Amazon is staying in business with the Trumps.
The Wall Street Journal reports Amazon is exploring a potential reboot of President Trump’s NBC reality show The Apprentice for Prime Video. Except this time, Amazon executives reportedly want his oldest son Donald Trump Jr. to host.
The outlet notes discussions are still in the early stages and the Trump family has not been approached about the show just yet.
In a statement to Variety, an Amazon spokesperson said, “Since our acquisition of MGM, we have had preliminary internal discussions about what’s next for The Apprentice as a property. The show is not in active development, and any reporting on details of the show or names of potential hosts would be purely speculative.”
The Apprentice aired on NBC for 15 seasons from 2004 to 2017. The reality competition series challenged entrepreneurs to compete in the “ultimate job interview” in the hopes of landing their dream job at The Trump Organization with a one-year contract for $250,000. The series helped launch Trump to national fame with his signature catchphrase, “You’re fired!”
Trump served as host and executive producer of the series until 2015, when he stepped away to focus on his presidential campaign.NBC eventually cut ties with Trump in 2015 after he made derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. The network continued airing The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice without Trump as host.
This could be his first time hosting, but Trump Jr. is not unfamiliar with the series; he appeared on the original show multiple times as a boardroom advisor.
The Apprentice was added to Amazon’s catalog when it acquired MGM in 2022. Prime Video later made The Apprentice available to stream for the very first time soon after Trump began his second term.
This reboot could be the streamer’s latest attempt at capitalizing on Trump’s presidency and appealing to conservative viewers.
The streamer also explored developing a documentary chronicling Trump’s first inauguration, but they opted not to move forward with that project.
In a hefty deal that raised some eyebrows, Amazon agreed to pay $40 million to distribute the Melania Trump’s documentary Melania, which chronicled the days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration. According to WSJ, the price was almost triple the highest bid on the movie, and the First Lady was reportedly guaranteed 70% of it.
Directed by disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner, the documentary earned $7 million in the domestic box office but earned abysmal reviews.
Prime Video is also streaming home to the controversial Trump feature The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump during his rise as a businessman under Roy Cohn’s (Jeremy Strong) mentorship.
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s presidential campaign, called the film “garbage” and “pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”