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OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - And the biggest giver is...

The Big Give reached the finish line this week as the remaining three contestants, Cameron, Brandi, and Stephen, joined forces for one final mission in Oprah's hometown of Chicago.  There was a little bit of conflict between the three during the last task, but if we're judging on a reality-TV basis, it was pretty mild.  In the end teamwork and goodwill triumphed and the three returned to Big Give World HQ for a final reckoning.

Although I'm sure it crossed the minds of the contestants, no mention of any prize was made to them during the competition.  The finalists seemed honestly surprised and delighted by the final prize - ONE MILLION DOLLARS.  In keeping with The Big Give theme, the winner got to keep $500,000 and donate the rest to a charity or non-profit of his/her choice.  The runner-ups and all the eliminated contestants all received generous prizes as well - I don't think anybody was going home unhappy.

The winner, the biggest giver of all, was Stephen the hard-working contractor and father of three girls.  Any of the three finalists would have been a good choice, but Stephen really deserved to win.  Week after week he proved to be imaginative, organized, inspired, and effective.  Since he was a little older than Brandi and Cameron, Stephen had a little more real-life experience and used networking to his advantage.

So kudos to Stephen and all the contestants on this most unusual of reality contest shows.  They demonstrated that with a little motivation and creativity, anyone can make a difference.

--Dave Campbell

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - The Travolta Factor

Few shows on TV would not benefit from the addition of John Travolta.  Things go better with Travolta, I always say.  This week the three remaining Big Give contestants get to hitch a ride from Orlando to Chicago with their own personal jet pilot - yes, John Travolta.  How did you guess?

Brandi, Cameron, and Stephen all get sent home this week - but not as losers.  They return to their home towns with ten grand and a mission to give big to their own communities.  Each of the three use the resources they have available - namely, their friends and family - and all of them are tremendously succesful.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the show so far, because Brandi, Cameron, and Stephen are clearly the strongest contestants out of the original twenty.  I thought that Cameron and Stephen did slightly better than Brandi this week, but it would be hard to choose a clear loser. 

Fortunately, John Travolta reappears at the end of the show with another patented Big Give twist:  none of the three contestants are going to be eliminated!  I'm not 100% clear why John Travolta had to appear to drop that particular Good News Bomb, but he did.

Anyway, that's good news for our trio of Big Givers, who face the ultimate challenge next week - they have to give big with absolutely no "seed money" to start off with.  Yep, just the shirts on their backs.  I think the savvy Cameron may have the edge for this final stage of the competition, but we shall see...

-- Dave Campbell

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - Big drama in the Big Apple

We all saw it coming - Rachael finally got the boot from Oprah’s Big Give. 

It was just a matter of time – she just didn’t play well with others.   Rachael developed a pattern of conflicts with her fellow contestants that ultimately doomed her.  This week in particular required teamwork on behalf of the remaining contestants, and teamwork and cooperation are clearly not Rachael’s strong points.

New York was the destination this week as the four contestants had to band together to fulfill the dreams of two dying parents.  Would they be able to make these final wishes a reality, or would in-fighting sabotage their efforts? 

As it turned out, they were able to secure the financial future of a family whose father was dying as well as make a lifelong dream of performing at Carnegie Hall a reality for a dying woman, but the squabbling definitely didn’t help their efforts.  Stephen in particular had a HUGE problem with Rachael – he just couldn’t get over that Rachael (who has a beautiful voice BTW) offered to sing onstage at Carnegie Hall.  To Stephen it felt like Rachael was acting selfishly and interjecting herself into this woman’s dream, when he felt their role on The Big Give was to help make these dreams come true and then step aside.  Stephen’s distaste for Rachael’s tactics really affected his performance this week – but to be fair it looked like Rachael really dropped the ball on a number of important tasks, leaving him to pick up the slack.

Cameron really came out of the whole thing smelling like a rose, however.  He wisely chose not to get involved in all the drama and focused on his strengths – organization.  He worked the phones behind the scenes and coordinated the efforts to get the family’s mortgage paid off and a college fund set up for the kids.  Jada Pinkett Smith helped out quite a bit – it’s amazing how much money you can raise in a short period when you’re famous and well-connected – but Cameron deserves a lot of credit. 

