Donald Trump has hit out at Arnold Schwarzenegger, his successor as the host of The Celebrity Apprentice, for its poor opening week ratings.
The President-elect left his post as the host of the show in 2015 after seven years in the hot seat, with NBC cutting ties with Trump following a number of controversial statements he made during his campaign announcement that year. It was revealed last month, however, that Trump will continue to serve as an executive producer on The New Celebrity Apprentice.
Despite backing Schwarzenegger as his successor back in September 2015 (tweeting “He’ll be great & will raise lots of $ for charity”), Trump has today (January 6) slammed the actor and former Governor of California for The Celebrity Apprentice‘s poor opening ratings of 4.93 million viewers – Trump’s debut episode back in 2008, by comparison, drew 11.08 million, while his final episode as host attracted 6.1 million viewers.
Calling himself a “ratings machine”, Trump hit out at Schwarzenegger for the show’s poor figures before referring to his recent election victory, stating: “But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary.”
See the tweets below.
Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. So much for….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1. But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
Meanwhile, preparations for Trump’s inauguration as US President on January 20 continue, with the surprising news this week that former X-Factor contestant Rebecca Ferguson had been approached by Trump’s team to perform at the Washington D.C. ceremony.