Jimmy Fallon was risking no new Hair Mussing Minefield on Tonight show when he interviewed the guy who is replacing Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice.
In a studiously Nothing To See Here Folks interview, Fallon only mentioned in passing that Arnold Schwarzenegger “takes over for Donald Trump in the boardroom” on January 2, when Celebrity Apprentice returns to NBC (so yes, expect to see Trump tweets on the debut at 2 AM ET on January 3). And Fallon only mentioned the previous star in passing, after noting Schwarzenegger is a five time Mr. Universe, a major movie star, and a two time California governor.
Schwarzenegger came on stage with a bright shiny light; he was wearing a cast on his right leg; Fallon asked, right off the bat, what had happened.
“Just a little pedicure mishap,” Schwarzenegger joked. Then, explaining he did not know if he had run too many miles, or ridden his bicycle too many miles, or performed too many squats, Schwarzenegger said he had not been “this swollen since I was pregnant in Junior.”
Fallon decided to carry on the early part of the conversation imitating Schwarzenegger, causing Schwarzenegger to finally joke, “If I want to sound like me I imitate you.”
The two pros also discussed, at length, Arnold’s other talents, including Christmas-card painter, and showed video of that time Arnold was on safari in South Africa and a large elephant charged his vehicle. Top that, Donald!
Having somehow determined viewers to be sufficiently distracted Fallon turned talk back to Celebrity Apprentice, on which Trump was firer-in-chief until informing NBC he was going to throw his hat in the ring for POTUS and NBC kicked in its rules-about-those-things clause which presumably, even these days, means Trump no longer could have hosted, had he wanted to, though he remains on board as EP.
“I’m so glad you’re hosting. I love reality TV and I love this show,” Fallon enthused to Schwarzenegger.
Then they did a bit in which Fallon tried to guess what would be Schwarzenegger’s catchphrase on the competition series. Choices were:
Hasta la vista baby.
You won’t be back.
and
You’re fired – get to the chopper!
Arnold wasn’t saying.
In a short clip, Schwarzenegger is seen opening the season with a pep talk to another motley crew of celebrities. “I’m the new boss and I plan to be tough, but fair” he said, adding, in case not all of the competitors had figured out the show had changed coasts, “We’re in California, baby!”
Then Fallon threw to commercial. After the break, Arnold came back for a second segment in which the Austrian-born body builder turned movie star turned two-term governor of this country’s most populous state continued not to take any questions about the irony of replacing the star of Celebrity Apprentice while that star moved on to become President of the United States despite zero political experience.
In 2010, when he guested on Tonight show, Schwarzenegger got asked if he’d run for POTUS, should the Constitution be amended to allow foreign-born U.S. citizens to do so. He’d responded without hesitation that he would. Tonight’s host at that time was Jay Leno.
Fallon has taken over the show and, tonight, after the commercial break, Schwarzenegger joined Fallon for a comedy bit in promotion of Snapchat.
