Every Secret Millionaire Filming Location, Season by Season (US & UK)

Secret Millionaire is unlike most TV shows when it comes to filming locations. There are no sets, no studio stages, and no Canadian cities pretending to be somewhere else. Every single episode was filmed in a real American neighborhood, in a real home, among real people who had no idea a millionaire was living next door.

That is what makes this show special, and it is also why the filming locations matter so much. Each place chosen for the show was selected because it represented a community in genuine need. The show did not fake any of it.

This article covers every filming location used across all three seasons of the American version of Secret Millionaire, which aired first on Fox in 2008 and then on ABC from 2011 to 2013. We also cover the basics of the UK original for context.

What is Secret Millionaire?

Secret Millionaire is a reality TV show where a wealthy person leaves their comfortable life and goes undercover in one of America’s most impoverished communities. They live on a tight budget, usually less than $150 for the entire week, inside modest local housing. They volunteer, work alongside locals, and try to find the most deserving people in the community.

At the end of the episode, the millionaire reveals who they really are and donates at least $100,000 to the people they met. Some episodes saw donations well above that.

The concept originated in the United Kingdom in 2006 on Channel 4, where it ran for ten series until 2012. The American version premiered on Fox on December 3, 2008, and later moved to ABC for Seasons 2 and 3, running until September 8, 2013.

Also Read: Unchosen Filming Locations: Where Was the Netflix Show Filmed?

How the show chose its filming locations?

The production team did not pick pretty or well-known cities. They specifically chose communities that were dealing with poverty, unemployment, crime, or the aftermath of natural disasters. The filming location for each episode was a living, breathing neighborhood with real struggles, not a backdrop.

The millionaires lived in actual local housing, visited real local businesses, and worked with real community organizations. Hidden cameras and a small documentary crew captured everything without tipping off the people they met.

Secret Millionaire Season 1 (Fox, December 2008): All Filming Locations

Season 1 aired on Fox over three weeks in December 2008. It included six episodes, with the first two airing as a two-hour premiere.

Episode 1: Imperial Beach, Southern California

The very first episode set the tone for the entire show. Millionaire Gregory Ruzicka and his son Cole went undercover in Imperial Beach, a coastal city in San Diego County right at the US-Mexico border. At the time, the area was dealing with serious environmental pollution, and the beach there was labeled one of the most polluted in all of America.

This was a striking contrast to what you would normally think of when you hear “Southern California beach.” Imperial Beach is a working-class community, and the episode highlighted how different life there was from the rest of the California coast.

Episode 2: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Todd and Gwen Graves, the founders of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, went undercover in the Baton Rouge area of Louisiana. This was only a few years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region in 2005. Many communities south of Baton Rouge were still struggling to rebuild.

The Graves donated $300,000, one of the largest individual episode donations in the show’s history. The episode highlighted just how hard the hurricane had hit the area and how much work was still being done years later.

Also Read: Where Was Practical Magic 2 Filmed? Every Location Explained

Episode 4: Tenderloin, San Francisco, California

Internet entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal went undercover in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The Tenderloin is one of the most densely populated and economically challenged neighborhoods in the city, sitting right in the middle of one of the wealthiest metro areas in America.

That contrast made for a powerful episode, showing the reality of extreme poverty existing just blocks from some of the richest tech companies in the world.

Episode 6: Las Vegas, Nevada

Gregory Haerr, the CEO of Century Software, spent his week undercover in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most people associate Las Vegas with wealth, entertainment, and excess. But away from the Strip, the city has large areas of significant poverty. The episode gave viewers a look at the Las Vegas that tourists never see.

Season 2 (ABC, March – April 2011): All Filming Locations

Season 2 moved to ABC and aired on Sunday nights from March to April 2011. