NBC thought that it was understood that trump is a terrible businessman

Well they definitely overestimated the average viewer, I think.

Even by that point, most people seemingly had no idea that "reality TV" was scripted - I think one of the insiders had written something, maybe self-published, that told a lot of insider information about how it was done, post-Survivor, I think. And even prior to Survivor, there was "The Real World"[1], so you'd think most American audiences would have been somewhat savvy even when Survivor came along, and definitely by the time of The Apprentice, but I doubt many Americans even know it now.

I remember watercooler talk at work about the show the next day, and I would mostly just try to bite my tongue in some of those conversations, so I didn't blurt out "you know he's a complete dumbass and not really a great businessman, right?"

[1] Yep, there were shows that predated The Real World by decades, but I think Cops + Real World really set the template for American audiences, anyway. I still don't get why people thought Survivor was something new, but a lot of people thought Blair Witch Project was the first "found footage" movie, too, so whaddaya gonna do....