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Schwarzenegger quits as Apprentice host, a job he was terrible at

Schwarzenegger quits as Apprentice host, a job he was terrible at
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick Knapp Schwarzenegger at a press event for The New Celebrity Apprentice, which Arnold has now quit. (Photo by Paul Drinkwater/NBC)
Date published  |  updated

After hosting the show for just one season, Arnold Schwarzenegger has quit The Celebrity Apprentice, blaming the show’s “baggage.”

In a statement, he said:

“I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone — form the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department — was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage.”

He does not specify what the baggage is, but it may have something to do with the president of the United States earning money from the show.

Update: In an earlier interview with Empire, Schwarzengger said:

“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.”

Earlier: Or that may just be a convenient excuse to exit a show that had low ratings in part because of how terrible Schwarzenegger was at his job. The most notable part about his hosting was how it retained Trump’s sexism and misogyny.

Let’s also not forget that he’s quitting a show that may not be renewed, which is a bit like jumping overboard a boat that already sunk.

Meanwhile, Radar published a report that the show is considering rebooting with a political theme and a cast of politicians. Or maybe better, how about a cast of zombies, because the show feels pretty dead to me right now.

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  • Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.

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