Billionaire will give $1 million to charity if more people watch his reality show

From: Reality Blurred

Draper University of Heroes and venture capitalist Tim Draper, after jumping in the pool.
 (Photo by Tim Neely/ABC Family)

Billionaire Tim Draper, the founder of Draper University and one of the stars of ABC Family’s Startup U, is offering $1 million to charity if 1 million people watch the show this week. Draper wrote on Facebook:

Tell all your friends to watch StartupU Tuesday at 10:00 on ABC Family. I will give away $1 million to charities if we get 1 million viewers this week.

That is a significant challenge, because last week’s episode only had 47,000 viewers and earned a .02 rating (in live+same day). In other words, for this to happen, 953,000 more people will need to watch. (It’s possible that live + 3 or live + 7 ratings add significantly more viewers.)

I like the show a lot, as it combines The Real World and a sort of pre-Shark Tank experience. But it follows another low-rated reality show and has received no significant promotion. This stunt may just get the show more publicity than any of ABC Family’s efforts.