By Arick Wierson

(CNN) -- Omarosa Manigault Newman, often known simply by her first name, needs no introduction.

The former White House adviser with a razor-sharp tongue and a knack for stirring the pot has always been a force to be reckoned with -- ever since she first burnished her image during the inaugural season of NBC's "The Apprentice" back in 2004.

Now with a new tell-all book about her time on the campaign trail and in the White House, reality TV's uber-villain once again has captivated our attention with her methodical delivery of a series of secretly recorded conversations with staff members of the Trump White House -- recordings that may have compelled the White House to implement even stricter phone policies in the West Wing.

But what is particularly interesting about Omarosa's latest sashay into the national media spotlight, this time as the woman with the goods on Donald Trump, is the critical role that she played in getting Trump into the White House in the first place.

Many underestimate just how important season one of "The Apprentice" was in rehabilitating Trump's image -- and how much of a role Omarosa played in making that show a hit. Without Omarosa, "The Apprentice" wouldn't have garnered the ratings necessary to make it a staple of NBC's programming for nearly a decade and a half, and we might not have had a President Trump.

When "The Apprentice" debuted back in 2004, it was a bold bet by NBC that a reality TV show could go head-to-head with the ratings juggernaut of the time, CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

At the time, Trump was seen as something of a has-been by New York's chattering classes. He was a B-list celebrity known more for his topsy-turvy marriages, boom-and-bust business dealings and knack for getting ink in the New York tabloids. His main line of business focused on licensing the Trump brand to buildings and other commercial ventures, salvaging what he could from his well-known last name.

But "The Apprentice" turned out to be the breakout hit of the 2003-2004 television season, and became the next successful show in the network's string of Thursday night must-see TV.

The Mark Burnett-produced show, which introduced 16 contestants all vying for a coveted job in the Trump organization, ended its first season as the seventh highest-rated television program. Its season finale -- which pit its finalists against one another in a live boardroom showdown -- nabbed first place in the ratings that week, with over 28.1 million viewers, beating out "CSI."

Without the success of season one, there would not have been a season two, or nearly a dozen more seasons and spin-offs beaming Trump into American living rooms on a weekly basis, building up his reputation as savvy businessman, negotiator and leader.

What many forget, though, is that Trump's role in the first season of "The Apprentice" was actually somewhat limited. He would explain the weekly challenge to the contestants and then evaluate their performances in one of his infamous boardroom showdowns. But the meat of each episode was the high drama and social interactions among the contestants. Omarosa stole the show in that all-important first season.

She was known as the contestant constantly stirring the pot and as notoriously difficult to work with. Fellow contestant Ereka Vetrini said that "Omarosa has a huge issue with power... with Omarosa, it's either her way or it's no way."

Despite the fact that she was fired by Trump in week nine of the 14-week show, producers quickly realized that an "Apprentice" without Omarosa would not have the same degree of tension and drama that had kept audiences in its thrall throughout the first nine episodes -- which is why they brought her back to assist one of the finalists, Kwame Jackson, as he competed in the show's season finale.

Incidentally, it was Jackson, the other African-American contestant on the first season of "The Apprentice", who found his name back in the headlines this week, as Omarosa alleged that there was a tape in which the President had referred to Jackson using the n-word at some point during the taping of the show.

I asked Jackson how he felt about having his former teammate Omarosa bring his name into the middle of her tell-all media tour, and he said, "I'm not going down that rabbit hole. The nation has bigger fish to fry than to worry about Omarosa. I tried to warn America -- well before he was elected -- about the dangers Donald Trump presented both at home and across the globe. Only now is America really seeing what kind of leader we have in the White House."

How much weight Omarosa and her tapes ultimately carry will depend on what's on them. If, in fact, they contain compromising content, they could imperil the presidency, giving Omarosa the unique distinction of being the person who was there as Trump began his rise to the presidency and the person front and center as his presidency spiraled out of control.

For now, all she has to do is feed the media some new secret recordings from her time in Trump's orbit, and Omarosa regains a vice grip on the daily news cycle.

And for those of us in the media watching this affair play out from afar, the irony of having Trump's scorned apprentice coming back to dethrone her former mentor is too good a storyline to ignore.