Martha Stewart (born as Martha Helen Kostyra on August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, author, editor and homemaking advocate. She is also a former stockbroker and fashion model. Over the last two decades Stewart has held a prominent position in the American publishing industry; as the author of several books, hundreds of articles on the domestic arts, editor of a national homekeeping magazine, host for two popular daytime television programs, and commercial spokeswoman for K-Mart. In 2001 she was named the third most powerful woman in America by Ladies Home Journal. In 2004 she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in prison.

The Apprentice: Martha Stewart is a spin-off from the American reality television series The Apprentice that ran in the fall of 2005. Broadcast on NBC, the show featured business tycoon Martha Stewart. Tasks were centered around Stewart's areas of expertise: media, culinary arts, entertaining, decorating, crafts, design, merchandising, and style. The tone of the show was somewhat muted compared to the original, as Stewart brought her own sensibilities to the elimination process, often using her catchphrase: "Goodbye" in contrast to original series host Donald Trump's catchphrase: "You're fired." She also wrote a cordial letter to the candidate who was fired; many times she took subtle jabs at the fired candidate and gave frank reasons for why the candidate did not succeed on the show. Several segments featuring Stewart were filmed at her home in Connecticut due to the fact that at the time, she was serving the five-month house arrest portion of her ImClone scandal conviction.

Donald Trump and Mark Burnett executive produced the show. Businessman Charles Koppelman and Stewart's daughter, Alexis Stewart accompanied the two teams during tasks and reported their observations to Stewart in the boardroom.

The two teams, Matchstick and Primarius, competed in 11 challenges. Overall, Primarius won eight, while Matchstick (completely jettisoned by Martha in week 11) won only three.

The show's theme song is "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics. The background music is written by David Vanacore, Mark T, Williams, and Jeff Lippencott.

Despite the fairly big initial hype, ratings for this spin-off were relatively weak. This show averaged only 7 million viewers, and garnered a mediocre 2.5 average in the very important demographic of 18-49 year old viewers. However, it should be noted that this program aired against very tough competition, including ABC's massive hit Lost. After the second episode, the show was moved from the 8 p.m. time slot to the 9 p.m. slot, and in spite of facing Lost, saw a slight increase in ratings.

There have been numerous rumors thrown out as to why the show failed, including: "too much" Martha Stewart (her Martha daytime program and this prime time program), confusion between this version and Trump's version which airs the day after (on Thursday nights), apathy over reality shows in general, NBC's declining fortunes, fatigue with the Apprentice franchise itself, and weak casting, although some felt the cast was superior to Apprentice 4, which ran concurrently. Trump blamed the Martha series for the declining ratings of his own version, even though the ratings for his show began to fall over a year before Martha's version premiered. Stewart responded in turn that she was supposed to have "fired" Trump in the premiere episode, making her a successor to Trump rather than the host of a spinoff. In mid-November 2005, NBC announced that it would not bring back the show for a second season, although the network and Stewart claimed that the show was initially planned as a one-season endeavor.

One daughter: Alexis Stewart (b. 27 September 1965).

Graduated from Barnard College with a degree in History and Architectural History. She got married during her sophomore year.

Used to work as a stockbroker.

Was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World 1996".

Sleeps four hours a night with the lights on so when she wakes up she can get right to work.

Used to work as a model to pay her college tuition.

Daughter Alexis owns the American Fitness Factory gym in Sag Harbor, New York.

Graduated from Nutley High School. In a version of the school paper that year, she had already begun her modelling career and hoped to enter the field of broadcast journalism.

Her father taught her gardening; her mother taught her how to cook, bake and sew. Their next door neighbors (retired bakers) taught her how to bake pies and cakes.

2nd of six children of Polish immigrants.

Her mother is also named Martha.

Took her company public (19 October 1999)

One of Glamour magazine's "Best Dressed College Girls of 1961."

One of the first female stockbrokers (at Perlberg, Monness, Williams and Sidel) on Wall Street. She got her license on 14 August 1968.

Convicted of four felony charges on 5 March 2004: conspiracy to obstruct justice, make false statements, and commit perjury; false statements (2 counts); obstruction of justice. Result of investigation into her sale of ImClone stock.

Her designated federal inmate prison number is 55170-054

Bought her Katonah estate for 16 million dollars

Mother of Alexis Stewart and ex-mother-in-law of John R. Cuti.

Due to her criminal record, she was forced to cancel her trip to Nova Scotia to attend an annual pumpkin festival in October 2005. In the past she would have been free to go, but because of her record requires a visa to enter Canada. Days later she was granted a visa in record time thus drawing the ire of critics who say that she was given undue political favor.

Cites Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), 'Round Midnight (1986), and Choose Me (1984) as her must-have movies.

Her mother, Martha Kostyra, passed away November 16, 2007 at age 93.