By now it’s a common sight to see Twitter tirades from Donald Trump targeting news organizations, multinational companies, political foes, and even potential allies in Congress. Today (Jan. 6), he turned on his own TV show.
The US president-elect, who is still an executive producer on The Celebrity Apprentice, took aim at the reality program after ratings indicated his successor as show host, action-star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, had failed to command the type of audience Trump himself used to bring in.
The show, now called The New Celebrity Apprentice, returned to NBC on Monday, Jan. 3, after a two-year hiatus, with Schwarzenegger making his debut. It premiered to a meager 4.9 million live and same-day viewers—27% fewer than tuned into the 2015 Monday night premiere featuring Trump.
The ratings also were a far cry from the 11 million viewers for The Celebrity Apprentice series premiere in 2008, when the show aired on Thursday nights. (The Apprentice became The Celebrity Apprentice in its seventh season to ward off ratings declines.) The TV landscape has changed a lot since then, however, and no prime-time broadcast TV show reached that threshold this past Monday.
Trump still seemed to take the ratings loss personally.
The Terminator star, who did not support Trump in the election but defended Trump’s executive-producer credit on the show, took the high road in his response to the president-elect. He quoted president Abraham Lincoln in saying “we are not enemies, but friends.”