shouldn't she?

But the truth was, by the time Stewart came out of prison, her attempts for a public comeback, though certainly warranted, were never going to seize viewers' interest for very long. Perhaps a true comeback would have worked had she returned home peacefully and waited a year or so after her often mocked ankle bracelet was removed. Instead, she frantically dove into overkill with 2 series at once, the other being her syndicated daytime series Martha, much like her old show, but more mainstream, with famous guests like Bette Midler. Of course, even at her peak Stewart was never mainstream, so it's too much to ask that American audiences immediately accept her foray into reality TV. Maybe America wants Stewart to make a comeback on her own rather than be the basis for it.

The show was basically a tired retread of Trump's "Apprentice," which still holds my interest, depending on the tasks, the cast, and Trump's firing decisions (often controversial - likely for that reason). The letter bit was certainly not cliché but obnoxious in the least. The fact that Stewart never says, "You're fired!" - mentioned in the message board on this site - is particularly distressing. Producer Mark Burnett should be admired for dealing with Stewart's jail time honestly while trying to make her a hero, but the truth is that anyone watching can tell that she's basically trying to put on a show of being this nice businesswoman. Again never mainstream, Stewart lacks the agreeability and identifiability of Oprah Winfrey and the admirable, charismatic "toughness" of Donald Trump. Yes, this can be a gender-biased assessment of her character, but I mean it to be more about the nature of her business.

It comes as no shock that Stewart has been fired, but I wonder if they really always intended it to only last for one season?

This is an excellent follow-up to Donald Trump's Apprentice. It offers a slightly different perspective on the hiring process than Donald's version. While more friendly and less harsh, her demands for excellence are no less than Donald's.

Overall, I think the teams chose sides badly in the original episode and other criteria should have been used. A reshuffling is definitely required.

This being said, like Donald's Apprentices, I personally would not consider hiring any of them, ever. However, they make for good entertainment.

The only fault I would have with the show is that I wish there was more of Martha.

I have watched the first 2 episodes of The Apprentice:Martha Stewart and have to say that if you are a fan of The Apprentice (Donald Trump) you may like this. The show follows the basic formula created by Trump's show, a number of candidates (if they are truly the best I have to wonder) to compete in business related tasks. 2 teams, various abilities and personalities, working under pressure, in order to get a contract to work for Martha Stewart at a nice salary. The tasks here are more oriented to Martha's core business but they are still neat little tasks.

The best part of this show, like Trump's, are the personality conflicts and the struggle to see what one is made of.

The only parts that I do not like are the lack of input or conversation from Martha's 2 overseers, (but Carolyn and George were not all that vocal in the first season of Trump's Apprentice) and the little letter writing scene at the end, but other than that it's good.

Network: NBC; Genre: Reality, Game; Content Rating: TV-PG (for language); Perspective: Contemporary (star range 1- 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

No matter what you think of Martha Stewart's 2004 felony conviction, it is hard to deny the artificiality of her media hyped return. Industry experts have predicted that after her prison sentence was served, Martha would make a comeback (because going to jail makes her inherently more interesting) and once again reclaim her place as one of the most powerful and influential women in America. And, by God, she's going to have that comeback if Hollywood itself has to bend over backwards to give it to her.

The task of Martha's image makeover is taken up by reality-TV maestro Mark Burnett who sucks dry any supposed capital accrued from an increased interest in Stewart to bring us "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart". Stewart's "Apprentice" is the format of "The Apprentice" – done verbatim only this time with the decorating diva at the center of it.

It seems like I'm always sticking up for "The Apprentice" with the claim that it is the best reality/game show on TV. Burnett probably thought a show that follows the exact same template of the ratings smash right down to the music couldn't loose. The ugly truth is that "The Apprentice" works so well because of Donald Trump. The uglier truth is that we like Trump's bluntness, decisiveness, and no-nonsense, to-the-point way of telling people exactly what he thinks of them. People like Trump, or love to hate him, for the same reason they like Bill O'Reilly or Hugh Laurie's Dr. Gregory House.

Stewart's version takes us back to a cushy, namby-pamby, touchy-feely, feel-good show despite the best intentions of some of the contestants to create some cat-like friction. The boardroom is changed to a white conference room, the theme is, strangely, "Sweet Dreams" and instead of the terse finality of "you're fired" Martha bumbles out something like "You will no longer be working for me at this time…". And if there is still any doubt Martha is still Martha, and kinder and gentler than Trump , she even writes the fired contestant a nice letter explaining herself, reassuring them that it isn't the end of the world and that they will go far in life. I'd love to see what happens when a contestant opens up their mailbox and finds that letter. Trump's show is the NFL, Stewart's show is a suburban flag football league that doesn't want to keep score so no one's feelings are hurt. That's the plan anyway.

It also feels like there is something bigger at stake in Trump's version. The tasks seem larger and more specialized to train someone in business. Stewart's contests make a new salad dressing and bake cakes. Instead of a secretary calling from her desk, Stewart personally calls the team to their next assignment on her cell phone while trimming rose bushes at her country house. It is all profoundly silly and comes off unintentionally hilarious. On top of that, Stewart's heart doesn't appear into it. She appears physically exhausted with bags under her eyes as if any moment she is about to go face first through the conference room table.

Despite Burnett's shameless back-peddling that this was only supposed to be a one-season show to capitalize on Stewart's new, tough, post-prison image, NBC made an amateur mistake scheduling this show just a day before original episodes of Trump's "Apprentice". Not only does this beg for the inevitable comparisons, it "Apprentices" people out. Logic would have put this show on during Donald's hiatus when people would be hungry for another "Apprentice". Either way, we've seen all this before.

But the best scheduling in the world can't change the real reason this show is such a tiresome dud. It is that unequivocal reality (that has nothing to do with her being a woman or a felon or tough or any of that) that puts a death-blow on this and all of Martha's projects and that the mainstream media is to politically correct to come out and say...

Martha Stewart has no personality.

There. It's out.

* ½ / 4

Martha Stewart's Apprentice has a charm and a class way beyond the Donald's version IMO. I've been watching The Apprentice since the first season and the show has steadily gone down each season, though this current one has gotten better. I just think Donald Trump's enormous ego is the big star of The Apprentice now and there is WAY too much product placement as well. Martha's product placement is much more subtle and her cast have a demeanor that I personally like more than Trump's cast. I wish it were coming back next season but mediocre ratings came into the scene. I wish more people would have given her version a chance because I think they would have liked it. It's my favorite show. Martha totally rocks and each week instead of the catchphrase "You're fired" she writes the fired contestant a charming letter. There's only one Martha and this was a great show.