• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 6, 2007

The only question for NBC about the new revenue-sharing deal with "Celebrity Apprentice" is: What took you so long?

For a long time, Mark Burnett Productions has been virtually the only producer making any real money on branded entertainment when it comes to a prime-time network show -- because it retained all branded entertainment rights in "The Apprentice."

Many major TV marketers happily paid $2 million to $3 million in "integration" fees -- all going exclusively to Burnett -- to secure high-level product integration into a show, one where they were mentioned and seen for the better part of 42 minutes (The actual length of an hour TV program less commercials, promos, etc.).

In its initial season, "The Apprentice" appeared a prime-time heavyweight. But after that it turned out not to be the savior Jeff Zucker, the then president of NBC Entertainment, would have liked -- certainly no replacement for NBC's departing Thursday night killer, "Friends."

It was known that Zucker made a quick deal to get the Burnett show in the NBC lineup -- stealing it away from ABC. Now it seems that those deal points had long-term beneficial results for Burnett.  

After its second season, when it became apparent that "The "Apprentice" was just an average-performing show, NBC should have reconfigured the deal  -- just as CBS did after "Survivor" became a hit in its first season, and CBS became a revenue-sharing partner in all branded entertainment revenues of Burnett.

For many years, NBC senior advertising executives, including Marianne Gambelli, executive vice president of advertising sales, would complain openly that advertisers should come to NBC directly for its branded advertising sales commitments -- with big media buying deals attached.

Why did it take so long? Perhaps Burnett was smart in writing into his initial agreement that as long as "The Apprentice" wasn't cancelled or changed radically, he would continue to be in charge of those money-printing branded entertainment fees.

But now under the new stricter financial resolve of Marc Graboff, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, whatever new branded entertainment schemes producers will come up with, NBC will now grab a piece of that big revenue.
Still a fourth place network, NBC will need every advantage -- or leverage -- it can get.