Photo of Patti Stanger provided by Bravotv.com
A few months ago I caught a preview for Bravo's new reality TV show called "Millionaire Matchmaker." I was not interested by the preview so I never ended up watching the show. With absolutely NO new TV shows coming anytime soon (most prime time shows coming back in April), I decided to watch it the other day. I figured that Bravo, in my opinion, has created many good reality shows in the past. Bravo can be attributed to creating Project Runway, Real Housewives of Orange County, and Top Chef.
They must have been on something when they decided to make this show! I can honestly say that I think it is one of the worst shows I have ever seen; it makes Flavor of Love look like The Bachelor! The concept of the show: 30-45 year old millionaire men looking for LOVE and 20-35 year old women looking for MONEY!
The show starts out with the owner of the millionaires's club, Patti Stanger, introducing 2 or 3 new millionaires. She finds out what the men like and go back to interview women. When she finds their "matches" she sets up some type of party to introduce the millionaire's to the women. Seems okay? Just wait.
The tag line for the show is "Where successful men go to meet beautiful and intelligent wives." Beautiful and intelligent wives that are only meeting these men because they are millionaires? Men have to pay $30,000 a year to even belong to this exclusive club. This supplies them with a year of unlimited dating, oh and also a year of paying for every single date that they go on! All the women do is take the fashion advice of the owner (who isn't exactly a fashionista herself), show up, and look pretty. Once everyone has met, the men get to decide which girl he takes on another date. And it goes from there...
I totally understand that when people are working hard they may not have time to meet the right person for them. There are many different dating services that they could use! Why do they have to join a club that makes them make a certain amount of money a year to even join. And the best part, women join for FREE! So the man has to be a millionaire and the woman could be a crack head with a pretty face and good body. I just think that this show is teaching America the wrong concept of "love." True love shouldn't start by showcasing the amount of money you make or the extravagant lifestyle that you lead. Come on Bravo, you could do better!
As much as I do not want to admit it I did watch the show as well and was about as confused as you were. I thought not only does this show exist, but the agency actually exists as well? Now I ain't sayin they some gold diggers, but they definately play one on t.v. As you said, I didn't think reality t.v. could get any worse after Flavor Flav, but this just takes the cake. I think that 'Rock of Love' and the rest of the love triangle on VH1 are so fake and outrageous that I can't take it anymore. Why can't they all just be like 'Rob and Big' or 'Top Chef?'