This time, the group includes an ex-governor, three athletes, two wrestlers, two singers, two comics and a cook.

And all but one will be told, “You’re fired!”

Donald Trump puts another set of familiar faces through business paces throughout New York as the third round of “The Celebrity Apprentice” begins Sunday on NBC. The new players include Rod Blagojevich, formerly the top-ranking politician of Illinois, and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” music star Cyndi Lauper.

Also on board and in the boardroom: former Mets and Yankees baseball icon Darryl Strawberry, ex-sprinter Michael Johnson; swimmer-turned-television host Summer Sanders; reality- and competition-show personality Sharon Osbourne; actress Holly Robinson Peete; comedians Carol Leifer and Sinbad; ex-wrestler Bill Goldberg and WWE member Maria Kanellis; former Poison lead singer Bret Michaels; chef Curtis Stone; and model Selita Ebanks.

Even before the new airings of “The Celebrity Apprentice” debut, real estate tycoon Trump has reason to feel good about the results. He proudly reports that a recent survey of TV series placed his as “No. 1 in product placement, ahead of ‘American Idol’ and ‘Project Runway.’ It’s amazing.”

Also important, Trump acknowledges, is the combination of personalities that makes up any “Celebrity Apprentice” season: “Trace Adkins came in second on the first (edition), and he’s the No. 1 country singer now. Joan Rivers was doing fine, but she’s doing about five times better now (after playing ‘The Celebrity Apprentice’), and there has been talk of (first-season winner) Piers Morgan joining ‘American Idol’ – so this is a big thing. Everybody wants to be on the show, and the hardest thing is telling everybody ‘no.’ ”

Because of the travel restrictions on him after he was arrested on charges of federal corruption and impeached, Blagojevich couldn’t take part in last summer’s NBC competition “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!” His wife, Patti, did instead, and he appreciates having his shot at the genre now, though he was “not necessarily” seeking such an opportunity.

“We were approached by several producers who had some ideas of reality shows,” Blagojevich recalls. “When you’re accused of things – falsely, I want to emphasize – the government tries to squeeze you into a position where you can’t earn a living, so you’ll come in and admit to something you didn’t do. We didn’t have any income, and like many Americans, we have a mortgage on our home, and we want to keep our kids in the same school. That’s the backdrop to this new experience.

“After representatives of Donald Trump and (fellow ‘Apprentice’ executive producer) Mark Burnett asked if I would be interested, I talked to some people whose advice I respect and decided to do it,” Blagojevich says.

“The irony is that before I was governor, I never watched a single reality show, so I really didn’t know anything about them. I was familiar with ‘You’re fired!’ and all of that, but I never watched a single episode, so I was given the previous season of the series to get ready for what had to be done.”

Beyond what he terms his “modest compensation” as a “Celebrity Apprentice” contender, Blagojevich is glad for the chance to win money for a charity, in his case the Florida-based Children’s Cancer Center.

“I still try to do the best I can to push and fight for the causes I believe in,” he maintains. “Children’s health care was probably the best thing I ever did as governor of Illinois, so raising money to help a center that helps kids with pediatric cancer was another motivation to do the show.”

Trump is glad he could enlist Blagojevich for the show, since he claims “the government tried to stop it. Ultimately, the judge ruled, ‘He hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. How can we stop it?’ Say what you want, he’s got a lot of guts; a lot of guys just crawl into a corner. He’s a big factor in the show, and a lot of people will watch to see how he reacts to things.”

Each person is his or her own personality, but Trump looks for certain traits in any “Celebrity Apprentice” participant.

“The level of celebrity is important,” he notes, “but also the kind of ‘character’ they are. Darryl Strawberry really turned out to be a great character, but sometimes, a well-known person is not good at all (in that way).”

As figure skating star Scott Hamilton said he learned last season, however well someone might know Trump before doing “The Celebrity Apprentice,” it’s strictly business once the game begins.

“Scott is such a smart, terrific guy,” Trump reflects. “He got a little caught up, and he was very loyal to some (other players) he maybe shouldn’t have been so loyal to. It is about the game and how they play it. I really go by how they do, because if I didn’t, I would lose credibility, and the show would suffer greatly.”