Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a statement saying he is leaving NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice, suggesting Donald Trump is the reason. 
 
 “I loved every second of working with NBC and Mark Burnett. Everyone – from the celebrities to the crew to the marketing department – was a straight 10, and I would absolutely work with all of them again on a show that doesn’t have this baggage,” Schwarzenegger said. 
 
 NBC 
 
 NBC declined comment. The network has not said whether it will order more seasons of the reality competition series from Burnett, on which Trump starred until deciding to make his run for the White House. 
 
 During an interview published today with the former California governor about his role in upcoming drama Aftermath, Empire turned the talk to the Schwarzenegger’s NBC reality show which has been sloughing viewers this season. 
 
 “I learned a lot, I had a great time, it was a really great opportunity. But under the circumstances I don’t want to do it again,” the former bodybuilder responded. 
 
 “NBC did everything they could to promote the show and [producer] Mark Burnett did a fantastic job. No one really knew that this was going to happen and I think that everyone was caught off guard…When people found out that Trump was still involved as executive producer and was still receiving money from the show, then half the people [started] boycotting it.” 
 
 “Even if asked [to return] I would decline.” Schwarzenegger said. “With Trump being involved in the show people have a bad taste and don’t want to participate as a spectator or as a sponsor or in any other way support the show. It’s a very divisive period now and I think this show got caught up in all that division.” 
 
 Trump has missed few opportunities to whack Schwarzenegger’s performance on the show, on which Trump continues to be paid as a producer. 
 
 In January, then POTUS-elect Trump, took time out from forming his cabinet, dismantling Obamacare, and pounding out a plan to finance the wall he insists Mexico is going to pay for, to savage Schwarzenegger’s performance as executioner-in-chief: 
 
 “Wow the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got ‘swamped’ (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. ” 
 
 The New Celebrity Apprentice host took the high road, responding via Twitter: 
 
 “There’s nothing more important than the people’s work” and “I wish you the best of luck and I hope you’ll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings.” Schwarzenegger also tweeted that day: ||||| NBC's Celebrity Apprentice returned to television on Monday night with a new host and a new catchphrase . But Arnold Schwarzenegger's hosting debut wasn't enough to give the network a ratings win for the show's premiere. 
 
 The latest iteration of Comcast-owned NBC's Apprentice reality TV franchise—which featured now president-elect Donald Trump as host for more than a decade—lost the ratings battle with rival networks ABC and CBS ( cbs ) during the 8 p.m. ET primetime slot on Monday night. With Schwarzenegger now in the hosting chair, The New Celebrity Apprentice averaged roughly 4.9 million total viewers across its two-hour premiere, according to Nielsen's tracking numbers. 
 
 ABC's two-hour The Bachelor premiere pulled in nearly 6.6 million viewers by comparison, while CBS averaged more than 6 million viewers between four half-hour sitcoms that aired between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. 
 
 While NBC heavily promoted Schwarzenegger's Apprentice takeover ahead of the show's January debut, the movie star and former California governor's reality TV turn got off to a mediocre start, especially when compared with the ratings of his predecessor. The ratings for last night's Celebrity Apprentice premiere were down more than 22% from the debut episode of Trump's most recent season hosting (2014-2015). The show averaged 7.6 million nightly viewers in that season, and the ratings for the key demographic (viewers aged 18 to 49) across that season was roughly 46% higher than what Schwarzenegger's debut scored on Monday. 
 
 The network has been pushing the show's new host and new season for months, including weathering last month's controversy over the fact that president-elect Trump will continue receiving an executive producer credit on the show going forward. (As Fortune reported at the time, Trump has a large stake in the show that he co-created with fellow producer Mark Burnett, but will reportedly be compensated by MGM, which owns the majority stake in the production company that owns the rights to the Apprentice franchise.) 
 
 To be fair, the Celebrity Apprentice premiere faced stiff Monday night competition that included The Bachelor premiere as well as a thrilling college football game in the Penn State-USC Rose Bowl matchup on ESPN ( dis ) . Still, NBC ( cmcsa ) was likely hoping for a more impressive start to the post-Trump era of its Apprentice franchise, even though some early reviews for the Schwarzenegger-led show were not particularly kind . 
 
 When reached for comment, NBC ratings guru Tom Bierbaum noted that last year's season premiere of the Celebrity Apprentice did not face major sports competition and that Monday's premiere still managed to provide a strong lead-in for new NBC gameshow The Wall , which retained most of the Apprentice's viewers to share the top ratings in the 10 p.m. time-slot among the key younger demographic. ||||| We know by now that Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t exactly terminate his “Celebrity Apprentice” competition last night in Nielsen’s primetime TV ratings, but why did the refurbished franchise fare as poorly as it did? 
 
 After all, the previous winter cycle premiere starring Donald Trump in January 2015 earned a solid 2.4 rating in the key 18-49 demographic and 6.8 million total viewers. Those were far more respectable than Monday’s 1.3 and 4.9 million viewers. So, what happened? 
 
 Well, for starters, two years have passed. In case you’ve been asleep this whole time, somehow Trump has gone from reality competition host to the frigging PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. That means those who regularly tuned in for the “You’re Fired” guy maybe weren’t as interested as the “Get to the chopper!” dude. 
 
