Producer initially embarrassed about number put on (7)
I believe the answer is:
pretend
'put on' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'producer initially embarrassed about number' is the wordplay.
'producer initially' becomes 'p' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'embarrassed' becomes 'red' (someone may blush or go red when embarrassed).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'number' becomes 'ten' (ten is a kind of whole number).
'red' placed around 'ten' is 'retend'.
'p'+'retend'='PRETEND'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pretend that I've seen before include "Profess falsely" , "keep up appearances" , "Dissemble" , "bluff" , "Imaginary, make-believe" .)