At a time when the economy and the financial stability of the U.S. is reeling from the fallout of the recent housing crisis and downturn on Wall Street, the impoverished and people down on their luck can use all the hope they can get. On December 3 for two-hours beginning at 8pm, Fox is debuting the new inspirational reality series Secret Millionaire, which focuses on a group of individual millionaires from across the country who leave their affluent, luxurious lifestyle to go undercover to experience life in some of the most impoverished communities that need help the most. While meeting, working, and living among those in need, they will ultimately determine who needs help the most and who should receive the leg-up of a lifetime – at least $100,000 of their own money.

At a time when everyone could benefit from seeing "the haves" reach out to help "the have nots", we hopped on the line for a conference call with one of the show's real secret millionaires, Todd Graves, the CEO of the rising chicken finger restaurant chain Raising Caine, and Secret Millionaire executive producer Greg Goldman (Don't Forget the Lyrics, Wife Swap, The Bachelor) to find out what it's like to go undercover to help those in need, how much they can contribute, and why they wanted to be part of Secret Millionaire.

THE DEADBOLT: Todd, how did you get involved with the show? Actually, why did you want to do it?

TODD GRAVES: Well, I got a call from the producers. Actually, I’ve been asked to be on a couple of reality shows before, one being Gilligan’s Island and the other being The Bachelor, but I’m married and I don’t think my wife would appreciate that too much. And I was really interested. Before, other reality shows - it didn’t make sense for me to do and I really didn’t have any kind of interest, but this show was different. It was about philanthropy, and it was about the producer’s vision of having a show that will inspire people to give more, whether that’s money or give more of their time in volunteering to help people in their own community.

I was also very attracted to it because it was something I could do in my area. I’m from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and I had a good understanding it would be somewhere - I didn’t know what community in Louisiana, but I knew it would be somewhere near where I lived in the state that’s my home. The opportunity to go into somewhere undercover, where people don’t know who I am and get to really live with people and work with people and understanding the needs was a big attraction to be able to go in and not have people know who you are and really get to know them. And then see how you can help them in fulfilling their dreams and helping them out.

THE DEADBOLT: What did you go undercover as and how were you introduced to these people?

GRAVES: It was a real neat process. The production company sent about a half dozen people in the community I went into, and I can say it was a community that was devastated by hurricane Katrina. They said, 'We’re going to be doing a documentary on your area. We don’t know if it’s going to make it to television, but we’re trying to, and that we’re going to be telling the story through two people’s eyes that are not from here and that don’t have money and are in between jobs. We’re going to tell the story on that end.' They also told them we were from Virginia. My wife’s family is from Virginia, so if anybody asked we could speak to that.

So people thought we were not from the area and that we were in between jobs and didn’t have money and it really opened them up. There were no preconceived notions of who we were or what we were really doing. The documentary part took away the - when we went there as a 60-person film crew it was the documentary, so the cameras were there and they were really wanting to talk and talk about their community because they needed a lot of help. It went over great. I was a little bit apprehensive about it and them figuring out, and being wary about it, but they weren’t at all.

THE DEADBOLT: When people think of poor areas, they probably take it the wrong way and they think it’s dangerous. What did you have in place to ensure Todd’s safety?

GREG GOLDMAN: Well, there are some areas that, frankly, were pretty dangerous. And there were some real threats and it becomes part of what you see on camera in some of the episodes. There was security that was standing by in the event that anything happened. But obviously they had to be far enough away that no one would suspect or even know they were there because, obviously, the millionaires were going undercover and no one knew who they were. They were intended to be people that were blending into that community. So they had to be far enough away that no one would suspect it. But the millionaires’ safety was definitely taken into account throughout the whole shoot.

THE DEADBOLT: The millionaires will give at least $100,000 of their own money. Now is there a cap on the full amount they can give, or is it just up to them?

GOLDMAN: There’s no cap. It’s completely up to them. Part of what we wanted to do is to make sure that there was going to be some kind of minimal commitment. Most of the millionaires went above and beyond that, were incredibly generous, not only financially but just in terms of spirit and time and services and continuing to return to the communities that they visited. It went above and beyond a one week experience for the cast of this show. It was really - and I can say this as producer of many shows - this was a show that was an incredible, life changing experience for everybody involved in the show. All of the millionaires have said [that] this is just the beginning of the journey of the towns they visited and the people they met and the stories they were inspired by, and that they’re going to continue to keep in touch and give back and make sure that everybody is taken care of. It’s just an incredible journey that we’re all really lucky to be a part of.

GRAVES: And Greg, I can to speak to that. Since the filming of the show we have stayed in weekly contact, whether that’s through the phone or visiting the area again or the people we met visiting us in Baton Rouge. We’ve had over 130 volunteers from my company alone - that have gone down to help the area. When Hurricane Gustav came through, one of the people that we got very close with and that we’ve yet to do, he and his wife came up and stayed with us during the storm for a week. So relationships with the people we met in the community have stayed very, very strong.

THE DEADBOLT: Greg, the first one is in New Orleans. Can you mention other places that you guys go to?

GOLDMAN: Sure. There’s an episode that takes place in the Tenderloin area of San Francisco. There’s another one in Watts. There’s another episode in Las Vegas, an episode in a small mining town of Pennsylvania, and another one in a San Diego border town, right above the border of Mexico.

THE DEADBOLT: You've mentioned that there aren't a lot of hotels or houses down there anymore. Where did you guys stay?

GRAVES: We stayed in a trailer in the campgrounds of the community. So it was an old beat-up trailer and small conditions, I guess, very similar to what a FEMA - it wasn’t a FEMA trailer, but with FEMA trailers where people lived for two and a half years where we were to simulate that. You can do anything for a week, right? It’s like camping. When you really start thinking about it, you visit somebody else and their whole families in one of those after two and a half years you start realizing... how frustrated would I be? How short tempered would I be with my children running around this little tiny environment? There’s nowhere to get outside. There are mosquitoes outside and you’re in a limestone parking lot. It really hit home when you live it. I know it being there, but I have a nice house and we’re able to do things and buy the things we want. Well, living in a FEMA trailer, working to make ends meet to be able to eat, that’s something. You don’t have any indulgences. It’s just been a while since I’ve done that. It really made me reconnect with the reality that other people live that’s been long out of my head.

THE DEADBOLT: Greg, you mentioned that the original show came from Britain and was popular over there. Is there a fear that when it gets popular here it will be harder to go undercover?

GOLDMAN: They had the same fear over there after the first season aired. It was so popular the first season they thought they were going to have a really difficult time in subsequent seasons. There were some additional challenges but they just took different safeguards and approached production in a different way so they could make sure that that did not happen. So far, knock on wood, there has not been an incident of anybody catching on, which is pretty remarkable because the U.K.’s geographically a lot smaller and the population is a lot smaller. So they made it work over there and I feel pretty confident that we can do it over here.