A still image from an episode of “The Great American Road Trip” featuring Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and his family.
Washington, DC —
The long-awaited “Great American Road Trip” reality show from the Department of Transportation starring Secretary Sean Duffy and his family has finallypremiered after months of delays.
The series follows Duffy and his wife, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a co-host of Fox and Friends, and their nine children through seven states. The six-episode series was published on Youtube Wednesday. It was originally planned to premiere in June, ahead of the July 4 celebration, but was delayed.
When asked about the cause of the delay, a DOT spokesperson told CNN, “As we said earlier this month, America’s 250th birthday is a year-long celebration.”
Duffy has teased the road trip since last year as an opportunity to show Americans different parts of the United States and encourage families to travel.
“There’s nothing more Americana than a road trip,” Duffy told attendees at an event at the Department of Transportation’s headquarters last year.
The series was initially criticized by some Democratic members of Congress who said the road trip came at a time when gas prices were skyrocketing due to the war in Iran, making it harder for everyday Americans to travel. Some critics were also concerned the project’s sponsors, including Boeing, Shell, Toyota, United Airlines and Royal Caribbean, had business in front of the Department of Transportation.
The Duffy family responded to the criticism in May withposts on X. Campos-Duffy wrote “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.”
Each episode begins with a statement that reads, “production costs —including filming, crew, food, fuel, lodging and activities — were paid for by the Great American Road Trip, Inc and accepted as a gift by the Department. No taxpayer dollars were spent for the participation of Secretary Duffy’s family.”
The first episode begins with a road trip to Philadelphia, with a brief stop in the Oval Office to see President Donald Trump. Other episodes include trips to Massachusetts, Wyoming, Montana, South Carolina, Texas and Arizona.
The Duffy family filmed the show one to two days at a time over the course of seven months, they said.
All six episodes are now available on theDepartment of Transportation YouTube page. Each episode is about 30 minutes long.
The first follows the Duffy family to Philadelphia, in an episode titled, “Where America Began.” The Duffy’s see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. They end the trip sprinting up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, also known as the “Rocky Steps,” from the 1976 film with Sylvester Stallone.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy raises his arms after he and his family sprinted up the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps, also known as the “Rocky Steps,” from the 1976 film with Sylvester Stallone, “Rocky.”
The second episode in Boston, “College Dreams and a Homecoming,” takes the family to tour Boston College and Harvard University, two schools their daughter, Paloma, is considering. Duffy and Campos-Duffy express hesitations about her potentially attending Harvard due to their Catholic beliefs.
“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.”
The family also makes a stop at the “Real World house,” where Duffy once lived when he was on the MTV reality show, “Road Rules: All Stars.” Campos-Duffy met him on the show while filming.
In the third episode, the Duffys head to Wyoming and Montana in an episode called, “Winter in the Wild.”
“There is nothing more American than Yellowstone,” Duffy said as the family drove snowmobiles and looked at bison. Yellowstone Vacations was a sponsor.
The episode also follows Duffy’s youngest son, Patrick, when he is taken to the hospital to see if he has appendicitis, but it was nothing serious.
Duffy’s oldest daughter, Evita, and her husband Michael Alfonso, who recently won the Republican primary in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, also learn the gender of their child in the episode.
The fourth installment in the series follows the family to Charleston in an episode called, “By Land, Sea and Sky.” They visit an aquarium and a coffee shop that hires people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Duffy’s youngest daughter, Valentina, has Down syndrome.
Later, the family visits a Boeing factory in Charleston where 787 aircraft are built. The company is among the sponsors of the series. As Transportation Secretary, Duffy is responsible for the Federal Af planes
“Innovation, development all happening in America,” Duffy said. “Really important as we think about the next generation of materials, the next generation of aircraft.”
In the fifth episode, the family travels to Texas to experience a dude ranch and the Fort Worth Stockyards. Two of their children, John Paul and Lucia, go to college in Texas.
At Billy Bob’s Texas, known as the “world’s largest honky tonk,” Duffy and his kids learn to line dance.
Later, Duffy visits a site for CRH Americas, a provider of building materials and another sponsor of the reality show.
In the final episode, the family visits Arizona in an episode called, “Family, memories and the road ahead.” The Arizona office of tourism is a sponsor of the episode.
The Duffy family visited Route 66 and the Grand Canyon. A resort operator at the canyon was among the episode’s sponsors.
In Phoenix, the family also rode in a Waymo self-driving car, which Duffy praised. His department, through The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, regulates self-driving vehicles.
Despite some hiccups on the trek to seven states, Duffy says it was a wonderful adventure.
“When you do a road trip, everything isn’t perfect,” he said. “And that’s part of the road trip. I love this experience because on this American birthday, we saw the country and we did it together.”
Duffy found himself in several of heated exchanges about the series with two Democratic senators at a congressional budget hearing in May.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy testifies before the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, on May 19.
“This show is incredibly out of touch with where Americans are,” Sen. Patty Murray told Duffy, noting Americans don’t have sponsors to pay for their road trips. “It really raises some serious ethics concerns about who you answer to.”
Duffy questioned money he said Murray got from the health care industry and she responded he was rudely interrupting her.
“Do you hate America? Don’t you want to celebrate America?” Duffy asked.
“I don’t like the fact that it was paid for by companies that you have to oversee, companies that you work with,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said in the hearing. “In our jobs that would be pay for play, it would be 100% illegal. It would be inappropriate on every level and not tolerated.”
Duffy defended the series saying no taxpayer money was spent on his family.
“I want to encourage Americans to see their beautiful country,” Duffy said. “As we can see from this hearing, there’s a lot of partisanship in America. This seeing your country, experiencing your country through the window of a car, is a beautiful thing. It actually unites America.”
CNN’s Aaron Cooper contributed to this report.