Next week we’re down to just three contestants, each of whom have done really great things so far on the show.  In their own way, they each embody the Big Give spirit and have been able to use their particular talents to great effect.  Either Cameron, Stephen, or Brandi could win the competition at this point and you’d hear no complaints from me. 

Rachael might have some thoughts on the matter, though…

--Dave Campbell

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - Road trip

Georgia was the scene for this week’s episode, as the five remaining contestants – Stephen, Rachael, Cameron, Brandi, and Sheg – are sent on a road trip all across the state, with instructions to perform random acts of kindness to complete strangers in small towns and not get arrested. Well, Nate Berkus didn’t come out and say “don’t get arrested” but it was implied. 

How would one get arrested for giving, you might ask?  Throwing handfuls of cash out of your car window on an interstate would be one way.  Donating heavy sacks of pennies to pedestrians by dropping them from a tall building would be another.  See?  You have to put some thought into giving to avoid injury and jail. 

Fortunately the contestants weren't dangerously random with their random acts of kindness this week.  The only contestant who had trouble was Rachael, who offered her help to an old woman who didn’t really want it. Instead of saying “thanks” and quickly moving on to somebody else, Rachael won’t let it go. She grabs a broom and dustpan and sweeps out under the bewildered woman’s porch instead of doing something that would be appreciated elsewhere. It seemed more an act of stubbornness rather than kindness – and the judges didn’t call he on it!

Instead (SPOILER) Sheg got kicked off this week for a costly mistake. 

He did great with the random acts phase, when he offered some comfort and help to a grieving woman who had just lost her daughter, but Sheg really dropped the ball when he was helping the Murphys, who have a family of 28 (!) adopted special-needs kids. He cleaned out their garage, which was great, but then he hosted a luau party in the garage for the kids that cost $500. It was a nice gesture, but Sheg never bothered to ask the Murphys how he could best help them. That $500 could have been put to better use than just a one-time party. A costly mistake for Sheg!

Now only Stephen, Cameron, Brandi, and Rachael remain. I think Rachael will be next to go, and then it will come down to a battle between Stephen and Brandi.  Cameron's very resourceful, but Stephen and Brandi have a real knack for getting people involved and excited.  I think that inspiring others is going to be the deciding quality that wins this contest.  And not getting arrested.

--Dave Campbell

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

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - Playing well with others

Teamwork, or lack thereof, was the deciding factor Oprah’s Big Give this week as the contestants descended on Houston, TX to help out two deserving elementary schools. 

This time around the group was broken up into two teams at the beginning of the challenge. Host Nate Berkus gave the assembled players five seconds to choose teams, which evoked memories of the cruel selection process all kids must go through on the school yard. The cool kids glom on to each other, leaving everyone else to cobble together a team as best they can. In this case, Eric, Stephen, Cameron, and Brandi all immediately grouped together while Rachael, Kim, Sheg, and Carlana formed the second group out of necessity.

You can’t really blame Eric, Stephen, and Cameron for wanting to work together again since they had been so successful in the past, but the whole team selection seemed kind of cliquey, didn’t it? It was an interesting glimpse into the Big Give group dynamic.  

Rachael must have felt the same way, because she deliberately held back from the team selection and just joined whatever team needed her. It was as if Rachael was too proud to stick her neck out and ask to be part of a team, which I can sort of understand – but on the other hand, if I was in a contest like that I would say to heck with pride and try to get on the strongest team right away. Maybe she was having a schoolyard flashback to that time when she was picked last for kickball in 4^th grade, I don’t know. 

This week each team got to bring in a heavy-hitting celebrity to help them fund raise for their school. Cameron, Brandi, Eric and Stephen scored skating icon Tony Hawk. Their mission: deliver a Forgotten Christmas to the under-privileged kids of Velasco Elementary. Rachael, Sheg, Kim, and Carlana hooked up with tennis legend Andre Agassi to build a badly needed Field of Dreams for the kids at Simms Elementary. The superstar assistance was crucial to the success of their plans, but so was teamwork and communication – and that’s where one group fell short. 

