MySpace is making a political reality show with the king of the genre, Mark Burnett.

Come to think of it, politics is the ultimate reality show. It has elements of Survivor — council meetings are other wise known as primaries, Big Brother — we vote them out of the house, Apprentice — it’s controlled by the guy guy with the money, Dancing with the stars — it’s all choreographed, and American Idol — hair matters but it won’t win you the prize.

But seriously, folks, it’s a brilliant stroke. Politics is entertainment. So why not make entertainment out of politics?

The Wall Street Journal’s description of the show:

Dubbed “Independent,” the reality series pits would-be politicians in a competition for a $1 million prize, which must be either donated to a political cause or be used — improbably as it sounds — as seed money for the winner’s own election campaign. The show is set to launch early next year. . . .

The new political series aims to combine the online power of MySpace’s networking community with the reality-show format Mr. Burnett helped popularize with television shows like “Survivor” and “The Apprentice.” MySpace executives say the new show also stems from its users’ growing interest in the coming 2008 presidential election. Most major candidates like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have MySpace profiles. . . .

Candidates try out for the show with submissions to MySpace Video. The field of contestants is narrowed down by voting on the site; users also interact with contestants on their MySpace profiles. Political topics that generate the most buzz on the site — whether it’s climate change or immigration reform — will determine the kinds of “challenges” created by television producers for the live network show. A challenge might be traveling to a border town to talk about immigration.

I will confess to recycling that headline above from December 2003 when American Candidate moved from FX to Showtime. It was supposed to create the people’s candidate who could win our nomination based on issues, not power. I guess we just weren’t ready to vote for a guy named Park Gillespie, who went on to try to run for Congress. The show didn’t click but then, Showtime didn’t have the constituency that MySpace has.

Note also that MySpace is holding its own online primary. This is not just a smart publicity and programming move. I’ll bet that MySpace will get a king’s — er, president’s — share of online campaign advertising.