Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Won’t Be Returning To The New Celebrity Apprentice

Arnold Schwarzenegger on The New Celebrity Apprentice

While President Trump's victory in the 2016 Presidential Election has affected the country as a whole, it has also rippled through the world of Hollywood and entertainment. And aside from the politically charged acceptance speeches we're likely to see at Awards Ceremonies for the foreseeable future, CBS also had the task of replacing Trump on The Celebrity Apprentice. That role went to actor and former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And while Arnold's big personality seems like a perfect fit for the reality competition show, it turns out that he won't be staying for long.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has just revealed that he's already finished working on The New Celebrity Apprentice forever. After just one season, Schwarzenegger has decided he'd rather not return to the show, if he'd be asked. This reveal comes to us from Empire Magazine, where Schwarzenegger revealed how it was President Trump himself that inspired him to leave his role as host.

Even if asked [to do it again] I would decline. 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.

It looks like all the hate that The New Celebrity Apprentice has been receiving for its association with President Trump has gotten the better of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This should actually not come to much of a surprise, for those who have been following the feud between Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Trump himself. Trump has repeatedly taken to Twitter (duh) to tear down both the new series, as well as Schwarzenegger's hosting abilities. The Governator has been eager to respond back in both text and videos, revealing his apparent disdain for Trump and his administration.

In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger opened up even more to Empire. He revealed that he a great time he had working on The New Celebrity Apprentice, but how the backlash in response to Trump's involvement in the series led many fans to turn their back on the series.

It's not about the show, 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.

It's important to note when The New Celebrity Apprentice actually filmed. Production wrapped nearly a year ago, when Donald Trump was focusing on his campaign. There's no way that the producers at CBS, as well as Arnold and the contestants, could have predicted how the Presidential Election would turn out, or how tumultuous the country would become.

Keep it here with CinemaBlend for updates on The New Celebrity Apprentice as they come in.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.