Joe Millionaire
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Joe Millionaire was an American reality television show broadcast on the Fox network beginning in January 2003. It was broadcast in the UK that same year. A sequel, The Next Joe Millionaire, followed in October 2003.
The show was wildly successful and became a pop culture phenomenon, with over 40 million viewers in the US tuning in to the last hour of the final episode making it the most-watched episode of any reality show since the premiere episode of the second season of Survivor.
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[edit] Show dynamics
The basic premise is that bachelor Evan Marriott has inherited millions of dollars and is searching for a potential bride. He takes a group of hopeful women on several dates to exotic and luxurious locations, or performing the type of work he does, eliminating women at the end of each episode until only one woman remains. The main gimmick of the show is that the entire "millionaire" premise is actually an elaborate lie. The women are not aware that this bachelor is in fact a working class construction worker. (The media discovered that Marriott had also been an underwear model for California Muscle.) After all other contestants have been eliminated the secret is revealed to the last remaining woman. After she decides to stay with him anyway, the couple are surprised with a real check for a million dollars.
The show thus had moral overtone. Viewers could see how differently women treat a man they believe to be rich, and see if these attitudes change once they find out he is not rich — i.e., "does money matter"?
Following this happy ending, one of the disappointed contestants filed a civil suit against the show's production company, who she claimed had intentionally and maliciously deceived her with the lure of Evan's alleged wealth.
[edit] First Season (Spring 2003)
A theme throughout the first season was Marriott's attempt to ascertain which of the twenty contestants were sincere and which ones were simply seeking a wealthy mate.
The show made a minor star out of Paul Hogan, the manservant whose role developed, in the words of the network, "into the glue that held the show together". .
Runner-up, Sarah Kozer, received fleeting notoriety when the media reported during the course of the show that she had performed in over fifty bondage videos. In the show's sauciest scene, Kozer appeared to go into the woods to fellate Marriott. Kozer claims that no sex acts occurred. In the VH1 program Secrets of Reality TV she alleges that her statement "Let's go somewhere quiet" was in fact spoken while she was receiving a back massage from another female contestant and that the producers added kissing sound effects and the subtitles "slurp, gulp, slurp" to make the scene more salacious.
A contestant known only as Heidi, made waves when she admitted that she already had a boyfriend and would marry a man for his money. An interview segment in which she quipped about Marriott's money, "I'm a banker; I can help," seemed to underscore that Heidi was a gold digger.
Zora Andrich was the last woman to stay with Marriott, and the two were delighted by the million-dollar reward. Surprisingly, their union did not last -- she claimed she was attracted to a completely different man; he claimed she lost her sex-appeal when the show was over. Consequently, they did not see each other after the show was over. The million dollar check was real, though; the two of them split the money. Zora would later explain in a VH1 show called Secrets of Reality TV 2 that Marriott told her via cell phone that he did not pick her, that Fox wanted him to pick her.
Joe Millionaire was filmed primarily at the Château de la Bourdaisière in the countryside of the commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire département in France.
[edit] The Next Joe Millionaire (Fall 2003)
The second installment, following the same premise, was set in Northern Italy with fourteen English-challenged European contestants.
However the show's popularity magic, which depended entirely on its charade, dissolved very quickly. Viewers were not taken with the cowboy protagonist David Smith, who appeared more enamored of his horse than the contestants.
The show's climax occurred when one of the contestants, identified only as Linda, from "Czech" (in Smith's words), was brought back to the show after being "mistakenly" eliminated and was later selected by Smith as the winner. By that time, though, the magic had completely disappeared and no more seasons were produced.
A theme throughout the second series was the place of materialism and surface beauty in world culture. The show presented the world as a tapestry lain out for the contestants to frolic in, not as a real environment where real people live.
Linda and David went back to Texas to get married, share the $250,000 prize money, and live on the 90-acre ranch included as a prize. He currently works in sales for an oilfield compressor leasing company.
