FX scraps plans for 'American Candidate'

By Lynn Elber
Associated Press

FX is dropping plans for the reality series "American Candidate" because, it turns out, money is the mother's milk of television as well as politics.

The series, intended to let viewers pick a 2004 grass-roots presidential candidate, proved too expensive for the cable channel, FX Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said Friday.

Reality shows are cheaper to produce than scripted series but "American Candidate" would have been "in the upper ranges of cost" for the reality genre, Reilly said. He declined to give a figure.

The series "needed to be done in a credible way that didn't make a mockery of the process," he said. When efforts were made to cut the budget "it seemed like it would compromise the concept."

The logistics of filming a number of potential candidates as they compete throughout the country and putting on a live show with a national vote would have been costly, Reilly said.

Filmmaker R.J. Cutler, the show's producer, said he was disappointed in FX's decision. Cutler, who made "The War Room," a documentary on the 1992 Clinton campaign, is shopping the project elsewhere.

"If he (Reilly) feels it's too expensive for them, it is. That's the way it is," Cutler said. "We have to respect that and carry on. I know it can be produced at a number of different price points."

He's talking with other TV outlets and expects to announce a new home for the project soon.

The concept was not at issue and FX was pleased with the show's development and considered it "great television," Reilly said, adding that Cutler is working with FX on other projects.

But an expensive, one-shot series whose costs couldn't be recouped through additional seasons and reruns, as with a scripted show, did not make sense for a basic cable channel, Reilly said.

Does FX risk criticism for undertaking and then dropping the ambitious "American Candidate"?

"Ultimately, it is a business and it's got to make sense. The decision was not reached flippantly," Reilly said.

Cutler said he remains a firm believer in "American Candidate" both as entertainment and as a way to illuminate the political process and, most importantly, engage people in it.

Plans remain in place to start the show's application process in September. Natural-born citizens who will be 35 by Jan. 20, 2005, are eligible and must submit petitions signed by 250 supporters.

About 6,000 people have already inquired about participating, Cutler said. Between September and the year's end, the final group of applicants will be narrowed to fewer than 20.

"One of those people will emerge as the people's candidate and decide whether she or he will pursue their candidacy for the president of the United States," Cutler said.