Business is a serious matter, but when you hear about the reality competition The Apprentice, these days all you can think about is a bunch of bumbling celebrities tackling the role of a CEO. Donald Trump’s reality show may be redeemed with its upcoming fall season when Trump ditches the celebrities and brings back “normal” businesspeople to compete to be a Trump employee.
The new season of The Apprentice will, however, be different from any other season of the show so far. The formula may be the same: Gather a group of professionals from all across the country and put them to work in various tasks that test their skills. At the end, one person will score a job working for Trump. But this season promises to be the most intense and emotional yet, because for this group of contestants, people who have recently been laid off from their jobs due to the recession, the stakes are the highest they could possibly be. They need the job more than any other “apprentice” before them.
The promo for the 10th season of The Apprentice was released on July 13, and from the looks of it, this will be the most heartrending season yet. In the promo, we meet a few of the contestants and hear them speak about losing their jobs. Some even tear up. With the economic crisis still upon us, the new Apprentice may be the most “real” reality show ever. And as we see contestants getting eliminated each week, it’s going to be painful for us to wonder what they’re going to do next, now that they have no job to return to.
Many reality competitions can change people’s lives. There’s no doubt that shows like American Idol, Project Runway and Survivor have changed their winners’ lives with their newfound fame and prize money. But winning the upcoming season of The Apprentice seems like it will mean more to the contestants than to those who have won any other reality show before. Like it says in the show’s promo, “There is nothing more American than a second chance,” and there is nothing more valuable than that, either.
Who says reality TV marked the decline of Western civilization as we know it? We may finally be able to see a reality show that’s more important than just entertainment.
The Apprentice premieres Sept. 16 on NBC.
wow talk about fraud. David Johnson made it on the show, they paid him alot of money to which he has not given one dime to his children. He has 4 children who are homeless and broke. He has always been a liar, and how he scamed the great security of the Trump is laughable. This guy walked off from a 100.000.00 plus a year job. to avoid paying child support for his children. He was not laid off He QUIT on purpose. Now his house has been foreclosed on and the children are homeless. I know because I am their grandpa