Described as the love child of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and The Amazing Race, Oprah’s Big Give follows 10 contestants as they criss-cross the U.S. on a 47-day giving spree.
At each stop, contestants are given charitable challenges – often involving large sums of cash to be given away in short periods of time. At the end of each episode, a judging panel reviews the results and eliminates one contestant, and the last do-gooder standing gets a surprise $1 million reward.
Oprah herself will make a few special appearances along with some of her charitable friends, including Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Andre Agassi, Tony Hawk, and Danica Patrick.
The judges – ‘Naked Chef’ Jamie Oliver, NFL star Tony Gonzalez, and charity founder (and Chris Rock’s wife) Malaak Compton-Rock – had their work cut out for them, as they trekked around the country with the contestants.
“We had some set criteria for the judging, to give us a guide, which were creativity, leadership, presentation and accomplishment,” says Oliver. “But to be honest, it was more of a guide than anything, and I think as far as any other show I’ve seen on telly before, it was hard to judge this one.
“You were judging on big things, judging on them getting to the heart of what the problem or need was, and that’s not always money or a new house, it’s the intimate things as well … honestly, you have to go with your heart a little bit.
“Sometimes it was so close, [that] we just had to go with what felt right. It’s not like where they’re dancing or singing, if they did a few bum notes; I mean, they’re all good people doing good things for other people.”
Adds host/interior designer/Oprah phenomenon Nate Berkus, “The judges had to look at how they gave, not just what they gave. It was an incredibly dramatic experience for everybody involved, because we as the host and the judges became really invested in the different competitors, and in their stories, and in their journeys, not just the people they helped.”
Sometimes, being in the presence of all that giving had a profound effect on the judges.
“To be honest,” says Oliver, “just about every week I was in tears, which is pretty hard, because I’m obviously a butch fella. And we don’t cry. I’m a tough brick, but it did manage to break me. Every single week there were emotional things happening.”
In addition to the tears and the hugs, there will be some action in the series, which was joint-produced by the team that does The Amazing Race. There will be your requisite reality competition breakdowns, fighting, and getting lost in a strange city.
The competitors “have no resources, they don’t know where they are logistically, they’re trying to navigate around urban areas, non-urban areas, they’re trying to locate people …” says Berkus. “It’s a combination of them being creative enough in thinking how they can leave a situation far better than it was when they arrived, and to even get there to begin with.”
Although the challenges do revolve around cash, and the total amount given away over the series reportedly tallies up in the high hundred thousands, Oliver doesn’t want audiences taking away the message that poor conditions can only be ameliorated with dollars and cents.
“The whole point of the show is that it’s not about millions and millions of pounds,” he says. “To measure the show in money is completely wrong; it’s much more intimate, sensible, emotional, clever. If the answer to giving big is about cash, then it immediately limits millions of people that live in [the U.S.].
“The point is that with a dollar, or your time alone, you can make a massive difference to your neighbour, to organizations, to people. For me, that’s the clever bit of the show, really.”
Oprah’s Big Give premières Sunday, March 2, at 9 p.m. on CTV/ABC. Want more Oprah? Check out 10 of her own biggest gives.
