The Donald Trump I Saw on The Apprentice
For 20 years, I couldn’t say what I watched the former president do on the set of the show that changed everything. Now I can.On Jan. 8, 2004, just more than 20 years ago, the first episode of The Apprentice aired. It was called “Meet the Billionaire,” and 18 million people watched. The episodes that followed climbed to roughly 20 million each week. A staggering 28 million viewers tuned in to watch the first season finale. The series won an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, and the Television Critics Association called it one of the best TV shows of the year, alongside The Sopranos and Arrested Development. The series—alongside its bawdy sibling, The Celebrity Apprentice—appeared on NBC in coveted prime-time slots for more than a decade.
The Apprentice was an instant success in another way too. It elevated Donald J. Trump from sleazy New York tabloid hustler to respectable household name. In the show, he appeared to demonstrate impeccable business instincts and unparalleled wealth, even though his businesses had barely survived multiple bankruptcies and faced yet another when he was cast. By carefully misleading viewers about Trump—his wealth, his stature, his character, and his intent—the competition reality show set about an American fraud that would balloon beyond its creators’ wildest imaginations.
I should know. I was one of four producers involved in the first two seasons. During that time, I signed an expansive nondisclosure agreement that promised a fine of $5 million and even jail time if I were to ever divulge what actually happened. It expired this year.
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Nearly everything I ever learned about deception I learned from my friend Apollo Robbins. He’s been called a professional pickpocket, but he’s actually a “perceptions expert.” Apollo has spent his life studying the psychology of how we distort other people’s perceptions of reality and has done so by picking pockets onstage for the entertainment of others. He is a master of deception, a skill that made him, back in the day, the so-called best-kept secret in Las Vegas. After “fanning” his marks with casual, unobtrusive touch designed to make them feel safe or at ease, Apollo determines where the items reside—the wallet inside a breast pocket, the Rolex fastened to a wrist—and he removes these items without detection. He’ll even tell you what he intends to steal before he does it. He does this not to hurt people or bewilder them with a puzzle but to challenge their maps of reality. The results are marvelous. A lot of magic is designed to appeal to people visually, but what he’s trying to affect is your mind, your moods, your perceptions.
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https://slate.com/culture/2024/05/donald-trump-news-2024-trial-verdict-apprentice.html
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Maybe you've done it when your favorite football team is already out of the playoffs. So you watch the team that beat your team, and root for them to lose. That's one form of hate-watching.
Maybe there's an actor or actress that you really don't like, and you watch their show hoping to see something awful. I don't know, some people do that, but they don't admit it because it's not very nice.
Well I hate-watched "The Apprentice" for the first season. It was an awful show, and besides that I've never liked reality-TV (the format) anyway. But I've always thought Chump was a complete asshole and I wondered who he had to pay to get his own show. Heh-heh. Now of course I realize that he would never have paid anyone, but I didn't know that at the time.
When the final episode was over I felt so ripped off, that I'd been suckered into watching that awful thing. I thought "Thank God that's over" and they'll never do anything that bad again. The original idea was that each season would feature a different wealthy business tycoon, and I didn't really care who was going to be the next one because I was done.
No other business tycoons took up the offer and they were stuck with Chump year after year. Aaaargh!!
