OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - Welcome to Miami

You have $100,000 and 24 hours to give it away.  What do you do?  Ah, but what if you can only give $500 per person, and can’t spend more than $10,000 in one place?  OK, but what if you can’t give out any cash?

This was the challenge the seven remaining contestants faced on Oprah’s Big Give this week.  Billionaire brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof, who own the Sacramento Kings, showed up in Miami with a suitcase full of cash that they hoped to never see again.  It turned out that they’d see a lot of that cash again, because apparently giving away a hundred grand under these conditions is a lot harder than it looks.

Some of the seven were more up to the challenge than others.  Stephen was the only person who gave away all his money – he bought appliances, computers, iPods, and TVs at different stores and then passed them out door-to-door in a low income neighborhood.  Stephen got bonus heartwarming points for recruiting his dad to help him.

Eric gave away $70,000, but ran into a time crunch and ended up not following through on a commitment to pay funeral expenses for a firefighter’s family and ended up just getting a bunch of gift cards with the remaining funds he had.  Rachael gave away about $56,000 and was a little more mellow this week – probably because she didn’t have to work with a team.  Brandi gave away $65,000, and was inspired to buy up a roadside flower vendor’s entire stock and then gave away flowers to passing motorists.  That sounds dangerous, but the motorists in question were stopped at an intersection; she wasn’t just tossing flowers at speeding cars.

Sheg unloaded $80,000 during his 24 hours, including paying for a shopping spree in a grocery store in a poor neighborhood that practically wiped out the store’s inventory.  Cameron gave away $67,000.  He had a great idea to pay for $500 worth of car repairs for every customer at a garage.  The reaction of the little kid who found out Cameron was paying to fix their car was really sweet – you could tell that the boy was really moved and hopefully inspired by Cameron’s gesture.

Kim wiped out big time, though.  She only gave away $16,500 to a pet shelter and spent most of her time hopelessly lost.  Remember the first episode, when Kim and Marlene couldn’t find the military base?  This was a thousand times worse, and it cost her big time.

This week two contestants got sent home – Kim and Eric.  The judges weren’t impressed with Eric – although he spent a lot of money, they felt he wasn’t creative enough about it and he fell through on his commitment to pay for the funeral.  Kim was the obvious other choice for elimination.  She seems like a nice gal, but as we’ve seen, nice isn’t enough on Oprah’s Big Give – results count.

-- Dave Campbell

Comments

[Regina of Tucson, Az]

I love this show, I Give Big all the time with little to no money (not because I am cheep - but because I don't have it)- I would love the opportunity to do it with money.I have lists of ideas of how to help people. For people not to be able to give away $100,000 in 24 hours tells me they are not consistant givers in their daily lives. Example: the contestent that the man washed his car windshild - why didn't he take the guy and do something for him.
And the funeral cost for the family of the police officer - Totally unacceptable not to have done something for that family - It is hard enough loosing someone - and then to have a promise made and not kept --- and the contestant promised at least 5 times he would be back --- I hope Oprah or someone did something for this family aside from the show.

Lastly, Where was the creativity. Are not travelers checks the same as cash???

A simple breakdown - $100,000 with the criteria given = 10 locations 20 people each = money gone. (or 10 locations 5 with 20 people each and 5 organizations / special needs) ---- so many ways to do it --- EVERY CONTESTENT SHOULD HAVE HAD EMPTY POCKETS.

I Love that people are learning to GIVE BIG!!! Thank You Oprah!

[Arkonbey]

I think caveats for giving is really stupid. Without trying hard, I can think of 5 local organizations that could use $20,000 and help a lot more people than a bunch of retail goods could.

[Jester]

I can't stand this show. "Go do good...but we are going to put limits on you to make it a game". Bleah. Just let them HELP people. The funeral thing clinched it for me. Eric was heartbroken about not being able to pay for that funeral. It was a beautiful gesture and idea that was shot down by Oprah's strings, and got him sent packing. I'm done watching this show.

[samantha]

I think that this show is really great! To have the chance that these people have would be amazing. It is so easy to help people in your day to day life, but to have the chance to help in a much bigger way would be awesome. I think that all of the contestants are doing great. I do believe that Stephen has his entire heart and soul in the game and it has probably changed him forever.

[Brian Riggs]

I would love to be on this show. It seems like an easy way to win money for my tuition for college. I am a 34-year-old student at the University of Houston. I was a golf professional for the last 8 years and I am very athletic but a lot out of shape. However, after watching your show for two weeks, I feel it could be the easiest $50,000 I’ll ever see, help me pay for my schooling.