Arnold Schwarzenegger not returning to Celebrity Apprentice — renewal unlikely to begin with
In a new interview with Empire Magazine, the movie star / former California Governor confirmed that he wouldn’t be coming back to the show, and it absolutely seems like the show’s relationship with Donald Trump is a big part of the reason why:
“It’s not about the show, because everyone I ran into came up to me and said ‘I love the show… but I turned it off because as soon as I read Trump’s name I’m outta there!’ … NBC did everything they could to promote the show and [producer] Mark Burnett did a fantastic job. No one really knew that this was going to happen and I think that everyone was caught off guard.
“When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it.
“Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline … With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division.”
This is the real unfortunate thing with the show and the franchise this year. Despite Trump having little to no relationship with the show, his name was still in the credits and that was enough (plus a small fee) to keep people away. This was a big detriment to the ratings, and the overall enjoyment of the show. Trump supporters didn’t want to watch because he mocked it, and Trump haters didn’t want to support the current President.
In the end, we don’t think any of this matters given that the show’s almost surely not coming back. It’s too much of a headache for NBC and the ratings don’t make it worthwhile. The sad thing is that Trump will probably claim that the show was canceled because he wasn’t on it, but that is probably not the case — it’s more the show losing viewers because of him. This season proved that you don’t need Trump for this show to be entertaining.
What do you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger not returning to Celebrity Apprentice? Share in the comments below! (Photo: NBC.)