It would seem that by now America ought to be sick of hearing his name, he the great Brit benefactor who first gave us "Survivor," from which the reality genre was launched, for better or worse and often worse, and of late "The Apprentice."
  Fat chance that Mark Burnett will be fading any time soon.
   After garnering huge ratings with its finale last Thursday, "The Apprentice” is proving itself a series that won't fade from conversation even off the air.
  Host Donald Trump, already a legend in his own right, if not his own mind, is now the new icon of American business, with yet another how-I-did-it book coming out.
   And the language of "Apprentice" is fast entering our business and personal dictionaries, with terms such as "You're fired" heard in elevators and employee lunchrooms across America, the new catchphrase of our idle chatter.
   Here’s other “Apprentice” bits that continued to bubble after the show’s Thursday finale:

   * Ratings for the two-hour finale Thursday night were as big as expected. The show averaged 28 million total viewers, including 17.5 million adults 18-49. That's the season's biggest 18-49 audience for a regularly scheduled program, and second to only ABC's Academy Awards, the Super Bowl and the post-Super Bowl "Survivor: All-Stars" premiere.

   * Friday morning on the “Today” show got a little uncomfortable as Trump stopped by and chatted with anchor Katie Couric. On the show Couric said to Trump, “I have confidence you're going to be here a lot in the fall for some reason.”
   “[NBC Boss] Jeff Zucker would not allow it to be any other way,” Trump quipped back before Couric snapped, “Yeah, I'm sure, it's going to be three hours of The Donald.”
   Trump is known widely as one of the best self-promoters around, and he certainly got the help of NBC News. “Today” had two segments on Trump Friday morning and “Dateline” ran two separate pieces on the mogul last week.

* This Friday morning blunder surely would have gotten a certain news organization the “You’re fired!” routine. If you watched the finale you know that Bill Rancic, owner of a multimillion-dollar cigar company, was eventually hired by The Donald. 
   However, if you missed the episode and looked at USA Today’s online edition Friday, you would have seen a draft of a story that reported Harvard Business School grad Kwame Jackson won the top prize.

*Life isn’t all bad for Jackson. Though he actually did lose, he has become America’s most-loved loser this side of Clay Aiken. After the final episode, chicken pusher KFC made good on its promise and offered Jackson $25,000 and all the chicken he can eat for a year in return for a week’s worth of service as a chief sales officer. If he accepts, Jackson will help the chicken chain launch its new oven-roasted chicken line.

* Jackson also got noticed by Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire Mark Cuban. Cuban said to ESPN, “I told [Jackson] I would definitely hire him to evaluate the business proposals I get every day that I can't get to, and potentially run a business.” Cuban said he has a job for Jackson if he wants one, but didn’t specify what he would pay.
   Cuban likely would have to pay Jackson at least $150,000 though, as that’s the amount he was already offered by magazine publisher SYS-CON Media.

* Even the early rejects are getting attention. Witchy Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth shot a videotape for the American Association of Advertising Agencies conference that played during Kaplan Thaler Group CEO Linda Kaplan Thaler's speech Friday.
   Manigault-Stallworth spoofed her much-hated persona on "The Apprentice," referring to herself as America's Sweetheart. She was undoubtedly trying to get more business for her budding TV career, for which she filmed a Clairol Herbal Essences commercial recently for the Kaplan Thaler Group.

* Even the conniving Sam Solovey, who was fired back on episode No. 3, continues to capitalize. On the final episode of “Apprentice,” Solovey tried to bribe Trump with $250,000 in a Samsonite briefcase if he would hire him.
   Friday on Washington, D.C.’s Z104, Solovey said “I gave [Samsonite] about a half-a-million-dollar ad spot on national TV,” and added, “They won't let me say a darn thing, but I will say that the briefcase was promptly shipped in from the lovely Samsonite corporation.”
   When the Washington Post asked Solovey how much Samsonite paid him, he wouldn’t comment.