On the face of it, NBC’s “The Apprentice” looks like a traditional reality show, right down to the contestants being booted one by one. And you've got a big celebrity, Donald Trump, providing the viewership push.
   But when you look closer at the new program, which premieres tonight at 8:30 after “Friends,” you find a very different sort or reality show, one that doesn't rely on the traditional themes of sex, romance and derring-do.
  No bumps, no grinds, no swinging from vines.
  This is a far more cerebral show than its promotions might suggest, even with Donald Trump mugging about. 
  The idea is to pit contestants against each other in business, with the capitalist showing the most marketplace moxie becoming Trump's protégé.
  As concepts go, it's very cool-sounding, but do NBC viewers really want to watch young Trump wannabes duking it out over who's got the best widget? 
  If we spend our own days competing in the marketplace, do we want to come home at night and watch others going at it? 
   Those are very big questions.
   If NBC can pull it off, it could well reinvent the genre of reality TV.
  On some level, NBC is taking a big risk. 
  By selling “Apprentice” as the quite contradictory upscale reality show and premiering it on a night when the network has never resorted reality, NBC could do a big flop.
   But on another level, NBC is actually turning this high-risk show into a low-risk one with a smart bait and switch. 
   It’s flipping “The Apprentice” quickly from Thursday, where it is guaranteed a strong premiere, to Wednesday 8 p.m. the very next week, where even quirky former time slot occupant “Ed” managed to keep the TV warm for 9 p.m. “West Wing” and 10 p.m. “Law & Order.” 
   Should the Donald sputter, NBC has Alicia Silverstone’s “Miss Match” waiting in the wings as a replacement.
   So even if it flames out, NBC, which has not launched a mega-hit new show in years, will be no worse off. And if it succeeds, what a nice midseason surprise.
  “It’s going to be in a competitive time slot, but it should be able to at least be competitive,” says John Rash, Campbell Mithun’s senior vice president and director of broadcast negotiations. “Certainly any program with Donald Trump’s name and fame associated with it debuting on Thursday night will certainly garner at least some press, if not some viewer attention.”
   Mark Burnett (“Survivor”) will produce the show, which lets 16 contestants ranging from MBAs to home-schooled high school grads compete for the position of Trump protégé.
   The first episode has them manning competing lemonade stands in NYC. Most of the action focuses on the contestants, with Trump merely popping up to fire people or offer wisdom like, “I'd much rather have a really smart, talented guy doing a deal in a not-so-good location than an idiot doing a deal at a great location.”
   Wouldn’t we all.
   The odd thing about this show, though, is that it’s not exactly a Trump prestige vehicle a la “The Osbournes” or “The Real Roseanne Show” or any of the other traditional celebrity voyeur shows.
   And yet, with Trump attached, it doesn’t quite fit into the genre of competition, like “Survivor” or “American Idol,” which reward strength or talent.
   It’s certainly not one of romance reality shows, like “The Bachelor,” or romance reality with an evil twist, like “Joe Millionaire.”
   It’s not hussied up like most reality shows these days, either. For one thing, an audience that already rejected NBC’s “Coupling” certainly wouldn’t stand for that on Thursday.
   “Apprentice” isn’t really like any reality show before it, in fact. It’s aiming to be the first upscale reality show, where contestants are rewarded for wit and actual business acumen is tested.
   That fits with NBC’s Wednesday audience, the most affluent on television and one you wouldn’t usually associate with reality.
  “‘The Apprentice’ is on a strong night, Wednesday at 8, with ‘West Wing’ and ‘Law & Order,’ that’s a solid night for NBC and has a pretty upscale audience that night,” Adgate says. “That could do well among the reality shows that haven’t aired.”
   At the least, “The Apprentice” just has to equal “Ed.” Even against the return of Fox’s “American Idol” that night, it shouldn’t be a hard task – “The Apprentice” is geared at an older audience, perhaps even the MBA holders who missed the auditions for the show because they had to work.