Joe Millionaire
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Joe Millionaire was a 2002 US reality television show broadcast in the US on the Fox network. It was broadcast in the UK in 2003.
The basic plot is that a bachelor (Evan Marriott) has inherited millions of dollars and is searching for a potential bride. He takes a group of hopeful women on several dates at exotic and luxurious locations, eliminating women at the end of each episode until only one woman remains. However, the women are not aware that this bachelor is in reality not a millionaire, but rather a not-at-all-rich construction worker. At the end of the series, the secret is revealed to the last remaining woman (Zora Andrich); after she has decided to stay with him anyway, the couple are surprised (and rewarded) with a real check for a million dollars.
The experiment the show is perhaps conducting is to see how differently the women treat a man when they believe him to be rich, and when they know he is not rich — i.e. "does money matter"?
The real events were considerably different from the portrayal on the show, however: Andrich and Marriott were not attracted to each other, and did not see each other after the show was over. The million dollar check was real, though; the two of them split the money.
The show made a minor star out of Paul Hogan, a butler who advised the contestants.
Joe Millionaire was filmed primarily at the Château de la Bourdaisière in the countryside of the Commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire département of France.
The show was wildly successful and became a pop culture phenomenon when originally broadcast in the US, with over 40 million viewers tuning in to the last hour of the final episode. It was the most-watched episode of any entertainment series since the premiere episode of the second season of Survivor, which was broadcast immediately after the 2001 Super Bowl.
A second season, featuring a cowboy protagonist duping European women (who presumably had not heard of the premise of the show), garnered much reduced ratings, which led to no further installments being produced.fi:Miljonääri-Jussi