Arnold Schwarzenegger has quit The New Celebrity Apprentice, saying it has become tainted by Donald Trump’s involvement.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Empire, the actor and former California governor claimed that low ratings were due to President Trump’s credit as executive producer.<\/p>\n
He said he would like to work “on a show that doesn’t have this baggage”.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump – who left the show to run for the White House – has previously ridiculed his TV boardroom successor.<\/p>\n
In Friday’s interview, Mr Schwarzenegger claimed an anti-Trump social media campaign had impacted the ratings of the show, on which he debuted in January.<\/p>\n
“When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it,” said the former Mr Universe.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about the show… because everyone I ran into came up to me and said, ‘I love the show… but I turned it off because as soon as I read Trump’s name I’m outta there!’<\/p>\n
“It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division,” he said, adding that he would decline if asked to host again.”<\/p>\n
Mr Schwarzenegger has often clashed on Twitter with Mr Trump.<\/p>\n
Last month at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC, Mr Trump mockingly asked people to “pray for Arnold… for those ratings”.<\/p>\n
He said the show had been swamped “in comparison to the ratings machine, DJT”, using his own initials.<\/p>\n
The show, whose 15th season ended last month, averaged fewer than five million viewers per episode.<\/p>\n
New York real estate businessman Mr Trump became a household name as the show’s host for 14 seasons.<\/p>\n
Some 20 million Americans were regular watchers in its first year before the viewing figures tapered to six million for Mr Trump’s last episode.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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