09/19/2004 - In an attempt to hit two birds with one stone, executives at Disney and its subsidiary ABC announced today that they will create a new reality TV show where you can become the next CEO of Disney.

"This is an amazing chance for all those people at home to see if they have what it takes to become a powerful CEO of one of the most powerful media companies in the world," Michael Eisner said in a statement released early today. He continued, with uncharacteristic bluntness, "This also fills one of the time slots in ABC's schedule, which has some well publicized holes."

Taking bits of Donald Trump's runaway "The Apprentice" series, mixing some "Survivor"-like contests, and with Disney's actual board voting people off, the House the Mouse Built seems rather serious about the proposition.

"Not only will this allow us to extend our CEO search out of the regular recruitment channels, with executive search firms and headhunters, we will hopefully make a nifty profit with this very original concept," said Anne Sweeney, President of Disney-ABC Television, which oversees the ABC Network.

Eisner, who a little over a week ago, said that he would resign from CEO, though not necessarily from the board, in 2006, has long been disliked by many large shareholders. The most vocal of which has been Roy Disney, grandson of the founding Walt Disney, who demanded that Eisner not only leave the board, but before his 2006 date. Eisner has been CEO of Disney for over 2 decades, and early in his career, was very successful at the helm, increasing revenues, profits, and reach.

However, the past decade has been a rough one. Several large flops at the box office, coupled with Sept. 11 behind a decline of revenues and attendance at theme parks, and more recently, three hurricanes to hit Florida, and boring line-ups at ABC have left Disney's stock tredding water for the past several years. Eisner has been accused of having too much power over the board, not listening to critics, and by a small, though vocal group, the boardroom equivalent of the devil.

This floudering has led to Comcast's attempted take-over of Disney, which it later retracted, but temporarily put some spice back into its stock price, and Eisners near-ousting in the latest shareholder vote, with about 43% of voters withholding their votes for Eisner.

Shareholder anger is thought to be part of the force behind Eisner's resignation in 2006, and with Disney never publishing a succession statement about who would follow Eisner at the helm of the Mouse House, this opened a door for a once in a long period of time opportunity.

However, as Sweeney astutely stated, "We hope we wont have to run a second season for this show for a very long time."