The Benefactor

The Benefactor is a six-episode (originally eight episodes) US reality television show broadcast on ABC starting on September 13 2004. The premise involves 16 contestants vying to win US$1 million from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Related Topics:
US - Reality television - ABC - September 13 - 2004 - US$ - Dallas Mavericks - Mark Cuban

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In late March and early April of 2004, ABC held open auditions for the show in Atlanta, Boise, Boston, Dallas and Las Vegas and also accepted auditions by mail. http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/2242572047181237/

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Atlanta - Boise - Boston - Dallas - Las Vegas

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The show and its format were kept tightly under wraps during its filming, which began on April 30 2004 in Dallas, Texas. Mark Cuban purposefully kept details about the show to a minimum, eliciting only a small bit of information about the show on his personal blog during filming. http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/5214323776608633 Dallas journalists, eager to learn what was going on, routinely compiled sightings of Benefactor film crews around town. http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/basketball/mavs/stories/051204dnspomavsbenefactor.1b35fd916.html

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April 30 - 2004

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However, the show proved to be unpopular and suffered from very low ratings, despite leading in to the popular Monday Night Football. Episode three had only 4.9 million viewers, the network's least-watched show of that week. Episode four did even worse, with only 4.05 million viewers and finished sixth in its time slot among 18- to 49-year-olds.

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