“F––– This!”: Planet of the Apps Star Bashes Apple in New Interview

Planet Of The Apps Credit: Apple / YouTube
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During the summer of 2017, Apple took its first honest stab at creating original TV content — including multiple short TV episode series — which debuted exclusively for subscribers of Apple Music. Among the first fruits of the company’s endeavors were a spin-off of the original James Corden Carpool Karaoke series, as well as a reality-TV style program dubbed Planet of the Apps.

Similar to ABC’s popular Shark Tank program, Planet of the Apps was a reality TV-style show that ran for 10 episodes last summer prior to Apple pulling the plug so it could focus on more ambitious and lucrative TV content endeavors. The show was premised around groups of aspiring iOS app developers who’d come on in hopes of receiving mentorship from one of four famous mentors — Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, former Black Eyed Peas frontman, Will.I.Am, or Gary Vaynerchuk — as well as secure offers for venture funding of their project.

The show is no longer running, and while we have no clue as to how successful it ever was since Apple elects to withhold viewer totals from the public, we know for certain that Planet of the Apps received somewhat mixed reviews — not only from critics and viewers, but even from one of the show’s main stars, Gary Vaynerchuk, who in a recent interview totally unloaded about his distaste with how Apple handled the project.

During an interview shared on his podcast, Ask Gary Vee, the Belarusian-American entrepreneur, author, and internet personality was speaking with the stars of Food Network’s prime-time BBQ-inspired program, The Grill Dads, when he launched into a diatribe elaborating on his sour experience working with Apple. (via Business Insider)

“I was on an Apple show, ‘Planet of the Apps,’ Gwyneth [Paltrow], Will[.i.am], Jessica Alba, and me. And Apple didn’t use me or Vayner to do the marketing, and did everything wrong. Apple!” Vaynerchuk lamented, referring to his self-named marketing company.

Vaynerchuk was displeased that Apple chose not to use his marketing services in its development and promotion of Planet of the Apps, and he made this displeasure a focal point of his occasionally bright and colorful language describing the Cupertino-company’s show.

“For all my bravado, I’m a real tough guy when it’s in my home, this is my home, and every time I do content, it’s my home. But when I’m at someone else’s house, I was taught to show respect. You’d be blown away by the way I handled myself in the Apple marketing meetings,” Vaynerchuk said, quipping that “My cheeks were bleeding profusely out of every meeting, because I was biting them, my tongue completely fell out of my mouth.” 

Later in the interview, Vaynerchuk also took shots at former Apple Music boss, Jimmy Iovine, who joined the company in 2014 as part of its $3 billion Beats by Dre acquisition. The entrepreneur noted that Iovine, who has since “stepped-back” from his role as a leading Apple Music executive, was not “involved enough” in the show’s development.

“You’re also there with Jimmy Iovine, Jimmy’s like, ‘I got it, we got it, we got it.’ And I knew he wasn’t in the trenches. I know Jimmy’s no dope, clearly. But I was like, ‘f––– this’,” Vaynerchuk said.

Ultimately, even despite his distaste with Apple’s management of the show, Vaynerchuk had nothing but positive things to say about his fellow cast of Hollywood A-listers, noting towards the end of the interview that “Will’s the best at music, and Jess is a gangster entrepreneur, and Gwyneth is like an all time actress, there’s talent out there, but in the f–––––– business show, that was my f–––––– domain.”

Although Planet of the Apps is no longer running, Apple is currently working on a trove of new and high-quality original TV content — including over a dozen programs and series starring A-list celebrities and directed by award-winning producers — some of which may debut later this year as part of Apple’s rumored all-inclusive services bundle for Music, TV, News and more.

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