Topic: Oprah's Big Give

[apskip]

Starting tomorrow Sunday March 2 at 9pm and continuing for 8 weeks total is Oprah's Big Give. This series has the production talents of Amazing Race creator/executive producer Bertram van Munster as well as Oprah's full support, so it's likely to be good. Oprah's desire is for contestants to "give big or go home". The contestants were chosen by the judges and are "everyday people" who will be introduced in the first show.


The judges are:
1. Jamie Oliver, noted chef
2. Malaak Compton-Rock, wife of comedian Chris Rock
3. Tony Gonzalez, NFL football player

The host is Nate Berkus (who?), design guru. He has experience as the host of the "Oprah and friends" channel on XM radio and also for makeovers on Oprah's TV show.  I never heard of him, but no matter. He'll distinguish himself by his performance as host or not.

There are celebrity helpers who will show up at some point:
1. who else but reality show host Donald Trump
2. that potrait of elegance on the dance floor John Travolta
3. former Friends star and now movie star Jennifer Aniston
4. race car driver Danica Patrick
5. Jada Pinkett-Smith, a legitimate actress in her own right (before being wife of and mother of)
6. Natalie Cole, inheritor of the voice from her legendary father
7. former tennis star Andre Agassi (I don't think he is winning any tournaments these days)

There is a challenge each episode to give away Oprah's money. The givers are judged on creativity, leadership, and accomplishments and, just like in the Amazing Race my favroite show, the lowest performing person (or team in AR) is sent home. At the end, the person deemed the "biggest giver" wins $1,000,000 but they do not know that while competing.

The first episode preview shows that contestants are paired up into 5 teams, given a car and told to "go" with 5 days to complete the task.

[marigold]

Oh this seems interesting, I'll definitely watch this.

I like Nate he's a very compasionate person.

I like his designs and know of his tragic loss he endured during the tsunami in Sri Lanka.

So I'm glad to hear he is hosting the show.

Thanks I didn't know it was going to be on tomorrow.

[georgiapeach]

Heee... in the course of  tracking TAR, I inadvertently also found some film permits for this --for  in the Atlanta airport during the time TAR was also filming. Have NO idea what that means...but here you go!

[marigold]

Oh cool, Oprah's Big Give website has a video preview to view.

Here is the link: http://abc.go.com/primetime/oprahsbiggive/index?pn=index

As the competition tightens, big Hollywood stars join "Oprah's Big Give," raising the stakes and turning up the heat. Celebrity guests include Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta and Jada Pinkett-Smith, tennis legend Andre Agassi, skateboarding idol Tony Hawk, racing star Danica Patrick, plus more.

Thousands of hopefuls auditioned to compete in "Oprah's Big Give." The ten contestants were discovered in auditions held in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Nashville and represent all walks of life, from a pageant queen and a pre-med student to a paraplegic and a young dot-com millionaire. They include:


Angelo, 30, a West Point graduate and Iraq War veteran from Ann Arbor, MI

Brandi, 23, a pageant queen from Chicago, IL

Cameron, 22, an entrepreneur and dot-com millionaire from Roanoke, VA

Carlana, 38, a paraplegic, author and media executive from Glendale, CA

Eric, 37, a former model who now works as a disaster relief worker from Boston, MA

Kim, 39, an NFL marketing specialist from Brentwood, TN

Marlene, 37, a train attendant from Chicago, IL

Olussegun "Sheg", 23, a pre-med student from Nashville, TN

Rachael, 31, a singer and actress from Los Angeles, CA

Stephen, 43, a real estate developer from Bedford, NY

[apskip]

The 10 contestants were introduced with no more information than shown above. There is one twist that I had not appreciated. I thought that the teams were giving away Oprah's money. That is not what happened in episode 1, based in southern California. Individuals were paired up into teams of two and each was given one of these assignments:

1. a widow with two young girls whose husband had been murdered at a retail store and needed money to live and to finance the girls' education
2. a diabled Marine with wife and children who was leaving the Marine Corps and needed housing
3. a woman running a major program for retarded children and adults with minimal funding who needed a larger space for the program and musical instruments
4. a homeless woman with children 16 and 14 who needed housing and transportation
5. a young African American doctor who had $200,000 in medical school bills to pay off

I noted that the doctor should never have been included in this list. Most medical school graduates have loans in that range to pay off, so it's not that special. They also have the skills to do it within about 5 years of increasing income. There must have been a more needy case in Southern California to make Oprah's show.

