Mark Cuban to give away $1 million in reality show
LM Otero/Associated Press
Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Mavericks NBA team.
Associated Press
Feb. 24, 2004 08:38 AM
Dallas
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban will give away $1 million of his own money this summer as the host of an ABC reality series called “The Benefactor.”
“Why has he agreed to give away such a large sum of money? Simply because he can and because he can’t wait to devise the means through which applicants must prove to him that they deserve the money,” ABC said in a news release being issued Tuesday.
About 30 contestants will compete on the series for the billionaire’s cash. Show details, like the format and number of episodes, remain to be worked out, The Dallas Morning News reported in Tuesday’s editions.
In a statement released to the newspaper, Cuban said the show won’t be a traditional contest.
“You don’t need special talents,” he said. “I’m not looking to find out who is the grossest, funniest, prettiest, smartest or able to go without food or water the longest.
“The right person is going to get on my good side at the right time, and whoever that is, is going to walk away with a check from me for $1 million,” he said.
Cuban has gotten used to giving away his money in recent years — he’s been fined repeatedly by the NBA since he bought the team in January 2000, mostly for criticizing referees, with the penalties totaling over $1 million.
The largest fine was $500,000 for saying he wouldn’t hire the NBA’s head of officials to manage a Dairy Queen. Cuban later poked fun at himself by working behind the counter of an ice cream shop, serving cones.
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