The Benefactor is an American reality television show broadcast on ABC starting on September 13, 2004. The premise involved 16 contestants vying to win US$1 million from billionaire entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. In late March and early April 2004, ABC held open auditions for the show in Atlanta, Boise, Boston, Dallas and Las Vegas and also accepted auditions by mail. 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. Dallas journalists, eager to learn what was going on, routinely compiled sightings of Benefactor film crews around town. However, the show proved to be extremely unpopular and suffered from very low ratings, despite leading in to the popular Monday Night Football. The show also suffered from ABC stations in NFL markets moving the show to a timeslot after Jimmy Kimmel Live! or another night entirely due to local sports shows devoted to NFL coverage or local pre-game shows in the pre-MNF slot. 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.
In the premiere episode, the 16 finalists are brought into the Dallas mansion and are left to their own devices while they wait to meet Mark Cuban. But unbeknownst to the 16, Cuban has been secretly watching their every move on a monitor. In the first 20 minutes, Cuban cuts Rich for calling the game ""stupid."" Next, each of the 15 remaining contestants have one on one time with Cuban. He uses these ""interviews"" to make two more cuts. Laurel is sent packing. Cuban narrows it down to two people, one of which will be cut. William and Grayson play a game of Jenga to decide who will stay and who will go. Grayson heads home after she loses the game. The episode ends with each person giving their first private confessional in front of the camera. 13 hopefuls remain.
Cuban selects three of the remaining 13 contestants and has them pick teams. Linda, Shawn and Dominic make their picks. The result is 3 groups of 4 and Kathy is the odd man out. She becomes the fourth eliminated. Next the billionaire tells the three teams that they each get to plan three hours of his time. He'll give them $2,500 and do whatever they want, but warns, ""Don't waste my time."" Linda's team takes him to the Scottish Rite children's hospital in Dallas. As it turns out that is a place that Cuban visits with regularity. Dominic's team takes Mark to an arcade. He enjoys himself greatly. The third team, Shawn's, visited ""Speed Zone"" but did not use all three hours. As a result Mark says that 2 of them will go home. William, Latane, Shawn, and Mario all go to determine their fate. They are each interviewed by a group of 3 second-graders. The kids decide to get rid of Mario and William. 10 hopefuls remain...
Cuban gives the remaining contestants the task of spending $1000 in 12 hours. They must challenge themselves, push through their comfort zones and do things they've only dreamed about. The ten competitors choose and carry out their tasks. They range from Spencer's patent of one of his ideas to Dominic setting up his own band. When the time expires, the group meets and watches tapes of everyone's work. Mark sends three packing right away. He gives Femia, Spencer, Kevin, Dominic and Tiffaney the task of choosing who will go home, Chris or Linda. In the end, 6 hopefuls remain...
Mark Cuban divides the contestants into two groups and instructs them to search the streets of Dallas to put together basketball teams for the first ever million-dollar game of horse. Each team selects one man, one woman and one child to their team. Spencer, Kevin and Linda's team loses the game of loser (not horse). Kevin takes a $30,000 bribe. He leaves the game. This saves Spencer who was the one that Cuban was going to get rid of. The remaining five contestants choose two teams of two. The odd man out is Dominic but he stays til next week. 5 hopefuls remain...
Mark meets with the five remaining competitors and first tells them that Dominic, the odd man out, will be leaving. Cuban then tells the group that Dominic has advanced to the next round and has earned a trip to party in Cancun with his best friend. Meanwhile, Mark challenges the remaining contestants to give back to the community by allotting each of them 48 hours to perform random acts of kindness for the people of Dallas. They will have to perform the task without any money. In the end, two contestants will leave and Dominic will return and battle it out in the final three. ""Team Bean"" (Spencer and Linda) uses their first day to dress up in sumo wrestling suits and go around the streets of Dallas making people laugh. On day two, they go to a retirement home and spend time with the elderly. On day one, Team Beautiful (Tiffaney and Femia), give food to homeless people. The next day they go around Dallas giving flowers to people. Cuban admits that both teams did good and decide
Mark goes to each of the three remaining contestants home towns. He visits Linda and her boyfriend, Dan, in Boston. When Cuban discovers that Linda's poverty story is a lie he is very mad. He later discovers that her claim to not know anything about computers is also a lie. Mark then makes the obvious choice and eliminates Linda. Mark gives Dominic and Femia one minute to tell him why they deserve the money. The interview takes place at American Airlines Center and Mark tells both hopefuls that they have lost. He wants to see how they handle losing. Later it is revealed that Cuban was very impressed with Femia's one minute arguement and that it was her competition to lose. Mark sets up a huge photo shoot and interviews with the media. He wants to see what each person says since they both believe they have lost. In the end, Femia and Dominic figure that something is up after they meet each other at the house. Mark comes out and reveals the winner. Femia pulls her name out o
