New season of 'Celebrity Apprentice' starts Sunday

Eighteen celebs battle to avoid those dreaded words -- "You're fired" -- in the name of charity and face time with Donald Trump in "Celebrity Apprentice," back beginning Sunday on NBC.

Among them: Dee Snider, Debbie Gibson and Victoria Gotti. And the rest of the crew: Arsenio Hall, Clay Aiken, Adam Carolla, Lou Ferrigno, Penn Jillette, George Takei, Michael Andretti, Paul Teutul Sr., Cheryl Tiegs, model-voice actress Tia Carrere, Lisa Lampanelli, former Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, Danity Kane's Aubrey O'Day, actress-model Patricia Velasquez, and "Real Housewives of New Jersey's" Teresa Giudice.

Sunday's first task -- the selling of high-end sandwiches, and someone will get fired.

Pretty much the first casualty in this fifth-season launch is suspense. Two hours of windy discourse on the art of sandwich-making along with asides on the show's many charitable acts can do that.

These early episodes tend to be where the grasping celebs warily circle each other before plunging the knife in a hated rival's back by, say, March.

Who knows whether this crew will yield any drama by then, though there are signs of life in Hall, Jillette, O'Day, Carolla and even Aiken.

Inexplicably, comic Lampanelli seems out to lunch, and the same with Giudice (again, it's early). Snider and Gibson tend to melt into the background in Sunday's opener -- a smart strategy.