Casting type A's makes show click
'Apprentice' creator Burnett looks for diversity
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The Howard-educated former "political adviser" -- it was revealed later that she merely answered phones for the Clinton camp -- was the sand in the oyster for the rather harmonious relationships that existed between the other candidates. In reality television, it's exactly that kind of friction that keeps viewers faithfully coming back each week.
So how did the producers go about casting such a provocative mix? Well, according to "Apprentice" creator and exec producer Mark Burnett -- who since the beginning has been very hands-on in screening who gets to suck up to Donald Trump and who doesn't -- no one necessarily starts out with an agenda of finding an Omarosa.
"Anybody who tells you they know who is going to be the divisive character in casting is deluding themselves," he says. "Why it works is that you're taking a bunch of type A leaders and putting them in a group with a whole bunch of other type A leaders. Suddenly, they all can't lead."
The recent celebrity-based reincarnation aside, the three-month casting process starts by sifting through hundreds of thousands of online inquiries -- a group of hopefuls that's significantly narrowed by the time "Apprentice" producers visit 16 cities to conduct auditions. Once that process is completed, 50 to 100 potential candidates are invited to L.A. to interview with Burnett in person for one of 16 slots for the upcoming season.
"Obviously, you have to have people who you believe have some reason to be there -- they have to have business experience and a mindset towards marketing and sales," Burnett notes. "With those givens in mind, what you're looking for is diversity of age, diversity of race. There's no difference in casting an unscripted drama like 'The Apprentice' and a scripted drama. You can't have everybody be a model, and you can't have everybody be male or female. "
