L.A. move does little to boost Trump's TV audience

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Real estate tycoon Donald Trump's relocation to the West Coast for his latest edition of "The Apprentice" did little to bolster sagging viewer interest in the corporate-themed reality show.

Debuting a new season, Trump -- who has recently attracted publicity for a public feud with talk show host Rosie O'Donnell -- averaged a lackluster 9.1 million viewers for Sunday night's premiere of the sixth installment of "The Apprentice."

That tally was down 600,000 viewers from last year's premiere of season five and marked the smallest audience yet for a season debut of Trump's show on NBC, ratings service Nielsen Media Research reported on Monday.

But the show's ratings among viewers aged 18 to 49, the prime-time audience segment advertisers prize most, grew slightly from last season's debut.

Featuring a group of would-be Trump proteges vying for a high-ranking job in his business empire, "Apprentice" faces stiff competition this year in its new Sunday night time slot opposite the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives." That show ranked as the evening's most watched series on U.S. television with 18.6 million viewers.

"Apprentice," which turned Trump into a TV star and introduced his signature catch phrase "You're fired," has steadily declined in the ratings since its first and most successful run in the spring of 2004. A spinoff starring lifestyle guru Martha Stewart flopped in 2005.

Hoping to reignite the franchise, the series' location was moved for the first time this season from Trump's home base of New York City to the Los Angeles area.

In another new twist, Trump's daughter and son, Ivanka and Donald Jr., have replaced his two older boardroom sidekicks, Carolyn Kepcher and George Ross. And members of the losing team from each week's competition are being banished from lavish guest quarters in a Hollywood Hills mansion to backyard tents.

Trump made headlines during the past few weeks after a nasty war of words with O'Donnell, "The View" talk show host who mocked Trump on the air for his public rebuke of troubled beauty queen Tara Conner, Miss USA 2006. Trump fired back by threatening to sue O'Donnell and hurling such insults at her as "fat slob," "loser" and "despicable."

Despite all the publicity leading up to Sunday's relaunch of Trump's show, the 90-minute broadcast ranked third in total audience during its time slot, starting off behind even a repeat of the Fox cartoon "Family Guy," though his viewership did gradually climb during the evening.

NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., did better on Sunday with the debut of a new reality-contest show, "Grease: You're the One That I Want," featuring aspiring stage performers competing for the lead roles in a Broadway revival of the 1970s hit musical.

The launch of NBC's "Grease" drew 11.6 million viewers, a major improvement over the 8.1 million averaged weekly last year by the final season of "The West Wing."