Did you ever watch "The Apprentice"?

[milestogo]

78 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	No, never
	66 (85%)
	Once
	2 (3%)
	Many times
	9 (12%)
	OTHER
	1 (1%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. No, the whole concept sounded stupid.

I can't figure out why it ever became popular.

[milestogo]

4. I never watched and was barely aware it existed.

But apparently its how a lot of people first encountered Trump. New Yorkers already knew he was an asshole. People across the country formed an impression of him, for better or worse, based on that show.

The first time I was really aware of Trump was way back when he dumped Ivana and made a big show of it. Trophy wife kinda guy, that's my idea of an asshole.

[customerserviceguy]

35. So-called "reality TV"

is nothing more than human cockfighting.

[Hekate]

47. Very well stated

[not_the_one]

59. I don't do FAKE reality teevee. Never did.

There is NOTHING REAL about ANY reality teevee show.

We need to remember how they came about...

It was a screenwriter strike in Hollywood. Rather than make pay/benefits better and ending the strike, they started having CHEAP talent shows. No stars, no big star bills.

They are still relatively cheap, but boy are they GLITZY and SEXY.

Exactly what the American public loves.

We are CHEAP and EASY. THAT is the new, ugly American.

[customerserviceguy]

65. And afternoon TV is worse

Fake judge shows sponsored by attorney firms for those not engaged in actively working.

[mokawanis]

2. Never watched it

Haven't liked Trump since I first became aware of him decades ago. I used to see him on talk shows and thought he was a narcissistic asshole.

[SWBTATTReg]

55. Ditto! nt

[Raftergirl]

3. No.

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. As a general rule, I don't watch "reality" shows.

I’ve never seen a single episode of Survivor, Big Brother, Duck Dynasty, Honey Boo Boo or any of that crap including The Apprentice.

So I wasn’t avoiding it because of the asshole, I just avoid those sort of shows in general.

It’s just not my thing.

[Wounded Bear]

18. I'm pretty much with you. Never cared for the genre...

One I've watched lately is Highway to Hell on the Weather Channel, but on that one they don't spend the whole episode yelling at each other and throwing shit. The tend to spend the episodes correcting problems and helping people.

[LuvNewcastle]

27. I like Pawn Stars.

It's something nice and non-political to watch with my parents when I go visit them. It's funny and there's always some historical and cultural information about the objects people want to sell. But I generally hate reality shows, too. I never saw The Apprentice and never knew it was so popular. I always had the impression that it was sort of a fill-in show, not something that most people made it a point to watch every week. Just a little show to fill that time slot.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

23. "Reality" shows aren't real anyhow - they're staged and scripted.

They're cheap to produce because they don't use union actors, and they set up such weird situations that they're more the modern equivalent of carnival freak shows.

[milestogo]

25. I watched one back in the nineties. Something about a mole.

It was ok, but its the only reality tv show I ever watched.

[BlueTsunami2018]

28. Which is why I put the quotation marks around the word.

Of course you’re right. 👍🏾

[LakeArenal]

53. Do you remember Filthy Rich Cattle Drive?

Courtney Kardashian, Pat Benatar’s daughter I think a daughter of Tommy Hilfiger. Rod Stewart’s son.

[drray23]

36. those you listed are trash reality shows for sure.

i dont watch those. I did watch and enjoyed those that are about wilderness . There is one about people living alone in alaska near the north pole that i like.

[WhiteTara]

41. I agree. This is a terrible concept

and the executives idea of how to fill time because of the writer's strike.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. No, not even a minute's worth

The whole 'reality show' genre sucks hard, but one that plays off cutthroat corporate culture is truly anathema in my eyes.

[smirkymonkey]

21. +1000

I feel exactly the same way. The entire concept was a complete turn-off to me.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

7. So called reality TV makes me want to break something. I've managed to

avoid it ever since MTV started puking it out, back in the day.

[underpants]

8. Watched the first season. The Ivanka started showing up then...Hr

Jr. Not Hr
My wife and I actually laughed out loud. “What the HELL could he POSSIBLY offer to this?”. His contribution was to agree with his father. We stopped watching after that.

The show was only in the top 10 the first season and then the first celebrity one. Other than that it was middle of the pack.

[Demovictory9]

76. I remember them showing up. Ivanka was already using "that voice"

[underpants]

78. Funny, Ivanka got a bit of a pass from us. Not sure why.

The second Jr. showed up on screen (looking, well... like Jr) we both busted out laughing.
My wife works in the corporate world and the ridiculous idea of Jr even being there was just too much for her. Many of the contestants would have blown Jr out of the water on resume alone. Jr wouldn't have even made the first cut of possible interviews.

