"The Apprentice" (2004) TV series 2004-????

Creator:

Mark Burnett

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Release Date:

8 January 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Game-Show | Reality-TV

Tagline:

The ultimate job interview

Plot:

A reality-tv based show in which contestants compete for a job as an apprentice to billionaire American Donald Trump.

Plot Keywords:

Task | Team | Boardroom | Competition | Business

Awards:

Nominated for 9 Primetime Emmys. Another 10 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Donald Trump	...	Himself / ... (115 episodes, 2004-2009)
Robin Himmler	...	Herself / ... (74 episodes, 2004-2006)
Carolyn Kepcher	...	Herself (68 episodes, 2004-2006)
George Ross	...	Himself / ... (65 episodes, 2004-2009)

Also Known As:

Celebrity Apprentice (USA) (seventh season title)
The Apprentice 2 (USA) (second season title)
The Apprentice Los Angeles (USA) (sixth season title)
The Apprentice USA (UK)
The Celebrity Apprentice (USA) (eighth season title)
Diili (Finland) [fi]
El aprendiz (Argentina) [es]
El aprendiz 2 (Argentina) [es]

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Argentina:Atp | Malaysia:U | Australia:PG | USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Trump Productions LLC

Trivia:

The contestants had to keep their cell phones in "walkie-talkie" mode to make sure they weren't cheating by using connections made prior to the show or by making private phone calls.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the episode where Audrey is fired, she is seen in the boardroom and lobby wearing a dress. When she walks out onto the street and into the taxi, she is clearly wearing pants.

Quotes:

Kwame Jackson: [Nick and Kwame are disagreeing over potentially misleading people by selling autographs] Someone asks me who I was, I say, "I'm Kwame Jackson from Charlotte, North Carolina."
Nick Warnock: How would you explain to the little boy whose father makes five dollars an hour? His father had to work two hours to get that ball.
Kwame Jackson: I didn't sell the kid crack!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "What the Buck?!: The Pussycat Dolls Pick New Pussy (#1.1)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

For The Love Of Money

Used to love it - now it's just embarrassing to watch

For the first couple of seasons, I thought The Apprentice was a highly engaging and exciting show. The combination between reality TV and a 16 week job-interview was innovative, and the producers of the show managed to keep the show relevant and not too "out there".

The new season 6 is nothing more than a big joke and it has absolutely nothing to do with business - at all. In the earlier seasons they used to put a lot more emphasis on the business-related tasks - now the focus is mostly in the boardroom where the contestants are expected to do EVERYTHING to keep them on the show (that means lying, trash-talking, backstabbing etc.). The boardroom can be entertaining to watch, but it's entertainment at it's low-point - Sometimes you wonder if you are watching a repeat of an old Jerry Springer episode. The tasks on the show are, at most, boring and mostly a showcase for the companies who are dumb enough to pay NBC for the publicity. And what is the deal about half of the contestants living in tents in season 6? That is just plain stupid and has nothing to do with business in real-life.

I have absolutely NO respect for any of the contestants this season, they all seem like idiots to me. In earlier seasons at least some of the contestants had a bit of integrity, now it seems like the contestants would kill their own mother to keep them on the show. It also seems like Donald Trump's massive ego becomes bigger and bigger for every season that pass by and to be honest, I can't see why anyone with a common sense would want to work for him. His rationality in the boardroom mostly doesn't make any sense at all and sometimes it seems he just like to trash people for what it's worth.

R.I.P The Apprentice. Please NBC, for God's sake, get the show off the air as soon as possible. It's just too embarrassing to watch. The Apprentice was once a great TV-show, but now it's just a big fat joke.