Twenty-three-year-old dance instructor and deejay Cousin Anthony is the newly-minted millionaire from ABC's reality series, "The Family," which concluded its nine-episode run last night. In a dramatic announcement in the show's last moments, Anthony surprised viewers by vowing to split the $1 million evenly among the other nine family members on the program -- even Cousin Mike, his chief rival in the final round, who is not a blood relative to Anthony, but rather to one of Anthony's many cousins.
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A fiercely-competitive player, Anthony resides in Manalapan, New Jersey, with his parents, who were also contestants on the show. Anthony was eliminated in the fifth episode, but was reinstated last week by a majority vote of the other ousted family members. He was pitted against the only person to survive every elimination round, Cousin Mike, a warehouse manager in Brooklyn. The final round was extremely close, but ultimately Anthony prevailed. In thanking the entire group, he talked about teamwork and the importance of the nine others with whom he shared this unique experience. "For the rest of my life, there will never, never be another group of people I could be more proud to call my family," he says in the show.
"The Family" followed the exploits of an extended clan of ten family members as they competed to win a million dollars on a Palm Beach estate, with their every need attended by a full domestic staff. In each episode they competed in fantasy competitions for amazing prizes and also in elimination contests. The elimination contests resulted each week in two losers, whose names were put before a secret board of trustees -- the household help. The identity of the secret board is hidden from the family until the final episode. Each week, one family member was eliminated, but they all stayed on in the house, competing in the fantasy competitions.
The series, which was the first internally created project for ABC from Buena Vista Productions, is executive-produced by Arnold Shapiro and Allison Grodner, who helmed "Big Brother" 2, 3 and 4. Mindy Moore ("The View") created the show and is co-executive producer. Danny Salles is director. "The Family" is produced by Buena Vista Productions in association with Shapiro / Grodner Productions.