The Apprentice of What?
Last week, while watching TV, I realized the new season of The Apprentice had begun. I remember when there was talk about casting for the new season, but I don’t recall seeing much press or advertising about when the premiere would air. Although I have not watched the show since the first or second season, I actually looked forward to this year – the year of the “unemployed” cast.
Back in April of this year, The Apprentice held an open casting call here in Atlanta. The casting call was framed as an opportunity for the unemployed. In fact, much of the local press expressed an explicit focus on those without jobs. In short, Eric and I went to the casting hoping to speak with some of the “unemployed” to hear their stories – post-Apprentice interview, of course. But to our surprise, we could not find one unemployed person, and only three people from Atlanta – one of which was the event photographer. There was even a guy who took a Greyhound bus from DC. Still, most of the applicants we met were either entrepreneurs or actors waiting for their fifteen minutes.
Believe it or not, we even saw Tailor-Made from I Love New York 2. We met aspiring models, a guy with a white-pinstriped suit (the suit was white and pinstripes were purple…. nice), and a host of others that thought we were somehow part of the producer staff because we had a clip board and set of interview questions. All of these I am sure Mr. Trump would have loved to hire.
However, what was truly unfortunate was the reality for the handful of people we met with actual desires to compete and showcase their business acumen on The Apprentice, because the show is no longer about that. Anyone with a genuine interest in what the initial intent of the show was should have attended casting calls three years ago. Then, the cast probably was 80% business talent and 20% personality-draw. Now the show appears to be almost entirely personality driven. Get interesting people on the show, whether business savvy or not, because ratings matter most. It’s not like anyone will really get a job with Trump, even if they win. If the show title was more transparent, it would be The Apprentice for Reality TV… and nothing more.
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