I watched the first episode of "Oprah's Big Give" on ABC this past Sunday evening. It's "The Apprentice" meets "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" meets "The Great Race." We decided to watch as a family on the belief that this would be program filled with great lessons about altruism. The show was promoted ad-nauseum by ABC and during Oprah's afternoon talk-show. This, we were told, would be an hour that would change our lives...as if Desperate Housewives hadn't already accomplished this feat.
If you were un-lucky enough to miss the show, here is the premise: Oprah picks a bunch of contestants from (I'm sure) the 20 million entries she received on her web-site. For this first episode, the contestants were put into teams of two and assigned the task of tracking down individuals or families who are in desperate need of assistance for one reason or another. The teams then had five days to raise as much money as possible through their own creative fund-raising efforts.
Lest there be some doubt, I am not a cold-hearted, cynical bastard. There have been many times I've cried watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. People need help and I applaud Oprah's intentions. But the "Big Give" was ultimately about competition and back-biting when it was all said and done...and that's my issue. If Oprah wants to help the needy, she could have taken just one of her weekly pay-checks and taken care of every person featured in the program...and then some. Instead of providing a lesson to my 12 year old son on the beauty of giving, the show ended with a panel of judges who eliminated one of the contestants because, I suppose, she didn't give enough. Hell, Mother Theresa wouldn't have made the grade in this cut-throat battle to help those in need.
So, the lesson of "The Big Give:" it's not about giving...it's about giving more than someone else.
Thoughts?
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