Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to replace Donald Trump on the NBC reality series The Celebrity Apprentice.
According to reports, The Celebrity Apprentice has named the actor and twice-elected California governor as the new host of the reality business competition series.
Schwarzenegger will replace Donald Trump, who quit the show after he announced his presidential campaign in June.
The network first said it planned to “re-evaluate” Donald Trump's role on the reality show, which started 10 years ago, in June when Trump announced he was going to become a president. At the time, NBC's cut all times with Donald Trump in July after he made what NBC called a “derogatory statement” about Mexican immigrants. In a June 16, speech, he referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and as people bringing drugs and rapists into the United States in a speech announcing his presidential campaign.
In addition to cutting Donald Trump from Celebrity Apprentice, NBC also dropped the Miss USA pageant.
Despite being on TV for 10 years, Celebrity Apprentice apparently had pretty good ratings. ”
The most recent season averaged a 2.4 rating among adults 18-49 despite the nearly yearlong gap between the start of production in early 2014 and the season's debut in January 2015. The show was renewed in February. However, NBC announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that the series would not return until the 2016-2017 season.
In fact, Bob Greenblatt, the network chief of NBC, said dozens of people were hoping to take Donald Trump's spot.
At the tour, network chief Bob Greenblatt said that the network had been “overwhelmed by a number of really exciting people” hoping to fill the host spot left vacant by Trump. “As soon as we settle on someone, we will get the word out, and something tells me it will be big news,” he said.
But, Arnold Schwarzenegger may need the job a lot more than the contestants. Since leaving office in 2011, every movie Schwarzenegger movie bombed in the domestic box office. Most recently, Terminator Genisys and The Expendables films barely made a dent in the box office domestically.
“After leaving the show to run for political office, Donald made it clear that he wanted The Celebrity Apprenticeto be able to continue to raise millions of dollars annually for worthy causes, and now NBC and I have found an amazing new leader to do just that,” said executive producer Mark Burnett in a statement. “Gov. Schwarzenegger will use his vast and highly successful business, political and media experience to drive this hit franchise to new heights.”
Schwarzenegger will also serve as an executive producer on The Celebrity Apprentice.
