'Joe Millionaire': An Unexpected Lesson in Integrity

(RNS) Clerics and critics don't typically turn to Fox television for programming that would qualify as either ethical or ethereal.

It is, after all, the network that brought the nation "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?" and "Temptation Island."

But one of its latest ratings-grabbers, "Joe Millionaire," may provide viewers with an unexpected lesson in integrity.

"The concept of `Joe Millionaire' is more like a fable, like Aesop's Fables where things are twisted," said Matthew Felling, media director for the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs. "It's almost a morality play. It's almost a cautionary tale. In a perverse sense, Fox is helping us with a very moral lesson."

The premise of the program is this: Evan Marriott, 28, is a lowly -- albeit hunky -- construction worker who makes $19,000 a year. But 20 young women are informed otherwise; they believe Marriott has recently inherited $50 million and wishes to pursue one of them romantically. During each of the show's seven episodes, Marriott dismisses women until he has chosen "The One."

In next week's much-hyped two-hour finale, Marriott must choose between Sarah and Zora and reveal the truth about his finances.

In the course of the series, Marriott has fielded questions from the women eager to know about his dough.

Marriott, who said he's trying to determine which women are interested in him and not his supposedly bulging bank account, dislikes the discussions.

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