Last year Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” got a nice lift from “Deal or No Deal” on Monday nights. This year “Deal’s” move to Sunday helped The Donald to his best outing in over a month.

“Apprentice” averaged a 2.7 adults 18-49 rating in its new 10 p.m. timeslot last night, according to Nielsen overnights, its best rating since Jan. 28. Since then, the show has been in a slump, airing against tough competition on ABC and CBS including the Grammy Awards and “Desperate Housewives.”

And it hadn’t gotten much help from its fading lead-in, “Grease: You’re the One That I Want,” which dipped to a 2.0 in its last pre-“Apprentice” outing last month. The latter had been preempted two of the last five weeks to avoid airing against the Super Bowl and Academy Awards.

Those disappointing ratings prompted NBC to institute a mini-makeover on the night, moving “Apprentice” to 10 p.m. and inserting “Deal” at 9 p.m. “Crossing Jordan” moves to Wednesday nights to take “Deal’s” place.

“Deal” provided a much stronger lead-in, averaging a 3.3 rating and tying for third in the timeslot with CBS. “Apprentice” retained 82 percent of that lead-in and grew a tiny bit, from a 2.6 to a 2.7, in its second half hour.

Still, the show remains down from last year at a 3.2 season average, and it finished a distant third in the timeslot last night behind ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” and CBS’s “Without a Trace.”

Meanwhile, ABC was first for the night among viewers 18-49 with a 5.1 average rating and a 13 share. CBS was second at 3.3/8, Fox third at 3.1/8, NBC fourth at 2.4/6, Univision fifth at 1.4/4 and CW sixth at 0.9/2.
 
ABC led all four hours of the night, starting with a 2.9 rating at 7 p.m. for “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” CBS was second that hour with a 2.5 for “60 Minutes,” NBC third with a 1.9 for “Dateline” and Fox fourth with a 1.8 average for a repeat of “American Dad” and a new “The War at Home” (2.0). Univision was fifth with a 1.0 for “Hora Pico” and CW sixth with a 0.9 for an hour of “Reba” reruns.
 
At 8 p.m. ABC finished first with a 5.3 rating for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” followed by a 3.8 for Fox for “The Simpsons” (4.2) and the series premiere of “The Winner” (3.5), which held a respectable 83 percent of its lead-in and was about on par with “King’s” performance there the last few weeks.

CBS was third at 8 p.m. with a 3.7 for “The Amazing Race,” NBC fourth with a 1.8 for “Grease: You’re the One That I Want,” Univision fifth with a 1.4 for “Bailando por la Boda de Mis Suenos” and CW sixth with a 0.9 for the first half of an “America’s Next Top Model” repeat.
 
ABC led again at 9 p.m. with a 7.4 for “Desperate Housewives,” the night’s top-rated show among 18-49s. Fox was second with a 3.7 for “Family Guy” (4.4) and another “Winner” (3.1), with CBS and NBC tied for third at 3.3, CBS for “Cold Case” and NBC for “Deal or No Deal.” Univision was fifth with a 1.7 for its second hour of “Bailando” and CW sixth with a 1.0 for the second half of its repeat of “Model.”
 
At 10 p.m. ABC completed its sweep with a 4.7 for “Brothers & Sisters.” CBS was second with a 3.9 for “Without a Trace,” NBC third with a 2.7 for “The Apprentice” and Univision fourth with a 1.7 for its last hour of “Bailando.”
 
Among households, ABC led with an 8.5 average rating and a 13 share, followed by CBS at 8.1/13, NBC at 4.8/8, Fox at 3.9/6, Univision at 1.8/3 and CW at 1.6/3.