Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC Entertainment, which produces The Apprentice blasted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a private Facebook message that has since been deleted, reports the New York Post.
Greenblatt took his NBC role in 2011 when The Celebrity Apprentice was already running, but continued airing the show for four more seasons with Trump as host.
A NYP source noted the irony: “Greenblatt can be credited as the man who helped make Trump more famous, and appeared at the time to be delighted by the ratings.”
Indeed, at the recent Television Critics Association Press Tour, Greenblatt was asked if exposure on the Apprentice may have helped Trump boost his profile, enabling his run for the presidency.
“I think it’s certainly interesting, and we do talk about it,” Greenblatt said. “Bedtime for Bonzo helped Reagan, sort of, become a national prominent figure. Gary Trudeau was predicting that Donald Trump would run for president 15 years ago, before he was on The Apprentice. So you know, we were happy to have a show that was doing really well with a guy who was a big TV star, and it’s impossible to predict where it goes from there. I think it’s surprised all of us that he would want to do this, but I guess that’s what ‘s great about this country. But I don’t think that there’s really that much of a correlation, one to the other. I think he’s been a prominent figure for so many years that it’s probably not surprising that he would embark on this kind of journey, but it is interesting that he was on the show for so long and now he’s sort of on the national stage the way he is.”
Greenblatt also insisted to the assembled TV reporters in Beverly Hills, that Trump would never be back on Celebrity Apprentice, “as long as I’m here.”
An Arnold Schwarzenegger-helmed version of Celebrity Apprentice is set to air in 2017.
Anywho. How about those poll numbers! Watching Donald Trump’s bizarre run for the presidency is like witnessing a massive trainwreck followed by a gigantic dumpster fire.
