Former contestants on "The Apprentice" claim producers used cruel tactics during filming.

Summary

• Former contestants reveal traumatizing experiences and cruel treatment behind the scenes of The Apprentice.
• Competitors were subjected to sleep deprivation, hunger, and constant surveillance, leading to lasting trauma.
• The reality show's producers were accused of intentionally creating a hostile and stressful environment for contestants.

Anytime Donald Trump talks about his time hosting The Apprentice, it seems like he loved the job. However, that doesn't mean everyone involved with the show was happy. After all, Boy George walked off The Celebrity Apprentice and the show's producers had to be annoyed when Trump broke the golden rule of television.

Despite all the headlines about The Apprentice, like when Stormy Daniels claimed Donald was willing to rig the show for her, most fans don't know what it was like behind the scenes. For example, most fans don't realize that a former competitor of the Martha Stewart version of the show spoke about how cruel the producers were.

A Former Apprentice Competitor Spoke Out About How Traumatizing The Show Was

For many people who watched The Apprentice, the show seemed like a fantastic opportunity. Whether the show was hosted by Donald Trump, Martha Stewart, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, one person from each season won an amazing prize and job.

However, just because something seems like it would be great on TV doesn't necessarily mean that's true. According to one former The Apprentice: Martha Stewart competitor, competing on the show was a total nightmare.

In January 2015, the New York Post published an article about how traumatic competing in a reality show can be. The article quoted a former The Apprentice: Martha Stewart competitor who spoke to the outlet about their horrible experience on the condition of anonymity. Since Donald Trump and Mark Burnett produced The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, this person's remarks likely apply to the franchise in general.

During each episode of The Apprentice, fans saw the season's competitors trying to complete difficult tasks. On top of that, fans knew that the season's competitors had a lot on the line. With all that in mind, it was always obvious that competing on The Apprentice would be exhausting.

Who has hosted The Apprentice (US)?

However, based on what the former competitor told the New York Post, competing on The Apprentice was a lot more than exhausting. The anonymous competitor told the outlet that the show was traumatizing because of what producers put people through.

“I have friends from the show who are traumatized to this day. Ninety percent of participants are supremely f****d up. It’s a PTSD situation for people who are humiliated — and most people are humiliated.”

On top of talking about how competing on The Apprentice affected former players, the person who spoke to the Post expressed how angry they remained. According to the anonymous former competitor, they fantasized about how it would feel to sue the show's production company.

“One of my fantasies is a class-action lawsuit against Mark Burnett Productions."

Given how angry the former competitor was with Mark, that begs an obvious question. What was so bad about competing on The Apprentice? According to the anonymous source, The Apprentice's producers treated competitors cruelly.

The former contestant said The Apprentice competitors were intentionally made uncomfortable by producers. For example, they claimed that everyone who competed in her seasons had no privacy when they slept, showered, and even when they used the bathroom.

If that wasn't enough, the former competitor also claimed that they were deprived of some of the basics. More specifically, they claimed there wasn't enough food and they had very little time to use the bathroom or sleep.

In terms of their sleeping situation, the former competitor claimed that it got a lot worse than limited time to rest. On top of that, they claimed that the competitors were forced to sleep in a cold space and that the show's producers never allowed the lights to be turned off.

The anonymous former competitor also told the New York Post that Mark Burnett openly judged people going through the audition process in front of each other. "Mark’s sitting there with a deck of cards that have our faces on them — and he’s shuffling the deck and flipping the cards face-up and face-down. He’s hand-casting right there.”

Even during the casting process, the former competitor described a nightmare situation. For example, the former competitor told the publication that everyone on the cast went through hours of psychological testing that was deeply affecting.

“And then they set you up with a Mark Burnett production psychiatrist named Richard Levak. He says, 'I’m going to tell you a little bit about yourself.' I felt like, ‘This guy just took a walk around my brain.'"

The anonymous former competitor told the Post, it took very little time for players to be severely affected by producers' treatment of them. In fact, things were already so bad that they tried to quit during the filming of the second episode.

“I said, ‘Do what you need to do to get me out of here. I can’t take it anymore.’”

The competitor also explained how it felt when they finally were fired. “The second you get fired, a production coordinator puts you in a van, and they drive you to a five-star restaurant, where they bring the shrink in and do a debrief and let you vent. Then you go up to your hotel room and lay down and stare at the ceiling and say, ‘What just happened?’ ”

The UK Version Of The Apprentice Was Accused Of Starving Competitors

In October 2016, a former The Apprentice UK competitor named Selina Waterman-Smith went on the record about that version of show. According to Selina who spoke to The Daily Mail, the competitors on that show were also put through awful conditions to make good TV.

According to Selina, competing in The Apprentice UK was an extremely harsh experience for her and her co-stars.

"You become prisoners in this dark insular world of negativity and rivalry."

Selina then went on to The Daily Mail that the awful situations competitors were put through were intentional.

"This rationing, starvation and sleep deprivation is not by chance, what better way to ensure fraught nerves and lapses in concentration than by throwing together cold, starving and exhausted, stressed out young people?"

Selina went on to describe the awful situation that The Apprentice UK's competitors were put through before a boardroom meeting.

"Before we are summoned, we have to sit in a dark, windowless room in complete silence for up to three hours. No books, no communication, just pure, tense silence."

Based on what the anonymous former The Apprentice: Martha Stewart competitor and Selina stated, appearing on The Apprentice has been much harder than fans realized.