• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Reality TV shows come in all shapes and sizes. But what about one that may strike a specific political tone -- for example, a competition show where people compete to become a U.S. citizen? Would that pique -- or pinch -- advertisers' interest?

That would seem to get a lot of interest from some these days  -- but perhaps not completely positive attention, considering that the word “deportation” can be found in a lot of news content. 

According to a report, the Department of Homeland Security is considering such a show, called “The American,” where immigrants would compete doing historically American jobs and activities-- such as collecting gold from a mine in San Francisco or assembling a Model T car in Detroit.

Now, the producer of this show says it has nothing to do with the new Trump Administration efforts to do mass deportation of illegal immigrants, according to a story in The Hollywood Reporter.

Rob Worsoff, a veteran unscripted/reality show producer, who did A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” and Bravo’s “The Millionaire Matchmaker,” tried to get this show approved by the previous White House administration -- President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden.

A representative from the Department of Homeland Security -- which needs to approve the project -- has said in the report that the show is still under review.

Worsoff said “The American” is not intended to be "mean-spirited,” but rather to celebrate what it is like to be an American. Worsoff is Canadian.

One wonders how this show can navigate storylines to do this, especially considering the focus on deportations.

A number of federal court judges have issued orders to stop some of these activities by the Trump Administration. This would seem to be a major business overhang on the content in this TV show. 

Would the show, for example, get into storylines of where some immigrant family members have been deported? Or would it totally avoid such potentially explosive content?

In a Facebook post, Worsoff emphasized that the show's competition would not affect an immigrant's real-life efforts at attaining citizenship. Well, that's good news.

No doubt the Trump Administration -- or any Administration -- would like to present a positive image of immigrants who want to do the hard work to find a way to get citizenship.

That said, the business part could still be tricky. There is the perspective of TV brand advertisers, who, historically, have been adverse to partner up on major TV network advertising deals when it comes to potential controversial content. 

That said, controversial content issues can be mostly a low bar now for advertisers to traverse -- especially with the disruption and fractionalism of the TV industry, which has seen an explosive number of platform options. Brands continue to look for scale and high engagement with any TV content that is working -- especially aspirational content.