Oprah's Big Give

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Oprah's Big Give
Genre	Reality
Created by	Oprah Winfrey
Developed by	Harpo Productions
Presented by	Nate Berkus
Starring	Tony Gonzalez Jamie Oliver Malaak Compton-Rock
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bertram van Munster Elise Doganieri Ellen Rakieten Harriet Seitler Jonathan Sinclair
Supervising producer(s)	Oprah Winfrey
Location(s)	Los Angeles Denver Houston Miami Atlanta New York City Chicago Contestants' Home Towns
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	March 2, 2008 – April 20, 2008
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Oprah's Big Give (also referred to as The Big Give) is a reality television series that aired Sunday nights at 9:00 PM Eastern/8:00PM Central on ABC, and is hosted by Nate Berkus. The Big Give is produced by Harpo Productions, and created and produced by Oprah Winfrey, and also produced by Emmy-winning producers Bert Van Munster and Elise Doganieri. On April 20, 2008, during the final show, Stephen Paletta was declared the winner and won the $1 million. ^[1] Outside the United States, the series is distributed through FremantleMedia^[2].

On May 13, 2008, ABC decided not to renew the series for a second season.^[3]

Contents 1 Format 2 People Competing 2.1 Angelo 2.2 Brandi 2.3 Cameron 2.4 Carlana 2.5 Eric 2.6 Kim 2.7 Marlene 2.8 Olusegun 2.9 Rachael 2.10 Stephen 3 Chronology 4 Ratings 5 Response 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Format

The show is the first primetime reality series by Harpo Productions, and focuses on 10 contestants as they travel across the country with a large sum of money, and try and help people in unique ways, and participate in a series of challenges in order to become America's greatest unknown philanthropist.^[1]

In each episode, contestants travel to a different U.S. city and are given some amount of money and an assignment. Sometimes the contestants are paired or grouped, and sometimes they may act as individuals. In some cities, contestants are assigned to help a particular individual or organization, while in others they are simply told to find people in need. The contestants then have the opportunity to raise additional money in order to reach their goals. At the end of each episode, the panel of judges selects one person to go home.

At the end of the season, it was revealed to the winner that they won $1 million ($500,000 for themselves, and $500,000 to give away).

[edit] People Competing

[edit] Angelo

Angelo Adams is a former army captain born in Philadelphia who graduated from West Point. Angelo has two children and is currently in his second year at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.^[4]

[edit] Brandi

Brandi Milloy is a four-time Miss America title holder who graduated from the University of Arizona. Brandi was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager.^[5]

[edit] Cameron

Cameron Johnson is a businessman who was a self-made millionaire in his teenage years. His first company was producing greeting cards for friends and family.^[6]

[edit] Carlana

Carlana Stone is a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Slavic language. Carlana became a paraplegic after an automobile accident in which she was a passenger in a drunk driver's car.^[7]

[edit] Eric

Eric Klein is a model and actor who lives in California. Eric also is the founder and CEO of Can-Do, a nonprofit organization that enables people who make charitable donations to actually see how their money is being spent.^[8]

[edit] Kim

Kim Prentiss is a sports marketing executive who lives in Nashville. Kim described herself as selfish, and wants to turn her life around.^[9]

[edit] Marlene

Marlene Snipes is an Amtrak service attendant from Chicago. Marlene also is a motivational speaker and an aerobics instructor for her local church.^[10]

[edit] Olusegun

Olusegun "Sheg" Aranmolate is a researcher at a University in Nashville and plans to attend medical school. Sheg has a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and a master's degree in applied molecular biology. Sheg also moved from Nigeria to the United States at the age of 18.^[11]

[edit] Rachael

Rachael Hollingsworth is a singer who currently lives in Hollywood, California. She was a victim of gang violence and sexual and physical abuse. ^[12]

[edit] Stephen

Stephen Paletta is the CEO of Renaissance Integrated Solutions, a technology based company in the pipeline industry. Stephen graduated from Cornell University, where he was an All-American lacrosse player and a civil engineering major. Stephen was declared the biggest giver, and won the $1 million. ^[13]

[edit] Chronology

The following table shows the contestants, along with the partner they had or team they participated on, as well as when they were eliminated.

