MySpace said Wednesday it will launch a new reality TV show in which TV viewers and MySpace users will choose an independent candidate for president.
The new show, called Independent, will be something like American Idol for politics. The nominees will be selected from entries at MySpace Video, and the winning candidate will be given a million bucks to spend on his or her campaign. The winning candidate, MySpace says, will "best reflect the voice of young Americans."
I suggest this guy.
"Independent represents a giant leap in the re-democratization of American politics," says MySpace CEO and co-founder Chris DeWolfe in the press release.
Week to week on the show, the contestants will be shown making their rounds in public, interacting with supporters, protestors, activists, and anybody else touched by the campaign. They'll get feedback from viewers both on the show and at MySpace.
The "Independent" probably won't win the presidency (what independent does?), but the show probably can't lose. MySpace has teamed up with reality TV producer Mark Burnett, whose company brought us the reality TV classics Survivor, The Apprentice, and, notably, Rock Star: INXS.
MySpace and Burnett have yet to find a network to run the new series, but that probably won't be an issue. MySpace is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns Fox Broadcasting.
Independent is expected to air in early 2008.
Well, why not? It could actually do some good -- if nothing for it allows the public to participate in the Democratic process.