Joe Millionaire - First Season

First Season

A theme throughout the first season was Marriott's attempt to ascertain which of the twenty contestants were sincere and which ones were simply seeking a wealthy mate.

The show made a minor star out of Paul Hogan, the manservant whose role developed in the words of the network "into the glue that held the show together". Hogan was not actually the host of the program - Alex McLeod was the program's host, although she appeared only briefly on each episode, for an estimated total of five minutes during the six-episode season.

Runner-up Sarah Kozer received notoriety when the media reported during the course of the show that she had appeared in bondage videos while she was attending law school. A scene from the show implied that Kozer and Marriott engaged in a sex act while out for a walk together. Marriott and Kozer claim no sex acts occurred. In the VH1 program VH1 News Presents: Reality TV Secrets Revealed she alleges that her statement "let's go somewhere quiet" was in fact spoken while she was receiving a back massage from another female contestant and that the producers dubbed it in during post editing and added suggestive sound effects and subtitles. The show's editors corroborated this fact later in an interview for Radar magazine.

Fourth place finalist Melissa Jo Hunter received celebrity status after Evan Marriott dumped her when she confessed her admiration by giving him a puzzle and a poem. She displayed to Marriott a check for one million dollars that she wrote to herself as a goal setting tactic, however Marriott mistakenly assumed she wanted someone else to cash the million dollar check.

A contestant known only as Heidi made waves when she admitted she already had a boyfriend and would marry a man for his money. An interview segment in which she quipped 'I'm a banker, I can help' about Marriott's supposed wealth seemed to underscore Heidi was a gold digger.

Zora Andrich was the last woman to stay with Marriott and the two were delighted by the million dollar reward. Unsurprisingly their union did not last - she claimed she was attracted to a completely different man and he claimed she lost her sex appeal when the show was over. Consequently they did not see each other afterwards. But the million dollar check was real and the pair split the money. Zora would later explain in the VH1 show VH1 News Presents: Reality TV Secrets Revealed that Marriott told her via cell phone that he did not choose her but Fox insisted he do so.

Joe Millionaire was filmed primarily at the Château de la Bourdaisière in the countryside of the commune of Montlouis-sur-Loire in the Indre-et-Loire département in France. Marriott is said to have made upwards of $2.5 million between Fox Networks payout, personal appearances and commercials. In 2004 he would go on to host the less than popular (GSN) Game Show Network show "Fake A Date". Marriott went back to contracting and now resides in Orange County, CA Nearly a decade later, Marriott, whose appearance has changed since the end of the series, was interviewed for FOX's 25th Anniversary television special. Marriott would later speak of his disdain for reality television in interviews done after the special.