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Treatment: The American CandidateA Political Reality Competition

X-Factor Meets the Apprentice with Politics
The Problem/Target Audience: As the 2016 Presidential has made abundantly clear,
Americans have grown increasingly frustrated with the binary choices of the two party system.
Not only are more Americans now independent or unaffiliated than are affiliated with either of
the two major political partiesthe successes of both the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders
campaigns make it clear that American voters are hungry for more than the traditional political
choices.
Yet because of the stranglehold the two parties have on the political system, the ability of truly
independent, moderate, centrist political candidates to get elected to office is nearly
impossibleespecially at the Presidential level. This process is further complicated by a
partisan primary system that rewards orthodoxy over common-sense populism, and hampered
by a mindset in journalism that insists on putting candidates in partisan boxes while largely
ignoring independent viewpoints.
It is because of this, that despite what was perceived as a high intensity election in 2012, the
Presidential election lost twelve million voters between 2008 and 2012!
These voters feel disenfranchised, and yet because of the aforementioned stranglehold, the
ability of 3rd Party candidates to resonate with the electorate is hampered. Either they simply do
not have the resources to get noticed, or those that are crazy enough to seek the nod from a 3 rd
party are, in fact, crazy.
The electorate wants something more. They want smart, rational, sensible people The
American Candidate can deliver this, and fundamentally change the electoral process.
Framework: A 14-week competition, not including auditions, where contestants would be given
challenges to face, as well as public presentations of solutions, to ultimately be voted on by
viewers. With each successive week, the lowest vote-getting contestant is eliminated from
competition. The winner, The American Candidate, will be given a monetary prize that will
allow this person to set up his or her campaign and get on the ballot in all 50 states.
How it will work: Like other talent-seeking reality competitions, TAC will hold regional
auditions around the country: northeast, south, Midwest, southwest, northwest. Potential
contestants will prepare a three-minute introduction of themselves. The competition will be
open to anyone, even members of the two major political parties. The object, however, is
to focus on an individuals beliefs, experience, and leadership abilities.
Judges: Seasoned, compelling, respected (and respectable) political professionals will serve
as judgespeople who can assess and critique a contestants performance. Several of the
judges ought to be well-known and outspoken (Like James Carville, Michael Steele, Penn
Gillette, Janine Turner, Dana Loesch, Lena Dunham). Others ought to be seasoned political
professionals with a track record of political success. They should represent a cross-section of

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political beliefs, and at least one judge should be willing to take apart candidatesa political
version of Simon Cowell.
48 potential candidates will be selected from these regional auditionsand they will participate
in a political boot camp. Their basic knowledge of how government works will be assessed,
their personal political philosophies will be discussed. They will debate other contestants, give
speeches, etc. At the end of the boot camp, this roster will be trimmed from 48 to 16 finalists.
The Actual Competition:
Each candidate will be assigned a small team of political professionalsa campaign consultant,
a communications professional, and a public policy professional. These professionals will work
with the candidates to hone their abilities, to channel their passions, make their beliefs, their
vision, a reality.
Each week, the Candidates and their teams will be given a task: a foreign or domestic crisis
they have to address, a public policy problem they need to solve, some personal attack that
needs to be defended against. Like a terrorist attack against the United States how would the
candidate solve it? Or what will the candidate do to deal with climate change, or address the
nations energy problems (if anything!)? Or the candidate is accused of some personal
transgression will the candidate deny it? Or will the candidate own up to their personal flaws.
Challenges can be taken from the headlines (like whether the US should get involved in the
Syrian crisis), making the show even more accessible.
The American people will get a look, in advance, of what the candidate believes, as a
philosophy, and how that candidate might govern as President. The public will view the
candidates solutions in the first show of the week, where the candidates solutions will be
analyzed by the competitions professional analysts.
The public will then have an opportunity to voteand the two candidates garnering the least
number of votes each week will then have to square-off in a traditional political debate no
holds barred, any question goes. The judges will then decide which candidate is voted off the
island (another option would be to simply let the publics vote determine the losing candidate).
Timetable
Some might argue that the success of a show like this would be to have it on the air during an
election season. But the reality is that such a shows initial success could come from the buzz
that will surround whomever comes into office in early-2017. Field production (ie, the candidate
search) should commence in the Spring of 2017, with a mind towards having the actual
competition during the television 2017 Summer Season.
In addition, starting in 2017, as opposed to waiting, presents us with the opportunity to produce
multiple seasons of The American Candidate before the 2020 Presidential Election, and
therefore the possibility of producing The American Candidate: 2020 All-Stars edition featuring
show winners and favorite contestants specifically to provide a unique contrast to what will,
undoubtedly, be another contentious election cycle.

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This means spending the Spring of 2017 holding the regional auditions (New York, Chicago/St.
Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston/Dallas/Austin, Atlanta/Jacksonville), and then the political
boot camp sometime between the end of the auditions and July.
In the year between now and the Spring of 2017, the show would be in the development stage:
hiring the production team, finding a network, finding additional sponsors, arranging the
auditions, etc.
Target Networks
While there are a number of emerging television networks that might be interested in a show of
this type, the scope of the project necessitates targeting (at first) major networks. Fox might be
considered too far to the right, and NBC/MSNBC too far left.
CNN might be ideal. The network is currently looking for original programming, and as part of
the Turner broadcasting family, there might be good synergy with associated networks like TNT
and TBS.
Current Requirements
Immediately, the show needs to do the following:

Hire an Executive Producer and Production Team

Create a marketing binder and sizzle reel
Further secure intellectual property rights (copyright, registry with Writers Guild, etc)

Conclusion
The American Candidate could fundamentally change the face of American politics. By
bypassing the narrative of the two major parties, it exposes the average American voter to a
much wider range of philosophical viewpointsand it allows them, in a democratic marketplace,
to winnow-down that which they find unacceptable, resulting in a candidate that more directly
reflects what Americans want from their political leaders.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Andrew Langer, the creator of the American Candidate, is a political and policy activist with 20
years of experience. He has advised candidates, served as an advocate for small business,
testified before Congress more than two dozen times. He has appeared on news networks all
around the world, and spoken to groups as small as a dozen, and as large as hundreds of
thousands.