Jeff Bezos may be seeking to release outtakes from The Apprentice that show its host, former President Donald Trump, making racist and sexist comments.
Although the pro-Trump and anti-Trump factions aren’t likely to change their stances, the Amazon purchase of the MGM catalog, including The Apprentice, is stirring the conversation.
Steven Colbert eagerly introduced the idea during The Late Show last week.
“Why would one of the world’s richest men pay almost twice the value for a struggling movie studio that recently went bankrupt?” Colbert said. “Well, it could be that Jeff Bezos has an ongoing feud with the former president Genghis Kahn.
“Guess what? All the outtakes from The Apprentice are owned by MGM. Holy mother of DVD extras! The private footage of a TV billionaire is going to belong to an actual billionaire.”
But some significant hurdles likely haven’t changed.
Months after MGM purchased Mark Burnett Productions, the situation was brought to light in an October 2016 Associated Press story:
“MGM said … that it owns the reality TV show, not the program’s executive producer Mark Burnett, and could not unilaterally release any unaired, archived material due to existing contractual obligations.”
Also at that time, Burnett indicated he couldn’t release that footage, and MGM said, “Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material.”
Actor Tom Arnold fueled the fire in 2018.
“I’ve seen a compilation tape that my buddy shared with me. He says the n-word, he says, he calls Eric the r-word,” Arnold said while on a podcast.
Bill Pruitt, a producer on The Apprentice, tweeted more flames.
“As a producer on seasons 1 & 2 of #theapprentice I assure you: when it comes to the #trumptapes there are far worse. #justthebegininng,” he wrote.
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