TONIGHT!!

The Apprentice

Global, NBC 10 pm

As the fourth iteration of Donald Trump’s vanity project winds to a close, one has to wonder how long this program can last. This season the show took a ratings hit, with a viewership decline from 14 million to a paltry ten. The Donald blamed the falling numbers on the Martha Stewart variation on the Apprentice theme, but maybe, just maybe, the viewing public has grown tired of watching selfish overachievers connive and backstab their way to a place in Trump’s heart.

While the “you’re fired” boardroom sequence always makes for good TV, that part of the show lasts a mere fraction of the entire broadcast hour. To sustain interest NBC is going to have to take extreme measures, like turning live wolverines loose in the contestant’s suite or giving Trump fire pits under the board table like Dr. Evil had in the Austin Powers movies.

Fri. December 2

Ghost Whisperer

CTV, CBS 9 pm

There are two remarkable things going on here. This show is a hit, and Jennifer Love Hewitt seems to have saved some semblance of a career. 

The plot of Ghost Whisperer is a fairly uninspired take on the “Medium” formula — woman can see into the paranormal and tries to help. So the concept is a half-baked knock off and the lead actress (Love Hewitt) is as incapable as she is attractive. Yet viewers are supporting the show in droves. Friday night has never been the home of top notch television, it’s true, but Ghost Whisperer is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to quality.

Every weekday

Rolie Polie Olie

CBC 10:20 am

It only lasts ten minutes, but Rolie Polie Olie is a staple of a child’s television diet. A happy homage to the mechanical cartoon features of the mid-twentieth century, the show focuses on Olie and his family as they go about their lives. Guest reviewer Ainsley Koebel gives it two thumbs up.

Wed. December 7

The Fifth Estate

CBC 9 pm

I would have rather profiled The Fifth Estate sometime later, given that I wrote about W-Five just last week, but next week’s program is too much to pass up. Gritty co-host Linden MacIntyre will present “Five Doomed Men”, a look back at the 24-hour period immediately preceeding the deaths of four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe. The incident occured in March of this year and motivated calls for a formal review of Canada’s parole system. MacIntyre’s no-holds-barred style should lead to some englightening —  and disturbing — revelations about the criminal past of James Roszko, the man who the police were investigating.