Donald Trump has been a familiar face for years, thanks to his business acquisitions and his reality TV programs. However, now that the Celebrity Apprentice figurehead has launched an official bid for the presidency, he may be forced to step away from his NBC reality series. Here’s what the network had to say about his future with the reality program this morning.
We will re-evaluate Trump’s role as host of Celebrity Apprentice should it become necessary, as we are committed to this franchise.
The statement from NBC seems to indicate that the network is taking a wait and see approach with the presidential stuff. It makes sense; Trump isn’t exactly an election frontrunner. Beyond this, Celebrity Apprentice has dealt with a haphazard schedule before, which means that if Trump theoretically needs to take some time away from the series, the show could always pick up at a later date, provided Trump doesn’t end up in the White House.
There is some precedent for Celebrity Apprentice to remain off of the schedule for a little bit. While NBC picked up the reality competition series for Season 15 back in February. Prior to Season 14, the show had been off of the air since 2013, so it has certainly seen long hiatuses before. At the time of the show’s renewal, in fact, NBC didn’t note when we should expect to see the series return to the schedule, just that it would return at some point. Likewise, Celebrity Apprentice didn’t appear on NBC’s fall schedule, although it has often been a midseason replacement series. Throughout, Trump and company have simply rolled with the punches and used whatever airtime was available.
As TV Line noted in a report, Donald Trump isn’t exactly “fired” yet. But Trump’s announcement on Tuesday to run for President should keep him busy for quite some time, considering the primary elections don’t even happen until next spring. The news comes just four years after Trump elected to stick with Apprentice rather than attempt to run for President. He's been flirting with the idea for a long time though.
If NBC does decide to drop Celebrity Apprentice, it’s been on long enough that I’m not sure anyone will really miss it. Ratings have been on a downtick for the last several seasons, to the point where the renewal order from NBC was a little surprising when it happened. It’s probably a good thing Donald Trump is finding other ways to fill his time, no matter how seemingly random those schemes are.
While we wait to hear about Trump’s fate over at NBC, you can take a look at what the network has coming up this summer.
