Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. doesn't care who gets fired in Donald Trump's board room, but the Findlay retailer is counting on its appearance on "The Apprentice" to get customers fired up.

Many companies have already succumbed to the temptation of paying for the privilege of starring in the show, which is one of reality TV's greatest infomercials-as-drama. Not all have excelled at the marketing challenge.

Trade magazine Advertising Age earlier this month rated an "Apprentice" episode built around General Motors' Pontiac Solstice roadster as among the best examples of the breed, as proven by the sale of 1,000 cars sold within an hour after the show aired and a 1,400 percent increase in visits to the Pontiac Web site within the first hour.

But the episode that aired in April featuring American Eagle Outfitters was labeled a marketing dud by the advertising magazine, which opined that the young professionals on the show did not understand the Marshall retailer's teen customers. The writers also weren't impressed that the winning team was rewarded with a shopping spree, not at American Eagle, but at upscale retailer Bergdorf Goodman.

Dick's executives -- a group of intense, statistic-loving executives who plan things to the nth degree -- hope to hit one out of the park with their episode, which is scheduled to run Oct. 27.

"It has the potential to be the biggest [marketing] event that we've done," said Jeff Hennion, Dick's senior vice president for marketing.

He declined to give details on the financial deal worked out between Dick's and Mark Burnett Productions, which produces the show. But the investment the company has made is most likely significant. Advertising Age estimated General Motors spent more than $1 million on its placement. Dick's spent a total of $27.6 million last year on all of its advertising, from cable TV spots to newspaper circulars and spot radio, according to media tracking firm Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

To update non-"Apprentice" watchers, the show is a business competition that sets up weekly challenges for a gaggle of participants whose ranks are slowly pared down -- hence Mr. Trump's signature line, "You're fired" -- until only one remains standing. That person wins a well-paid apprenticeship with Mr. Trump.

The show is a perfect forum for companies willing to open their doors to cameras and pay for what the advertising industry calls "product placement," which means the product being sold is part of the story line. Think E.T. grabbing a handful of Reese's Pieces.

Media research firm PQ Media estimated the value of product placement deals rose 30.5 percent in 2004 and likely would rise another 22.7 percent to $4.24 billion this year propelled by "marketers wary of ad-skipping technologies." People can't use TiVo or a trip to the bathroom to skip this kind of commercial placement.

Dick's officials were contacted by the "Apprentice" planners in March and several weeks later were watching crews filming the two teams of eager young businesspeople, Capital Edge and Excel, at work inside stores in Woodbridge, N.J., and Long Island, N.Y.

Both are about a 45-minute drive from Manhattan, convenient for the New York City-based show.

The sporting goods chain, which last year made a major acquisition that gave it a much broader national reach, had decided the deal was an opportunity to raise awareness in the new Dick's markets as well as pump some energy into existing ones.

Two retailers from last season's "Apprentice" set the standard for Dick's. Home Depot asked the competitors to create a how-to clinic, then carried the momentum beyond the TV show by offering the clinic in its stores that weekend. Office supply retailer Staples produced a $34.99 desk organizer designed by the winning team and had online orders for more than 1,000 in the first 15 minutes after the show aired.

Dick's negotiated as many details of its "Apprentice" experience as possible. The challenge takes place inside its stores to show those off. The episode is the sixth of the new season, timing meant to give the show time to build momentum but still have enough competitors left to handle a team assignment. Dick's even sponsors the reward at the end of the show.

The retailer didn't have a say in selecting the contestants, but the staff was encouraged by Mr. Trump's statements that he handpicked this year's group to make sure the quality was stronger than some past seasons. "These were very smart competitors," said Mr. Hennion, who appears on the show along with Edward W. Stack, Dick's chairman and chief executive officer, and William J. Colombo, president and chief operating officer.

Dick's proposed a variety of challenges, and the TV producers chose one that required the teams to develop interactive events in the store that could drive sales. The retailer wanted to send the message, "We sell stuff for people to have fun," said Mr. Hennion.

Dick's staff did not get to see the completed episode or learn who was fired but did leave the weekend shoot feeling good about the chain's acting debut, said Mr. Hennion.

That done, the staff developed a program to make the most of its 43 minutes of fame. The weekend after the episode airs, Dick's will host competitions in more than 100 of its more than 200 stores, including four in the Pittsburgh region. Customers will be able to take shots at full-sized basketball hoops to win prizes, either individually or in teams. There also will be a sweepstakes that customers can sign up for and a version of the hoops game on the Yahoo! "Apprentice" site online.

In judging the success of the project, Dick's will be watching traffic to its Web site, the stores and the general "buzz" among customers. Sales for the weekend, as well as participation in the basketball shot challenge, will probably be tallied to the last decimal point.

The more control any corporate partner has the better, said Michael J. Leedy, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for American Eagle Outfitter. Mr. Leedy, who was involved in the company's "Apprentice" project, said a lot of good things came out of it.

Customers and employees were quite excited. He said Advertising Age was off base when it said the audience for the show did not include American Eagle's target shoppers. "There's a huge percent of the viewers that are our customers."

The problem for the teen retailer had more to do with execution on the part of the TV show producers, he said. "What we agreed to was not what happened."

Still, American Eagle may have caught the phenomenon at its peak, he said, and that alone was great exposure.

The TV press has been full of chatter lately about how The Donald's ratings are down this season, though they still are better than those for the new Martha Stewart version of the show. Last year's edition averaged 13.9 million viewers weekly, while the new season is averaging 10 million viewers.

Mr. Hennion likes the broad audience that the show pulls to the television screen; he said it still rates high among users of the TiVo digital recording system.

He also is hopeful the ratings will be picking up now that people have a better sense of who Rebecca and Markus, Josh and Felisha and the other team members are. "I think people are realizing that this season is extremely good," said Mr. Hennion.

Whether it will be good for Dick's remains to be seen.