Amazon is considering a possible reboot of the Donald Trump-hosted reality competition show “The Apprentice” for its Prime Video streamer, the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday. But the newspaper added that his son, Donald Trump Jr., rather than the president, would be at the helm.
Amazon declined to comment, but told the paper the show is not in active development. An Amazon spokesperson told Variety: “Since acquiring MGM, we have had preliminary discussions internally about the next move for ‘The Apprentice’ as a property. The show is not in active development, and any reports regarding details about the show or the names of host candidates are purely speculative.” A source told Variety that the company has not had “discussions with anyone outside the company” about producing a reboot of “The Apprentice.”
If approved, the new “The Apprentice” would be Amazon’s latest effort to shine a spotlight on the Trump family. In late January, Amazon released “Melania,” a documentary about first lady Melania Trump in the weeks leading up to her husband’s second presidential inauguration. The film, directed by Brett Ratner, was panned by critics, but it grossed $7 million domestically, setting a new record for the highest opening for a nonfiction feature in the past decade.
WSJ cited Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins and other Amazon executives as spearheading a potential revival of The Apprentice, noting that Hopkins and others “started discussing the idea internally early last year, around the time President Trump was inaugurated for his second term, according to some people familiar with the talks.”
Variety also reached out to a representative for “The Apprentice” executive producer Mark Burnett for comment.
“The Apprentice” follows a group of would-be entrepreneurs as they compete in a series of challenges that test their business acumen. One by one, they were eliminated on the whim of President Trump, who, before stepping out of the competition, announced with a raised finger and his signature grimace, “You’re fired.” The winner of each season will have the opportunity to be mentored by President Trump himself. President Trump is portrayed through the show’s lens as an all-knowing, all-powerful industry mogul. The future president hosted the show for 186 episodes from 2004 to 2015. It was nominated for nine Emmy Awards during its run and spawned multiple spin-offs, including “The Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.”
In 2024, President Trump told Variety magazine co-editor Ramin Setoudeh that he told NBC that Ivanka was his first choice to host “The Apprentice” after he left the show to run for president in 2015.
“I said, ‘The best person to hire is Ivanka Trump,'” he said. “I didn’t ask for it, but I felt that Ivanka would be the best person to hire.”
The revelations were part of a report in Setoude’s 2024 book, “An Apprenticeship in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett See America Through the Looking Glass.”
