ENTERTAINMENT NEWSWIRE - April 15, 2009. FOX executives have high hopes for their test of a new reality-TV series. If the pilot show -- airing this afternoon on most of your FOX stations -- is successful, expect a groundbreaking fall series to come of it.
Tentatively titled "American Grass Roots," the show will take reality-TV in a dramatic new direction: teams of red-blooded Americans competing for the right to be free of oppression and taxes.
"We've had singers, dancers, obstacle-course runners, wife-swappers, and people stranded in a variety of locales, but we've never reached down to the real Grass Roots of our great nation -- until now," said one FOX producer.
Aspiring contestants are expected to turn out in huge numbers for today's pilot episode. In effect it will be a nationwide audition for the upcoming series.
FOX is stationing producers and judges in dozens of cities around America, looking for teams with the strongest teabagging skills. About a dozen of these teams will be invited to participate in the AGR finals, airing this fall.
Each week, the teams will be tested on a different skill sets, such as marching in the woods, bearing arms, cross-burning, inventing alternate realities, etc. Teams will also be judged on their self-designed uniforms, sign making, and knowledge of the Turner Diaries.
And each week, America will use its telephones to vote one team off the show -- but with a new twist. It will be the team with the highest number of votes and, as a reward, that team will be allowed to secede from the show.
The last team remaining will be forced to pay the taxes for everybody else.
Glenn Beck will be the host of the show. Newt "Simon" Gingrich and Dick "Randy" Armey have agreed to be judges. Michelle Bachmann has been invited to play the Paula Abdul role.