Report: a€?Apprenticea€? will be back on NBC

There was no official word on a deal from NBC, the Trump organization or executive producer Mark Burnett, but all three parties have acknowledged in recent weeks that negotiations on a possible return of the show were continuing.

One person familiar with the negotiations said a€?The Apprenticea€? would be renewed for two more years. Another said NBC and producers were close to a deal to bring the show back for a seventh season with an option to renew it for an eighth installment.

a€?The Apprentice,a€? which turned Trump into a television star and popularized his catch-phrase a€?Youa€?re fired,a€? was sliding in the ratings and appeared headed for oblivion when it was omitted from the 2007-8 prime-time programming schedule NBC unveiled in mid-May.

Network executives refused then to rule out a possible reprieve for Trump. But the self-styled real estate tycoon seemed to seal the showa€?s fate when he issued a statement days later saying he was a€?moving ona€? to other TV ventures.

Prospects for the show rebounded again in late May when NBC, under newly installed chief programmer Ben Silverman, asked Trump and Burnett to extend the networka€?s option to renew the series, and they agreed to talks.

a€?The Apprenticea€? debuted in 2004 as a hit show featuring young, aggressive entrepreneurs competing in a weekly game of elimination for a real-life job in Trumpa€?s business empire.

But the series steadily declined in the ratings in successive years, losing nearly two-thirds of its original audience by the time it wrapped up its sixth installment in April.

If the current option on a renewal for a seventh season were to expire without a deal, producers would be free to shop the series to another network, and Trump has said a€?numerous networksa€? have expressed an interest in picking up the show.

The show is important for Trumpa€?s growing branding effort, which banks on the businessmana€?s brash image to market products including water, vodka and steaks.

Trump and NBC still remain in the beauty pageant business together. The two announced in March a renewal deal to keep annual broadcasts of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which Trump co-owns, on the General Electric Co.-controlled network through 2010.