When “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”
Little did they know, the evil genius behindMulti-Millionairewas just getting started.
For Mike Darnell, Rick and Darvas (soon-to-be-annulled) marriage was the beginning of an unscripted empire.
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Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionare?
I’m very competitive, so it’s making me crazy.
I am literally thinking to myself, What else do people want?
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They want to be millionaires.
And then I had to one up it, so I called itWho Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?.
That is literally where it came from.
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It came from frustration.
The head of publicity called me and said, It’s the front page of theNew York Times.
Its not the front page of the Arts & Entertainment section, it’sthe front page.
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We were going to shoot a [follow-up] How are they doing?
That was planned and everything.
Then as the week went by, [it came out that] maybe he’s not a millionaire.
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I get a call from [then-Fox Entertainment chairman] Sandy Grushow on a Sunday.
And I knew we were screwed.
RememberParadise Hotel?Love Cruise?Anything for Love?
Sam Jones/FOX
(USA Networklaunched a reboot of the series in 2018.)
The way my mind worked, Im like, Why not make them couples and tempt them?
Lets see if theyll stick with their mates.
A before and after moment on Fox’s ‘The Swan’.FOX
[Laughs] The dating genre was still very new.
Its crossing a line!
We had a rule that you could not have a child and be on that television show.
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A couple named Ytossie and Taheed, we found out they had a child.
There was panic throughout the data pipe.
I said, Well, let’s just embrace it.
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And that episodewas by far the biggest episode we aired.
So, I learned a lesson: Embrace the controversy and deal with it.
Darnell admits to being less than enthusiastic at first, based on other music-themed competitions hed seen.
But one aspect of Fullers pitch hooked him.
This was post 9/11 by a month, and we were looking for something aspirational.
I liked that it was one long audition process.
I was a child actor, and I always thought the audition process was interesting.
You go through callbacks, and then it’s between you and another person.
Thats what appealed to me at first.
Of course,Simon Cowellwas an enormous star.
We knew we had to bring him out.
The first day of the first audition shoot was at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
It was very small; we had like 300 people show up.
Year 2 was 10,000.
One of these really bad auditioners came in, and my wife could not hold in her laughter.
She had to run out of the room.
I was like, This is why the show works so great.
Im like, Thats the whole show!
The whole show is him being honest.
We ultimately won that battle.
I think thats what sold the show.
Man vs. Will an elite sprinter beat a zebra in the 100-meter dash?
Man vs. Beastmay be Darnells most elegantly stupid creation.
It wasn’t pitched to me.
There is afamousBeverly Hillbilliesepisodewhere theres a kangaroo that fights Granny.
I must have flipped past a repeat, and I’m like, Hmmm…
I wonder if other animals could compete against humans, and how would that would go?
And that’s literally where it was born.
That was probably my favorite scene because I thought it was going to be pretty even.
But the bear ate, like, eight at a time or 10 at a time.
It wasnt even close!
Once again, Darnell found himself scrambling to come up with his own spin on the man-dates-25-women concept.
(Foxrevived the seriesin 2022.)
I said, That’s a better idea, because it will show who’s in it for love.
First, we had to find the right guy and we did find him.
He was literally a $19,000-a-year construction worker, good looking.
The promo was amazing.
I’m going to give the promo department real props on this.
The first promo was, These women think he’s worth 50 million dollars.
Who would tell them that?
And then it said, Fox.
I learned something from that show.The Bachelors reveal is, who are you picking?
Andthen, if she stays with you, were going to give you a million dollars.
I knew it was good because it had four huge reveals at the end.
First up, though, cameMr.
Long beforeNetflixintroduced viewers to dating in pods,Mr.
PersonalityandhostMonica Lewinskyposed the question: Is love truly blind?
What’s our next relationship show?
Remember, we did something calledMarried by America.
Everything they’re doing now, I did 10 years ago.Mr.
This was, “Can you meet somebody and fall in love with their personality?
And then once they reveal their mask, will you still be in love with them?”
A simple concept, being redone now asLove is Blind.
With Monica, I think I was just looking for an interesting host.
Somehow her name came up and I’m like, Wow.
People will talk about it if she’s a host."
She was quite good, and the nicest person.
She was so nice and so easygoing, and she couldn’t get work then.
I thinkshe was selling pursesthen.
That show got a lot of attention for her being host.
I have nothing but praise for her; she was very professional.
I knew right away, Oh, shes a star and we should get her.
Back then, we were thinking about what scripted IP we could make a reality show out of.
In 2002, CBS announced they were going to doThe Real Beverly Hillbillies.
It got axed [due to a backlash].
I don’t say this very often: We took the high road of those two concepts.
[Laughs] With the initial pitch, Paris was in, but we couldnt get her sister.
And thats where Nicole Richie came in.
Back then, everybody thought I was capable of anything, which I’m not.
I did not release that [sex] tape.
I would never do that.
Honest to God, I was not thinking about it’s going to be great for the show.
Was it great for the show?
Im very close to the family.
Every year, Kathy has a Christmas party.
We’ve probably gone 10 years in a row.
I still have a very soft place in my heart for Paris because she’s lovely.
The Swan (April 7, 2004)
Remember ABCs feel-good hitExtreme Makeover: Home Edition?
Sure, you do.
It’s just part of the way they do things.
It was more than just a surgery makeover.
We had them [go through] a psychological makeover.
These were women with issues that we’re trying to help them with.
It was definitely controversial at the time.
It was a good show.
I think we helped people, and it was also very dramatic.
We talked about aCelebrity Swan, but we never [officially] announced it.
I was in London doingBransons Quest for the Best, which was our version ofThe Apprentice.
Someone told me to watch this [ITV] show calledHells Kitchen.
None of that worked for me exactly, but I could tellGordon Ramsaywas a star.
I called [exec producer] Arthur Smith and I said, Were going to do a restaurant show.
He will tell you himself that he didnt think it would work.
I said, Im telling you, this guys a star, we just have to figure it out.
They said, Change it to friggin.
Im like, Im not going to tell him to say friggin.
That is not in his personality.
Hes going to say f—.
They said, Okay, then you have to [drop the audio].
Im like, Im not going to do a silence every time he says the F-word.
Youll have like 150 silent moments in the show.
I got them to agree to bleeps.
I learned something from that show.
But I started that withHells Kitchen.
And that spawnedKitchen Nightmares, which spawnedMasterChefandMasterChef Junior, and theyre all still on.
(A few samples: Have you ever padded your underwear to look more well-endowed?
Did you ever drink alcohol while you were pregnant?
Do you think your parents dislike your girlfriend because of her religion?)
The game was both riveting and excruciating to watch.
I give credit to Howard Schultz, who’s no longer with us.
He created that format.
Its an escalating ladder where the questions get more intimate and harder and harder.
This show’s the show.
Im like, No one thinks you are responsible for this.
That was not a company disclaimer.
That was a Mark Walberg disclaimer.
I said, Fine.
Say whatever you want.
It’s okay with me.
Some favorite moments are from that television show.
You could absolutely do that show today.
But there’s a line between humor and crazy.
I think it’s still a very interesting dynamic.
