Did not see a thread on this.

Anyone check this out?

I thought the first ep was not bad.. the premise is actually pretty decent, having people compete against each other via Apprentice Mode and see who can raise the most coin for for worthy folks.

I thought it was pretty boring. It just seemed like a special episode of Oprah, not something I want to watch every week. I took it off my DVR. I do like Jamie Oliver alot, but there wasn't a lot of him in this show.

I thought this thread was about Oprah's elastic waistband.

Not sure I'm going to watch every week. It's too much like the Extreme Home Makeover show.. how much sweetness and crying can we do in one hour? I think the premise is great.. but to me, it's probably going to be the same thing every week. And I did expect more excitement seeing it's being produced by the same people who produce The Amazing Race.
Not a horrible show.. just not one I'm going to watch every week.

It was kinda weird in that there didn't seem to be a good balance in the 'neediness' of the recipients. Like the doctor who needed the money to pay off his student loans... I mean, he made a sort of vague promise to help out kids in need for free once he was financially stable, but I would have had a hard time giving that guy money unless he had a more concrete plan for what he was doing. And that fashion show was a complete train wreck... not one donation (although maybe the attendees were thinking the same way I was... why am I supposed to give this guy money again?)

The problem I have is that the meat of the show is just boring. At least on Exteme Makeover Home Edition you see them building the house and you have a big tour/reveal at the end. Here it was mainly teams making a bunch of phone calls and then people handing over checks. The emotion is still there, but it's just not as entertaining to watch.

Painful to watch. None of it made sense. One lady is "homeless" with two kids, and another guy is a surgeon with lots of student loans? WTF. And I feel bad for that one lady who lost her husband, but that was a pretty beautiful house and fancy neighborhood. She could do just fine in a more average home without sending her kids to private school. I'm glad they helped her out, but there are a hell of a lot more needy people out there.

And the competition aspect of it was just annoying. Who are these people and why should I care about them? They clearly know they're going to get a fat payday from it. Oprah's "Big Surprise" is so disingenuous. They're competing on an elimination-style game show for television run by Oprah. At a minimum, each one of them has to expect to win $500,000 if they finish first. If they were just out there helping people, it would be different, but it's such an obvious and contrived game show. And what did these people do? One called a friend who knew Jamie Foxx to get $50,000. One called a rich guy to donate $25,000. What's the point?

I can't believe I wasted all those words on this show, because the more I think about it, the more I realize I actually hate it.

I did like the homeless lady, though. When she said something to the effect of, "All I wanted was training. I know I could get a job and do well. All I needed was a chance," that was moving. That's the kind of person they should be trying to help. So many people out there don't need a random $50,000 donation from some stranger celebrity. They need someone to take interest in their life and give them a small boost.

Bah. Plus it was just plain boring.

das

Not to mention the fact that I'm sure they informing everyone they are namedropping Oprah and the show for every donation they try to solicit. What I'm having a hard time trying to figure out is what skill is involved here? Where's the creativity? I think it would be much more impressive if they didn't have the $25000 to start off with, but then I suppose it would be even more of a begfest.

I actually think this show would work better if they took it in an Apprentice direction... give each team a defined task for raising money/donations, and just the money to actually pull off the event. Like one week make it 'arrange a fund raising event' or 'get a home built' or something... this random donation stuff just isn't fun to watch.

I thought it was ok. It was clearly like the Apprentice, but not as cutthroat, because these "competitors" didn't have the inherent drive of young 20-somethings wanting to smash their competitors, prove themselves to Trump or get eliminated on national TV.

I'm kind of undecided about it. On one hand, I loved the giving aspect of the show--a nice break from the cutthroat Apprentice stuff. On the other hand, it seemed so forced to then eliminate someone for not giving "well enough." It just seemed awkward.

I might watch another episode. But it's certainly not on my must-see-TV list.

I said the same thing and my wife got all offended with me. I mean, seriously - that house was friggin' HUGE. Sell the house and move into a more affordable neighborhood, lady.

Anyone notice that cameras just "happened" to be filming when Oprah called with the news that they were going to be on the show? How staged is that?!

And don't the people getting these gifts have to pay taxes on them? Hey, homeless girl, here's a new car and a check for $50,000 - taxes are your responsibility! Good luck!

I was also ticked the wheelchair lady didn't get kicked off the show, most likely ONLY because she's in a wheelchair. She deserved to go home far more than the other woman. Plus wheelchair lady is a TV Producer by profession...you just know Oprah knew her already before she even applied for the show.

They should have called this "Oprah's Big Handout".

I DID like the Honeymoon show after this one, however.

I think the premise is decent.. but something wrong about giving the winner $1mill..

