Somewhere out there right now is a future president of the United States. If you believe that what’s past is prologue, our eventual chief executive is a Caucasian boy. But the times are always a changin’, and Showtime and documentarian R.J. Cutler (“The War Room,” “A Perfect Candidate,” “American High”) aim to give them a nudge in a new direction.
On Sunday, the reality series “American Candidate,” with host Montel Williams, begins its 10-episode search for a fresh political voice. After stutter starts at HBO (as “Candidate 2012”) and FX, Cutler took “American Candidate” to Showtime, with whom he had done the reality series “Freshman Diaries.” This sort of switch is nothing new for Cutler, who saw Fox quickly cancel his high-school verite series “American High,” which then found a successful home at PBS.
“A lot of the stuff that I’m attracted to needs to find its home,” Cutler says. “Sometimes that home is where you sell it – as with ‘Freshman Diaries’ on Showtime – and sometimes it’s got to find another place.”
The idea of “American Candidate” was to encourage American citizens to fill out applications and make videotapes in hopes of being selected as part of the final group of 10 candidates. Changes made along the way opened the contest to immigrants as well as native-born citizens, and lowered the age to 18 from 35 (the legal minimum age for real presidential candidates).
Many applicants heard about the show by finding listings for it on the Internet, or by word of mouth. The producers found others by reaching out to political organizations or seeking recommendations. But, says Cutler, no one got a free pass onto the show, and that includes candidate Chrissy Gephardt, the daughter of former presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.).
“I’ve read that there’s been suggestions that some of the people on the show didn’t go through the full application process. It’s entirely untrue. Everybody who’s on the show filled out applications, everybody did their videotape.”
Along the way, potential candidates were listed on the show’s Web site and participants were encouraged to create Web sites of their own. The online response figured into the final choices, Cutler says, but was never intended to be the deciding factor.
“It would be silly to cast a show based on how many clicks somebody got on the Internet,” Cutler says. “Every step of the way, I’ve defined our diversity objectives in terms of gender, socioeconomic background, educational background, geography, ideology. You can’t rely on an entirely unscientific vote. And it wouldn’t be fair. What about people who don’t have access to the Internet?”
Each week, the candidates face challenges, with the two bottom finishers squaring off in an elimination debate, moderated by Williams, after which the remaining candidates vote one person off. At the end, the public decides the final winner in a phone-in vote. The last participant standing becomes the “American Candidate,” winning $200,000 and, following the end of the series, a nationwide media appearance so he or she can address the nation.
