Donald Trump reveals in the upcoming book ‘Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass,’ that he demanded his salary to be $6 million per episode to host the second season of ‘The Apprentice.’
An excerpt from the book reveals how Trump wanted a salary hike since he was paid $25,000 per episode on the first season of the show. Trump wrote that NBC was “really in the basement” at the time of contract negotiations since the network’s biggest show ‘Friends’ had completed 10 seasons and was ending.
‘Friends’ used to always get more viewership than the ‘Apprentice’ on release days but the latter used to trump the viewership number of ‘Friends’ during reruns. Trump used this to prove that ‘The Apprentice’ was bigger than ‘Friends’ due to which he deserved more money.
From his point of view, if his show was reeling in more viewership than the sitcom and the 6 cast members were getting $1 million per episode, he wanted his salary for season 2 to match that.
“’Friends’ had six people. They’re getting $1 million an episode each. That’s $6 million. So if they’re getting $6 million, and I have higher ratings than they do — because this is the end of ‘Friends,’ and they were fading out — I said, ‘You should pay me $6 million an episode,’” Trump wrote.
The head of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker, refused Trump’s request.
Trump wrote, “And they said, ‘We’re not going to do it. It’s over.’ I said, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. Give me something less than six. If you’re paying ‘Friends’ six, and I have higher ratings than ‘Friends,’ you should pay me six! But give me something less than that. I’m reasonable!’”
“And they went nuts. They said, ‘We’re going to get someone else’ … I thought the deal was dead. I thought I just killed myself … They walked out — they were so angry. I said, ‘That’s all right! Get somebody else,’” he added.
The network did not get someone else.
Trump recalled that Zucker called him a few days later and told him that they had a deal.
He wrote, “I said, ‘Why? You couldn’t get somebody else?’ He said, ‘No. We’ve got to make a deal.’ And I agreed to a fortune. You know, they paid a lot of money. A lot! It was a great experience.”
Trump and Zucker had a turbulent relationship after this too. When Trump announced his campaign for President, Zucker was the head of CNN. Trump alleges that he was instrumental in Zucker landing that job, only for him to lead an Anti-Trump campaign on his channel.
Zucker and Trump eventually stopped talking after learning that Zucker was pushing a campaign against Trump at CNN. When asked what he thinks about Zucker now, Trump called him ‘Human scum.’
‘Apprentice in Wonderland: How Donald Trump and Mark Burnett Took America Through the Looking Glass’ will be published on 18 June.
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