Amazon Reportedly Considers ‘Apprentice’ Reboot Starring Donald Trump Jr.

 

Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File

Amazon is reportedly considering a reboot of President Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice, starring his son.

The studio that sank a whopping $75 million into First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary is in the early stages of discussions surrounding a reboot of the television show that skyrocketed then-real estate tycoon Donald Trump to television stardom. The idea entered conversations around the time Trump began his second term, people familiar with the talks told The Wall Street Journal. Amazon MGM Studios also agreed to distribute Melania in that time period.

Executives have reportedly already discussed their pick for the host of the new show, with their eyes on Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr. The studio has not reached out to the Trump family, and an Amazon spokesperson confirmed no host has officially been chosen.

Amazon MGM released original episodes of The Apprentice on its streaming platform last year after acquiring the show’s fourteen seasons with its purchase of MGM in 2022. Some of The Journal’s sources claimed the move to rerelease the show came after a push to make it available following Trump’s win in the 2024 election.

“Since our acquisition of MGM, we have had preliminary internal discussions about what’s next for ‘The Apprentice’ as a property,” said an Amazon spokesman, who noted that the new show is not currently being developed.

Representatives for the White House and the Trump family didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Journal.

The talks to rerelease the once widely popular show come amid studio head Mike Hopkin’s reported move to appeal to different audiences. Other efforts include faith-based programming, former executives told The Journal, and previous ideas surrounding a documentary on Trump’s first inauguration. That project was not made.

What did see the light of day, however, was director Brett Ratner’s movie on Trump’s wife, with Amazon MGM giving Ratner and his team a $40 million production budget. Besides the conversation sparked by the film’s strong box office debut and glitzy premiere, some Democratic lawmakers and Hollywood alums questioned the studio’s motivations for making the movie.

“If there’s nothing corrupt about this deal and the bidding process was truly ‘competitive,’ why won’t Amazon explain why it reportedly paid three times as much as the next highest bidder?” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said of the project. “The logical explanation is that Amazon is trying to buy the President’s favor by dumping millions into the Trump family’s pockets. This looks like bribery in plain sight, and Amazon must give Congress — and the American people — answers now.”

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