Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Monday, March 10th, 2025

Racism is creeping into television one bad idea at a time.

Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Monday, March 10th, 2025:

PRODUCTION NOTES
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IT FEELS AS IF THIS STUFF JUST NEVER ENDS
In this morning's video (which I made available to everyone), I discussed Netflix's announcement that they had made a deal to bring three episodes of the podcast Kill Tony to the streamer. And as part of the deal, it would also include a stand-up special by Kill Tony co-host Tony Hinchcliffe.

The deal might sound fairly mundane, especially if you read the coverage of the deal in industry trades such as The Hollywood Reporter:

Hinchcliffe is no stranger to Netflix viewers, he had a previous stand-up special for the streamer and has participated in some of its roast content, perhaps most notably last year’s roast of Tom Brady, where his set was among the most shared on social media. He also famously performed a set at then-candidate Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden last year, where a joke about Puerto Rico angered some viewers.

The phrase "angered some viewers" is doing a lot of the work here, given that during the speech Hinchcliffe not only referred to Puerto Rico as "a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean," and talked about how Latinos “love making babies....There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country." And then there was the weird story where he claimed to be spending time with a "black buddy" in which they "carved watermelons" together.

And it's not as if these comments were a one-off. It's pretty much a typical performance for Hinchcliffe, who is one of the Austin-based comics who both claim they are free-speech proponents, but also block audience members from bringing in their phones to performances. Because it's much easier to be brave when you never have to worry about the consequences.

One of the few times a bit of one of his performances leaked out was in 2021, after being introduced at an Austin, Texas gig by fellow comedian Peng Dang. Footage of Hinchcliffe referring to Dang as a "chink" was leaked onto social media and it led to Hinchcliffe having a few shows canceled and being dropped by his talent agency, WME. Hinchcliffe’s reaction was to fall back on “some people can’t take a joke” trope and complain the real problem was that someone (he suspected Dang) posted the clip.

As I mentioned in my video, I'm not looking for Netflix to drop the deal or arguing anyone should boycott Netflix. But as you may have noticed from some of my recent reporting, the streamer has a soft spot for these racist-adjacent comics. Netflix executives will argue that they don't want to censor anyone. And that's their call. I just wish the industry made more of an effort to highlight who Netflix is deciding to promote globally.

PRIME VIDEO TO STREAM FIRST SEVEN SEASONS OF 'THE APPRENTICE'
Amazon's Prime Video announced Monday morning it will stream Seasons 1-7 of President Donald Trump‘s competition show The Apprentice.

I have no idea how many people will watch this. Aside from the political passions associated with the show in 2025, the format just feels dated (although I realize a UK version of The Apprentice is still on the air after 19 seasons).

If you wonder why the show ended up on Prime Video, it's because MGM owned producer Mark Burnett's production company and Amazon acquired it with the rest of MGM in 2021.

The news reminded me of this piece I wrote back in 2016. There had been rumors that during the run of The Apprentice, Donald Trump had engaged in behavior many participants felt was sexual harassment. And several crew members alleged that they had heard use the "N" word, most notably in relations to Kwame Jackson, who was the runner-up on season one of the show:

So what would they have discussed if they weren't facing the prospects of a court battle? Sources claim that each of the six contestants had personally heard Donald Trump use "troubling" sexual banter with female contestants and one source claims to have heard the billionaire off-handily describe a female contestant as having a "nice big black ass." Another source claims to have heard Donald Trump refer to season one runner-up Kwame Jackson as "a Ni**er."

I also spoke with two people who worked on the production of later seasons of The Apprentice and in both cases they reported hearing Donald Trump discuss the breasts of contestants during and before "board meetings" on the show. One former crew member recounted a discussion in which Donald Trump was overheard having a discussion with a show's producer about whether one male contestant had come across as "manly enough" in a previous scene. This crew member also recounted Trump telling a camera person who had trouble getting a shot that "I could be fucking X right now."

