Secret Millionaires

I just finished watching the first episode of Secret Millionaires, a new reality/documenatary show on Fox. The premise of the show is that millionaires leave behind their life of luxury for week and live undercover at a poverty/welfare level. With cameras and a production crew in tow, they go in search of people for whom they can give a gift to better their lives. They must give a minimum of $100,000 to someone who needs it. For the week, they are fully immersed in their new identities. At the end of the week, the reveal their true identities, gift check hand, to the people they have chosen to be benefactors to.

I have placed Reality TV in the Narcissism Box. I abhor those who try to mask this vehicle as something other than a self-serving opportunity to promote themselves in some fashion. I approached this show the same way. However, it surprised me. I have only watched the first episode, and it made me a little emotional. I normally maintain a certain amount of detachment. But this show drew me in.

While watching the show I went through a number of emotions. First was cynicism. Before I watched the show, I was skeptical about the premise. This seemed like a situation in which the rich and wealthy get to feel good by dropping a few dollars to the underprivileged. And the producers get to make money off of it, much like the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. These millionaire benefactors will live this life for a week, be touched by the people they meet, give a token gift, and then return to their normal lives. With each passing month they will forget. Like when you are in church and hear a great sermon and are moved by it. You vow to make a change but with each passing hour after church, that feeling dissipates. That lifestyle or mindset changes becomes a faint memory by the time you return to church the next weekend.

I then felt empathy for the people that the millionaires met. These were people who were hard up. In the first episode the father and son stated that [they have always believed the poor or down and out were in their situation because they were ignorant, uneducated, or lazy]. Instead they came to realize that life is not always fair. One woman was working to get back on her feet after living homeless for over a year. She fell while working and fractured discs in her back. Unable to meet her medical expenses, her house and possessions were repossessed. Then there was the woman who ran a shelter out of her home for anyone who needed it, with money from her social security income. A kid said that prior to coming to the shelter, he and his mother lived in their van for over a year. Each situation the millionaires on the show encountered were just as touching.

Next came anger. Anger at the rich and spoiled in their indulgences. The excesses I see on TV or read about started to disgust me. I’m not talking about living well or enjoying the fruits of your success. I’m talking about spending over a million dollars to build a pool and grotto so you can compete with what Hugh Hefner has (Yes, I’m talking about you Gilbert Arenas). I think about the MTV Cribs shows, the opulence of the rich and famous.

Then guilt. Although I am not as rich as the millionaires, some of my behaviors are no different than theirs. Unlike some of these millionaires, I don’t think that those that are destitute are necessarily in their current situation because they deserve to be –because of something they have or have not done, because they cannot pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I could volunteer more of my time, forgo many of the useless and valueless luxuries to provide necessities for those who desperately need them.

Joy. I felt joy for the folks that received the blessings. Life throws boulders your way sometimes. And it can be very difficult to get back up after being knocked down. I shared in the joy of the recipients of the gifts – receiving a providential gift. It restores faith in the human spirit. Too often we think that everyone is out for number one. But in the show, the people who receive the gifts truly deserve them. They are the types of people who give of themselves first, who open doors to the homeless, feed the hungry and clothe the naked. They are the people who will be first in line in Heaven. The Salt of the Earth, for whom the Beatitudes were spoken.


My final thoughts

The show aims to do good, but it is inevitably flawed. Much like a black-tie fundraising event. The fundraiser event spends a ton of money to raise a ton of money, but only a small fraction goes to the cause for which the money is being raised. The overhead costs of putting on the function eats away a big chunk of the money. Their largesse would go a much longer way without the pomp and circumstance.

Do the TV execs plan to share of the ad revenue with the deserving destitute? Or do they just plan to milk our viewership (which converts to the ad revenue) by tugging on our heartstrings.

It is reality TV. There are cameras following the millionaires around. People put on their best behavior in front of cameras. I question the authenticity of what we see. Not necessarily the veracity, but are the emotions always genuine. How many times were scenes re-shot because they did not capture the right angle? What about the scripting? By now most people know that a certain amount of “reality TV” is scripted.

The show’s premise is not new. But I do laud the attempt to bring light to those on the fringes of our society. So I won’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. I’ll keep some of my reservations in my back pocket.