Two former producers from NBC’s “The Apprentice” are helping plan the 2020 Republican National Convention.
According to The New York Times, Sadoux Kim and Chuck LaBella are both former “Apprentice” producers who have joined the team planning the RNC for next week.
The two producers have consulted on the video production for the convention, the use of both live speeches and pre-taped videos and its focus on non-politicians, according to Politico. “The goal was to make it a gripping TV show,” Politico reports.
Kim served as a longtime deputy to “Apprentice” creator Mark Burnett and is credited as a co-executive producer on one episode on iMDb. Kim also once served as a judge at the Miss Universe pageant when Trump owned it, and he is now a lead consultant for the RNC, according to The New York Times.
LaBella is a former NBC entertainment executive and worked as a producer on more than 40 episodes of “The Apprentice. He was also a talent producer on “The Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump” in 2011, and his recent credits include “The Masked Singer,” “Holey Moley” and “Who Do You Think You Are?”
The convention was originally planned to take place in Jacksonville, Fla., but needed to be rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organizers have had little time to figure out a new plan for the RNC and had no set budget, no speakers lined up and no venue, according to Politico. “In short, they had to figure out from scratch what the whole thing should look like,” the website reports.
According to The New York Times, LaBella has been paid more than $81,000 in consulting fees for his production work through a company he owns. The RNC’s Committee on Arrangements paid the costs, and the group has given Kim more than $54,000, the Times reports.
The RNC is now set to take place in Charlotte, N.C., as a scaled-down live event on Aug. 24-28.