There were also several examples of Donald Trump making multiple inappropriate comments about crew members, including what one source described to me as a "near obsession" with one female crew member, who was reportedly ultimately transferred away from direct contact with him after he made several comments about her rear end.

At the time, my reporting didn't get a lot of attention. I think in large part because they were potentially serious charges, and no one was willing to talk on the record.

But as years have passed - and some NDAs have expired - some participants on the show have begun to speak out, often confirming things I had previously reported.

In 2024, Slate published a piece by Bill Pruitt, who was one of four producers who worked on The Apprentice for the first two seasons. His non-disclose agreement had expired after 20 years, and he recounted a number of problematic interactions by Donald Trump.

And in October of that year, Vanity Fair published an interview with former NBC chief marketing officer John Miller, who told the magazine he regretted "mythologizing Trump’s business savvy and recalls the host’s “racist tendencies,” creepy pageant behavior, and how he could be manipulated with compliments:"

Tell me about his racist idea to do a season of The Apprentice where Black contestants would compete against white contestants.

We had a wrap party after the third season at Lincoln Center. I was at the bar waiting to get a drink for my wife, and Trump came up to me and said, “John, I’ve got a great idea for season four: Blacks versus whites.” So, in an instant, I’m thinking I can’t say what I really think, which is: What the fuck. Are you crazy? Because he doesn’t react well when people say his ideas are bad. So I said, “I can understand why you think that’s a great idea because that would be a very noisy idea. Headlines would be everywhere. Everybody would be talking about that, but you make most of your money off of the [product] integrations in the show. And there’s no company that’s going to take part in that, so this is going to hit your pocketbook pretty hard.”

In May, Slate published an essay by former Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt that alleged a tape exists of Trump saying the N-word on camera. Do you think Trump said the N-word?

He did, and quite honestly, he probably said it more than once.

How do you know?

I heard from one of the executives who used to work on the show.

This is one of those stories that has never really reached any real cultural resonance, in large part because many people won't believe it until they would hear the excerpt itself - and many probably not even then.

I've also heard there are plenty of disturbing outtakes from the show, and when Donald Trump officially announced his first presidential run, producer Mark Burnett ordered the server where the outtakes of the show were stored locked down. Presumably, at least some of the outtakes are still sitting on a server somewhere, now owned by Amazon.

And given Amazon's recent conciliatory moves towards Donald Trump - including a $40 documentary featuring wife Melania and another documentary recounting his moves in the Middle East - my guess is that those pesky outtakes will never be made public.

TWEET OF THE DAY

ODDS AND SODS
* On the season finale of Netflix's Love Is Blind, finalist Ben was rejected at the altar by Sara, because of his views on BLM, LGBTQ and the vaccine. Predictably, Conservatives are extremely angry about this.

* All ten episodes of season two of the unscripted series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives will premiere Thursday, May 15th on Hulu.

* Max has renewed the Conan O'Brien travelogue series Conan O'Brien Must Go for a third season. Season two is set to premiere in May.

* CBS has picked up The Neighborhood for an eighth and final season.

* Hallmark+ has renewed Mistletoe Murders for a second season.

* Prime Video has cancelled the Cruel Intentions reboot/refresh after one season.

WHAT'S NEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

MONDAY, MARCH 10TH:
American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden (Netflix)
Confessions Of Octomom (Lifetime)
Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup Season Two Premiere (Lifetime)
Instant Italian Series Premiere (fyi)
Ringo & Friends At The Ryman (CBS)
Spring Baking Championship Season Premiere (Food)

TUESDAY, MARCH 11TH:
Constables On Patrol (Discovery)
Iliza Shlesinger: A Different Animal (Prime Video)
Last Take: Rust And The Story Of Halyna (Hulu)
Port Protection Alaska Season Premiere (NatGeo)
Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party (Paramount+)

SEE YOU ON TUESDAY!