Oh boy! the newest hedonistic, shallow reality show comes to NBC!
Very much like Joe Millionaire, 15 women come traipsing in from all over the world USA to some expensive mansion in california or god-knows-where where they will be wooed by a fancied-up dreamboat of a man, who will, in turn, also be wiled and wooed and fought over by the women.
There is, of course, a catch. Instead of being a traditional, purely love-based reality show (by this point in time in 2003 (Anno Joe Millionaire) , surely trite and boring without an evil twist), it begins as one and then grows into an all-out gold-digging extravaganza as the hopeful women learn that whoever wins the guy will also win $1,000,000. As one of the wonderful, classy reality-tv ladies so appropriately stated, "The claws are really going to come out now."
Oh yes, did i mention that the man himself doesn't know about the money?
*cackles evilly*
As far as he knows, they all truly like/love/lust him.
The women learn of this delightful twist before they meet the actual man, so they have time to stew and get into catfights with the other women about whether to go for the money whether or not they like the guy or not, etc.
The next day (the second day of taping), they meet the dream man himself. He's some tanned, generic dark-haired criminal defense lawyer who pulls in a ton of money a year and "is too busy to look for love." I must admit, however, that i like this guy a hell of a lot more than stinky Joe Millionaire; despite starring in a reality show, he does seem rather intelligent, and I like his style of manipulating the women so that he shows just enough to make them think that they are his favorite, but leaves hints that while aren't too subtle themselves, the bling-focused women don't pick up on them. This, of course, helps ratings tremendously, as the women always seem absolutely shocked when they get eliminated.
However, there lies one more twist waiting at the end. Though they don't know about it yet, whichever woman wins has to choose between the man or the money -- she doesn't get both.
As awful as it is, i have to admit that i watched it both last week and just tonight. There's just something inherently appalling and immensely entertaining about watching a bunch of wretched-but-mostly-attractive women fight over a guy and try to convince themselves that they're not awful people for going for the money.
For Love or Money airs from 9-10pm on Monday nights on NBC (I think). | 