One team (Marlene and Kim) distinguished themselves the first day by being unable to find the Marine's home. They went on to obtain a number of gifts for the Marine, but they were all developed by the contacts of Kim.

Sheg and Carlana were in big trouble from the start. They decided in desperation that a fashion show might raise money for the doctor, so they organized one. It was a poor idea and totally unsuccessful but a $50,000 commitment came in from Jamie Foxx that saved them from having essentially no results.

Rachael and Angelo got the homeless family. Rachael raised $40,000 at just one church service by appealing for donations and singing to support her request.

Brandi and Cameron had the woman running the retarded program. They ran a fine campaign but raised only a total value of $43,000 in gifts, which proved to be the lowest of all teams.

Steven and Eric got the widow and did a splendid campaign which had tremendous emoptional extra value beyond just the value of the gifts they raised. All the other teams made a big deal out of the monetary equivalent of their gifts (particularly Brandi and Cameron, who also ran a fine campaign with great emotion). I hope that the final winner is not determined by who raises the most dollar equivalent gifts.

When it came time to tally up who did the worst, the judges focused on basically two candidates, Carlana and Marlene. They gave Marlene the boot because she had failed to contribute anything to the team effort. The theme of this show is apparently "Give Big or Go Home". I am reminded of the Celebrity Apprentice where Omarosa has practically no star power and few big dollar contacts. Does that mean that she has no justification to be on the show? No it doesn't although there are other good reasons for her to never have been on the show. I think these individuals came into the Big Give with disparate skills and contacts. To hold them to the same precise standard is not appropriate. However, in Marlene's case I believe that she was the proper choice to get eliminated. She did not have many resources to bring into the competition, but she did a mediocre job of using what she had and that is not good enough for Oprah.

I saw the judges hard at work throughout this episde, but I ask the question "What does host Nate Berkus do during the episodes?" Does he have to make the clues up and put them in the envelopes? Does he make the transportation arrangements? (Somehow I don't think that he does either one.)

[marigold]

5. a young African American doctor who had $200,000 in medical school bills to pay off

I noted that the doctor should never have been included in this list. Most medical school graduates have loans in that range to pay off, so its not that special. They also have the skills to do it within about 5 years of increasing income. There must have been a more needy case in Southern California to make Oprah's show.

I sooo agree with you on that one.

How does that qualify as a crisis in their lives and requires a community to step in and help?

That was poor judgement on her part.

If someone asked me to finacially contribute to help a doctor pay a loan I would have to laugh out loud.

[apskip]

MARCH 9 PREVIEW(courtesy of Celebrity Spider)

OPRAH GIVES THE CONTESTANTS ONLY 48 HOURS TO GIVE BIG

Plus, Watch for an Exciting Surprise Twist

"Episode 102" - In week two of "Oprah's Big Give," nine contestants are dropped in the middle of a major U.S. city - where they don't know anyone! Oprah gives them a 48-hour challenge that sends them scrambling to give away bundles of cash in the most creative and dramatic ways. Who will get the money? Then a surprise twist dials up the pressure even more.

[marigold]

  apskip you modified your post. I like it and completely agree with you.

"Give Big or Go Home" it's perfect and I prefer it.

You know I never did address Nate though.

I guess Nate showed up at the request of Oprah but not having to do anything.

Why don't I get jobs like that.

You know show up at work yet someone else does it.

Was Oprah just a tv airtime hog and liked the spotlight on her.

Or did she think Nate was incapable of actually hosting the show.

I mean it is reported that Nate is the host so I don't know what's up with that either.

Maybe in the next episode she will actually step aside and let him host.

[marigold]

'Oprah's Big Give' gives back big time

The daytime queen's new show does a 5.3 in 18-49s

Oprah Winfrey can add primetime to her list of successful media ventures. The queen of daytime TV’s new ABC series, “Oprah’s Big Give,” premiered to strong ratings last night, becoming one of the season’s top new series and pushing ABC to a tie for first on the night.

“Give” averaged a 5.3 rating among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnights, winning its 9 p.m. timeslot in the demo and finishing as the night’s top-rated program on any network. The show also drew 15.6 million total viewers, growing on both measures out of lead-in “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

“Give” did fall off from its first to its second half hour, going from a 5.5 to a 5.1 at 9:30 p.m., and slipping from 16.3 million total viewers to 14.8 million.

