There's apparently going to be double The Donald this winter.
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According to a TV Week source, NBC made the decision after the show finished production this fall, however The Apprentice producer Mark Burnett says the decision wasn't a sudden change.
"It wasn't a sudden call at all," Burnett told TV Week. "During production, the people at NBC were saying the show was so great and should really be two hours."
Unsurprisingly, Burnett said both he and Trump -- who will presumably receive a higher production fee for producing twice as many hours of programming for the network -- agree with the decision.
"Donald has always felt the boardrooms were too short, and I think he’s right," Burnett told TV Week. "Right now, there’s really only about nine minutes of footage that we use and the boardroom [scenes] go on for hours sometimes. The problem has been trying to squeeze it all in. Every season we go through the struggle of cutting the show down."
The Celebrity Apprentice's second season won't be the first NBC reality series to regularly air as two-hour broadcasts. Beginning last season, the network also began airing The Biggest Loser as regularly scheduled two-hour broadcasts.
The second season broadcasts also won't be the first time that NBC has attempted to expand The Apprentice's boardroom coverage. During The Apprentice's second season, NBC also experimented with airing special re-cut The Apprentice: Boardroom Edition episodes that quickly summarized the episode's task and focused more on the resulting boardroom session on Saturday nights.
According to TV Week sources, NBC is expected to air The Celebrity Apprentice's second season on Sunday nights as part of its still-announced post-January winter schedule.
About The Author: John Bracchitta