[Sedona]

9. I watched two or three episodes of the first season

Snoozefest

[murielm99]

10. My husband and I would watch it and sneer.

We wondered what kind of people would agree to be on that show. We knew it was an extended commercial for trump and the brands he chose to tout. We did not watch it all the time, though. We watched it enough to see how idiotic it was.

[Arkansas Granny]

11. Out of curiosity, I watched it once when it first came out.

I didn't care for it. Not entertaining at all.

[brewens]

12. Hell No! As far as so-called reality TV, I only watched The Deadliest Catch for awhile. n/t

[milestogo]

26. That one is actually interesting, although I didn't think of it as reality tv.

[Beartracks]

31. It's more like a documentary.

Most reality tv involves real(ish) people but in fabricated situations.

========

[drray23]

37. I liked deadliest catch as well.

This puts into perspective how hard these folks work so that we can have crab legs at the local restaurant.

[brewens]

39. My uncle was an outfitter at Homer and knows the Hillstrands. A friend of mine

introduced Phil Harris to his first wife. If I could have gotten up there a few years ago, I could have gotten a tour of the Time Bandit. One of my cousins met those guys and got on there.

[SonofDonald]

44. -I knew Phil Harris and went to high school

With his engineer/ relief skipper Murray Gamrath, I've sat in the bar with Phil more than once over the years

I also crabbed from 1981-89 so I watch the series all the time, I can go fishing with the guys and not get tired or soaking wet

I wouldn't last a day on deck these days though, crabbing ended up permanently disabling me by age 50

But the memories......

I remember hearing dumpf wanting to copyright the phrase "Your fired" way after I knew I never wanted to watch his show

I think we all knew way back then he was a pile of dog droppings with lips

[miyazaki]

13. It was a crock. He always fired the wrong person. nt

[UniteFightBack]

14. Yes...when it first came on I watched it a few seasons and then it got old. nt

[pnwest]

15. More than once, less than many times.

Caught a few episodes of celebrity apprentice.

[AllaN01Bear]

16. Tried to a couple of times but couldnt stomach it.

[Dem4Life1102]

17. Never did

And I chastised people who did as well as those who brought Trump products

[Grammy23]

19. Never watched an episode but saw clips of the show.

Just from that, I knew it was not a show I’d like. I never knew what others saw in it that would make them want to watch it. tRump was an ass then and is a bigger ass now.

[irisblue]

20. CBS Movie of the Week, Ivana Trump. Jan 1996

Is the first time I can recall hearing about them

[LeftInTX]

54. Hee, hee!!! It's available free and legit on Tubi

https://tubitv.com/movies/399322/ivana_trumps_for_love_alone

[irisblue]

56. And the guy who plays trump

Is Stephen Collins, a pedophile.

https://popculture.com/celebrity/2019/11/07/disgraced-7th-heaven-dad-stephen-collins-spotted-iowa-amid-retreat-public-eye/


Creepy to creepy

[LeftInTX]

61. I remember him

I Googled the actress that played Ivana. Her career never took off, yet from the clip she appears to have potential.

[Kali]

22. watched one episode (on you tube) a couple of months ago

because of one of the contestants - was it the one of Omarosa? I don't even remember. all that I do remember is the whole thing was as stupid as I imagined it would be. I don't have a very positive opinion on reality shows or tee vee in general, but that was even worse than usual.

[Thyla]

24. The British version, yes.

[kentuck]

29. Never.

"You're fired!" had no appeal to me.

[subterranean]

33. The "You're fired" catchphrase was the only reason I was aware

that Donald Trump was involved with the show. Knowing that made me even less interested in watching it.

[Bluepinky]

30. Didn't like Trump back then and never watched it.

[Iwasthere]

32. Those that watched also likely tuned in to Honey Boo Boo

[Beartracks]

34. The first few seasons, actually. And it was...

... through watching this show that we came to see Trump as an empty suit. They definitely edited the show bigly to try to make his random, unfair assessments and firings seem like part of some mystical business genius. The challenges faced by the contestants also quickly got silly. The whole thing got hokey, worthy contestants were not rewarded, the winners didn't really get a "dream job," and the Celebrity versions continued the downward spiral.

========

[unblock]

42. Right, the "prize" was getting to work for a horrible boss

Other game shows give you money outright

The winner of the apprentice supposedly then had to work for a year to get their prize.

Typical Donnie.

[Shrike47]

38. No. I wasn't really aware of Trump before he ran for president. I don't watch 'reality' tv.

[LiberalArkie]

40. I just simply do not watch reality tv.

I will watch Dr Who, NCIS, Supernatural and many others but no unscripted TV.

