CBS and ABC reportedly rejected a trailer for The Apprentice from appearing on their networks during debate nights.
A 15-second advertisement for The Apprentice — a film depicting former President Donald Trump’s life when he was younger — was rejected by CBS and ABC from airing during debate nights, Briarcliff Entertainment, the film’s distributor, told TMZ.
CBS, which hosted Tuesday’s vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), reportedly told Briarcliff that it doesn’t feel comfortable promoting The Apprentice during a debate or national news, but would be open to advertising the film during another part of the day.
ABC, which hosted last month’s presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, reportedly told the film distributor that it wants to stay away from advertisements that “speak to related themes within the broadcast.”
The film, which stars Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump and Succession star Jeremy Strong as the late Trump mentor Roy Cohn, is set to be released in theaters on October 11, less than a month before Election Day.
While the The Apprentice director Ali Abbasi claims the controversial film is “not a hit piece” and isn’t very “anti-Trump,” the film nonetheless portrays the young future president as a rapist.
Moreover, Abbasi smeared Trump as a fascist at the film’s world premiere in May at the Cannes Film Festival.
Strong, meanwhile, bizarrely compared the 45th president to Marxist socialists Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong in a rant to the Cannes Film Festival following the world premiere of The Apprentice.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
