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The domestic diva – who revealed the catchphrase "You just don't fit in" to inform contestants they're fired on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart – fizzled in the ratings when her much-ballyhooed new NBC reality show debuted Wednesday night.
Stewart's Apprentice attracted only 7.1 million viewers – about half the audience that tuned into Donald Trump's lackluster third season of his Apprentice last spring and a far distant second to her ABC competition on Wednesday, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The rival network's Destination: Lost, a clip job recapping the Emmy-winning adventure-drama's first season, drew 15.3 million viewers. Further damage was done by the UPN premiere of America's Next Top Model.
To make matters worse, only 3.2 million viewers in the much-sought-after 18-49-year-old age group tuned into The Apprentice: Martha Stewart – which is 24 percent lower than NBC's program in the same timeslot last fall, the easily forgettable "Hawaii." It's also 62 percent lower than the first episode of Trump's original "Apprentice."
News of the ratings failure was felt on the New York Stock Exchange, reports the Wall Street Journal, which says shares of Martha Stewart Living dropped six percent in trading Thursday. In the past two weeks, adds the paper, shares in the lifestyle products and media company have gone down nearly 20 percent.