I did find it watchable. Like The Apprentice, if it helps corporations and celebds open the wallets to help some clearly needy people, thats not too bad a thing.

I think the reason this seemed so boring to me, was that this already was an Oprah episode. I remember last year, she gave every audience member $1000 and a video camera and challenged them all to spend the money helping someone. Then she later had a follow-up show showing what all the people were able to accomplish; many were able to turn that money into much larger donations to help different causes.

This show just seemed like a reality show version of this same idea.

Wasn't there a South Park already about Oprah's Big Minge?

I agree. Getting a milllion dollars in this competition will put a lot of pressure on you. It's not like you can keep it and spend it foolishly. I bet your gonna be expected to give it away.

15m people tuned into this thing? I want to vomit

I'm happy to say I'm not one of those statistical 15 million that tuned into this show.

Really? The other woman did absolutely nothing. As stupid as the fashion show was, at least Wheels got Jamie Foxx to donate $50,000. Other Lady's only contribution was stopping some random car in the street and saying, "We're from The Big Give, and we're lost" as if random passersby would have any idea wtf she was talking about.

das

I wondered if they had changed the name of the show after filming. I noticed that during the show, all the signs and contestants said "The Big Give" but now the show is billed as "Oprah's Big Give."

I'd tune in if it was titled "Give 'til it hurts Oprah".

Overall definitely something that will not be must see TV, my wife and I make sure to watch every Extreme Makeover home edition and she likes Oprah so she was very interested in watching this. After the first episode she pretty much said "meh". A couple comments to the different posts above. For sure the person eliminated should have been and heck I would have on the spot kicked off her teammate as well. All she really did was get lucky that she had a friend who happened to part of the huge corporation of Firestone and as it was they got free publicity(ok, 25K) when they presented the check and she looked up on the internet for a place for them to live. Not to mention that they got lost for an entire day. I thought women were always the ones to pull over and ask for directions j/k And I know someone mentioned that each team got 25K to start, it was only $2500 to start that each team got. As far as who I could see winning would be either of the guys on that team that helped the recently widowed woman. They seemed to have the most creativity and wholeness of what I think this show was TRYING to do but failed to do altogether. The team that helped the homeless woman came a close second in my opinion.

Did anybody see the episode last Sunday 3/23? I missed it & was just wondering why they suddenly cut the contestants down to 5. I can't seem to find a website that has a recap of this episode.

It was probably the most entertaining of the episodes and more in keeping with what you'd expect the concept of the show to be. Each of the jackasses contestants had to spend $100,000 in 24 hours, no more than $500 per person, no more than $10,000 at any location, and they couldn't give away cash. I don't know why two people were eliminated, but two people definitely did suck ass and deserve to get kicked off the show. One girl spent the whole time bitching about being lost and threatening to quit the game (a real giving spirit who barely gave away a few grand on dog toys), and another guy promised to pay for some civic figure's funeral but then decided it would be inconvenient to keep his word as he wouldn't be able to spend as much money, so he just didn't show up. He then bought a bunch of gift cards at Target (because as this show teaches us, everyone shops at Target and only Target).

Most of the people on this show disgust me. They're more concerned with winning the game than actually doing anything meaningful that helps people. I thought it was telling that the woman who "desperately" needed supplies for a school for teen mothers had filled an entire shopping cart with Axe body spray.

das

I remember it that he ran out of time.
Anyway.. on Oprah yesterday, the millionaire brothers who gave them the 100,000$$ gave the family $20,000 to reimburse them the cost of the funeral.

He could have made time to attend the funeral, but he elected to drive around and attempt things that were more advantageous to him within the context of the game and would allow him to spend more money in shorter time. Then when noon came around and he was nowhere near the place he said he'd be, he regretted that he "ran out of time." Essentially, he made the conscious decision that making time for the funeral was strategically inconvenient and wouldn't allow him to spend as much of the money, and he allowed his greed for the game to overrule doing something that would genuinely help people.

And I'm pretty sure the Maloofs are billionaires, with a "b".

das

That being said, Brandi is my favorite on this show. I think she gives from the heart, and the joy she had giving those flowers away was heartfelt.

Yeah, that's the part that bothers me as well. The competitive nature of the show is at odds with the grand message they are trying to push. It's a double-edged sword - the rules and time limit they put in place made it difficult for the contestants to do a lot of truly worthwhile things, yet without those limitations the show itself would have been incredibly dull... you just know half the contestants would have taken the easy way out and handed $100,000 in cash to some halfway house or school or something.

I will say the show has been progressively more entertaining with each episode, and this last episode was actually - dare I say - kinda fun to watch. I liked that at least a few of the contestants didn't go for obvious choices. I just wish the show would stop with the sanctimonious attitude. "Give big or go home"? Give me a break.