Commentary

'New Celebrity Apprentice' Shaping Up As Oddest Show Of The New Year

“The New Celebrity Apprentice” is shaping up to be an oddity unique in the annals of television.

At the very least, it is emerging as the most peculiar new-show premiere of the new year. 

First off, although I am no presidential historian, I am fairly certain that no sitting president has ever taken an executive producer’s credit on a reality TV show. And yet, here we are: Donald Trump says he intends to continue as an EP whose name you will likely see in the credits for this show when it premieres Jan. 2 on NBC.

While Trump certainly received enough support to be elected president of the United States, it remains to be seen, following this divisive election, whether his name on a prime-time TV show will be a benefit or a detriment.

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My prediction leans more toward the former because something tells me that very few Hillary Clinton supporters were ever regular viewers of “The Celebrity Apprentice” in the first place. Trump fans probably watched it, though, and it turns out there are a lot of those.

Then there is the Arnold Schwarzenegger question. In many ways, he is an appropriate choice to play the role of this show’s fictional chairman of the boardroom -- former bodybuilding champion, star of iconic action movies, ex-governor of California, man with an Austrian accent that comedians love to imitate and make fun of. In addition, he presumably has various business interests.

But he is also a scandal figure. He had sex with his housekeeper and had a child with her. This led to his divorce from Maria Shriver, who many people seem to like (not least because she’s a member of the Kennedy family -- one of the “good” Kennedys, you might say).

Some people look at Schwarzenegger now and are repelled by him. Here again, however, these people are not likely candidates for the fan base of “The New Celebrity Apprentice.”

And let’s face it, these detriments might turn out to be benefits for one reason the TV business has long relied upon - -namely, that scandals and controversies have the potential to draw attention to a TV show more often than not.

If that is the case, and “The New Celebrity Apprentice” attracts ample sampling for its premiere, then the show will live or die going forward based on its lineup of contestants, the challenges they will be faced with each week, and the drama of the boardroom in which Arnold will fire one of them.

Will he adopt Trump’s catchphrase “You’re fired”? Believe it or not, people will be tuning in precisely to find that out.

As for the lineup of contestants the show has recruited for this “Celebrity Apprentice” reboot, they are mostly the kinds of personalities who not too long ago would never qualify as “celebrities.” Today, however -- thanks chiefly to a 15-year stretch of these kinds of reality TV shows – the word “celebrity” has become nothing if not elastic.

It now encompasses all kinds of people. Running down the list of contestants for “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” I find that I have never heard of many of them. And that’s not because I’m out of the loop with our popular culture. As is customary, I don’t blame myself; I blame the culture we have in which almost anyone qualifies as a “celebrity” these days.

Here are the contestants I had to Google after I read their names: Matt Iseman (host of “American Ninja Warrior” on NBC), Carrie Keagan (some kind of a host on Bravo, also owned by NBC), Lisa Leslie (WNBA star -- sort of knew her), Chael Sonnen (ultimate-fighting guy), Porsha Williams (not sure who she is even after reading NBC’s bio on her) and Ricky Williams (former college football star).

In addition to them, the cast is rife with reality-TV retreads -- Snooki, Carnie Wilson, Vince Neil, Kyle Richards and Carson Kressley. Laila Ali, Boy George and Brooke Burke are in it too -- hardly a group worth tuning in for. Who else? Jon Lovitz and NFL great Eric Dickerson.

All this, and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump too (at least in the credits, if not in person). What more could a person ask for in the new year?

2 comments about "'New Celebrity Apprentice' Shaping Up As Oddest Show Of The New Year".
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  1. John Grono from GAP Research, December 14, 2016 at 7:17 p.m.

    Looking forward to President Apprentice in the New Year.

  2. Steve Beverly from Union Broadcasting System, December 14, 2016 at 11:28 p.m.

    Adam, it's like the "celebrities" who play game shows now.  Half of them are unknowns to the genre's audience because the networks think that will attract younger viewers.  Rarely works.

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