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I'm a huge Oprah Winfrey fan, make no mistake about it. I think she's an inspiration, a role model and done very much more good in the world than bad.
But that doesn't mean I won't call her goddess-like butt on the carpet if I think she's messed up. "Oprah's Big Give" is one of her rare mess ups.
First let's look at it as a TV show. It simply doesn't work. It's like watching a frantic cross between "The Amazing Race" and "The Apprentice," except with needy people thrown in the mix. Five teams of two are given $2500, a clue, and the photo and name of a person in need. The Givers then have five days to change their Givees' lives. Each week the weakest "Big Give" link will be eliminated, as determined by a panel of judges, and at the end of the eight week series, the person who gives away the most wins.
The comparison to "The Amazing Race" is no coincidence since the creators of that show, Bertram Van Munster and his wife Elise Doganieri are, along with Oprah, among the executive producers of "Oprah's Big Give."
Unlike "The Amazing Race" however, the "Big Give" tries to be too many things all at once: a scavenger hunt as the Givers try to find their Givee with only a photo and a clue to go by; an executive-in-training course as the Givers work the phones to wring money out of corporate fat cats; a test of survival skills as each contestant tries to avoid being ejected.
As a TV show it fails because the frantic pace makes the goal of the show pointless. With ten Givers, five Givees, five fund raising efforts and five big reveals, you don't have time to become emotionally involved with anyone. There are no details about how things are accomplished. For example, how did they arrange that donation from Firestone? Or get all those people in that church to donate for the homeless woman and her family? Or arrange a fashion show in five days? Even though it was a failure.
Now, only an absolute ogre would begrudge the Givees the help they received. A homeless single mother with two teenage kids who got a paid up apartment, a car, and some cash to get her on her feet. A medical student who's trying to pay off $200,000 in student loans so he can work with poor kids in the neighborhood he grew up in. A woman widowed when her husband was killed in a robbery who got money to pay off her mortgage and scholarships for her two little girls from their local Catholic school.
Obviously these people needed help, and I was happy for them, but otherwise, I was bored. It's much easier to show people competing for something instead of competing for a feeling, which is what this show tries to do. Making the show a competition with eliminations just like any other reality show also diminishes what the show is trying to encourage. Somehow I kept feeling that a documentary about these same people, given some money and the same task would have been much more valuable. Unfortunately, you don't get big ratings from even the best of documentaries these days.
There was plenty of internet commentary about the show. Ellen Gray of Philly.com said in her review.
It's not even that I have anything against Oprah, whose heart, I'd like to believe, is in the right place. It's just that I'm ready to live in a world, or at least imagine one, where people in trouble don't have to go to television shows to beg for help. Where giving - and receiving - isn't a competition.
Where the problems caused by our ever-thinning safety net are once again seen as all our problems, and therefore worthy of all our help, even if we never get to see the recipients or dab our eyes as they express their gratitude.
TV Crunch liked the show:
Maybe it’s just me, but I sat blubbering through most of “Oprah’s Big Give” tonight. After so many reality shows that feature contestants in it only for themselves, it’s refreshing to see “Oprah’s Big Give” exploring the idea of changing people’s lives.
Ray at the Affirmation Spot also liked it and had this to say in his post, "'Oprah's Big Give'