•      Contestant was eliminated
•      Contestant was at risk (a contestant who was instructed to open his or her envelope at the same time as a contestant who was ultimately eliminated; see note 1)
•      Contestant was immune (was informed before the envelopes were handed out, and thus did not receive one at all)
• No Teams - Contestants competed as individuals
• All Together - Contestants competed as one team

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
	Los Angeles	Denver	Houston	Miami	Atlanta	New York City	Home Towns	Chicago
Stephen	Eric	See Note 2	Forgotten Christmas	No Teams	No Teams	All Together	No Teams	Winner
Brandi	Cameron	See Note 2	Forgotten Christmas	No Teams	No Teams	All Together	No Teams	Runner Up
Cameron	Brandi	See Note 2	Forgotten Christmas	No Teams	No Teams	All Together	No Teams	Runner Up
Rachael	Angelo	See Note 2	Field of Dreams	No Teams	No Teams	All Together
Olusegun	Carlana	See Note 2	Field of Dreams	No Teams	No Teams
Eric	Stephen	See Note 2	Forgotten Christmas	No Teams
Kim	Marlene	See Note 2	Field of Dreams	No Teams
Carlana	Olusegun	See Note 2	Field of Dreams
Angelo	Rachael	See Note 2
Marlene	Kim

Note 1: After Week 4, contestants were no longer instructed to open their envelopes in a particular order. Thus, no 'At Risk' contestants were identified in subsequent weeks.

Note 2: In Week 2, contestants were not divided into teams, nor were they prohibited from forming teams. Eric, Stephen, and Cameron chose to work as a team, while the remaining contestants all worked individually.

Note 3: In Week 7, contestants flew to their hometowns and worked with family and friends to perform their give. It was revealed that no one would be eliminated.

[edit] Ratings

#	Air Date	Timeslot (EST)	Season	Rating[14]	Share[14]	18-49 (Rating/Share)[14]	Viewers (m)[14]	Weekly Rank (#)
1	March 2, 2008	Sunday 9:00 P.M.	2007-2008	9.4	14	5.3/12	15.55	4
2	March 9, 2008			7.4	11	4.1/10	11.83	10
3	March 16, 2008			6.0	9	3.6/9	9.71	18
4	March 23, 2008			6.1	10	3.5/9	9.92	19
5	March 30, 2008			7.1	11	3.9/9	11.35	13
6	April 6, 2008			5.9	9	3.2/8	9.42	27
7	April 13, 2008	Sunday 8:00 P.M.		5.6	9	2.9/9	8.88	19
8	April 20, 2008			6.4	10	3.2/9	10.03	TBA

[edit] Response

In Fort Wayne, Indiana, $10,000 in seed money was received by ABC affiliate WPTA, which was then given to local trail organizations. A community celebration was held April 12, 2008 when it was revealed that the total donations had topped $1 million.^[15]

In Orlando, Florida, over $50,000 has been donated to a mentoring program for at-risk youth, in conjunction with a charitable program from ABC affiliate WFTV, that was inspired by Oprah's Big Give.^[16]

In Fresno, California, $10,000 was donated by the ABC affiliate KFSN on behalf of Oprah's Big Give, and turned over to CalFire for installing smoke detectors in rural county homes that do not have any, to save lives. This was in a response to the tragic death of two young girls who died in a house fire in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

The program has also been criticized. Hollywood Reporter described it as a phony and self-aggrandizing promotional vehicle for Oprah.^[17] Tom Shales of the Washington Post described the show as having an "unsavory aura of exploitation" and as being trite and predictable. ^[18] Rick Kushman of the Daily Herald found the show boring, and worried that it could serve to make viewers feel "cynical about charity," which would in turn make them feel guilty. ^[19] Variety's Brian Lowry called the show "a reality-TV Frankenstein, birthed from parts of other programs"^[20] and its judges "arbitrary,"^[20] and generally found that the philanthropic theme of the show was inconsistent with the competitive reality genre. However, Lowry also recognized the show's "emotional appeal"^[20] and conceded that the show's heart is "in the right place."^[20]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Oprah's Big Give at the Internet Movie Database
• Oprah's Big Give at TV.com