Burnett, MGM respond to Trump furore

Donald Trump on The Apprentice

US studio MGM and The Apprentice creator Mark Burnett have said they cannot release footage from the reality programme that may show lewd behaviour from Donald Trump.

Burnett has faced pressure to release unaired footage of Trump’s allegedly disparaging comments towards women on the set of the NBC show, which the Republican presidential nominee fronted from 2004 to 2015 on US network NBC.

Last week, the Associated Press released a report containing accounts from former Apprentice contestants and staff members who said Trump had made sexist remarks behind the scenes of the programme.

An unrelated video of Trump making obscene comments about women was then released on Friday – footage that was the centre of the debate between Trump and Democrat nominee Hilary Clinton on Sunday.

But Burnett and US studio MGM, which owns the rights to The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, said in a statement that they would not be releasing any footage.

“MGM owns Mark Burnett’s production company and The Apprentice is one of its properties. Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from The Apprentice.

“Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material. The recent claims that Mark Burnett has threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false. To be clear, as previously reported in the press, which Mark Burnett has confirmed, he has consistently supported Democratic campaigns.”

MGM bought Burnett’s One Three Media production outfit in 2014, meaning it took the rights to the Apprentice franchise.

In the past, Burnett has been a donor to Democratic candidates and the Democratic National Committee.

US voters will head to the polls on November 8 to decide who will be the country’s next president.

Several senior elected US Republican officials have distanced themselves from Trump after the video leak. Clinton is now the frontrunner in the contest, leading by more than five points in several polls.