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Oprah's Big Give

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georgiapeach:

--- Quote --- I ask the question "What does host Nate Berkus do during the episodes?"
--- End quote ---


Heee...just standing there and looking cute works for me! :luvu:

I wasn't as blown away by this as I had hoped to be. I'm glad for Bertram and Elise that ratings were good, but I think they'll have to step it up next week to keep some of those viewers.

But an intro show is tricky and this time we were trying not only to get to know the contestants, but we also had to get to know the recipients so they had a lot to cover. Hopefully next week will deliver!

apskip:
I don't often do this, but this excerpt from Dave White's MSNBC article at www.msnbc.msn.com/23447154 is way too snarky for anybody to miss it. So I am copying the most interesting paragraphs(from the second half of the first page of the article) here:

But people LOVE to watch mind-blowingly rich Oprah give stuff to people. Or get corporate sponsors to give stuff to them. Or make people audition to get on a show to then be filmed while calling corporate sponsors to give stuff to them after Oprah’s production assistants make connections with the corporate sponsors first to make sure they know that someone from the new show is calling and not just some kook who wants to give musical instruments to a community center for people with Down Syndrome. Because then it would be only reasonable for the corporate sponsor to just say, “Whatevs” and hang up on them. Look, it’s Oprah who’s really doing it all. Worship her.

Big-giving requires sitting around making lots of phone calls
Like I just said, corporate sponsors are involved. And the show treats us to a lot of super-exciting cell phone call footage where contestants simply reach out into the void, seemingly with nothing but The Yellow Pages to guide them. See, each team of contestants has five days to give something huge to a person/family in need. And then they get on the horn to Target and Target says, “OK, you say some kids need free toys? Yes! Best idea we’ve heard all day!” I had a tiny little question about how the contestants knew which sponsor to call and whether or not the call-ees got any pre-show warning that Harpo Productions was really on the other end of the line. But I forget what that question was.

You can cold-call Jamie Foxx and he’ll just drop 50-grand like its $1.29 Filet-O-Fish Friday at McDonalds
You watch the show and think, “How do these people just swoop into a new city and set up a charity fashion show in five days?” But then you stop wondering about stuff the show clearly has no interest in telling you when it’s revealed that anyone can just call Jamie Foxx and ask for money. He turns into a human ATM when people do that. He gives you $50,000. Seriously. Jamie Foxx. I just saw it happen. What’s his number?

This country will never have single-payer universal health care or any other governmental safety nets
That’s because it costs as much as a house to go to medical school. One of the recipients of OBG’s media-largesse is a med student with about $200,000 in student loans he has to pay back. But if he can eradicate that debt then he can help poor people for free. Another is a wounded war vet facing the prospect of his family becoming homeless. But if someone will help him then they’ll all get to live in a place with a roof and walls. OBG doesn’t mire herself in social critique. That would ruin everything and disallow Bridgestone Firestone the chance to dip into petty cash, get shown being generous on TV and then write off the donation. Message: privatization is how the real rollers get it done.


This is a pretty damning and, in my view, accurate critique of the concept and execution of Oprah's Big Give. It has laudable goals, but there are many issues on how the contestants get from envelope to final judgment and the support system (NOT SHOWN ON CAMERA) that really does support them. It appears that Oprah wanted this to be a home run so badly that she didn't mind setting new rules in the middle of the game to help whichever contestants could logically be helped.

marigold:
I like this guy, I don’t mind controversy he’s stating the obvious.

I just can’t take this show seriously for it’s competitiveness nature without outside influence, Oprah.

I think I would have liked to seen it shown during her own Oprah show time slot perhaps shown in a

series of episodes rather then venture into Prime time.

What can I say I’m not hooked, hint hint.

But I imagine her loyal Oprah fans will love it and support her.

Maybe I’m just overly critical as I sit here in my bed a with a fever headache and runny nose so don’t blame me  :lol:

apskip:
This coming episode will involve finding "the neediest person in a town that the contestant knows nothing about" and gifting them. Also, late in the episode there will be some twist, no doubt brought in by Oprah herself as she is the Minister of Twists.

apskip:
As a geographer, I want to speculate on where the next task is tasking the Big Give cast. There are 98 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. larger than 500,000 population and one has been used (Los Angeles metro) and I expect two are being reserved for future use (New York metro and Chicago metro). That leaves 95 and I have about a 1% chance of getting this right for each guess I make. I am picking Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area and I am picking the valley of the Sun (Phoenix). We'll see. Of course Oprah may have chosen to have this challenge done in each of 5 different metropolitan areas, which invalidates my approach and predictions.

EDITOR'S NOTE - Well, I wasn't close on my 2% total guessing. I will be able to hit 100% sometime later in the 8-show series that it will be in Newnan GA since I have evidence that it does. I just can't tell you when. It is logical that Newnan, which is Atlanta metro, is one episode, New York metro is probably the second-to-last, and Chicago is last. That leaves 3 episodes. One is likely to be in the Southwest, such as Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. One is likely to be in the Charlotte to Philadelphia corridor (either of those or Raleigh, Richmond, Washington DC, Baltimore) and one in the Pittsburgh/Buffalo/Cleveland/Columbus/Cincinnati/Detroit corridor.

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