Megan Wants a Millionaire

Did You Know?

• Cisco, Punisher, Alex Netto and Garth McKeown appeared on the fourth season of I Love Money.
• In 2009, Radar Online reported that VH1 would develop another unscripted show starring Megan Hauserman, but VH1 denied the rumor and the show never materialized.

Episodes

The first episode aired on August 2, 2009. Megan was introduced along with her concierge Niles, who narrated the show. After meeting the seventeen millionaires, Megan brought in her best friends Brandi Cunningham and Cecille Gahr. She presented each man with a gift corresponding to his nickname. Megan then announced a mixer. She spent time with Audi, who claimed his "hump game" caused past girlfriends to go crazy, disturbing Megan. Joe and David chatted with her; David said he would love to go shopping with her. Cisco and Punisher showed their fit bodies, impressing Megan. Corey told her he wanted to find his queen and spend his life with a beautiful woman. Outside, Brandi and Cecille encouraged Al to be less awkward. He offered to give Megan a foot massage with massage oil, then tried to be funny by saying he had a "dog jaw," whipping his head, barking, and pretending to bite her finger, causing her to spill wine. Megan stormed upstairs in tears. She returned, and Al apologized and offered to buy her a new dress. Shaun took Megan for a private talk; she said she liked his look and was physically attracted to him. Donald asked Megan to the fire pit for a one-on-one because he was a movie director; she wanted to know if he could put her in movies. At her request, Donald set up an impromptu skit between Megan and James, who kissed by the fire pit, ruining Donald's plan; Megan admitted the kiss was terrible. Brandi and Cecille learned James expected to inherit his grandfather's fortune and was not yet a millionaire. TJ shared a one-on-one about traveling. Megan sat with Ryan, a Canadian citizen, who said he could only work in the U.S. if married and that she would not have to sign a pre-nup. Garth smashed Joe's piggy bank.

Ryan Jenkins — background and credentials

Jenkins was accepted after submitting documentation claiming a net worth of $2.5 million. On the show he described himself as an investment banker from Calgary, a characterization few took seriously. His résumé listed him as president of Townscape Developments Inc., a Calgary residential infill company founded by his father Dan Jenkins, and as an investment sales associate at Concrete Equities Inc., a Calgary real estate investment firm. Townscape had been inactive since 2008. Concrete Equities was later found by the Alberta Securities Commission to have operated as an unregistered securities dealer that illegally raised $118 million from about 3,700 investors before entering receivership in June 2009. Dan Jenkins was present at the taping of Episode 9 when Ryan was eliminated. Dan Jenkins had been publicly identified as developer, president and architect of Oceano Village, a resort development in Roatan, Honduras, marketed through an anonymous Honduran bearer share corporation with a promised key handover date of June 2008 that passed without delivery. The source of Ryan's claimed net worth was tied to his father's shell company Townscape Developments Inc., with Ryan acting as its president from 2001 to 2008.

Cancellation

On August 20, 2009, shortly after the third episode aired, an arrest warrant was issued for Ryan Jenkins as a suspect in the murder of his wife, Jasmine Fiore, a 28-year-old swimsuit model. Her body had been found five days earlier in a suitcase near a dumpster in Buena Park, California. Jenkins had met Fiore shortly after being eliminated from the show and married her soon after. On August 19, VH1 placed the series on indefinite hiatus out of respect for Fiore's family. The network released an official statement and removed all mentions of the program from VH1.com, as well as from iTunes and cable video on demand. It emerged that Jenkins had been convicted in 2007 for assaulting a woman in Calgary, which had not been disclosed to VH1 or 51 Minds. 51 Minds stated that had it known, Jenkins would never have been allowed on the show. On August 20, Jenkins was formally charged with Fiore's murder, and VH1 canceled the show a day later. Jenkins was found dead on August 23 in Hope, British Columbia, Canada, reportedly having hanged himself. The next day, VH1 formally announced the cancellation and also announced that the third season of I Love Money, on which Jenkins was a contestant and grand prize winner, would not air. VH1 had hired Collective Intelligence for background checks; the firm outsourced Jenkins's vetting to Straightline International. Collective Intelligence later sued Straightline for breach of contract, alleging Straightline falsely reported a clean record and failed to check the RCMP criminal database. Straightline paid $810,000 to settle the suit.

Footage suppression

Of the ten episodes of Megan Wants a Millionaire, only episodes 4 and 5 have ever been made public, uploaded to YouTube in 2020. The remaining six episodes, including episode 9—a standard family visit episode—have never been released. That episode featured Ryan Jenkins’s father, Dan Jenkins, who signed a talent release form that remains with 51 Minds or its successors. Questions about the broader withholding of footage from Jenkins-related productions, including I Love Money 3, are covered on the Murder of Jasmine Fiore page. Legal analysts have stated that destroying footage relevant to a federal murder investigation could be obstruction of justice under 18 U.S.C. Section 1512, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.