Bret Michaels' exit appears successful for Donald Trump's advertising budget

Bret Michael’s controversial exit from “Celebrity Apprentice” is still going strong in the media today. Reports that he had a meltdown were followed by the reports that he didn’t have a meltdown, but either way the nation is talking about the aging rocker getting the boot from “Celebrity Apprentice,” as demonstrated by Reality Tea on Thursday March, 7, 2013.

Michaels denies having a tearful meltdown after being fired from the “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” show by Donald Trump. The reports that Bret, “bawled like a baby” aren’t true according to the rocker. “I remember saying “you guys f*cked me,” and he claims “I don’t remember having a bawling fit.”

It is to the point now where that really doesn’t make much difference. It could be that Bret’s firing was successful in another way, maybe not for him, but certainly for Trump’s show. “Celebrity Apprentice” is getting a little long in the tooth, so it could definitely use a pick-me-up to get the viewer’s attention. Could the firing and controversy around this be just that, a pick-me-up?

What better way to start off the season than to put a previous winner on the chopping block. It wasn’t expected by the fans and unless Michaels is a really good actor, it didn’t look like he expected this either. Could Michael’s exit be part of a strategy that Trump had for the show to grab some more of the ratings? Trump’s been accused of keeping people that are toxic, like Amoroso, around just for the ratings, even when it’s apparent they should be the ones to get fired.

Michaels is a favorite with the crowd, as he’s already won another season of the apprentice contest. Throwing him overboard at the last minute on the first episode really stirred up the social networks, tabloids and even the morning news shows. Everyone’s debating whether he deserved the boot or not.

It seems that Mr. Trump got himself some big time free publicity for the show by letting Michaels' go. Whether this was part of Trump’s strategy or not, the fans will probably never know.

You just can’t help wondering though if the man with a superior business brain didn’t plan this ahead of time and knew that by doing this it would award all this free advertising for the show?

The amount of free advertising he’s gotten from Bret’s exit probably would have cost millions if he had to pay for this much airtime on TV, online and in the tabloids. Trump didn’t get where he is today by passing up opportunities and letting Michaels go has the nation still talking about it days later. This could be considered one of those opportunities and a very successful one at that!