But the reality show, in which Winfrey gave participants money to help others, will rank among the top five new series debuts this season in adults 18-49 and total viewers.

Fox and ABC tied for first for the night among viewers 18-49, each with a 4.3 average overnight rating and an 11 share. CBS was third at 2.1/5, NBC fourth at 2.0/5, Univision fifth at 1.1/3 and CW sixth at 0.5/1.
 
At 7 p.m. Fox was first with a 4.5 for coverage of NASCAR racing, with ABC second with a 2.7 for “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” CBS was third with a 2.1 for “60 Minutes,” NBC fourth with a 1.6 for “Dateline,” Univision fifth with a 1.1 for an hour of “P. Luche” and CW sixth with a 0.6 for a repeat of “America’s Next Top Model.”
 
ABC took the lead at 8 p.m. with a 5.1 for “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” while Fox slipped to second with a 4.5 for “The Simpsons” (5.2) and “King of the Hill” (3.. CBS was third with a 2.3 for “Big Brother,” NBC fourth with a 2.2 for another hour of “Dateline,” Univision fifth with a 1.1 for its first of three hours of “5 Magnificos” and CW sixth with a 0.5 average for “Everybody Hates Chris” (0.5) and “Aliens in America” (0.4).
 
At 9 p.m. ABC led again with a 5.3 for “Oprah’s Big Give,” while Fox remained second with a 3.9 average for “Family Guy” (4.1) and the premiere of “Unhitched” (3.7). NBC was third with a 2.3 for “Deal or No Deal,” CBS fourth with a 1.9 for a repeat of “Cold Case,” Univision fifth with a 1.1 for its second hour of “Magnificos” and CW sixth with a 0.5 for repeats of “Girlfriends” and “The Game.”
 
ABC led again at 10 p.m. with a 4.1 for “Here Come the Newlyweds,” followed by NBC with a 2.1 for a repeat of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” CBS was third with a 2.0 for “Dexter” and Univision fourth with a 1.2 for its final hour of “Magnificos.”
 
Among households, ABC led the night with a 7.3 average overnight rating and a 12 share. Fox was second at 5.9/9, CBS third at 5.3/9, NBC fourth at 5.2/8, Univision fifth at 1.4/2 and CW sixth at 0.9/1.

Source: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Overnights_50/Oprah_s_Big_Give_gives_back_bigtime.asp

[marigold]

  Now I see why Oprah hosted the show.

She had to put herself all over that show in order to get these ratings.

It all makes sense now, who could possibly say the show does not deliver.
 

[georgiapeach]

I ask the question "What does host Nate Berkus do during the episodes?"

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

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 

[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.

[apskip]

I feel that some more speculation is in order. This won't affect tonight's episode, but might if The Big Give reaches the New York metropolitan area in a later episode. One individual who has a high profile on Oprah's Show but who has not been mentioned in any of the Big Give publicity is Dr. Mehmet Oz. I predict that if the show goes New York metro, Dr. Oz will be involved in some way.

[marigold]

  I will force myself to watch tonight 

[apskip]

Tonight's Big Give was based on 48/$48K/Denver. That is 48 hours in the Denver area to utilize $4800 to best advantage. The Big Twist was that contestants got to give away the Ford Edge vehicles they were driving, which raised their donation potential by about another $20,000.

Contestants used widely varying strategies to find a person or group suitable to receive this largesse. Brandi was at the library and a staff person there told her about a friend in need who is a single mother with children. Angelo utilized the American Legion to find an Iraq war diabled veteran that he could help. Carlana found someone with a disabled daughter and a college age son. Three of the men(Eric, Cameron, Stephen) teamed up to help the Denver Children's Home. Sheg went to a hospital and started giving small amounts of the money to individual mother's with problem-birth children who had limited resources with which to leave the hospital and go home. Rachael hooked up with an HIV support group. Kim found the boys' and girls' clubs a worthy cause.

