Levi Johnston is "Jon Gosselin with abs". Hollywood gives reality show idea cool reception.

From Hollywood Reporter:

“I’m just incredibly uninterested,” said one network’s executive in charge of unscripted programming. “We’ve seen him naked. We’ve heard him bash the Palins. What more is there that we need to know? He’s a cute kid but not the most interesting person to watch.”

Johnston, one cable network insider said snarkily, is like “Jon Gosselin with abs.”


“I don’t think he’s a reality TV star,” another executive said. “He just doesn’t pop; he’s not an interesting character. He doesn’t have a lot to say, no matter what his name is.”

“When Johnston was aggressively shopping a series about raising his child with Bristol, there may have been something there — dramatic and relatable authenticity,” said a third executive. “But in this case, I’d probably give him my vote for mayor before I’d give him his own show.”

Insiders said cable networks are the most likely pitch target, with MTV, Oxygen, Bravo, A&E, VH1, E! and TLC topping the first-blush list.

TLC picking up the show is unlikely, however, because Sarah Palin’s upcoming Alaska travelogue is on the same channel and “there’s not a chance in hell” of the network risking alienating Palin.

As one industry insider put it, “They already picked their Palin.”

Another aspect that turned off some executives is that Johnston admitted that producers brainstormed the idea of the mayoral run. Although producer-fueled setups get greenlighted all the time by networks, that backstory usually isn’t made public.

“It’s such a made-for-TV fake situation,” one executive said. “It needs to be something he is really doing.”

When the news about Levi's new reality show first hit the gossip pages I received numerous e-mails from people who had once been interested in working with Levi, and they all expressed absolute confidence that THIS show would never see the light of day.  Much like the insides quoted above, these people just felt the concept was too ridiculous and obviously artificial to be taken seriously by the viewing audience. 

However what may be even more of a hindrance to this concept is the reaction to Levi Johnston in Wasilla itself.

I went out to Wasilla yesterday to help a friend, and while I was there we asked a number of the locals what they thought about Levi Johnston running for mayor of their town.  Of the twenty or so people we interviewed only ONE thought it was not the stupidest idea they had ever heard. And he was an ex-classmate of Levi's.

However what was somewhat surprising to me is the amount of hostility directed at Levi.  These people REALLY did not like him at all!  Even the ones who had little nice to say about Sarah Palin, saved their most vicious comments for young Levi. "Jerk", "parasite", "little prick", were just SOME of the pejoratives directed at him, with one man even suggesting that he suffer physical harm for what he had done to the Palin family.

In other words Levi would probably find a warmer group of potential constituents in almost ANY other town in America than in his hometown right now.  These people have been embarrassed by the antics of Sarah Palin, and they very frustrated that they might be embarrassed once again when Levi Johnston invites cameras into their lives to make a mockery of their political process.

In my opinion the best thing for Levi in the long run would be to stop attempting to be the male version of Sarah Palin, and to simply step out of the limelight and discover just WHO he really is, and then try to make THAT person somebody that his son can grow up to admire.

But if Levi somehow DOES find a cable station willing to film a reality show with him in Wasilla I suggest he find much more capable security than the slow moving Tank Jones, because I think that he really might find himself in physical danger from some of these individuals.