New TV: Clay Aiken "The Runner-Up"

Clay Aiken returns to reality TV with a new docu-series on the Esquire Channel - "The Runner-Up."

Premiering tonight at 10PM, the series follows Aiken's political campaign for a North Carolina congressional seat.

Billboard describes the series:

What the cameras did capture was Aiken-a Democrat- unfiltered. He curses like a sailor, micro-manages his staff -- a key example is when he obsesses over the proper way signs are displayed for oncoming traffic -- and says some politically incorrect statements about his Democratic opposition, Keith Crisco, who attacked him in campaign advertisements stating he did not show up for meetings of a presidential committee for people with disabilities. He also takes selfies on the campaign trail with unsuspecting voters who did not even realize he was running for office, records robo-calls with his cell phone, and stews over how publicity for his campaign is being run. All of this -- and the tense moments awaiting primary results -- is captured in four days worth of footage. And that’s just the first episode.

According to Aiken, he agreed to the series as long as the producers would "stay out of my way." “Don’t come asking me to do anything - if you missed it, you missed it. We are running a campaign, and you have got to get the heck away from us, and they did that.“