The Field of Dreams team was hampered by a power struggle and personality conflict between Carlana and Rachael, two women who both seem accustomed to calling the shots. Their team was fractured from the start – when they arrived at Simms Elementary, Kim and Rachael rushed inside while Carlana was loading herself into her wheelchair outside. They couldn’t have waited two minutes and had a quick huddle outside so everyone was on the same page? Things weren’t starting well. 

On the other hand, the Forgotten Christmas team seemed like a well-oiled machine, coordinating a huge shopping spree to Toys ‘r’ Us to collect enough loot for the kids of Velasco Elementary. They didn’t show a lot of the planning and coordination stage because yawn, who wants to watch people talking on the phone and making lists? However, they clearly had their act together. 

The other team? Not so much. They relied a lot on outside help to organize the new playground and didn’t communicate well with each other. Carlana grew progressively more frustrated with Rachael until the team sat down to hash out their issues. This drove Rachael crazy – she felt that the hour they spent talking about their feelings could have been better spent working on the task at hand. The Field of Dreams team was definitely lacking in esprit de corps, team spirit. 

How did each team do? Agassi knows what he’s doing when it comes to fundraising – he helped the Field of Dreams team scrape together a whopping $570,000 for Simms Elementary. That kind of money was going to help the school well beyond just getting a new playground. Tony Hawk and Team Forgotten Christmas pulled in about $180,000 worth of donations for the kids at Velasco Elementary. They may have not raised as much cash as the other team, but their presentation and reveal were over-the-top awesome. If you have Santa arriving in a red helicopter you get extra style points in my book. 

Both teams were hugely successful in their fund raising for the kids, so the deciding factor this week came down to team spirit and cooperation. The conflict between Rachael and Carlana didn’t go unnoticed, and in the end the judges gave Carlana the boot. Rachael escaped this week, but I’d be nervous and on my best behavior if I were her going forward, because I imagine the judges will be watching to see how well she plays with others. 

Next week: how to spend $100,000 in 24 hours.  Man, I'd like to have a problem like that...

-Dave Campbell

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - Give big or go home!

Oprah's Big Give headed to Denver this week to spread the love and the cash, and the contestants got a new challenge:  find somebody or some group that is deserving in Denver and help them out to the best of your ability within 48 hours.  Each contestant got a car and $4,800 of seed money, and the countdown began.

Stephen, Eric, and Cameron were smart - they joined forces, pooling their creativity, talent, and manpower to help out an orphanage.  The three of them pulled in $293,000 in two short days, which is very impressive.  The gal that runs the orphanage seemed impressed - she looked like she was going to have a heart attack from all the excitement, which was sweet.  I mean, I'm glad she didn't have a heart attack but it was nice to see how touched and overwhelmed she was.  The three guys really came out on top this week.  And hey, even though the challenge was issued to the individual contestants, host Nate Berkus never said that teaming up was against the rules...

Speaking of Nate Berkus, I was wondering where I had heard the guy's name before, so I Googled him.  Turns out Berkus is a famous designer and interior decorator who has been on Oprah's show several times.  He was vacationing with his partner in Sri Lanka in 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami hit.  Berkus survived, but his partner, photographer Fernando Bengoechea was swept away and has long been presumed dead.   Little bit of sad trivia for you there.

Right, back to the challenge.  The big twist at the end was that the contestants had to give away the cars they were driving.  Simple, right?  Well, this added wrinkle in the challenge proved to be  contestant Angelo's undoing.

Angelo, a former serviceman, chose to help out a wounded vet and his family.  With the assistance of a very helpful and generous restaurant manager, Angelo arranges a mini-gala for the vet in the restaurant, where he presents the guy with some cash to help out his family.  Fair enough.  But then - and I couldn't believe this - Angelo turns around and surprises the restaurant manager by giving the Oprahmobile to him!

That was a head-scratcher.  Angelo's rationale was that he wanted to reward the restaurant manager for being so generous and giving.  But isn't the whole point of the Big Give is that charity and helping those in need is its own reward?  And what about the veteran who Angelo was supposed to be helping?  If I'm remembering this right, Angelo gives him just under $5,000 - and then turns around and gives a car that is worth over $5,000 to some other guy?  I'll bet the veteran's family could have used a new car.  That  just wasn't good thinking on Angelo's part.

