Celebrity Apprentice has, in all likelihood, been fired by NBC.
The reality franchise, executive produced by President Donald Trump, is unlikely to return to the network anytime soon.
“It’s really on the shelf, and I don’t think we have any plans to bring it back,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt told The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday after his appearance at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour. “I don’t know when we would start thinking about it again. I think it really is a dry dock.”
Related Stories
News that the competition series is not expected to return is hardly unexpected. Host Arnold Schwarzenegger, who stepped in for Trump only to find out later that the president was still an executive producer on the show, left the franchise following one low-rated season.
“I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett,” Schwarzenegger said in March. “Everyone — from 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.”
Sources told THR at the time that longtime staffers on the reality franchise — a spinoff of Trump-produced The Apprentice — were told earlier this year that it was safe to look for other work.
Schwarzenegger’s season averaged a paltry 1.3 rating among adults 18-to-49 and a decent 4.9 million viewers, including time-shifting.
