As the Trump campaign slouches toward November 8, The Hollywood Reporter notes that NBC executives behind the forthcoming The Apprentice reboot are reportedly concerned that their new host may have as much of a pockmarked past as their previous one. The series tapped Arnold Schwarzenegger to sit in the CEO chair a while back, but in light of the many sexual-assault allegations women have made against Trump in recent days — and, of course, the Access Hollywood–Billy Bush tape leak — the network has suddenly remembered that Schwarzenegger also has a reputation with women. Evidently, it’s the “Trump-like” allegations of groping (and subsequent denials), which surfaced before Schwarzenegger’s 2003 gubernatorial campaign that are particularly vexing to the Peacock.
However, that’s just one of the reasons execs are reportedly worried about Schwarzenegger, who also had a child with his housekeeper while still married to his now ex-wife Maria Shriver. There’s also the whole “not appearing hypocritical” angle: “NBC executives are concerned about the issues surrounding the new star, especially since the network fired Bush for appearing to encourage Trump’s talk of predatory behavior,” THR says. NBC, for its part, is apparently considering delaying the series, the next season of which has already been shot. But if they fired Bush for “encouragement” of bad behavior, then how do you solve a problem like Arnold Schwarzenegger?