Why’s the Donald sniping just now?

We would never accuse Donald Trump of stoking a personal feud just to get some PR for a dying show. Because anyone who would exploit himself and another human being in that way would be soulless and pathetic.

But it is a little ironic, isn’t it, that The Donald happened to call Martha Stewart “a moron” just in time for Monday’s premiere of his latest version of NBC’s “The Apprentice?” Martha has hit a few roadblocks on her Sprung From Hoosegow comeback tour; Trump has learned, through tumbling Nielsen ratings, that viewers’ indulgence for his Daddy Warbucks act isn’t bottomless. So let’s see ... “Apprentice: Martha” aired its low-rated finale more than two months ago. And that’s how long it’s taken for these two former allies to drop the mask of civility and start slinging more mud than rival divas on “America’s Next Top Model?”

Right, uh-huh .... so, did they map this one out together on the phone, or have their people caucus on the details?

Of course, one hesitates to be too hard on Trump. First, he’s actually been funny -- well, kinda -- on those promos advertising “Apprentice’s” new night that have him showing up at the foot of Patricia Arquette’s bed (“We’ll go from huge to ‘Medium’ -- like it?”).

But will all of this posturing bear fruit come Monday? Will “The Apprentice” soar like it did in the spring of ‘04? Or will the switch to Mondays prove just another pit stop on the show’s inevitable trip to TV’s junkyard?

Olympic gold over ‘Idol,’ ‘Survivor’

Well, it hardly proved to be the “most competitive night in television history,” as NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol predicted beforehand. NBC in fact easily won Thursday prime time with its Olympic coverage of women’s figure skating, including an anticlimactic silver medal for American Sasha Cohen.

True to Ebersol’s word, the night began a little roughly for everyone. During the 8 p.m. hour, NBC had to settle for third place in adults aged 18 to 49 (behind the first elimination show of Fox’s “American Idol” ) (yup, Bobby “Copacabana Kid” Bennett was let go -- surprised?) and CBS’ “Survivor: Panama.” “Survivor” still skews young, which must be heartening to CBS, but the combo of Olympics and “Idol” was enough to drive the reality show down to its second-lowest demo rating ever.

As the night wore on, everything turned, well, gold for NBC. The loyal figure-skating audience turned out in droves, and as rivals sagged with repeats, the Olympics sailed to 30.7 million total viewers in the 10-to-10:30 p.m. slot. These are the kinds of numbers NBC should have been posting routinely.

Could NBC have done anything differently? Maybe, but the main problem is that the planets didn’t align for the peacock on this one. There were few inspirational stories involving American athletes. Bode Miller retreated into himself and sulked. Michelle Kwan had to drop out.

Is that Ebersol’s fault? Nah. That’s TV, folks.

Channel Island appears at latimes.com/channelisland. Scott Collins can be reached at channelisland@latimes.com.