Arnold Schwarzenegger has been named the new host of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” the network announced Monday.
The former governor will replace Donald Trump, who left the program after he decided to run for president in the 2016 election.
Schwarzenegger served two terms as governor of California, managing more than 300,000 state employees and a budget in the hundreds of billions. He has successfully invested in both real estate and sports franchises, and is known to millions globally for his starring role in blockbuster films like the “Terminator” franchise, “Conan The Barbarian” and “True Lies.”
Schwarzenegger moved to the United States from Austria at 21 years of age and was best known at the time for his bodybuilding endeavors. He would eventually become the youngest Mr. Universe and a seven-time Mr. Olympia winner. By the age of 30, Schwarzenegger was a millionaire, well before his career in Hollywood. His financial independence came from his success as a budding entrepreneur with a series of successful business ventures and investments.
“Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of a global brand in entertainment and business, and his accomplishments in the political arena speak for themselves,” Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late night programming for NBC, said. ”
It was Arnold’s personal passion for the format that Mark Burnett and Donald Trump built over the last decade, as well as his fresh take on how to take it to new heights for today’s audiences, that made him the man to hire,” Telegdy continued. “‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ … will be back!”
“The Celebrity Apprentice” is produced by United Artists Media Group. Mark Burnett, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Page Feldman and Eric Van Wagenen are executive producers.
Schwarzenegger is represented by Creative Artists Agency and attorneys Patrick Knapp and Jacob Bloom of Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal.