• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, October 27, 2006

In what appeared to be a first for Donald Trump, this morning the real estate mogul went on camera to shoot footage created specifically for the Web.

He had agreed to appear briefly on AOL's interactive reality show "Gold Rush" at the request of producer Mark Burnett--who also produces Trump's own showcase, "The Apprentice."

Speaking with reporters on the lower garden level of Trump Tower afterwards, Trump, while seemingly game, also sounded somewhat skeptical. He said that while preparing for the shoot, several questions popped into his mind: "Am I supposed to look sharp? Are people going to watch this on their computer screens?"

That's a question many people are asking. Earlier this month, MediaWeek reported that many media buyers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the show wasn't "generating much buzz." "Gold Rush" drew about 5 million unique visitors last month, according to comScore; Burnett's "Survivor," by contrast, tends to draw around 16 million viewers a week.

But, to be fair to "Gold Rush," the ranks of people actually viewing long-form video seems to be fairly small. This week, the Conference Board released a study stating that just one in 10 now watch TV online.

On the other hand, there's no question that sites like YouTube, which offer mainly short-form videos, are creating more buzz even without a huge audience viewing any one clip.

Still, between technological limitations and viewers' short attention spans--at least for watching content on a very small screen--it seems there are some kinks that should be worked out before online TV shows really gain traction with viewers.