Who Is America?

Who Is America?
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Sacha Baron Cohen
Starring	Sacha Baron Cohen
Composer	Erran Baron Cohen
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	1 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Sacha Baron Cohen Anthony Hines Todd Schulman Andrew Newman Dan Mazer Adam Lowitt
Producers	Melanie J. Elin Nicholas Hatton Daniel Gray Longino Dan Swimer Tim Allsop
Cinematography	Luke Geissbühler
Editors	Drew Kordik Eric Notarnicola Roger Nygard Mark Davies
Running time	28 minutes
Production companies	Four By Two Television Spelthorne Community Television
Original release
Network	Showtime
Release	July 15, 2018 (2018-07-15) – present (present)

Who Is America? is an American comedy television series created by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen that premiered on July 15, 2018 on Showtime.

Premise

Who Is America? explores "the diverse individuals, from the infamous to the unknown across the political and cultural spectrum, who populate our unique nation."

Cast and characters

Sacha Baron Cohen portrays various characters including:

• Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., a far-right conspiracy theorist who publishes his investigations on his website TRUTHBRARY.org.
• Dr. Nira Cain-N'Degeocello, a liberal activist who wishes to "heal the divide" in America.
• Rick Sherman, an ex-convict recently released after about 21 years that uses bodily fluids in his artwork. He is interested in obtaining representation for his art and goes to an art gallery attempting to sell some of his pieces.
• Erran Morad, an Israeli anti-terrorism expert. He believes that the NRA's plan for arming school teachers does not go far enough to curtail gun-violence, and proposes a new program, "Kinderguardians", where children (ages 3 to 16) are armed with guns.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	"101"	Sacha Baron Cohen, Payman Benz, Daniel Gray Longino, Dan Mazer, & Todd Schulman	Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Dan Mazer, Lee Kern, Adam Lowitt, Brian Reich, Kurt Metzger, Eric Notarnicola, & Aaron Geary	July 15, 2018 (2018-07-15)	N/A
Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. Ph.D. interviews Senator Bernie Sanders. Dr. Nira Cain-N'Degeocello interviews Jane Page Thompson, a South Carolina Republican delegate who cast her vote for Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican National Convention, and her husband Mark. Rick Sherman sits down with Christy, a fine art consultant in Laguna Beach, California, and attempts to convince her to sell his artwork. Erran Morad sits down with various conservatives including Philip Van Cleave, gun rights advocate and the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Larry Pratt, executive director emeritus for the lobbying group Gun Owners of America, Matt Gaetz, the current U.S. Representative for Florida's 1st congressional district, and Trent Lott, the former U.S. Senate Majority Leader from Mississippi, in order to convince them to support his proposal of arming children (ages 3 to 16) in order to prevent school shootings. Morad produces a video featuring the aforementioned people he talked to, in addition to Dana Rohrabacher, Joe Wilson, and Joe Walsh, where they openly advocate for his proposal.
2	"102"	Unknown	Unknown	July 22, 2018 (2018-07-22)	N/A
3	"103"	Unknown	Unknown	July 29, 2018 (2018-07-29)	N/A
4	"104"	Unknown	Unknown	August 5, 2018 (2018-08-05)	N/A
5	"105"	Unknown	Unknown	August 12, 2018 (2018-08-12)	N/A
6	"106"	Unknown	Unknown	August 19, 2018 (2018-08-19)	N/A
7	"107"	Unknown	Unknown	August 26, 2018 (2018-08-26)	N/A

Production

Development

On June 29 and July 3, 2018, Showtime released two short videos wherein they teased an upcoming series set to premiere on July 15, 2018. The videos claimed that the network could not yet reveal the title of the series, its premise, or who it was that created it due to a non-disclosure agreement. Over the following days, early speculation among various news sources pinpointed comedian Kathy Griffin as being the possible star of the new series. On July 5, 2018, following the release of a mysterious video from Sacha Baron Cohen on his Twitter account the previous day, it began to be reported that the series would actually star Baron Cohen and that it would resemble his previous series Da Ali G Show.

On July 9, 2018, it was announced that Showtime had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of seven episodes and that it was set to premiere on July 15, 2018. The series was created by Baron Cohen who was also set to executive produce alongside Anthony Hines, Todd Schulman, Andrew Newman, Dan Mazer, and Adam Lowitt.

Filming

On August 3, 2017, Baron Cohen was reported to have been filming in Augusta, Georgia in character as "Dr. Nira Cain" on the local The Austin Rhodes Show. On February 10, 2018, Baron Cohen was again reported to have been filming in character wearing a curly dark wig and black, thick-rimmed glasses in a Las Vegas, Nevada hotel room where he sat down with O. J. Simpson. Baron Cohen reportedly paid Simpson $20,000 to participate in the filming.

