Sunday, Feb. 15, marks the 15th anniversary of Fox’s “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionare?” — the beauty pageant in which women competed for the prize of marriage. If that sounds like a short-hand description of “The Bachelor,” it’s not a coincidence: When Fox’s attempt at a dating special was destroyed by backlash, producer Mike Fleiss took his concept over to ABC, dressed it up with an air of romance and called it “The Bachelor.”
“Not many people draw that obvious connection, but it’s true,” Fleiss said in an interview with HuffPost Entertainment. “I’m all about studying the ratings, and that show [‘Multi-Millionaire’] was incredible. It set the world on fire. I realize that there was an irresponsible quality to it in that we were marrying off strangers essentially. So, I said, ‘How can I create a show that has the power of ‘Multi-Millionaire,’ but do it in a more responsible, relatable romantic fashion?’”
Where “The Bachelor” feels like it may as well be a beauty pageant, “Multi-Millionaire” quite literally was one (right down to the swimwear portion). “It was going to be even more pageant-like,” said Fleiss, who had actually hired Carrie Ann Inaba to choreograph an opener. “The show was going to being with a big musical dance number with all the girls coming out and announcing themselves while dancing, really sort of parroting the pageant format,” he said. “Because of time constraints that ended up getting cut, but that was the idea.”
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“The difference between ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘Multi-Millionaire’ is the severity,” Fleiss said. “‘The bachelor or bachelorette has to exist to find love.” And while he says that things are more responsible now, he has no issue with a little controversy. He’s still a ratings guy, who understands what it’s like to get burned by scandal, but also knows that a little of it creates publicity, which builds into awareness and viewership.
When asked how he would respond to the idea that “The Bachelor” is misogynistic, Fleiss said, “Well, we have ‘The Bachelorette.'” When asked how he would respond to criticism that “The Bachelorette” promotes slut-shaming, he said, “That’s not true. Some of our bachelorettes have slept with more than one guy!”
In the end, Fleiss sees no shame in the backlash. “I’ve heard lots of criticism, but I mostly what I hear is that people love the show,” he said. “And we’ve got a number of happily married couples and those couples are popping out babies. We’ve had a lot of success with helping people find love. I don’t know if our batting average is as high as Match.com, but it’s pretty good. We have couples and babies, and I’m proud of that.”
