The Apprentice premiered on NBC on January 8, 2004, with Donald Trump as host. The contestants worked in two teams on business tasks. For each task, each team chose one member as project manager.
The winning team was excused from the boardroom. The losing team was “questioned about the reasons for their loss and which members were responsible.” The project manager then chose teammates to face a final boardroom round. Episodes usually ended with one contestant hearing the words “You’re fired!”