Oprah's Big Give Gives Great

Oprah's "Big Give" is yet another way philanthropist Oprah Winfrey tries to empower the world to embrace the concept of giving, for indeed giving is receiving. I particularly like this show. First of all, the set up of the show is amazing. Ten people were paired up and given only a clue about a family whose life situation is dire. The duo, which had been selected by their commonly having the same picture, had only five days to make an impact in the life of the unsuspecting stranger/family.
Next, I liked the fact that the contestants did not select whom they worked with. That left everything such as the way they worked together, to chance. If they were compatible in their personalities, then they most likely did a good job accomplishing their task (as in the case of the duo that helped AJ the widow and her two children). If they did not work well together (as in the case of Marlene and Kim), then all hell was loose and disaster struck.

The fact that viewers watched the process the teams went through in planning out their tactics for raising the needed funds was pretty interesting as it allowed for viewers to plan their own course of action as they watched these contestants plan. For instance, as I watched Sheg and Carlana debate over a fashion show event through which they would raise money for Erick Jackson, I thought that a better plan would have been to also try calling the loan companies to see if they could forgive some of Eric's loans to bring down the big debt. I enjoyed the fact that the viewers were challenged by Oprah from the on-set, what they would do if they were one of the contestants. Her rhetorical question got me really thinking of what I would indeed do if I were in their shoes.

On the other hand, I did not like the fact that teams were given their task but were not told (at least I did not remember hearing) that they would be judged individually. I think that if they had been warned at the beginning that although they were working together, the first judging would be individually, perhaps some of them (like Marlene) would have put forth more effort. I didn't think she wanted to leave on this first episode.