Friday, August 21, 2026
Vol. VIII
Est. 2019

The Mind Shield

News · Opinion · Politics · Analysis

Sean Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ series flops.

Sean Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ series flops.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s much-hyped new reality show is struggling.

Duffy’s The Great American Road Trip follows the secretary and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a co-host of Fox and Friends, and their nine children as they travel across the country.

The series was originally planned to premiere in June, ahead of the July 4 celebration, but was delayed. The six-episode series was finally published on YouTube on Wednesday.

A day later, the much hyped show is struggling to gain traction.

At the time of writing, about 8,600 people, combined, have seen all six episodes. The first episode, titled “Where America Began,” follows the Duffy family as they travel to Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. It is the most-viewed episode, garnering 3,400 views, and viewership steadily declined from there.

The second episode of the series, titled “College Dreams and a Homecoming,” shows the family touring Boston College and Harvard University, two schools their daughter, Paloma, is considering. This is the episode that generated some buzz online due to Duffy’s comments expressing his hesitation about allowing his daughter to attend Harvard.

“If I send you there, I think what happens is, they have professionalized figuring out how they can take good, young girls like you and, I think, corrupt their minds,” Duffy tells Paloma. “You don’t have to believe what I believe. You don’t have to have the political viewpoints that I have, but I do think it’s important that you make those choices for yourself and you have a fair representation of what they are.”

Still, that episode only drew about 2,100 viewers.

All six episodes of Sean Duffy’s series on YouTube. Photo: Screenshot/ The Great American Road Trip via YouTube.

When it was just announced, critics slammed the series as being out of touch, noting that it came at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing due to Donald Trump’s war in Iran. There were also concerns that the project’s sponsors, including Boeing, Shell, Toyota, United Airlines and Royal Caribbean, had business with the Department of Transportation, according to CNN.

Campos-Duffy responded to the backlash on Twitter, writing, “all production costs were paid for by the non-profit, The Great American Road Trip, Inc. No one in my family – including my husband – were paid to do this.”