[louis-t]

43. I watched the first few episodes. My cousin's kid was

the second one to be fired. I actually got the kid into Real Estate. I also saw one episode with Gene Simmons. That's it, never watched again.

[bcbink]

45. no never

[unblock]

46. I haven't turned the tv on in decades, but mrs. unblock watched it and I sat beside her ;)

Fascinating case study in terrible management.

I thought it was edited and manipulated to create drama for tv, but his tenure as potus proves that he really is that horrendous at management.

He clearly managed based on ass-kissing. He rewarded people for insulting co-workers, even if they lied to do so. He encouraged the worst kind of alpha-male competitive, anti-cooperative behavior.

And he was happy for someone to win a challenge with a terrible product and terrible marketing as long as they could call up a rich friend and get them to come over and cough up money.


Imagine if Gordon Ramsey rewarded his chef contestants if they screwed up the dish but got a friend to bring takeout from a fancy restaurant and presented that as their own. At least on that show Gordon Ramsey seems to be giving high end cooking tips in between berating contestants for being incompetent....

[MH1]

67. I watched it a few times and had a similar reaction.

I mainly watched it because people at work would talk about the episode the day after. After a season or so I just didn't bother. At that point I knew all I ever needed to know about Trump.

I also have to say that my awareness colored my opinion of others at work who kept watching it and who seemed to think there was some value in the show.

[underpants]

82. Yep. You nailed it. It was all about praising him and him pitting people against each other

for his amusement.

I've read several stories about how his "boardroom" decision threw the production in a whirl. It was clear who had been portrayed as being in the "hot seat", production meetings trying to make sure HE KNEW who the choices were,....and Trump went way off the reservation firing someone that no one saw coming. Suddenly they had to find footage that in anyway supported his decision.

I posted above about how my wife and I cracked up at the mere appearance of Jr. I remember us looking at each other saying "Hold it. Why that person?" or, as someone who's watched waaaay too much TV, commenting to my wife about snippets that didn't seem to have any place in the rest of the presentation- reading the stories of his flippant decisions I understand them now.

[DesertRat]

48. Yes, a few times. nt

[shanti]

49. No way

It wasn't even a blip on my radar. He's the last person I'd ever want to watch.

[Hekate]

50. The entire "reality" tv genre makes my skin crawl. I've only never seen the ads for any of them...

...and you couldn't pay me to watch.

Someone upthread called it "human cockfighting" and that seems about right.

[Eliot Rosewater]

51. Never and NOT because I dont like reality shows, I do. I dont like the filthy punk

aka rump and never have, I have known who he is for decades.

[Beringia]

52. I have to admit I did

I watched a lot of reality TV when I lived in Alaska one year with my sister. I also watched Survivor, which I had always hated, because of the cruelty of people to each other, but I dropped my standards that year. Also watched The Amazing Race.

I think it really hit me that trump was a rotten person, when he made this big judgement on Khloe Kardashian when she admitted she went to driving class because of a DUI. And he said he didn't like drinkers and humiliated her.

A lot of celebrities fawned over trump and wanted his approval more than anything, at least on the show.

Cindy Lauper
Marlee Matlin
Gary Busey
Dennis Rodman
George Takei
Joan Rivers

[MatthewG.]

57. Once, for ten minutes.

After Trump’s primary campaign acquired some momentum in 2015 I tried giving this a watch. Gave up after ten minutes - overproduced pablum with contrived, ridiculous use of camera and background music.

[LeftInTX]

58. No

Upstarts competing for a job with an over the top, demanding boss just didn't appeal to me.

I wouldn't want that kind of boss and wouldn't compete in that type of situation so, no. Court TV was more my type of stuff.

[GP6971]

60. Never had the slightest interest to watch it. n/t

[Wawannabe]

62. Hell NO

[NotASurfer]

63. Thinking back on it, I'm reminded of something about losing teams

Frequently the decision about who was kicked out of the contest boiled down to who did the best job of throwing their teammates under the bus. And Glorious Misleader had a front-row seat to decide which methods worked best.

There are times when it seems he intentionally surrounded himself with people he knew were corrupt or inept, so that it would be possible for him to throw somebody under the bus every time his own corrupt or inept intent revealed itself.

[H2O Man]

64. Never.

[IcyPeas]

66. it would be interesting to see

how many people who voted for trump also watched the apprentice. I am convinced a lot of people voted for him because they were fans of the show and consider donald a really smart businessman BECAUSE of that show. We need a Venn diagram.

