The prospect of Donald Trump running for president has sent shivers through at least one highly interested group — and it is not the Democratic Party or political journalists. It is the entertainment division of NBC.
A decision by Mr. Trump to formally declare his intention to seek the Republican nomination could disrupt the network’s plans to broadcast future seasons of his show, “The Apprentice,” because of concerns that other candidates could request equal airtime.
But no one at NBC has done much serious planning about what to do with “The Apprentice,” because of what two executives cited as pervasive doubts that Mr. Trump would actually enter the race.
“This is Donald being Donald,” said one senior executive who would be involved in any decision about how NBC handles the show. The executive, who asked not to be identified to avoid any conflict with Mr. Trump, said “any decision is still weeks away.”
The track record for “The Apprentice,” which now mainly casts celebrities as contestants, is so good, and NBC’s need for the show is so great, that it would be a virtual certainty to be renewed were it not for the questions raised by the campaign possibility.
Several of those involved with negotiating for the show suggested that NBC could order an additional cycle of “The Apprentice” to begin in September. But that would be immediately threatened if Mr. Trump entered the race. He said in an interview last week that he might use the show’s live finale on May 22 to announce a news conference a few days later, at which he would reveal his intentions.
Many political commentators have dismissed Mr. Trump’s chances and have chalked up recent favorable poll results mainly to name recognition — and to his aggressive insistence that he doubts President Obama’s eligibility to be president. Still, doubts of another kind persist.
“Anyone assuming that the reality show host’s interest in running for president is just another one of his publicity stunts would not likely be wrong,” wrote Charlie Cook, the political analyst, who in a column last week wondered whether a “Jersey Shore” cast member would try to run for president next.
Mr. Trump’s statements that he is considering a presidential run have presented a more immediate issue for the news division of NBC. He has remained in the news by giving seemingly daily television interviews and making incendiary statements, many of which have been challenged and contradicted.
One such interview by NBC News came under scrutiny by television critics because Mr. Trump made several statements that had previously been debunked (about Mr. Obama’s birth certificate) without being corrected by the interviewer, Meredith Vieira, though she did challenge him on some points.
Mr. Trump said in the interview that Mr. Obama’s “grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth, O.K.?” That is a favorite talking point among people who doubt whether Mr. Obama was born in Hawaii, but it has been widely discredited; the full version of the audiotape of that conversation makes clear that the grandmother says the president was born in Hawaii.
“NBC Nightly News” and “Today” subsequently broadcast a fact-checking segment about several of Mr. Trump’s claims in the interview. Asked via e-mail whether Mr. Trump’s employment by NBC Entertainment affects news coverage, as some critics have questioned, the “Today” show’s executive producer, Jim Bell, said that “Mr. Trump’s work on a show that airs on NBC does not affect NBC News coverage of him, and it’s silly to suggest otherwise.”
Mr. Bell noted that in a recent poll of likely Republican primary voters by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump came in second, behind Mitt Romney. “He’s a potential candidate,” Mr. Bell said. In other polls, Mr. Trump has been first.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s “Apprentice” continues to perform well on NBC, drawing more than eight million viewers each week, making it one of the network’s most-watched shows. If he decides to formally seek the nomination, NBC would be compelled to rethink any plans for a fall season of the program.
Networks do their best to avoid the thicket of the equal-time rule, which obligates television and radio stations to offer equivalent time to competing candidates if one gets free airtime.
In recent years, the provision has affected cable news channels when they have hadpotential candidates on their staffs as commentators. But entertainers have also been caught up in equal time incidents in the past.
Notably, when Fred D. Thompson entered the race for the Republican nomination in 2008, he quit his role on the NBC series “Law & Order,” and just to be safe, NBC stopped broadcasting re-runs in which Mr. Thompson appeared.
The three executives who would be involved in talks to renew “The Apprentice” said several possibilities had been discussed.
One said a new season of the series could be taped this summer, then held until Mr. Trump’s fate in the primaries — or the general election — was decided.Or NBC and the show could substitute a different host for Mr. Trump. It was once the long-term plan to introduce new bosses to run the game. But Mr. Trump proved to have more star appeal than any other likely contender, a fact he has taken glee in noting.
One option would place three of Mr. Trump’s children, all of whom already act as his seconds on the show, at the center of “The Apprentice” in his absence. But executives at NBC worry that even a solution that puts noncandidate Trumps on the air for three months might lead to a demand for equivalent time from another candidate, or his or her children.
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