Amazon is considering a potential reboot of the Donald Trump-hosted reality competition show “The Apprentice” for its Prime Video streamer, according to a report late Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. But the newspaper added that instead of the President at the helm, it would be his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Amazon declined to comment, but told the newspaper that the show wasn’t in active development. “Since our acquisition of MGM, we have had preliminary internal discussions about what’s next for ‘The Apprentice’ as a property,” a spokesperson told the WSJ, but left it at that. Insiders told Variety that the show is currently “not in development” and there have not been “any discussions with anyone outside the company” about producing “The Apprentice” reboot.
If greenlighted, the new “Apprentice” would be the latest effort by Amazon to put the Trump family in the spotlight. In late January, Amazon released “Melania,” a documentary about First Lady Melania Trump, during the weeks leading up to her husband’s second presidential inauguration. Brett Ratner helmed the film, which was lambasted by critics, but it managed to break the record for best opening for a non-fiction feature in the last decade after debuting to $7 million domestically.
The WSJ cited Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins and other Amazon executives as spearheading the potential “Apprentice” revival, noting that Hopkins and company “began talking about the reboot idea internally early last year, around the time Trump was being sworn in for his second term, according to some of the people familiar with the talks.”
Variety has also reached out to reps for “Apprentice” executive producer Mark Burnett for comment.
“The Apprentice” followed a group of would-be entrepreneurs as they compete in a series of challenges testing their business acumen. One by one, they would be eliminated at the whim of Trump, who, with a finger point and his signature scowl, would tell them, “You’re fired,” before they exited the competition. The victor of each season wins the opportunity to be mentored by Trump himself, who, through the lens of the show, is portrayed as an all-knowing, all-powerful mogul of industry. The future president hosted the show for 186 episodes from 2004-2015. It was nominated for nine Emmys during its run and spawned multiple spinoffs, such as “Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.”
In 2024, Trump revealed to Variety’s co-editor-in-chief Ramin Setoodeh that, after he left the show in 2015 to run for president, he told NBC that Ivanka would be his first choice to take over “The Apprentice” as host.
“I said, ‘The best person to hire would be Ivanka Trump,’” he said. “I didn’t press it. But I felt Ivanka would have been by far the best person you could hire.”
The revelation was part of Setoodeh’s reporting for his 2024 book “Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass.”
Source: variety.com
