CBS and ABC both passed on airing 15-second trailers for the controversial movie The Apprentice during the presidential and vice presidential debates, as well as news coverage, the movie’s distributor said.
Distribution company Briarcliff Entertainment told TMZ that both networks declined to air the commercial for the film – in which Sebastian Stan plays Donald J. Trump in the 1970s and 1980s – during the debates.
The news comes amid Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential candidates – Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz – was hosted by CBS News in New York.
CBS informed Briarcliff it would not air the film preview during the debate or national news segment but would accept it during different times and programming selections, according to the outlet.
ABC, which aired the September 10 presidential debate, told Briarcliff it was avoiding commercials that spoke ‘to related themes within the broadcast,’ TMZ reported.
CBS and ABC both passed on airing 15-second trailers during the presidential and vice presidential debates for the controversial movie The Apprentice, which documents Donald J. Trump in the 1970s and 1980s. Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan pictured in the movie
Distribution company Briarcliff Entertainment said that both networks declined to air the commercial during the debates
After obtaining distribution rights, Briarcliff Entertainment released a preview for the movie earlier this month, and plans to release it across the country October 11.
This past May, Trump’s presidential campaign vowed to raise legal action against ‘these pretend filmmakers’ who made the movie in an effort ‘to address the blatantly false assertions.’
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said of the content in the movie: ‘This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.
‘As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.’
Cheung added, ‘This “film” is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire.’
In the motion picture, the Emmy-nominated Stan, 42, plays the younger incarnation of Donald J. Trump during the 1970s and 1980s.
The Constanța, Romania-born actor is joined in the cast by Succession star Jeremy Strong, 45, who plays Trump’s late lawyer and mentor Roy Cohn; and Oscar-nominated actress Maria Bakalova, 28, who will play Trump’s late ex-wife Ivana Trump.
In one excerpt from the preview, Strong’s Cohn is telling Stan’s Trump, ‘The first rule is attack, attack, attack. Rule two, admit nothing, deny everything. Rule three: no matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat. You have to be willing to do anything to anyone to win.’
Maria Bakalova plays Trump’s late ex-wife Ivana Trump in the controversial movie
A Trump spokesperson in May said that the movie ‘doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire’
The news comes amid Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential candidates – Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz – was hosted by CBS News in New York
The screenplay for the film was penned by writer Gabriel Sherman, who authored the 2014 book The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country.
The book was subsequently adapted into the 2019 Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice.
Trump has been spoofed for decades on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, with actors including Alec Baldwin, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, Taran Killam and the late Phil Hartman playing the role at different points.
