Sadly for Blago, big hair and a big mouth don’t necessarily mean big ratings.
The numbers for Sunday night’s premiere episode of “Celebrity Apprentice” are in — which marks former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s first foray into reality TV — and they’re not so great. The NBC show was down 18 percent from its 2009 premiere, and it was beaten in its first hour by rival CBS’s reality original “Undercover Boss,” according to TVbytheNumbers.com.
During the 10 p.m. time slot, the show did better and garnered more eyeballs than competitors from the other networks.
While there’s no official explanation for the slump, perhaps Blago’s appearance would have been met with more curiosity if he’d taken a step out of the limelight. He’s been in the headlines for everything from reading the “Top 10” list on “Late Night with David Letterman” to talking ethics (yes, ethics) at Northwestern University.
