American Candidate

American Candidate (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

American Candidate is a political reality television show. The program aired for one season on Showtime in 2004, and was hosted by Montel Williams. It was created by documentary filmmaker R. J. Cutler, and produced by film director Jay Roach.

Concept

Paralleling the 2004 United States presidential election, the show featured contestants running as "candidates" in a mock campaign. Initially, the public could announce their "candidacy" on the show's website and garner support. Eventually, eleven contestants were chosen to appear on the show itself.

Each week, the contestants would compete in a politically-themed challenge, coached by various political experts. The two contestants who fared the poorest each week would debate, and one would be eliminated (voted by the remaining contestants). For the final two episodes, the viewers voted, and eventually chose the final winner.

Challenges

Throughout the series, the contestants traveled in a bus all over the United States, participating in various challenges, each modeled on real activities candidates for public office might expect to undergo:

Week 1: Hometown support
Week 2: Deliver a speech on the War on Terror to residents of New Hampshire
Week 3: Press conference on jobs and the economy in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Week 4: Charlottesville, Virginia
Week 5: Focus groups in New York City
Week 6: Political ads in Washington D.C.
Week 7: Philadelphia
Week 8-9: Los Angeles
Week 10: Finale

Contestants

In reverse elimination order:

Park Gillespie (Conservative Christian, winner)
Malia Lazu
Lisa Witter
Keith Boykin (gay rights activist)
Bruce Friedrich (animal rights activist)
Joyce Riley (Gulf War veterans spokesperson)
Richard Mack (gun store owner)
James Strock
Robert W. Vanech (entrepreneur, venture capitalist)
Chrissy Gephardt (daughter of Dick Gephardt)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.It uses material from the Wikipedia article "American Candidate". Reality TV World is not responsible for any errors or omissions this article may contain.

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