The first fourteen seasons of NBC’s popular reality series, The Apprentice , were hosted and co-produced by former president Donald Trump . According to Slate , 18 million people watched the show when it debuted on January 8, 2004, and a record 28 million people tuned in for the first season finale. The show also received an Emmy nomination for Best Reality-Competition Program. As its popularity soared, it transformed Trump’s image from a New York tabloid hustler to a respectable business figure. Fast forward a decade, a new book claims that the Republican leader threw temper tantrums on the set, disrupting the show for hours.
Apprentice in Wonderland by Ramin Setoodeh offers insights into Trump’s time on the reality show. According to Variety , an extract reads, “As time went on, he was finicky about having to wait at all on the set of The Apprentice . If he arrived and the cameras weren’t ready to shoot his scene, he’d storm off and return hours later, just to prove a point. To help track his whereabouts in real time, members of the show’s transportation team were instructed to trail Trump when he took his own car.”
. @RaminSetoodeh shares some of the unbelievable stories he’s collected from writing his latest book, Apprentice in Wonderland. pic.twitter.com/YIzc4HJV1M
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) August 25, 2024
It continued, “Easier said than done. As one driver explains, trying to follow Trump as he sped to his golf course at Briarcliff Manor was an occupational hazard. Trump would run red lights, stomping on the gas and leaving other cars in the dust.” As per People magazine , the book also alleges that the GOP candidate loved theatrics. Sam Solovey, a season one contestant, recalled, “He almost presented himself as a Broadway character. When you go to a Broadway show, there’s a certain manner in which an actor is supposed to stand onstage because they don’t use their hands…Certain aspects of posture, cadence — he adopted all of that.”
“I don’t think people really analyze it, but it clearly was intentional,” Solovey said, in the book . “I believe the way that he presents himself is a larger sort of performance art. Just watching him, everything from the hands, the way he puts his fingers together and claps, the pointing fingers, the length of his ties, always wearing suits. And I don’t think it’s natural—especially the speech pattern and the way he stands. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a tall guy and physically big. It’s all part of a product.”
According to Trump’s account in the book, NBC executives exerted pressure on him to decide against a presidential bid. Steve Burke, the CEO of NBC Universal, attempted to talk him out of it, and Mark Burnett even phoned him regularly to help change his mind. NBC Entertainment chief, Bob Greenblatt, stated, “We talked him out of running for president.” But Trump declined to host the show for five more seasons to pursue a political career. “Steve Burke came up to see me with Paul Telegdy, and essentially said the same thing, ‘We’ll give you anything you want,'” he recalled. “I said, ‘Steve, I just don’t want to do it. I’ve done it enough. I’ve done 14 seasons in 12 years. I don’t need the money. I want to do other things.'”