Trump, rejoice! "Celebrity Apprentice" ratings slightly up

After Donald Trump's CPAC speech, "Celebrity Apprentice" is one of few weekend shows to get more popular

Published March 18, 2013 9:20PM (EDT)

                        (<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-64736p1.html'>lev radin</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>)
(lev radin via Shutterstock)

After Donald Trump's "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" got off to a weaker-than-usual start this season, we speculated that his political advocacy might have damaged the series (on which he doesn't appear, much, but for the very beginning and the end of each two-hour episode).

Instead, after Trump's speech at CPAC at the end of last week, in which the real-estate magnate took Mitt Romney to task for not talking enough about his success, "Celebrity Apprentice" improved from the previous week both overall and in the prized 18-49 demographic. Indeed, the series won the 10 p.m. hour among that demographic by the largest margin of the season against "The Mentalist."

With just about everything else at NBC flatlining, Donald Trump -- and competitors including Dennis Rodman and Gary Busey -- shall stay employed for weeks to come.


By Daniel D'Addario

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Celebrity Apprentice Dennis Rodman Donald Trump Gary Busey The Apprentice