The Benefactor

ABC (ended 2004)

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Show Summary

Premiered: Sep 13, 2004
Status: Ended

Sixteen contestants vie to win $1 million from billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban. View Cuban's Biography ''''Everyone has dreamed of getting rich, and Cuban will help one lucky person attain that goal. The Benefactor isn't a traditional contest. Cuban will make his choice by putting the contestants through a series of tests, based on his life experiences, to determine who has what it takes to be successful. All the tests are designed to show the values and characteristics that Cuban feels are important creativity, competitiveness and an entrepreneurial spirit. Cuban knows exactly what he is looking for. Which one of the 16 contestants has it? Of course there will be many surprises for the contestants along the way. Unlike other reality shows, Cuban will not wait until the end of each telecast to eliminate contestants who don't live up to his expectations. Contestants will find that at any time during the game, if Cuban doesn't like something, he may tell them, "Sorry, your million dollar dream just ended."''''During his extraordinarily successful business career, Cuban has co-founded Broadcast.com, sold to Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.7 billion, and MicroSolutions, a leading National Systems Integrator (sold to CompuServe.) In September 2001, he launched HDNet, an all high-definition television network (www.hd.net). Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks in January 2000 and changed the face of the organization, bringing a party atmosphere to home games and leading the team to the playoffs. In his short tenure in the NBA, he has earned a reputation of being articulately outspoken, and has developed quite a following in the media across the country.''''The Benefactor was created by and is executive-produced by David Young for 12 Yard Productions. Clay Newbill (executive producer, The Mole, Celebrity Mole and The Bachelorette) of Dog-Fight Industries, and Todd Wagner (Star Search (2003)), CEO of 2929 Productions, are also executive producers.moreless

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Episode Guide

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S 1 : Ep 6	Episode 6	Aired 10/25/04
S 1 : Ep 5	Episode 5	Aired 10/18/04
S 1 : Ep 4	Episode 4	Aired 10/4/04
S 1 : Ep 3	Episode 3	Aired 9/27/04
S 1 : Ep 2	Episode 2	Aired 9/20/04

Cast & Crew

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Mark Cuban

Himself- The Benefactor
Christine

(season 1)
Chris (II)

(season 1)

Fan Reviews (2)

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Apprentice rip off that flopped.

1.1

"Abysmal"

By SoylentYellow, Jul 06, 2007 Report Abuse

I was reviewing another awful series The Loop and saw that Mark Cuban was in the finale then I saw that he did this show.

I vaguely remember it and saw probably 15 minutes of it - there was this big empty warehouse and there were phones. Well, thats about all I remember. Mark Cuban is as much of a pompous windbag as Donald Trump is. Though it was funny when they traded insults - Trump won that battle. Both of them are great businessmen but have bloated out of control egos.

Why did this show fail? It was a bland copy of Trumps show that failed miserably. At least this show was good for one thing - helping me get to LEVEL 20!

BTW, is Mark really Cuban? Maybe Fidel Castro could have his own show where he picks his successor.moreless

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The first of this years crop of reality shows "inspired" by The Apprentice proves that it's not as easy to copy Mark Burnett's formula as some people think.

6.0

"Fair"

By TVTome_John, Jun 22, 2005 Report Abuse

I was hoping that this was going to be something other than an Apprentice rip-off. Actually in a way it is. It's a rip-off of Andy Dick's Apprentice spoof The Assistant. If you've seen Andy Dick's show you know that it's sort of poking fun of The Apprentice by spoofing the hit show's somewhat goofy challenges and (not really) trademark catch phrases. ABC's The Benefactor would be better if it took Andy Dick's comedic take on the genre rather than shooting for serious and coming off as unintentionally funny.

The basic premise of The Benefactor is that Mark "The Benefactor" Cuban self-made billionaire and slightly eccentric dude will host a contest where 16 regular people attempt to prove that they deserve to get a million dollars of his money. There's no indication of exactly what the contest will entail or exactly how he'll be choosing. In the debut episode people are eliminated due to an offhanded comment, an interview and losing a game of Jenga. That's right. Stack wooden blocks for a million dollars. Ironically, the first episode of this season's The Apprentice had the contestants designing a new toy. The Benefactor has them playing with toys.

There seems to be a feeling among the people who develop new TV shows that reality shows are somehow easier to create than scripted shows. It seems like you just take a bunch of people and throw them into artificial situations and see how they do. Unfortunately creating a good reality show is actually harder than creating a scripted show. It's something that only Mark Burnett seems to understand which is perhaps why he's far more successful at it than those who try to copy his "formula" on another show. Since a reality show has no writers (actually most have writers but they don't script all of what the people say) it's vital that the casting is perfect and the production impeccable.

In a show like The Apprentice you have The Donald and a cast of hopefuls that provide just the right amounts of conflict and odd behavior. In The Benefactor you have a bunch of hopefuls that mostly seem pretty dull and Mark Cuban who mostly comes off as a little creepy. Cuban is clearly not terribly comfortable in front of the camera and watching the contestants on hidden cameras and his "confessional" interviews make him seem a bit odd. Trump actually is equally uncomfortable in front of the camera which is why his appearances are scripted and well edited. You can't say the same for Cuban here. One of the contestants remarks about how Cuban is "messing with their minds" and it's true but without Andy Dick's trademark wackiness it just comes off as wrong.

It's impossible to avoid comparing The Benefactor with The Apprentice since it was clearly spawned from Trump's hit. The Benefactor even carries through with Donald's bits of business wisdom that give a good indication of what will provide the deciding factor in the upcoming ouster. Cuban here provides tips about first impressions, living up to expectations and staying cool under pressure. Keep those in mind and if you watch carefully you can probably guess who's going to get the axe.

Even without The Apprentice comparisons it's hard to see how The Benefactor will be a hit. Its basic premise is too wishy-washy. Without a good indication of what criteria will be used to judged people it seems destined to disintegrate into "what would you do for a million dollars". Perhaps the cast can rise above that. Perhaps Cuban can get what made his successful across as he becomes more comfortable on screen. Somehow I don't count on it.

The Benefactor premiers on ABC on September 13 at 8pm.moreless

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