New ‘Apprentice’: Too real for reality junkies?

● Meanwhile Donald Trump was a self-absorbed blowhard, hilariously convinced he was as smart and sophisticated as his signature comb-over ’do.

Now almost everything’s changed.

For proof, look no further than “The Apprentice,” which returned this month on NBC with a cast of “real” contestants replacing the previous three seasons’ motley, semi-celebrity crews. Now, instead of Andrew “Dice” Clay and Melissa Rivers going at it (ostensibly for charity), we get competitors like Kelly Smith Beaty, a recently laid-off PR whiz from Fayette County, and Anand Vasudev, an Emory grad and struggling entrepreneur who can’t even afford to pay himself a salary. And Gene Folkes, an Air Force vet and Morris Brown alum now living off his retirement savings after getting downsized out of the financial industry.

NBC says they and the 13 others vying for the top prize — a single high-paying job with Trump — have been “hit hard by the economic downturn.” In fact, the entire country just narrowly averted another Great Depression, Trump scarily informed viewers at the start of the Sept. 16 two-hour premiere, a show replete with shots of presumably unemployed New Yorkers pounding the pavement.

Luckily our hero (and his limo) had arrived just in the nick of time!

“I hate what I’m seeing,” Trump thundered. “And I’m going to do something about it!”

Yes, but does that mean we have to watch it?

From gloomy headlines stating that 1 in 7 Americans are living in poverty to foreclosure signs on every block, we already have plenty of real-world reminders that times are tough. Rather than watching more of the same on “entertainment” TV, wouldn’t we all be better off, say, escaping to the fantasy worlds of “Mad Men” or “Dancing With the Stars?”

Not according to Beaty.

Inspiring ... to a few

“A childhood friend I hadn’t talked to in years texted me and said, ‘I got laid off today, but I’m so inspired by what you’re doing to rebuild your life, I’m focusing on the future, too,’ ” the personable 30-year-old said after the first episode ended with Trump “firing” one of her female teammates during a tense boardroom session. “If people can see past the fights and some of the cattiness that occurs on reality TV and get that message, that’s incredible.

“Plus it’s fun to watch,” she said. “That boardroom is crazy!”

Not so incredible, unfortunately: “Apprentice” viewership, which was a worst ever 4.7 million for episode one.

But it’s not necessarily doomed. Last season’s most popular new TV show also revolved around the workplace: CBS’ “Undercover Boss” averaged 17.7 million viewers per episode, trouncing “Desperate Housewives” each week with its hidden-camera sagas of actual corporate honchos temporarily rubbing elbows with subordinates. Even the definitive downsizing movie, “Up in the Air,” earned $84 million at the box office, suggesting that with the right story line (and plenty of George Clooney close-ups), such projects can succeed.

“We need to disabuse ourselves of the idea that whenever certain things happen in a culture, we either definitely want to see it reflected on screen or we definitely want to escape from it,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “Even in good times people will watch a show about people struggling, if it’s a good show. And in bad times, people will watch a show about people doing well, if it’s a good show.”

‘Luxury is gone’

The economy was still pretty much humming along in 2004 when “The Apprentice” debuted to boffo ratings and an unapologetic “greed is good” aesthetic. Trump sometimes arrived on screen via private helicopter just because he could.

The “business challenges” were patently ridiculous, and the aspiring corporate tycoon contestants got to eat at five-star restaurants or tour The Donald’s obscenely opulent Trump Tower apartment as rewards for winning.

“In previous seasons they got helicopter rides and champagne, and I was honestly looking forward to that,” Beaty admitted. “This season is not like that. The luxury is gone.”

But luxury was not what made “The Apprentice” a very good show in its early years. Back then, viewers got vicarious thrills from rooting against contestants whose conniving or laziness reminded them of people in their own work lives. If only their own bosses would publicly humiliate those transgressors the way Trump did when he raked whiny “Apprentice” contestants over the coals in his made-for-TV boardroom, then permanently dismissed them with a loud, totally HR-unsanctioned cry of “You’re fired!”

Alas, how can we take similar glee in a new season whose contestants come in already humbled? The mechanical engineer now driving a tow truck to support his children, for example. Or the onetime practicing attorney who’s had to resort to selling cupcakes on the street.

Still hope for haters?

On the other hand ...

Wade Hanson, the “real estate mogul” who in episode one pushed Folkes into being their team’s project manager (essentially “The Apprentice’s” version of a sub-prime mortgage), wasn’t hard to root against. Nor was Mahsa Saeidi-Azcuy, a Brooklyn assistant district attorney whose bullying boardroom personality possessed all the warmth and charm of an electric chair.

Watching this “Apprentice” may turn out to be easier than we think, Thompson predicted.

“There’s even more at stake now that winning a job actually means something,” the pop culture professor said almost gleefully. “And if things hold true to form, the show will be filled with some of the most despicable people, who you’ll want to see get fired.”

On TV