“Celebrity Apprentice” will not return until the 2016-2017 season, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt said on Thursday. And when it does, the show will definitely have a new host.
Whether he wins the presidential race or not, Donald Trump will not be attached to the next run of the reality competition series that he spearheaded at NBC.
During a Q&A in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, Greenblatt said “we’re sort of separated” from Trump. Later, when asked flat-out if its even “conceivable” that Trump could return as host, Greenblatt firmly stated “absolutely not” during his Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour session.
That said, Mark Burnett and the network will take their time finding a new host. But there was no pertinent information from Greenblatt about who they were looking at.
NBC previously aired one season of “The Apprentice” featuring Martha Stewart as host in 2005, which ran parallel to Trump’s main “Apprentice” franchise.
In further separating the network from Trump, Greenblatt also revealed they were almost done selling off NBC’s interests in the Miss USA pageant, which is owned by the Trump Organization.
NBC found itself threatened with a lawsuit from Trump when it ended its business relationship with him in June. In an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter, Alan Garten, executive vice president and general counsel of the Trump Organization promised to take legal action against NBC, despite Trump’s arbitration agreement with the network.