Each episode takes a Secret Millionaire out of their normal day-to-day luxurious lifestyles and allows them to walk in the shoes of the poorest of the poor. They each spend a week living among the poor, the homeless, and the needy given only a week’s worth of welfare money to live on—which usually adds up to around $50-60.
Not only do the millionaires get to better understand the needs of others by living among them, but they also get to change lives. While under the guise of filming a documentary on volunteering, they are in fact looking for charities and organizations that are truly making a difference in their communities. At week’s end, having visited and volunteered with three or four of these organizations, they reveal themselves as millionaires and deliver personal checks to the people that they believe are most in need of the donations—which have ranged from $10,000-100,000 depending on the need perceived by the millionaires.
Inspiration to Act
I find myself greatly inspired to live out my call to social justice each time I watch Secret Millionaire, specifically as it relates to the corporal works mercy:
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
It’s unfortunate how often our drive for success—which stems from our natural instinct of self-preservation—can cause us to overlook those who are most in need of our help as we climb the seemingly unending “ladder of success” in pursuit of happiness which in the end only leads to despair. Secret Millionaire is a step forward in reality TV in the sense that it is an attempt at altering our society’s foolish notions of happiness and success. An attempt that I wholeheartedly support and admire.
You can watch new episodes of “Secret Millionaire” Sundays on ABC or catch up on previous episodes online at ABC.com. I watch it for free at Hulu.com.