I hate reality TV shows. Unless they have Paula Abdul to offer drunken commentary every couple of minutes, I’d sooner stab my eyes out with two of the icicles hanging off my roof than watch boring people behave like buffoons for an hour (well…42 minutes plus commercials). But as a big fan of philanthropy and board member of a charity designed to raise funds for the deserving, I simply had to check out Secret Millionaire.

Secret Millionaire spends each episode following a millionaire or two as they are taken out of their lives of comfort and dumped into poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Disguised as poor people themselves, the millionaires live amongst some of America’s neediest for a week. At the end of the week, they have to give away at least $100,000 of their own money to one (or more) of the people they meet.

Secret Millionaire suffers from some of the same pitfalls that curse the reality TV genre. The producers clearly try to make places look far worse than they actually are. The community of Imperial Beach was outraged that the show’s first episode made Imperial Beach look like a wasteland…in reality it’s not. It’s far from great…but it’s not Chernobyl. In the second episode, when the rich husband and wife opened the door to the bathroom in their trailer-park mobile home, the sound of flies buzzing in the microphone suddenly appeared (clearly faked).

But despite the producers’ best efforts to ruin any sense of reality in their reality tv show, Secret Millionaire has some really enjoyable qualities: Probably most importantly, each episode something happens to drastically change the lives of one (or several) families. And as an added bonus, rich people (who are accustomed to wasting thousands of dollars on fuel for their private jet, or on extravagant dinners) get to see how several thousand dollars can do more than buy a ridiculous bottle of wine. They come to see how that money can do something like help a family get out of debt and change the course of their lives forever or it can help a small homeless shelter serve the destitute for years to come.

Make a difference in someone’s life
by supporting a good charity today

In The Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne proposes that the biggest travesty isn’t that rich people don’t care about poor people…it’s that they don’t know poor people. What Shane suggests, and Secret Millionaire proves over and over, is that once rich people see that poor people aren’t all just lazy bums or junkies, and they realize what an impact they can make in the lives of the poor, they won’t be able to resist getting involved (which is why the Secret Millionaires usually feel compelled to give much more than the $100,000 the show requires of them).

If you haven’t watched it yet, you can watch Secret Millionaire for free on Hulu. You might find it so heartwarming, that you feel compelled to sponsor a child, make a donation to an amazing charity, or buy some food for that homeless guy you usually see on your drive home.

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