The clock wound down and most of the Big Give contestants had celebratory events to hand over the money, prizes, and anything else they had raised for their chosen person or group. Brandi did Ok but she knew she was "on the bubble". Angelo gave the money and a party at the restaurant, then the restaurant manager surprised everyone by giving the 24 hour receipts for the restaurant. In a controversial move he elected to give his car to that manager, but that did not go over well with the judges (or with me). Carlana honored two separate groups by giving her car to an entirely different handicapped person. Eric/Cameron/Stephen blew everyone away with the brilliance in fund- and gift-raising by getting $293,000 in total gifts/prizes/money for the Denver Children's Home. Even if $40,000 of that was the cars, that is still $248,000 more than they started with. Wow! Sheg gave his car to the head of that department at the hospital and proclaimed that it would be a gift that kept on giving(probably true and enough to keep him off the chopping block). Rachael arranged for a special day for her HIV women, with facials and beauty treatments, then a dinner in their honor. Kim arranged for Denver Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler and several of his teammates to come and visit the kids. There was also a pizza party and a variety of other gifts.

There was no question about who did the best. There was a question of whether Brandi or Angelo had done the worst. Angelo got the empty envelope, so he's out. He exited with a classy speech extolling the virtues of the Big Give. Oprah would have been proud of him.

[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.

Well, I wasn't far off. I have just discovered the TV Guide has published the next two locations, which are Houston tonight and Miami for next Sunday. Houston was one of the metropolitan areas I cited as prime possiblities for next. Miami was not on any of my lists. Its existence knocks out one location after Newnan/Atlanta metro form the above speculative lists.

[marigold]

 
Your maintaining your 99.9% average in accuracy.

I've tuned in for tonights episode and I keep thinking about Dave's point of view in the article he wrote and I keep trying to compare it to other shows like The Apprentice. It will be interesting to see the ratings for tonight as I understand there was a drop from the premiere episode and last weeks show.

[marigold]

Premiere Ratings For Episode 1:
The Oprah Winfrey-produced reality competition series' premiere averaged 15.6 million total viewers and a 5.3/12 rating/share in the Adults 18-49 demographics

Ratings for Episode 2:
After having TV’s third-biggest debut this season, Oprah’s Big Give lost about 25 percent of its viewers in one week, although it was still the top-rated show in its timeslot.
The second episode, which aired last Sunday, was watched by 11.8 million viewers, compared to 15.6 million last week.

[apskip]

This challenge began with 8 individuals having 5 seconds to choose up into 2 teams. Eric, Stephen, Cameron and Brandi, all of whom had worked together before, picked each other and the other 4 (Sheg, Carlana, Rachael, Kim) were forced to be a team. It was obvious from the start which one was a real team and which one wasn't.

The latter team got to choose a box and they choose "Field of Dreams", which was revealed as helping Simms Elementary School of primarily economically disavantaged kids in Houston that suffers frequent break-ins to get payground equipment, the dream of one of its experienced teachers. The celebrity associated with this was Andrea Agassi. The other box was "Forgotten Christmas" to celebrate Christmas with similarly disadvantaged kids at Velasco Elementary School in Houston. The celebrity associated with this was skateboard champion Tony Hawk. Tere are 640 students there and the goal was for each one to receive a Christmas present and meet Santa Claus.

The teams functioned quite differently. "Forgotten Christmas" was like a well-oiled machine with excellent communications and shared decision-making. "Field of Dreams " was disjointed, with some people seizing the decision-making and others complaining about it but failing to do anything else. Rachael got into disputes with all her teammates for being a lone ranger. Carlana pretty much withdrew and constantly made references to staying out of the way.

Big events were planned for the Westide Tennis Club and Andre Agassi also had the owner of that club raising extra gifts associated with the playground. George Bush Sr. and Carlos Rogers, ex-player for the Houston Rockets visited and made donations to "Field of Dreams". I got the sense that the "Forgotten Dreams" team were intimately invovled in the planning and execution of their event, with some input from Tony Hawk. With "Field of Dreams" the main planning and execution was taken over by Andre Agassi(he "called a few people" who either donated big or came to the event and bid multiple tens of thousands) and the team of 4 was mostly standing around watching it happen or doing trivial things. When the dust settled, Tony Hawk did well but his fund-rsaising potential was limited by the type of crowd that watches competitive skateboarding. The high rollers turned out to see Andre Agassi and his wife Steffi Graf. Andre auctioned off a Las Vegas vacation with a personal tennis lesson with him and Steffi thrown in. Two bidders each paid $70,000 for that privilege due to some slick maneuvering by Andre. The Field of Dreams teams indicating that they raised $210K at their event and a total of over $510K in gifts or cash. "Forgotten Dreams" raised only $180K.

