How does Cuban compare to Trump? Close, but no cigar
Great wealth, we’re often told, is a great burden. In old English novels and new TV shows, rich people crumble.
If so, Mark Cuban – the centerpiece of “The Benefactor,” which debuts tonight at 10 on ABC – has it all wrong. He likes being rich.
“He just lives,” says Todd Wagner, Cuban’s best friend since college. “He says what he thinks and he has fun.”
He remains understated. “It’s a struggle just to get Mark to confess that he’s a billionaire,” says “Benefactor” producer Clay Newbill.
To that, Cuban, 45, shrugs: “At least I dress the part.”
Actually, he dresses mainly in jeans. He’s certainly no starched, pressed Donald Trump, and that’s exactly the point.
“If you look at Trump’s show, you watch him and you don’t see anything there,” Wagner told TV critics at a mid-July press conference. “With Mark, the charisma is part of what comes through in this show. … You wonder, does he (Trump) actually sweat? Does he go to the bathroom? With Mark, you see somebody who is a real person.”
Cuban’s informal style fits a show that seems short on rules.
In tonight’s premiere, 16 contestants arrive at a mansion in Cuban’s hometown of Dallas. By the end of the night, he has evicted three of them – without really saying what the show is about.
Mostly, it’s about improvising through challenges. “They’re very open-ended,” Cuban says.
In the opener, he simply spies on people, then does one-on-one interviews. Another week, he hands them a bundle of money at 10 p.m. on a Monday and tells them to have fun while spending it all.
“Believe it or not, that wasn’t easy for some of the contestants,” Cuban says.
Another day was even more open-ended, he says: “I put them in groups of four. I gave them each three hours. The only instructions were, ‘Do not waste my time.’ “
This may seem frustrating, but the contestants will keep trying. In the end, Cuban will give one of them $1 million.
The money is from the show’s budget, not his pocket, but Cuban gives his salary from the show to charity: “You can’t have a show called ‘The Benefactor’ and worry what you’re going to get paid.”
Then again, Cuban has plenty right now. He’s married, lives in Dallas, owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and (with Wagner) owns movie theaters, a movie production company and HDNet, a high-definition cable network.
He also gives plenty away, Wagner says: “The first thing he did when he made money was set up a foundation.”
“My first job, I sold garbage bags door-to-door when I was 12,” Cuban says. “When I started MicroSolutions, I was living with six guys in a three-bedroom apartment. I was living off of mustard and ketchup sandwiches.”
MicroSolutions became a $30 million-a-year business that he sold to Compuserve in 1990. Later, Cuban created Broadcast.com, then sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.
Now he’s trying TV.
“I’m thrilled to death with my life,” Cuban says. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Eileen Fulton (“As the World Turns”) is 71. Singer David Clayton-Thomas (Blood, Sweat and Tears) is 63. Actress Jacqueline Bisset is 60. Singer Randy Jones (Village People) is 52. Actress Jean Smart is 45. Singer-guitarist Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) is 43. Country guitarist Joe Don Rooney (Rascal Flatts) is 29. Singer Fiona Apple is 27. Actor Ben Savage (“Boy Meets World”) is 24.