It cost him, too.  The judges decided that Angelo would not continue on to the next round, and Jaimie Oliver in particular cited his bizarre decision regarding the car as the main factor for giving Angelo the boot.

What do you guys think?  Did Angelo deserve to get kicked off the show?  Did you think giving the car to the restaurant manager was a huge mistake, or understandable?   I'm thinking huge mistake.

--Dave Campbell

 

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE - You will believe a man can cry

Looks like Sunday nights are going to be Make Dave Cry Night now that Oprah’s Big Give is on the air right after Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Each week Ty Pennington and Oprah will be competing (in my head) to see who can make me cry more and cry harder. This week the advantage goes to Oprah & Co. 

So here’s the breakdown of Oprah's Big Give, in case you missed the 1.5 million commercials. Ten contestants from all walks of life compete in weekly contests to see who can generate the most $$$ for folks who really need it. Their performance is judged on creativity, leadership, presentation, and accomplishments by the three judges, and each week somebody gets sent home, weeping. Yes, weeping. Philanthropy is a brutal business, folks. 

In this first week the ten contestants were broken into two-person teams, given a photograph of the person they needed to help, and then sent on their merry way. I was a little fuzzy on how much info they were provided about their aid recipients and half expected to see the contestants searching for them at street corners and bus stops armed only with a name and a Polaroid. “Have you seen this woman? I want to give her some money.”  

Luckily for them they seemed to have been provided with an address, although that didn’t help Marlene & Kim, who apparently couldn’t find Camp Pendleton despite the existence of these wonderful inventions called maps. They blew an entire day searching in vain for this giant, clearly marked military base and were definitely going into Week One at a disadvantage. 

The team efforts were a mixed bag – some of the teams were clearly inspired and motivated and creative, while others… not so much. 

Eric and Stephen really stood out in their efforts to help AJ Egan and her girls, who lost their husband and dad when he was killed in an armed robbery. The contestants had to figure out a way to help the Egans keep their house. Not only did Eric and Stephen get extra points for bonding with the Egans, they scored big for focusing not just on the family’s financial needs, but also their emotional needs. They took the girls on a toy shopping spree at Target and rallied the neighbors to donate at a big, full-on block party, the kind that has bouncy play castles and everything. Eric and Stephen really showed the Egans how valued they were and bought mom AJ some peace of mind, but the sweetest part was when they asked the family to write notes to their lost dad and attach them to jumbo helium balloons that would float up to heaven and deliver their messages. 

Darn it, I’m getting all misty-eyed just writing about it. Another point for you, Oprah.  

Some of the other teams could have benefited from using Eric and Stephen’s playbook. Marlene and Kim pulled through and helped a wounded and honorably discharged Marine and his family find a place to live, but what points they got in the achievement category were negated by a total lack of presentation. Surely they knew what the four criteria for success were going into the challenge, but they didn’t even have so much as a balloon to accompany their generous gift. 

And what were Carlana and Sheg thinking? They didn’t gel as a team, which might have explained why they came up with a benefit fashion show plan to help out an altruistic med student with huge loans. They pulled together the show, but the fundraising aspect of the fashion show was a disaster. Nobody in the audience gave a dime, apparently. They were bailed out at the last minute by a huge donation from Jamie Foxx, but if they didn’t have that last minute save, their project would have been a relative failure. 

Celebrity judge Jaime “Naked Chef” Oliver rightly took Carlana and Sheg to task for the lame fashion show. How was it related at all to the med student? If he moonlighted as a male model, I could see it, but no.  

I’m looking forward to the upcoming weeks, which promise more creative philanthropy and community fund-raising as well as some good old fashioned interpersonal conflict. It is a reality TV show, after all – it wouldn’t be any fun if everybody got along, even if it is for a good cause. 

This week, Oprah’s Big Give made me cry three times, and one of those occasions (the balloon message to heaven part) I think I might have actually sobbed. Next week I am going to be a ROCK and will not cry at all – mark my words. Oprah may be a paragon of charity and champion of selflessness, but I'm not just going to let her make me cry like this every week.
 

--Dave Campbell