Fans of Celebrity Apprentice are about to lose the show's biggest asset as Arnold Schwarzenegger will not be returning to host another season of the show. "I learned a lot, I had a great time, it was a really great opportunity," Schwarzenegger said, speaking exclusively to Empire. "But under the circumstances I don't want to do it again."
"It's not about the show," he explained. "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." Said Schwarzenegger. "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."
Of course as we know Trump blamed the low ratings on Schwarzenegger.
And then just today Trump went after Schwarzenegger again.Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2017
However I would agree with Arnold on this one.Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017
Trump's name is now toxic.
Unless Trump wants to also blame his poor approval ratings, the rejection of Ivanka's clothing line, and small inauguration crowds on Schwarzenegger as well.
Personally I always thought that the contrived conflicts in The Apprentice were an insult to the viewer's intelligence, but apparently there are a number of people in this country with no intelligence to insult.
I would also classify them as "Trump voters."
Update: Arnold responds.
Nicely done.You should think about hiring a new joke writer and a fact checker. https://t.co/SvAjuPdHfa— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) March 4, 2017