Before he was the president, Donald Trump was most known for his signature “you’re fired” line from his hit show, The Apprentice. Former governor of California and action star Arnold Schwarzenegger now hosts the reboot of the series, The New Celebrity Apprentice, which recently ended its first season with American Ninja Warrior host, doctor, comedian and Denver native Matt Iseman winning the competition.
Iseman joined Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro during the Afternoon Drive on Mile High Sports Radio to discuss his time on the show, his thoughts on Trump, along with what’s in store for the future.
Iseman feels he was the underdog headed into the finale, but still managed to come out on top. He raised $978,000 for the Arthritis Foundation throughout the entire competition.
“You know, going into that finale, I was 25 points down in the fourth quarter, but I said, ‘Get on my shoulders, we’re riding this thing to victory,’” exclaimed Iseman.
Iseman worked incredibly hard during the entirety of the show, and felt the pressure and stress definitely added up during the five weeks of competition.
“Watching that finale again, that was at the end of five weeks, and that’s as hard as I’ve worked since med. school for sure, and as emotionally spent as I’ve been,” stated Iseman, “The stress of constantly worrying that you’re gonna be backstabbed or screwing up, and for that finale trying to put on a party, and do a photo shoot, and raise crazy amounts of money in a matter of two-and-a-half days.”
The show was shot and completely finished by early 2016. Iseman stated they had two alternate endings, with one depicting Iseman as the winner and the other with Boy George, the other finalist, as the winner. Iseman didn’t know he had won until he watched the final episode.
“So I’m sitting at home on my couch with some of my good friends, hanging out and not knowing what’s gonna happen until the governor [Schwarzenegger] finally said, ‘Matt, you’re the Celebrity Apprentice,’” said Iseman.
Although Iseman had great success, the show itself had issues with low ratings and President Trump didn’t hesitate to take shots at Schwarzenegger, saying he got “swamped” by the “ratings machine[Trump]”. Iseman was disappointed that Trump would shoot down a show that he started and still serves as a producer on.
“What really, I think, hurt was that it kind of polarized the public, as to some people just wouldn’t tune into the show because of the association with Trump, so I feel like a lot of people just missed out on giving the show a chance.”
Despite this, Iseman hopes his recent success with the show leads to more career opportunities down the road. He also said his phone has been quite busy after the win.
“I’m hoping it raises my profile. I certainly think that they’re will be a lot more corporate events.”
Furthermore, Iseman will continue to host American Ninja Warrior, but revealed to Goodman and Shapiro what he ultimately hopes will come out of winning The New Celebrity Apprentice.
“I’m hoping that at some point Schwarzenegger just throws me a cameo in his next movie.”
Listen to the entire interview with Matt Iseman, including his thoughts on potentially being hired the Head of NSA, in the podcast below.
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