How The Apprentice Was Born: Mark Burnett and the NBC Deal

Book: How to Get Rich
Author: Donald J. Trump (with Meredith McIver)
e-ISBN: 1-58836-410-0

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The “Prime Time” section is where the book stops being a business manual and becomes a making-of documentary. Networks had pitched Trump reality shows for years. Follow him making deals. Brush his teeth. Comb his hair. He said no every time.

Survivor night at Wollman Rink

CBS wanted to broadcast the live Survivor finale from Wollman Rink in Central Park, which Trump controls. They built a jungle on an ice rink. Walking to his seat, a young man introduced himself: Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor.

A week later Burnett came to Trump Tower. Smart move first: connection before pitch. He called Trump a genius. Said The Art of the Deal changed his life when he was selling shirts on Venice Beach fifteen years earlier.

Trump joked: “Why haven’t you given me twenty percent?”

Then the idea: sixteen people compete in a thirteen-week televised job interview in the jungle of New York City. Winner becomes Trump’s apprentice. Six-figure job at The Trump Organization for a year, maybe longer.

What hooked Trump: education. Viewers would see how real business works. What it takes to survive.

Burnett promised three hours a week of Trump’s time.

Trump calls himself a “real schmuck” for believing that. Early episodes took thirty hours each. He did not mind. The show felt big. He leaned in.

NBC and the application flood

Every network wanted it. Trump chose NBC, which already aired his pageants. Bob Wright and Jeff Zucker got rave reviews and the season’s best new-show ratings. Trump insists that is not hype. It is fact.

The job listing went public. 86,000 website hits the first week. 70,000 applications downloaded. First one from Hamburg, Germany. Total hit 215,000 before they stopped counting.

Open calls in ten cities. Thousands stood in rain at Trump Tower for a few minutes of consideration. Office grapevine nicknamed rejected finalists “The Lucky Fifteen.”

Burnett’s father Archibald met Trump and said he was more handsome in person than on TV. “Maybe you don’t photograph so well.” Mark said his dad was Scottish and blunt. Trump liked him.

Burnett is “the British equivalent of a Green Beret.” No fear, huge energy. Both are Neil Young fans. Trump took him to a concert in Atlantic City and introduced him to Neil backstage. Then Naomi Campbell’s party.

One funny mix-up: Trump kept mentioning Survivor when introducing Mark. A Chinese poker winner thought Mark survived cancer.

Behind the scenes in Trump Tower

Cameras at first felt strange. Within weeks they were routine. Producers Jay Bienstock and Kevin Harris became fixtures. When taping ended, the office felt empty.

The boardroom on TV was a replica on the fourth floor. Trump’s real boardroom was in constant use. Same reason for building reception and living quarters on-site: sixteen contestants plus a crew would have disrupted the whole building.

Twenty-eight cameras could run at once. Sound rooms, tech rooms, miles of cable. Trump paused once and thought: what if this flops? All that work had to pay off.

He did not act. Burnett said his value was being himself. No scripts. Mark briefed him on weekly assignments. Spontaneous, like real business.

Trump refused the word “contestants.” This was not a game. Serious people with real careers joined to learn. Everyone would win something, he argued, even the fired fifteen. They got experience, exposure, and lessons.

Example task: buy items from $10 to $550. Winners focused on negotiating a Callaway driver discount. Losers wasted time on gold, a fixed-price commodity. Big point wins. Minor ones do not matter.

What I take from this section

Burnett sold Trump on story and education, not just fame. Trump sold NBC on brand extension. The setup inside Trump Tower kept his day job intact.

The three-hours-a-week lie is the honest detail that makes the rest believable. Trump knew the commitment was huge. He chose it anyway.

Next chapter: the sixteen candidates, boardroom rules, and the lecture on sex appeal that surprised a lot of viewers.

Previous: A Week in the Life of Donald Trump | Next: Apprentice Season One Lessons