Donald Trump, who picked up $50,000 per show last season, now wants a modest raise to $18 million per episode of his runaway hit show "The Apprentice."

The real estate mogul turned TV star based his $18 million demand on the salaries paid to the six actors in "Friends," who each got about $1.5 million per show.

Trump's math: Since the Donald is the only star of his show, as far as he can tell, he figures he's entitled to $1.5M x 6, or $9 million.

Then he realized that his show runs a full hour and "Friends" runs for only half hour, so he is not facetiously asking for $18 million a show.

He won't be getting it, of course.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump's take will be in the six figure range, not the eight figures he demanded.

Trump isn't alone is climbing on the gravy train reality shows are turning out to be.

According to the Journal, when Fox approached Nicole Richie about doing a second season of "The Simple Life," said she had her agents "ask for everything I could think of."

What she got was an assistant for Honey, her pet Shih Tzu, and free manicures and pedicures for herself.

"So much for cheap reality-show talent," the Journal observed, adding that in a mere few seasons "reality programming has gone from a genre known for austere budgets to Hollywood's newest money pit."

"It's the new gravy train," Dean Valentine, the former president of Walt Disney TV told the Journal.

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