'Joe Millionaire' halts production and is forced to awkwardly send contestant home early
Joe Millionaire, the dating reality show that first premiered back in 2003, returned to television Thursday night, but with a twist!
Instead of competing for the love of one millionaire bachelor, 18 women are vying for two different men — one who is worth more than $10 million and one who is definitely not. However, the surprise twist was almost ruined, when one of the bachelors, Steven, recognized one of the 18 women in the crowd.
Upon the revelation, Steven immediately pulled aside the other bachelor, Kurt, and the show's apparent host, Martin. "This could ruin everything," said Steven.
According to Steven, he and Caroline had never met in person, but had matched on the dating app Hinge in the past and followed each other on Instagram, so she was well aware of who he was and the fact that he was wealthy.
"If Caroline knows Steven's wealthy, the assumption's going to be obvious that I'm not," said Kurt. "So, I mean, the whole thing could be ruined." Fortunately, the twist had not yet been revealed to the women, so producers were able to act quickly.
Over their headsets, producers ordered for Caroline to be low-key pulled out of the group. "Am I in trouble?" asked Caroline, to which one of the producers responded, "Well, I wanted to have a real, honest conversation with you. Who do you know? I need to know what's going on."
Ultimately, the guys and production had no choice but to eliminate Caroline immediately, which left both her and Steven in a very uncomfortable position.
"My whole goal in coming here was to find love in its truest form and meeting women that don't know anything about me whatsoever. Not a single thing," Steven told Caroline. "As unfortunate as it is, I can't do that with you knowing who I am. So I'm going to have to send you home. I'm so sorry. It's nothing against you."
Caroline responded, saying, "I feel like, in a sense, you're doing yourself and me a disservice by, like, not getting to know me."
In the end, after the close call with Caroline, production decided to cut the night short. In fact, it wasn't until the next morning that the women were able to officially meet Steven and Kurt and finally find out about this season's twist.
Joe Millionaire airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Watch the new 'Bachelor' Clayton getting off to a rough start as one contestant denies his rose and another 'hated him':
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