Donald and Ivanka Trump during a live filming of “The Celebrity Apprentice” on May 16, 2020, in New York City.Photo:Bill Tompkins/Getty
Bill Tompkins/Getty
Donald Trumpwanted his daughterIvanka Trumpto take overThe Apprenticein his stead, a new book reveals, but NBC had other ideas.
InApprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass, author andVarietyco-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh shares interviews with members of the Trump family, NBC executives and former contestants and boardroom advisers.
Among other topics, the book unpacks Trump’s dream succession plan as he prepared to run for president in 2015. His vision didn’t involve his eventual replacement, actor and former California Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a preview fromVariety.
Donald Trump during “The Apprentice” Season 6 finale at the Hollywood Bowl.Mathew Imaging/FilmMagic
Ultimately, though, the network went in a different direction. “NBC didn’t like it, because it became like a family thing,” Donald says in the book. “But I said, ‘There’s nobody you’re going to hire that will come even close to Ivanka.’ They said, ‘Huh…’ And then they came back with Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger on “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” which ran for one season in 2017.
“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,” Schwarzenegger toldEmpiremagazine. “It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division.”
NBC cut ties with Donald in 2015 over racist remarks he made about Mexican immigrants during his presidential campaign launch, which may not have helped his case to make his children the new face of theApprenticefranchise.
Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric all ended up joining their father on the campaign trail amid the fallout, further distancing themselves from the entertainment world that helped put the Trumps in the spotlight.
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It follows the success of Setoodeh’s 2019 book,Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of “The View,“which landed onThe New York TimesBest Seller list for its exhaustive breakdown ofThe View’s controversies through the years and the show’s grip on American culture.
source: people.com
