Homeland security has been a hot topic ever since 9/11. It has been the focus of a number of books, movies and congressional funding debates over the course of the past 7 years. Conspiracy theorist are still “uncovering” little known facts about 9/11 and are chiming in with their opinions regarding homeland security.

Given all of this attention, it was only a matter of time before the media sources found a different way to profiteer from the public interest in homeland security. ABC is the first to introduce a reality tv show entitled Homeland Security USA.  It debuted this last Tuesday evening and will continue for the next 13 weeks. It is estimated that it will do quite well. However, ratings are expected to take a hit when Fox begins airing season 8 of American Idol on January 13th and 14th.

Those of us at SmartSecurityPeople.com that saw the previews for Homeland Security USA, quickly discounted it as another reality tv show gone bad. We made no plans on watching it. However, given a boring night  of tv and no real competition in that time slot, curiosity won over and we watched the new series. I can honestly say that we were intrigued.

The show did a fine job of representing the men and women that work on our borders every day and the challenges that they face. Nothing appeared to be embellished or exaggerated and the situations were very serious and quite unlike what you would expect. It is just amazing the amount of drugs, illegal aliens, and unauthorized materials that are attempting to cross the borders and into our country every day. Homeland Security USA only provides coverage on the ones we catch, so who knows how much goes by without notice.

You can watch the show on Tuesday nights and decide for yourself if it is worthy of evolving into one of your regularly watched shows. As for us at SmartSecurityPeople.com, we will probably TIVO it and peruse the episodes in our free time (of which there is usually very little).