Release

Marketing

On June 29, 2018, a teaser was released by Showtime announcing that a new series was premiering on July 15, 2018 but they could not yet reveal the title of the series or its creator and star. On July 3, 2018, another teaser was released. The following day, Sacha Baron Cohen released a video on his Twitter account hinting at an upcoming project featuring Donald Trump. On July 8, 2018, Baron Cohen released another video this time featuring former American vice-president Dick Cheney. The next day, following the series' official announcement, the first full trailer for the series was released.

Interviewee response

On July 10, 2018, former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin disclosed on Facebook that she had been interviewed by Baron Cohen while he was in character as a disabled veteran. She expressed anger at being tricked into participating in the interview saying, "I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick ‘humor’ of the British ‘comedian’ Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime." A day later, former U.S. congressman Joe Walsh revealed on Twitter that he too had been interviewed by Baron Cohen in character and was critical of the methods used to gain his participation in filming saying, "Dressing up as a wounded veteran is absolutely stolen valor, his tactics are disguisting [sic] - I know cause [sic] I too was duped."

On July 12, 2018, former Alabama judge Roy Moore similarly divulged his unwitting participation in the series through a statement saying, "As for Mr. Cohen [sic], whose art is trickery, deception and dishonesty, Alabama does not respect cowards who exhibit such traits!" That same day, Georgia talk radio host Austin Rhodes confirmed he had unwittingly had Baron Cohen on his radio program as a guest in August 2017 while Cohen was in character. Rhodes indicated that he was not as irritated as other interviewees had been, mentioning that he is a fan of Baron Cohen's saying, "My biggest regret is not being able to shake his hand as Sacha Baron Cohen or interview him (as himself)." Also that same day, broadcast journalist Ted Koppel disclosed that he had taken part in an interview for the series at his home under the impression it was for an upcoming Showtime series titled Age of Reason. Koppel was not overly irritated at the notion of being tricked saying, "Everybody loves seeing well-known people get duped. I relish it too, when it's done well." Though he went on to express concern over the notion of people posing as documentarians or journalists adding, "I think there's a larger issue here and that is, if there's one thing we don't need any more of in this particular era it's people posing as documentarians. I think there's enough skepticism to go around about people who actually are reporters, who actually are documentarians. And to undermine whatever tiny little bit of confidence might be left by pulling a stunt like this … maybe it will make for a good comedy show. I don't know. But I don't think it helps the overall atmosphere."

On July 13, 2018, U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida admitted that he had been deceived by Cohen and participated in an interview. Unlike most others who confirmed their involvement, Gaetz acknowledged that he was a fan of Cohen's and was looking forward to the series saying, "It’s very consistent with his model, beginning with a seemingly normal interaction and then the brilliance of his comedy is that he accelerates the awkwardness of it to some usually ironically humorous end."

Distribution

In the United Kingdom, the series is set to premiere on July 16, 2018 on Channel 4.

Reception

In a mixed review, The New York Times's Mike Hale compared the series to Cohen's previous work saying, "Mr. Cohen remains a strong performer and writer, and while these new characters aren’t as ferociously funny as Ali G or Borat, they still have their moments." In an additional ambivalent critique, NPR's Linda Holmes called the series "hit-and-miss" praising the Erran Morad character and segment in the first episode but criticizing the other three saying, "In the premiere episode, there were three weak, uninspired pieces and one that was a solid hit. How much you want to watch this show will depend on how you feel about that ratio and how much patience you have for how funny Cohen thinks he is." Offering the series restrained praise, Jen Chaney of Vulture spoke of the series' potential relevance to America's political state at the time of it's release saying, "When Who Is America? is on point, as it is in the "Kill or Be Killed" segment, it doesn’t just remind us that some of our emperors have no clothes. It exposes them for walking around naked with no sense of shame whatsoever." In another mixed review, Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich gave series a grade of "C+" and said, "There are some laughs in Who Is America?, but the most profound feeling you get from the show is weariness. Cohen’s haphazard comedy instincts feel topical in the worst way. Some politicians said crazy things on television? That’s not strange anymore. It’s mandatory." In a more positive review, Sonia Saraiya of Vanity Fair offered the show qualified praise saying, "The Herculean efforts Cohen undergoes in order to entrap, fool, or insult his targets are both a little exhausting and a little pointless—but I can’t deny that Who Is America is funny, too, once you get past the shock and squirming horror."

External links

• Who Is America? at IMDb