What Were Donald Trump's Ratings? 'Apprentice' Was Failing When Arnold Schwarzengger Took Over

President Donald Trump took another pot-shot Thursday at “The New Celebrity Apprentice” host Arnold Schwarzenegger and the show’s decline in ratings since the blockbuster film star took over for the new season. But television ratings’ history shows Trump’s long-running iteration largely declined after its first season.

Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Trump told the audience loaded with international figures that he wanted to “pray for Arnold’s ratings,” nearly a month after the president tweeted that he was a “ratings machine” while at the helm of the reality competition series.

Schwarzenegger later clapped back on Twitter with a video post, offering to switch jobs with the new commander-in-chief.

"You take over TV, cause you're such an expert in ratings, and I take over your job," “The Terminator” star said in the 14-second clip, "and then people can finally sleep comfortably again."

Trump is correct that the show’s ratings have slipped from when he was hosting – most recently in the 2014-15 season just before the billionaire kicked off his campaign for president. His last episode garnered 6 million viewers in Feb. 2015, and Schwarzenegger pulled down an audience of 3.7 million for the most recent episode Monday, a dip from his premiere episode that garnered 4.9 million viewers.

However, other than the series’ very first season between 2003 and 2004, the show steadily declined almost every year season thereafter. The first run was a massive hit, earning 21 million viewers, and its season finale picked up a whopping 28.1 million viewers, but by the third season, the program had dropped to 14 million viewers per episode, according to The Daily Beast.

By the end of the third season, that finale resulted in only 11.3 million viewers, a respectable number by most means but not in the same ruling class as a “Survivor” or “American Idol” in their heydays, Vulture reported. The show wound up ranking just No. 67 in ratings among all broadcast series for the 2014-15 season.

It wasn’t until the seventh season when the show was infused with celebrity contestants and not real-world aspiring entrepreneurs and business people did it start to slightly recover.