FX reality show gets out the vote with couch potato `Candidate'

by Beth Teitell
Tuesday, September 24, 2002

 

Wow, the couch potatoes are getting powerful.

As you may have heard, the FX cable channel is developing a reality show called ``American Candidate'' that will choose a ``people's nominee'' to run for president of the United States in 2004.

Hey, you know what that means: No need to schlep to your local elementary school to vote anymore, just grab your remote and do your civic duty!

The president of FX has promised that ``American Candidate'' will not make a ``mockery out of the electoral system'' (there's no need to - that was done in the last presidential election), but instead aims to find a worthwhile candidate who would otherwise lack access to the media.

That's fine with me, as long as we keep the Floridians out. Placing your vote via 900 number can be very tricky, and the last thing this country needs is a mass misdialing that would result in a leader of the free world from the Home Shopping Network. (Or would that be perfect?)

When I first heard about ``American Candidate,'' a few questions sprung to mind:

  • Can Richard Hatch, Darva Conger and Kelly Clarkson run, or are winners of previous reality shows prohibited from re-competing for a few years? Would they at least be eligible for Cabinet positions?

  • Will we be able to register to vote at Circuit City? You could buy a flat-screen TV on layaway and participate in democracy at the same time.

  • Is this the kind of TV show the Founding Fathers feared when they cooked up the Electoral College? (I realize that the reality genre wasn't popular back then - it was mainly soaps and ``Masterpiece Theatre'' - but Thomas Jefferson et al. were a pretty prescient bunch.)

    Under the show's rules, 100 candidates (chosen by an esteemed panel of advertising executives, no doubt) will start the series, and following debates and televised campaigning, the number will be whittled down each week, based on live audience response and telephone and Internet voting.

    The series, which is scheduled to start in January 2004, will culminate in a ``convention'' around July 4 on the National Mall in Washington. (Memo to FX executives: The Mall of America would make a more appropriate backdrop.)

    At the convention, three finalists will face off (no word yet on how much the swimsuit competition will count), and then once the winner is chosen, it's up to him or her to decide whether to try to get on the real presidential ballot.

    The show's rules require contestants to be at least age 35 by the time they take office, just like real presidential candidates, but that seems kind of picky. With the quality of theatrical makeup these days, let's just get someone who can play 35 on TV, the better to woo the highly valued 18- to 34-year-old market.

    Or here's an even better idea: The ``American Candidate'' president wouldn't really have to be president at all. He or she could just play prez on TV, sort of like Martin Sheen (who, if he ran, would win in a landslide). Being president is a big job. Not only do you have to run the country, with all the hassles that entails, but you're responsible for providing late-night comedians with fodder, and for giving the public a few scandals we can sink our teeth into.

    So why not split the position? A real president to do the boring stuff, and a TV-tested prez to serve as People magazine cover material. Sort of like the Brit model, with the prime minister doing the heavy lifting and the royals doing the heavy partying.

    The only problem I can see with the show is the old slippery slope ethicists always worry about. Today we're talking about choosing our president on television, but who knows where it will all lead. In the future we could find ourselves selecting a really important position this way - like Oscar host.