Without The Apprentice, there would likely be no President Trump. And without Mark Burnett, there would be no Apprentice.
Burnett was the show's executive producer for its entire 14-season run, turning the "floundering D-lister" that was Trump into "the ultimate titan," The New Yorker documents in a new profile. Beneath the surface, showrunners knew Trump "was a fake," Apprentice editor Jonathan Braun said. But it was "our job ... to make it seem otherwise," Braun added.
The Apprentice featured 16 competitors who worked to complete a "weekly series of business challenges," with Trump firing the worst performer each week, The New Yorker writes. But Trump usually had "little grasp of who had performed well" and fired the wrong candidates, as The New Yorker explains below.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
When this happened, Braun said, the editors were often obliged to "reverse engineer" the episode, scouring hundreds of hours of footage to emphasize the few moments when the exemplary candidate might have slipped up, in an attempt to assemble an artificial version of history in which Trump's shoot-from-the-hip decision made sense. During the making of The Apprentice, Burnett conceded that the stories were constructed in this way, saying, "We know each week who has been fired, and, therefore, you're editing in reverse." [The New Yorker]
Braun went on to compare this to now-President Trump's constant firings and resignations, and how Trump often highlights staffers' flaws once they've departed. "I find it strangely validating to hear that they're doing the same thing in the White House," Braun said. Read more at The New Yorker.
-
Delhi's dogs earn Supreme Court reprieveIN THE SPOTLIGHT After an outcry from the public and animal rights activists, India's Supreme Court walks back a controversial plan to round the city's stray dog population into shelters
-
8 hotels with ace tennis courtsThe Week Recommends Bring your A game
-
Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
