Donald Trump Gets Fired from The Apprentice, Sort Of

Donald Trump said good-bye to NBC and to fans of The Apprentice on Friday and said that he is moving on. According the CNN, the real estate mogul issued a statement Friday saying he has informed the U.S. television network he is "moving on from The Apprentice to a major new TV venture," though he declined to elaborate. The Apprentice, once a top rated reality show averaging nearly 21 million viewers, now suffers from low-ratings and only has about one-third its original viewership. Since the debut in 2004, the show the has been steadily declining in viewership. The 6th installment finished airing one month ago.

Talk about NBC's termination of the series seemed to remain speculation when NBC's Entertainment President issued a statement according to Reality TV World that "[they] haven't made a decision [yet]. Donald [Trump] still wants to do it, [The Apprentice executive producer] Mark [Burnett] wants to do it. [They] want to stay in business in Donald with whatever form it takes, the guy has a certain magic, The Apprentice [is] not dead yet."

Despite the statement by NBC, it remains clear that Trump will not return to The Apprentice, and NBC's 2007-2008 program lineup on Monday had no mention of Trump or his show. Last summer, it was reported that Trump was looking into starting his own television production company and teaming with reality show producer R. J. Cutler to create a reality show based on the populer board game "Monopoly." Whether or not this is what Donald has in mind for his new venture is unknown.

Trump's organization issued another statement: "It looks like viewers will have to wait to see what Mr. Trump plans for the future," the statement said according to CNN. "But if Mr. Trump's past TV success is any indication of the future, then one can anticipate that millions of 'Apprentice' fans will be migrating to his new venture."

Trump and NBC still have a contract for the beauty pageant business, which Trump co-owns. They announced a renewed deal for the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageant in March.