The Benefactor: A Preview

I was thrilled when the editors asked me to write about the "Benny Factor." I've always enjoyed watching little bald men being chased by women in bikinis and big men dressing up in women's clothing, so a Benny Hill marathon sounded like a lot of fun.

What? Oh, sorry. They now tell me that it's actually The Benefactor that I'll be reviewing. This is a new reality show on premiering September 13th on ABC, that seems to be inspired by NBC's The Apprentice. While Donald Trump was looking for someone to run one of his companies for a quarter of a million dollars a year, Mark Cuban, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is simply looking to give someone a million dollars. But, he doesn't want to give it to just anybody, he wants to give it to someone who will make the most of it.

What will the sixteen contestants have to do to "win" the money? Well, nobody really knows for sure, not even Mark himself. Basically, they'll simply have to impress Mr. Cuban. The benefactor will be spending a lot of time with the sixteen hopefuls, just hanging out and getting to know them. The players will each have to face tough challenges and difficult questions from Mark. He, apparently, has a series of "success tests" planned that will put the players in difficult situations. Mark will observe them and then, each week, send home some of the players who don't impress him as much as the others. The last person remaining will be given a million dollars.

According to Mark's website, "The winner will be creative, competitive, have an entrepreneurial spirit and be able to rise above the competition and prove to me, they have what it takes to become successful."

So, for the most part, this will be an open-ended show. The only problem I can see (and it's the same one I saw in The Apprentice) is that Mr. Cuban might, in his mind, select the winner on the very first night. Since he has absolute control over who goes and who stays each week, the rest of the episodes might become pointless, as he works his way down to the one person that made the best first impression, way back in the first episode.

Programming Note: The Benefactor will be appearing on Monday nights, along with ABC's Monday Night Football. On the East Coast, The Benefactor will be shown before football and on the West Coast, it will be shown after. Most likely, it will be shown before football in the Central Time zone. It's anybody's guess what will happen in the Mountain Time zone (where I'll be watching it), since the football game often runs across the entire three hours of prime time. The local news, which usually appears right after the game, normally hates to give up its timeslot for a simple broadcast program. I'm not sure when they'll broadcast the show.

Bill (bing@paxentertainment.com) is a huge reality-show fan. Bill was the Mole for the second season. Or was he?

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