The Department of Homeland Security might soon surf the current dystopian reality competition wave, if the man behind Duck Dynasty has anything to say about it. Canadia-born reality TV producer Rob Worsoff, who’s also worked on the dystopia-adjacent veneration of disordered exercise and eating known as The Biggest Loser and belief-in-romance quasher The Millionaire Matchmaker has asked DHS to participate in a show that will do nothing to soothe the worry that American life has turned into one big reality TV hate watch for the rest of the world.
It’s also a presumable relief to those who think the latest tide of dramatic content depicting a horrific and inhumane near future is far too uplifting. The long-delayed film adaption of Stephen King‘s The Long Walk, for example, shows the doomed participants in the titular contest actually sharing snacks, a move incomprehensible in Donald Trump‘s anti-food-stamp (pandemic be damned!) America. What a pack of cucks!
Then there’s Suzanne Collins‘s new Hunger Games book, Sunrise on the Reaping. Released in March, the novel has seen record-breaking sales; a film adaptation will be released on November 20, 2026. But before you assume her latest will slake the MAGA right’s thirst for political violence (lol, as if anything could!), Collins is here to bring that dream crashing down.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Collins says that Reaping was “inspired by David Hume’s idea of implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few,’” a reference to an Enlightenment-era philosopher who argued that people are far more driven by emotion than fact. “The story also lent itself to a deeper dive into the use of propaganda and the power of those who control the narrative. The question ‘Real or not real?’ seems more pressing to me every day.”
Uh-oh, a philosopher quote? Sounds like woke-ass nonsense to me! Perhaps Collins’s desire to make people understand that unthinking ass-kissing of dictators might be bad is why Worsoff started making the rounds yesterday to distinguish his idea from Collins’s anti-a-hole ethos , claiming to CNN and The Wall Street Journal that his idea “isn’t ‘The Hunger Games’ for immigrants.”
Instead, it’s a show where “immigrants compete to prove they are the most American,” the WSJ reports, citing a 36-page slide deck. On the series, participants will complete challenges such as “a gold rush competition where they are sent into a mine to retrieve the most gold” or will be “placed on an auto assembly line in Detroit to reassemble the chassis of a model T.”
The competition would be hosted by a “famous naturalized American,” with Sofia Vergara, Ryan Reynolds, or Mila Kunis presented as possibilities. They would announce the weekly loser of the show, who, Worsoff hastens to note, won’t face deportation (as if he can guarantee that). “This is not, ‘Hey, if you lose, we are shipping you out on a boat out of the country.’” (To be clear, none of these famous immigrants have announced any affiliation with the show, so please think of their inclusion in this pitch as one might the names on a marital hall pass.)
And what would the show’s winner go home with? Well, that’s less clear, with the slide deck offering anything from a $10,000 gift card to Starbucks, a lifetime supply of gas from 76 (formerly Union 76), or a citizenship ceremony on Capitol Hill. According to Worstoff, whatever happens, it won’t be “mean-spirited. Instead, ‘The American’ is a celebration of what it means to be… well… American – At a time when our morale is at an all-time low.”
It appears, however, that Worsoff also pitched the show when our morale was higher, as he told the WSJ that he also approached Barack Obama‘s and Joe Biden‘s administrations, but both declined. One can see, given the current presidency, how he might feel like the 2025 odds might be more in his favor. And this time around, Worsoff says, “feedback from DHS has been positive and he has already had preliminary discussions with networks” regarding the show.
But according to Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, Worsoff might be jumping the dystopian gun just a bit. Her agency “receives hundreds of television show pitches a year, ranging from documentaries surrounding ICE and CBP border operation to white collar investigations by HSI,” she said on X (formerly Twitter), in a post disputing a Daily Mail report claiming that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was “pushing for” the series.
“Secretary Noem has not ‘backed’ or [is] even aware of the pitch of any scripted or reality show,” McLaughlin says, and The American still has a way to go. “Each proposal undergoes a thorough vetting process prior to denial or approval.” But when speaking with the New York Times, it sounded like McLaughlin might already be a fan. “The pitch generally was a celebration of being an American and what a privilege it is to be able to be a citizen of the United States of America,” she said. “It’s important to revive civic duty.”
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The post The Department of Homeland Security is Vetting a US Citizenship Competition Reality Show appeared first on Vanity Fair.
