An attempted revival fizzled out after objections to a stunt that saw identical twin women guzzle donkey urine and semen, just like the ill-fated and wildly atonal Cheers revival. Fear Factor pushed a button until it broke, and now it's an old stain we don't bring up much, the cultural equivalent of not asking why old Grandpa Dietrich spoke fluent Spanish and refused to talk about the war. At least host Joe Rogan is now only the star of the most popular and influential podcast in the world, despite being the equivalent of Dory the fish after doing DMT, getting really into conspiracy theories, and being tricked into thinking that the sharks who advocate for devouring all of the other fish in a righteous purge are actually pretty chill if you get to know them.
Speaking of things that were begrudgingly tolerated until the disgust became overwhelming, at this point we have to mention that Zucker greenlit The Apprentice, which more than anything else is responsible for making Trump a success. Producer Mark Burnett, the creator of Survivor, had to convince him to take the gig; Trump thought reality TV was for "the bottom-feeders of society" until Burnett said the show would focus on showing those bottom-feeders what an infallible genius he was.Â
The Apprentice saved Trump from financial ruin (years of massive real estate losses were reversed with $427 million in salary and licensing deals) and served as 14 years of propaganda about Trump's supposed corporate genius. It gave Trump the money and taught him the showmanship that he used to win the election. It's unfair to blame Trump's turn to politics on Zucker -- if every reality star got it into their head that they deserved to rule the country with a self-pleasuring iron fist, we'd all be hiding from Chris Harrison's elite Rose Death Brigade right now -- but as we'll see, Zucker treated Trump the candidate the same way he treated Trump the reality host.Â