McKnight fired on 'Apprentice'

NEW YORK, April 13 (UPI) -- Singer Brian McKnight became the latest famous contestant fired from "The Celebrity Apprentice" TV series in New York Sunday night.

NBC said Piers Morgan, British tabloid editor, "America's Got Talent" judge, and the first "Celebrity Apprentice" winner, is slated to return to the show next week to be tasked by host Donald Trump with keeping an eye on the escalating feud between contestants Melissa Rivers and Annie Duke.

"Rival project managers Joan Rivers and Annie Duke face off as they lead their teams in the task of auctioning pieces from the Ivanka Trump jewelry line to their donors," the network said in a news release. "At auction time, each team chooses a very different strategy, but in the end it all comes down to who raised the most money. In the boardroom, Piers Morgan aggravates an already heated Joan Rivers, whose disgust with the way Annie Duke treated her daughter, Melissa, is obvious, and the conflict between Annie and Rivers, according to Piers, 'Makes Omarosa and I look like a tea party!'"

Ivanka Trump and Morgan will reveal each team's grand totals to Donald Trump and a celebrity will be sent home.

A second contestant will be fired following the completion of another task -- creating a new meal for Schwan's LiveSmart frozen food line, NBC said.

Clint Black, Annie Duke, Natalie Gulbis, Jesse James, Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Brande Roderick and Herschel Walker are the remaining eight celebrities vying to be "The Celebrity Apprentice."