The reveals to the kids were both well-managed, although there was plenty of tension among the "Field of Dreams" team again due to poor communications. The judges stayed way in the background of the events, but their main focus was on how well the childrens' hopes and dreams in both cases were met and whether there was good teamwork. Both reveals were successful in meeting the childrens' hopes and dreams and in going way beyond that and even meeting some extra hopes and dreams that teachers and school adminsitration had(copies, PCs, a 50 inch TV, etc.). Teamwork was rated very good for the "Forgotten Dreams" team, but poor for the "Field of Dreams" team.

When it came time to decide who was at risk it was clear that, despite their big dollars raised, "Field of Dreams" members were vulnerable. Neither Kim nor Sheg had been responsible for the major problems so it was going to be Carlana or Rachael. I personally think they made the wrong decision, but the judges gave Carlana the boot for not trying hard enough to make communications work with Rachael. I thought Rachael deserved it more for her operating outside the framework of the team and communicating poorly.

Next week the individuals will be challenged with giving away $100,000 each in 24 hours in Miami. the money apparently has been donated by two billionaires. I will be happy to provide them with my address if they want to turn me into a help-others-with-big-gifts machine(haven't you wanted to be the recipient of the largesse of the original Millionaire show, with teh Twist that you must give it all to needy causes?).

You just know that Oprah is waiting in the background, orchestrating a lot of the things that happen on the show. Doors open when her name is invoked. Tests of the teams or individuals are sometimes not set up to be roughly equivalent but are very uneven. This is not a REALITY show, as it has an air of total unreality to it. Oprah is getting some hard work out of the contestants to raise money for good causes. They should have stopped there. Sending somebody home each week(a van Munster/Doganieri trademark from the Amazing Race) saves a small amount of production costs, but the overhead on this show appears to be so huge that the increase in costs to keeping on all contestants would be a small extra burden. The "drama" at the end of the show is so fake in opening the envleopes until you get to the last two that it is a totally pointless exercise. I know it's too late to change BigGive I, Oprah, but if you are thinking about a BigGive 2 then please get it right next time.

[marigold]

You just know that Oprah is waiting in the background, orchestrating a lot of the things that happen on the show. Doors open when her name is invoked. Tests of the teams or individuals are sometimes not set up to be roughly equivalent but are very uneven. This is not a REALITY show, as it has an air of total unreality to it. Oprah is getting some hard work out of the contestants to raise money for good causes. They should have stopped there. Sending somebody home each week(a van Munster/Doganieri trademark from the Amazing Race) saves a small amount of production costs, but the overhead on this show appears to be so huge that the increase in costs to keeping on all contestants would be a small extra burden. The "drama" at the end of the show is so fake in opening the envleopes until you get to the last two that it is a totally pointless exercise. I know it's too late to change BigGive I, Oprah, but if you are thinking about a BigGive 2 then please get it right next time.

Your right apskip it's not a reality show I'm trying to get a feel of this show by comparing it to others.

To me it's missing something that makes you say wow I can't wait until next week.

But you have summed it all up. I guess it needs alot of things to make it a winner next time around.

Mind you I really like the fact they it helps families in need and children in the community that is always is a great thing.

I'll be the first to admit if I hear children and donate, I need not hear more. I'm already signing a cheque.

[marigold]

I've been reading more articles scrutinizing Oprah's Big Give show 
There is some negative feedback regarding her show
One in particular mentioned that she has made a "game show" out of real life tragedy, that caught my attention
There is one other thing I dislike and haven't mentioned yet
but I'm not in favor with how Oprah narrates throughout the show
Anyways I only came here to see is a brief summary was posted for tomorrows show hmmm nothing yet

[apskip]

ca bb fan, the following paragraph was sort of buried in my recap of last week's show. It minimally covers tomorrow night's show.

Next week the individuals will be challenged with giving away $100,000 each in 24 hours in Miami. The money apparently has been donated by two billionaires. I will be happy to provide them with my address if they want to turn me into a help-others-with-big-gifts machine(haven't you wanted to be the recipient of the largesse of the original Millionaire show, with the Twist that you must give it all to needy causes?).