Pratt rose to prominence in 2007 when he joined the cast of The Hills, a spin-off of the MTV reality show Laguna Beach, as the boyfriend of Heidi Montag. His character often ramped up drama and spread rumours with his sometimes abrasive persona.
Pratt and Montag later married, and they now have two children.
After the show finished in 2010, Pratt went on to appear on other reality programmes, including Celebrity Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, as well as creating an online business to sell crystals.
Marty Kaplan, a professor of entertainment, media and society at the University of Southern California, says politics has been taken over by entertainment, meaning Pratt has an edge.
California previously gave rise to actor-turned-president Ronald Reagan and action star-turned-state governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Donald Trump, too, was famously a reality TV star before he was president. The tabloid TMZ, known for its coverage of celebrities, recently opened an office in Washington DC to cover politics.
“The audience has now been accustomed to want to be entertained,” says Kaplan. “A candidate who can have a story that makes you want to know what happens next, and who delivers sure-fire twists and turns and thrills, that’s what we want.”
Bass, who has deep roots in Los Angeles with a background in community organising and a wealth of political experience, is just “not as entertaining” as Pratt, Kaplan says.
“It used to be that in the battle for attention, what counted was not only do you have a compelling message, but can you deliver?” he asks. “What seems to matter now is almost exclusively, ‘will you promise not to bore me?'”