[helpisontheway]

68. Yes, I watched it every season until he tried to make the first black winner

share the title with the white female runner-up. He did not let Randall Pinkett celebrate. He immediately asked him on live tv to share the title. Trump gave him a sour face when he says no. It was then that I knew he was a racist @sshole and I never watched the show again. He could not stand for this accomplished black man to be his apprentice. The young lady was great too. However, he could have offered her a job outside of the show. Why ask him to share the title? Yes, I have heard that other blacks won the celebrity edition. However, I did not watch those shows.

[Mr. Ected]

69. I despised Donald Trump long before he became a pox

On our republic. Never understood how anyone could look up to him.

[no_hypocrisy]

70. I watched a little when Teresa Giudice (Real Housewives of NJ) was a "contestant".

I was flabbergasted that she continued not to be fired week after week. She was hopelessly useless. And inarticulate.

I later heard that Don Jr. recommended her to be on the show due to her flipping the table at the restaurant in RHONJ. His father castigated him for selecting her because they expected her to bring fireworks to their show with her temper which she was uncharacteristically hiding.

[moondust]

71. Never.

Stupid waste of time. Just as his toying with a life of political self-aggrandizement is a ridiculous waste of time--and much, much worse--now on a global scale.

[Demovictory9]

72. Trump was annoying when on camera but loved the show--pre-celebrity version

stopped watching when Trump started the Birther racist stuff. The producers warned him that it
was turning off african am audience.

[Iggo]

73. To be fair, I don't watch any reality tv, including that show.

EDIT: Except for sports. I do watch sports.

[Akacia]

74. watched snippets of it a couple times but

never sat through an entire episode. Looked stupid to me.

[VOX]

75. Reality shows depress the living shit outta me. All of them.

-They’re a ripping waste of time. Manufactured “crises,” cliffhangers, pseudo-conflicts, “shockers,” etc. All of it = FAKE.
-They contain zero intellectual content. They are the video equivalent of passing through the tabloids at the market check-out line.
-They’re as contrived as a ship in a bottle. Where’s the “reality”?
-They’re comparatively cheap to make. Thus, they are mere “filler,” electronic sausages ground out of dead careers and backwoods idiocy.
-With all the viewing choices and cable programming available today, there is a wealth of decent fare on channels/streaming services like Smithsonian, National Geographic, Science Channel, BritBox, Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc.

And, if that doesn’t suit one’s taste, there’s always a nice, reliable BOOK. Remember those?

[avebury]

77. Reality TV is the dumbing down of society.

It is the 20th (now 21st) century version of sending the people to the coliseum to watch the gladiators kill each other. It serves as a distraction to keep people from paying attention to what is going on in this country.

[doc03]

79. No for one reason I could never stand that

asswipe Trump.

[MuseRider]

80. Donald Trump has

always made me retch, from the very first time I saw that disgusting human I decided to avoid it at every opportunity.

[DFW]

81. No,, we don't get that on German TV, although, now that I think of it.......

I once DID see the cartoon version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" as part of Disney's "Fantasia."

[Backseat Driver]

83. I never watched regularly, but I liked Carolyn when I did -

She seemed helpful and fair to the teams; never liked Ivanka's watchdogging the teams' tasks, and couldn't stand Omarosa's crap, so watched even less - Liked to see how the teams gelled up to work together or not and those that showed some creativity for their success - Trump just wasn't ever a reason for watching.

[Cary]

84. Only because a friend of mine was on

What a stupid, insipid show it was.

[muntrv]

85. I actually saw 2 seasons of it. I stopped watching because many of the contestants

we're also douchebags like Twitler.

[cyclonefence]

86. No, but I do watch the trashiest "reality" show ever

"Love After Lockup," which I discuss with other very, very bright and funny fans on a site called Primetimer, an outgrowth of the late lamented TV Without Pity. There is a lot of fun to be had if you can find someone of like mind to talk with about how awful these people are. I think the discussions on TV Without Pity were the first to use the word "snark."

And that is my shameful secret. I know that Angela is going to take Tony back in spite of the way he has treated her.

[Lunabell]

87. Never

I have hated trump since he came on the scene in the '80's. Such a smug rich boy face I've always wanted to slap.

[Laffy Kat]

88. Nope. Trump has always made me sick.

I never could understand the appeal.

[Raine]

89. Yes, every season of it ...

who on knew a monster was being created, I didn't.

[jpak]

90. Did once - vile and stupid

like his "base"

[bdamomma]

91. I did in the beginning

but then stopped. But his kids were always there, explains a lot, he needs babysitters.

[meow2u3]

92. I don't watch so-called reality TV

The only thing missing from reality TV is the reality. It's all fiction masquerading as fact, just like Trump himself.

[lpbk2713]

93. For a couple of minutes just to see what it was about.

I detested Trump then. I detest him a hell of a lot more now.