Joe Millionaire

Joe Millionaire was a 2002 US reality television show broadcast in the US on the Fox network. It was broadcast in the UK in 2003.

The basic plot is that a bachelor (Evan Marriott) has inherited millions of dollars and is searching for a potential bride. He takes a group of hopeful women on several dates at exotic and luxurious locations, eliminating women at the end of each episode until only one woman remains. However, the women are not aware that this bachelor is in reality not a millionaire, but rather a not-so-rich construction worker. At the end of the series, the secret is revealed to the last remaining woman.

The experiment the show is perhaps conducting is to see how differently the women treat a man when they believe him to be rich, and when they know he is not rich - i.e. "does money matter"?

The show was wildly successful and became a pop culture phenomenon when originally broadcast in the US, with over 40 million viewers tuning in to the last hour of the final episode. It was the most-watched episode of any entertainment series since the premiere episode of the second season of Survivor, which was broadcast immediately after the 2001 Super Bowl.

A second season, featuring a cowboy protagonist duping European women, garnered much reduced ratings.

Joe Millionaire was filmed primarily at the Château Bourdaisière in the countryside of the Commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire, in the Indre-et-Loire département of France.

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