Canadian-American TV producer Rob Worsoff says the unproduced show is not a ‘Hunger Games for immigration.’Donald Meyerson/Supplied
Canadian-American producer Rob Worsoff has spent the past week being raked over the coals for pitching a reality TV show to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – one where immigrants would compete for a fast-track to American citizenship.
The British tabloid Daily Mail, which broke the story and reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was backing the idea, dubbed the concept “insane.”
American magazine The New Republic called Mr. Worsoff‘s idea “twisted” and “barbaric,” while a column in The Guardian declared: “We’ve entered the realm of the truly depraved.”
But Mr. Worsoff protests that The American, as his unproduced show is tentatively titled, is not a “Hunger Games for immigration.”
Instead, the Montreal-born producer, an American immigrant himself, says that he has long imagined a reality show that would humanize the immigration process – and, in fact, he first pitched the idea in a Canadian version to the CBC alongside TV personality Jonathan Torrens in 2006.
“The Canadian was a show that took place in every province and celebrated what it means to be Canadian,” recalls Mr. Worsoff, over the phone from Los Angeles, of the earlier unproduced version of the reality competition.
While executives at Canada’s national public broadcaster turned down The Canadian, Mr. Worsoff says it wasn’t because of a perception it would be in poor taste to involve reality-TV producers in the immigration process.
“They didn’t recoil in horror; they laughed and loved it,” recalls Mr. Worsoff, who has previously worked on shows such as NBC’s The Biggest Loser and Amazon Prime Video’s All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs.
In an interview from Charlottetown, Mr. Torrens confirms that well before the proposal for The American was getting pre-emptive bad reviews internationally, he worked with Mr. Worsoff on developing The Canadian – which he described as a sweet, sincere and heartwarming concept.
“Seeing our country through the eyes of people who would love nothing more than to have the very thing we take for granted, which is citizenship,” Mr. Torrens says, recalling his old elevator pitch.
“We didn’t quite nail the prize, but the idea was the last episode was a concert on Parliament Hill with Bonhomme and a Mountie and the Tragically Hip playing.”
Also in the CBC building the day of that pitch was George Stroumboulopoulos, then host of a talk show called The Hour, who was introduced to Mr. Worsoff by his colleague Mr. Torrens in the lobby. The two have since become good friends and, in a phone interview, he said he believed Mr. Worsoff‘s idea has been misrepresented by the media for clicks.
Worsoff says he also pitched The American to Homeland Security during the Obama and Biden administrations.Jean-Claude Eenshuistra/Supplied
“The show he talked about over the years has always been to celebrate and humanize immigrants,” says Mr. Stroumboulopoulos.
Describing The American‘s proposed format to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Worsoff made clear the show would only involve people who were already applying to become American – who would then return to the regular process, not be deported, when eliminated from competition.
He envisages a apolitical show that would send prospective Americans across the country to engage, for example, in competitions such as a gold rush challenge in California, an Idaho potato challenge and a pizza-making challenge in New York.
At the end of each episode, the worst-performing contestants would be put on what he calls the “ice block” – he says this has nothing to do with ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency – and make a pitch to a town hall of citizens as to why they should continue on.
“I’m not punching down on anyone,” Mr. Worsoff says. “I’m not taking undocumented illegals against their will to participate in a show that they didn’t sign up for.”
The freelance producer says he previously pitched The American to Homeland Security during the Obama and Biden administrations – he needs a clear sign that the department is on board to land a network – and that it was well received.
But his latest 35-page pitch document, which was leaked to the Daily Mail, was submitted as immigration becomes a more contentious issue with U.S. President and former reality TV host Donald Trump issuing an executive order attempting to abolish birthright citizenship in certain instances. The order is being challenged as unconstitutional before the Supreme Court.
Just this week, in the wake of deportations without due process, Ms. Noem testified at a Senate hearing that: “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country.”
Mr. Worsoff rejects the concern that this might make it a bad time to produce an American citizenship reality show with government participation. “I see this show as being timeless,” he says. “I see this show as being the same in any government.”
Could the Trump administration do anything that would make him change his mind about that?
“If a nuclear war broke out, would I keep making my show? To the extent that I could, I would.”
Mr. Torrens, on the other hand, says with immigration the inflammatory issue it is at the moment, he would not try to again sell a show like The Canadian (and notes he has never had anything to do with The American).
His recollection also differs from Mr. Worsoff‘s on how CBC executives reacted to their pitch back in “the very different times” of 2006.
“It landed with such a thud – and was not received in the spirit it was intended,” he says. “I guess that‘s on the pitchers.”
