NBC has no plans to bring back “The Apprentice” or its more-popular “Celebrity Apprentice” spinoff “anytime soon,” the network’s entertainment chief, Bob Greenblatt, told TheWrap on Thursday.
“We don’t have any plans for it at the moment, but I don’t think you’ll see it anytime soon,” he said.
Pressed on what iteration it could return in — perhaps a few years down the road — Greenblatt squashed any notion that NBC is even thinking of airing the show, now that its peak Donald Trump years have passed.
“We literally have put it on the shelf,” he said, during an interview at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills.
“The Apprentice” and its subsequent “Celebrity Apprentice” were hits for NBC in their early years, when Trump hosted the show. They came back down to Earth, ratings-wise, after a couple of seasons.
“The Celebrity Apprentice” was revived in January 2017 with new host Arnold Schwarzenegger, but that run was a ratings disappointment — as the president publicly reminded Schwarzenegger.
Schwarzenegger, who has feuded with Trump this year through social media and the press, has already said he won’t be back should the show return.
Sounds like a nonissue there, Arnie.