Schwarzenegger joins NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice

Arnold Schwarzenegger is to succeed Donald Trump in the boardroom of NBC’s business reality show The Celebrity Apprentice.

The show’s future had been thrown in doubt after NBC terminated its working relationship with controversial businessman and US presidential hopeful Trump after controversial remarks he made about Mexican immigrants in America.

However, former Californian governor and movie star Schwarzenegger has signed on for the 2016-17 Celebrity Apprentice, meaning the show will return to the network.

The news came as Trump sold The Miss Universe pageant to talent agency WME/IMG just days after buying out NBC of a previously-existing joint venture.

Mark Burnett’s United Artists Media Group produces The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice in the US, with Burnett, Schwarzenegger, Page Feldman and Eric Van Wagenen executive producing the new season.

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is the epitome of a global brand in entertainment and business, and his accomplishments in the political arena speak for themselves,” said Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late night programming at NBC Entertainment.

“It was Arnold’s personal passion for the format that Mark Burnett and Donald Trump built over the last decade, as well as his fresh take on how to take it to new heights for today’s audiences, that made him the man to hire.”