NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - NBC Universal on Monday provided some key details of a much-publicized plan for a spinoff of "The Apprentice" starring Martha Stewart.

As part of a larger rollout of its fall television schedule, NBC said "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart" will air Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. beginning next fall.

It was one of two new reality shows that NBC announced Monday. The other, "Three Wishes," will fulfill the dreams of everyday Americans -- "such as getting their massive bills paid, going skydiving, etc.," according to the NBC announcement.

Stewart's program will follow the same general format as Trump's "The Apprentice." Contestants will be split into teams and compete to win an assigned task. At the end of each episode, one member of the losing team will be bumped off the show.

The tasks assigned on Stewart's version will focus on home decorating and entertaining, design, and merchandising.

"(T)he style and feel of this new show will be tailored to Martha Stewart's personality and brand identity," the NBC announcement stated. She will also "bring her own sensibilities and creativity to the elimination process...."

The contestant left standing lands a job at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Both Stewart and NBC have a lot riding on the "Apprentice" spinoff.

NBC, owned by General Electric (Research), is banking on Stewart and its remaining fall lineup to pull it out of a steep ratings nosedive. In the year since "Friends" and "Frasier" ended their runs, NBC has gone from first to fourth place among 18-49 year-old adults, the demographic that commands the highest ad rates.

With sales of commercial time for the 2005-06 television about to start, NBC is expected to lose the most advertising dollars of the big four networks. Goldman Sachs predicts that NBC ad revenues during the "upfront," as the advance sales season is known, will fall 17 percent, to $2.4 billion -- its lowest level in four years.

Together the four networks are expected to sell between $8 billion and $8.6 billion during this year's upfront. NBC is still expected to lead rivals Fox and ABC in total ad sales.

For Stewart, her own "Apprentice," if successful, could go a long way toward cementing her own comeback and that of her company, Martha Stewart Living.

Stewart, the lifestyle expert, has less than three months to go on a 10-month sentence following her criminal conviction a year ago on charges related to a personal stock sale. But it's been three years since her legal woes first came to light, causing big financial losses at her media and retail company as advertisers fled from Stewart's tarnished image.

As part of a comeback bid, Martha Stewart Living (Research) is launching new shows and products, including a daytime talk show starring Stewart and an around-the-clock channel on Sirius Satellite Radio (Research).

"The Apprentice" spinoff is a central piece of that turnaround strategy. But it comes at a time when reality television shows are no longer the guaranteed ratings winners they once were. The current season has seen a few high-profile reality TV flameouts by prominent entrepreneurs, including Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

One key detail about Stewart's "Apprentice" that was left out of NBC's announcement was her signature line dismissing a contestant at the end of each show.

Trump's "You're fired" is now part of the American lexicon.

One possibility for Stewart: "You can't take the heat. Get out of the kitchen!"

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