Reality television moves up a notch.

Just as reality TV was going into Jerry Springer-ish mode (loud, vulgar, addictive and something that only 'others' watch), NBC came up with 'The Apprentice'. Finally here was a reality show which made you want to watch it for the intellectual stuff that the contestants had, and their real world abilities to hustle in the corporate world. Of course, the most memorable characters from the show was not the sweet-and-boring Bill, but the conniving and repulsive villaness Omarosa (NBC made quite some capital out of her, including an advert which simply said "Oma. Rosa."

The prize for the apprentice was a $250,000 job with the Trump empire under the tutelage of The Donald. (I'm not sure how much the self-made Bill enjoys working for such a (seemingly) pretentious and condescending Trump, but that's another story. Fox has come out with a wannabe Apprentice-killer named 'The Rebel Billionaire'. Instead of the staid Donald, they have the brash and adventurous Sir Richard Branson - president of the Virgin Empire (which will be sending tourists to space soon). The prize this time - president of the Virgin Empire itself! (I don't know how that works out - there must be some catch there, right?). Salon has a great story into how the casting directors actually choose the contestants, looking for sparks and the potential to create conflicts which will make great television.

Meanwhile, on Fox, there is another reality show which is an out and out parody of 'The Apprentice'. Named 'My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss', the show mimics the format of the popular NBC show, save for one fact - the Boss, and everything on the show is fake, save for the contestants who do not know that they are being taken for a ride. In the first episode, the Ivy Leaguer contestants were made to panhandle in the streets of chicago (which the girls won easily by using the hit combination of T+A (Tits and Ass). Even though the show intends to generate a laugh by making a fool of the contestants (and does so quite successfully), the show sparkles with some real business wisdom with a lot less pretence than the Apprentice. When the leader of the losing team is asked to choose two people who would be on the firing line along with him, the boss gives the leader immunity from being fired since in a real world 'a boss would always have someone around him to be the fall guy'. How true!