Next fall, US politics will officially become a reality show.

Amid the upcoming Republican presidential campaigns, the conservative Fox News Channel stands to benefit more than any of its competitors because they “own” most of the candidates, according to one the network’s leading anchors.

Chris Wallace phoned in to Fox Business Network’s Imus in the Morning Thursday to talk about his recent appearance on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Wallace had half-jokingly explained to Comedy Central host Jon Stewart how Fox News was planning to profit from the fact that so many GOP contenders work at the network.

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“We’re thinking of a 13 week series like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars: The GOP Presidential Primary,” Wallace said.

The next day, Wallace was actually serious when he made essentially the same pitch to Don Imus.

“As I said on Stewart, because we own all of the people who are running for president, we’re going to turn it into a 13-week series, like Dancing with the Stars or something,” he said.

“The Republican primaries will be a production of Fox News,” Wallace added.

The marketing of Republican presidential candidates is already underway at the network. In a new special, host Bret Baier will profile 12 top potential GOP candidates in 12 days. The network has landed interviews with 11 of the of the 12.

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Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum are four Republican presidential contenders that are already employees of Fox News. At least one of them, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, is hedging bets on Fox News being the sole driver for the GOP campaign, expressing little desire to talk to any other outlet.

“I will not talk to reporters who have an obvious bias or vendetta or are going to turn my words into something that they’re not meant to be,” Palin told Fox News host Shepard Smith on Tuesday.

This video is from FBN’s Imus in the Morning, broadcast Nov. 4, 2010.

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