 Plus, Trump’s still an executive producer on the show, which could have also turned off some viewers less enthused about Trump since his full-time shift into politics. 
 
 Also Read: Ratings: Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Celebrity Apprentice' Debut Crushed by 'The Bachelor' 
 
 It’s also worth pointing out that the 2015 version actually premiered on a Sunday evening, when there was a greater potential audience and less competition. The next night’s regular Monday time slot premiere dipped to a 2.0 and had 6.5 million viewers overall. 
 
 So what was the big competition last night? Well, Fox aired a modestly rated “MasterChef Celebrity Showdown” special, which could have fragmented the reality audience a bit. Meanwhile, ABC’s 2017 season premiere of “The Bachelor” was broadcast’s biggest demo bully last night, pulling in a 2.1 and 6.6 million viewers. 
 
 Another challenge came from ESPN’s coverage of the Rose Bowl, which turned out to be an instant classic. USC’s tight college football victory over Penn State put up the most points scored in the bowl game’s storied history. 
 
 Also Read: 'Celebrity Apprentice': Just How 'Yuge' Were Those TV Ratings Anyway? 
 
 But wait, there’s more! That 2015 start to “The Bachelor” took place on January 4 and Jan. 5. Last night’s Jan. 2 kickoff to the new era suffered a bit by being closer to the New Year’s holiday. 
 
 Finally, the recent dropping of Hearst stations from DirecTV meant some NBC affiliates were not available to DirecTV subscribers. 
 
 OK, we’re fresh out of excuses for NBC. Maybe it just wasn’t very good. We’ll see how many viewers “Celebrity Apprentice” retains next Monday at 8 p.m. on NBC. ||||| The much-hyped revamp of The New Celebrity Apprentice seems to have fired some of its viewers. 
 
 With Arnold Schwarzenegger taking over for President-elect Donald Trump in the boardroom, NBC’s two-hour premiere delivered 4.9 million viewers and a 1.3 rating among adults 18-49 on Monday night. That’s down a steep 44 percent in the ratings compared to the reality show’s previous opener back in 2015 (which was on a Sunday night vs. this season’s Monday debut). NBC points out, the show faced heavy competition for male viewers from ESPN’s Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl coverage. 
 
 Alternately, ratings could have fallen because of Trump — some Trump critics have sworn off watching the show given the president-elect’s ongoing attachment to the series (certainly the reactions to this story in my Twitter feed suggest this is the case). Online boycott proclamations over various issues don’t often seem to impact viewership numbers, however, and the idea of half a show’s rating vanishing because of a producing credit seems far-fetched to me. People watch a show because of what’s on the show. And Trump — regardless of how you feel about him — tends to boost the ratings of everything he’s on. 
 
 So: Was the two-year hiatus to blame for the decline? The sports competition on ESPN? The schedule change from Sunday to Monday? Trump’s producing credit? This cycle’s cast of competitors? Or Schwarzenegger taking over from Trump? To me, the most visible and impactful change is the host gig switching. But it could be one of the others or, most likely of all, some combination of all of the above. Ultimately it’s very tough to pinpoint an exact reason why millions choose to watch a show or not. 
 
 Regardless of the cause, The New Celebrity Apprentice was crushed by ABC’s The Bachelor premiere (6.6 million viewers, 2.1 rating), which was basically held steady with last year’s debut. 
 
 Trump retains a producing credit on the new Apprentice — as is contractually standard for founding executive producers, even if they leave the series — yet he isn’t creatively involved in the show. NBC parted ways with Trump shortly after he announced his presidential campaign two years ago. 
 
 NBC introduced some changes to the format, such as moving the show from New York to Los Angeles and replacing Trump’s limo with Arnold’s “choppa.” 
 
 Schwarzenegger unveiled his new contestant-dismissing catchphrase, which is basically “you’re terminated” followed by a line from one of his other iconic films. Our writer Dalton Ross called Schwarzenegger “a little stiff at first… what I didn’t like was the way he kept letting people off the hook when he would ask them pointed questions about who messed up or who should be fired… He was better in the second hour, however, which finally culminated with him basically doing an impersonation of Hanz and Franz impersonating a ‘girly man’ impersonating Snooki crumbling about stepping outside of her comfort zone. I rewatched that on a loop about 50 times and I still honestly couldn’t tell you what the hell he was saying or doing here. But I still loved it. More of that, please. Nonsensical rambling is a hallmark of every great Celebrity Apprentice.” For full details, see Ross’ recap of the premiere here.
– Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to think Donald Trump needs a lesson in making friends after the president-elect chose to criticize his Celebrity Apprentice successor. "Wow, the ratings are in and [new host] Arnold Schwarzenegger got 'swamped' (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT," Trump tweeted Friday after the Trump-less show premiered Monday to 4.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The last season hosted by Trump averaged 7.6 million viewers, per Fortune. "So much for … being a movie star," Trump continued. "But who cares, he supported [John] Kasich & Hillary [Clinton]." Schwarzenegger offered up a reply on Twitter, tweeting, "I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings." He next shared a video he made after the election in which he quotes Abraham Lincoln's inaugural speech, beginning, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies." "Please study this quote ... @realDonaldTrump," he tweeted with the video. "It inspired me every day I was Governor, and I hope it inspires you." (The New York Times is unimpressed with the new season.)