TRUMP HOLDING THE CARDS FOR NEW ‘BILLIONAIRE' GAME SHOW
Friday,February 9,2001

By DON KAPLAN


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When there's funny-money to be spent, politicians have nothing on The Donald.
The megarich mogul is backing a new reality-TV game show that gives contestants 30 minutes to spend $1 million.

The concept sounds like the 1985 movie "Brewster's Millions," in which Richard Pryor had a month to spend $30 million in order to collect his inheritance. But Donald Trump is calling the proposed use-it-or-lose-it show "Billionaire," natch.

"This is certainly something different," Trump told The Post yesterday.

On the show, each contestant is given a credit card called "the Trump Card," the show's executive producer, David Russo, said.

"There's a million dollars on it, and whoever spends the most money wins it all," Russo said.

Led by white-hot "Survivor II" and "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," "Billionaire" is the latest of a slew of reality shows that have dominated network TV for almost two years.

The name couldn't be better applied. Trump, who was approached by Russo with the game-show idea, owns a mixed bag of casinos and pricey real-estate properties estimated to be worth about $1.7 billion. He was ranked 186th last year on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans.

"Billionaire" isn't yet connected to a broadcast network, but Russo has meetings with CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox officials scheduled for early next week, according to Variety.

He hopes to get "Billionaire" on TV in the summer or the fall.

"So many people come to me with ideas and I very rarely accept them," Trump said. "This idea sounded awfully good to me."

Whoever completes the task, or spends more than the other three, gets a million. The winner will get to keep a portion of what he or she spent.

It isn't clear what happens to the stuff players buy with their funny money.

There's a few rules. Contestants can't use phones for their transactions, and they can spend a maximum of $200,000 for any single item.

Contestants will have to apply to be on the show. Successful applicants will learn they've been chosen when one of the game's "sub-hosts" shows up at their homes and hands them the Trump card.

The wild spending spree begins immediately.

"There are a lot of interesting situations that could take place," Trump said. "A contestant might be enlisted when "he's in a delivery room with his wife waiting for the birth of his child. You hit him then and he'll have to decide if he's going leave [to play the game.]"

"Billionaire" will also include special incentives that will reward the players with extra minutes to dump the cash.Trump said the prize money won't come out of his pocket.

I WAS BORN TO PLAY THIS GAME.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN...

REALITY

WOW!!! LET THE SHOPPING BEGIN!!!

$200,000 to Win
$200,000 to Place
$200,000 to Show
$200,000 2 Horse Exacta Box

One Million $$$ Spent in Less Than One Minute.
I always wanted to Control a Tote Board