NBC's entertainment president Kevin Reilly will meet with executive producers Donald Trump and Mark Burnett over the future of The Apprentice after the show was notably absent from the network's 2007 upfront presentation.

A seventh season of the show was announced back in June 2006, with locations including Chicago and Miami mentioned, but there was no mention of Trump or The Apprentice at all during yesterday's presentation.

The sixth season, which was set in Los Angeles, averaged 7.5m viewers, down from the 9.7m fifth season average. The series' first season in 2004, by contrast, averaged nearly 21m viewers.

"Donald still wants to do the show," Reilly told reporters after the presentation. "Mark wants to do the show. We couldn't find the right spot for it. So we're going to regroup after everybody announces their schedule. We're going to look at everything in context and then make a decision about it."

It is understood that NBC will wait until the other networks have made their upfront announcements - the last of which will be on Thursday afternoon - before making a firm decision as to the series' future.