‘The Apprentice’ made Trump a reality TV mogul. Now Amazon is putting it back in the spotlight
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More than two decades ago, Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice” became a ratings winner and remade his image as a successful business mogul in a way that would eventually launch him in the nation’s highest office. The show is back in the spotlight, after Amazon on Monday announced that the first seven seasons are coming to its Prime Video streaming service.
It’s the latest example of Amazon and Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos’ embrace of the Trump family media projects. Amazon previously signed a deal to release a documentary on First Lady Melania Trump that will be shown in theaters and on its streaming platform later this year.
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There is huge audience interest in Trump, with more than 77 million people having voted for him in November. Many supporters, including ardent fans, weren’t old enough to tune into “The Apprentice” when it aired on NBC.
Others may want the opportunity to rewatch it.
“Clearly one can have the theory that this is Bezos putting out another bit of Trump propaganda,” said Robert Thompson, professor of television and director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “But there are a lot of reasons for putting the show out there. It stars the most famous person on planet Earth.”
Amazon dropped the first season of the series Monday and will release a different season each week for U.S. viewers.
“I look forward to watching this show myself,” Trump said in a statement. “Such great memories, and so much fun, but most importantly, it was a learning experience for all of us!”
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‘Money, money, money, money’
The original version of the reality show ran for seven seasons on NBC from 2004 to 2010 and became an instant sensation.
The first episode, titled “Meet the Billionaire,” featured the funky “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays, the show’s theme song throughout its run. “What if … you could have it all?” the series asked.
The show brought a massive American TV audience to Trump, the high-flying New York real estate mogul who had been struggling with a string of business bankruptcy filings. On “The Apprentice,” Trump was depicted as a larger-than-life, wildly successful and decisive boardroom boss, who ad-libbed what would become the show’s catchphrase, “You’re fired.”
When the initial concept waned in popularity, the show was revamped as “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2008. Trump hosted that version too, until NBC cut ties with him after he announced his presidential run in 2015.
The show was hugely important to NBC and its then-chief, Jeff Zucker, who at the time was looking to step up the network’s reality television game after the success of “Survivor” on CBS and “American Idol” on Fox. NBC also was desperate to find a replacement for its sitcom “Friends,” and “The Apprentice” helped plug the gap.
A ratings coup
During its first season, “The Apprentice” drew 20.7 million viewers over eight episodes, which would end up being its most-watched season, according to NBC. The show helped fuel Trump’s obsession with crowd sizes and ratings.
“It’s all about one thing: ratings,” Trump reportedly told journalist Ramin Setoodeh for his book “Apprentice in Wonderland,” which was published last year. “If you have ratings, you can be the meanest, most horrible person in the world.”
Eventually, in later seasons and “The Celebrity Apprentice,” Trump was joined in the boardroom by his three oldest children — Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric Trump — which helped turn them into media personalities too.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, a controversial first-season contestant, went on to become a high-profile Trump advisor at the White House before she was fired. But Trump was always the star.
Mark Burnett, the prolific producer behind “The Apprentice,” “Survivor” and “Shark Tank,” is discovering what it means to be on the harsher side of reality.
Mark Burnett’s ‘urban jungle’
“The Apprentice” was executive produced by Trump and reality TV impresario Mark Burnett.
Burnett was the bigger star when the show debuted. The now 64-year-old former British paratrooper, who once hawked T-shirts on Venice Beach, was searching for a follow-up show that would be less physically grueling than his CBS hit, “Survivor.”
“The idea for ‘The Apprentice’ came straight from my brain while I was in the Amazon shooting ‘Survivor 6,’” Burnett told The Times in 2004. “I was sitting there in the jungle with every bug, snake and crocodile, thinking there had to be a better way to make a living. That’s when I started thinking: urban jungle.”
Burnett and Trump’s television fortunes became intertwined and their friendship grew. When Trump married Melania Knauss in 2005, one of Burnett’s sons was the ring bearer. Although “Survivor” has had greater longevity, this program was the one to help mint a president.
“‘The Apprentice’ is one of the best shows that I ever produced,” Burnett said in a statement. “The charismatic onscreen presence of President Donald J. Trump made it a bona fide hit!”
Trump recognized Burnett’s skills as a producer, and tapped him to help plan his 2017 inauguration festivities. Over the years, Trump reportedly earned more than $200 million for his role in the show.
In December, Trump named Burnett as special envoy to the United Kingdom.
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What was the controversy surrounding ‘The Apprentice’?
In the immediate aftermath of the leak of the infamous “Access Hollywood” video, in which Trump was heard bragging to then-host Billy Bush about being able to grope women because he was a TV star, there was a firestorm over what damaging, candid behind-the-scenes footage might exist from “The Apprentice.”
After the Bezos-owned Washington Post published the contents of the 2005 audiotape, former “Apprentice” producer Bill Pruitt said in a social media post that “there are far worse” Trump comments caught on tape. Trump critics, including a representative of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, called for the outtakes to be released.
Former employees were reminded that those who violated their nondisclosure agreements would face financial penalties.
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How did Amazon get the rights to ‘The Apprentice’?
In 2014, Burnett sold part of his company to one of Hollywood’s original film studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The following year, he sold the rest of his Mark Burnett Productions to MGM in a $500-million deal.
Amazon acquired MGM three years ago in a $8.5-billion deal, which gave the tech giant a catalog of more than 4,000 film titles, including the James Bond and “Rocky” franchises, plus such classics as “The Silence of the Lambs” and, of course, “The Apprentice.”
Burnett exited Amazon in 2022. Prior to Prime Video, seasons of “The Apprentice” appeared on streaming service Tubi through a deal signed in 2019. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. bought Tubi the next year for $440 million.
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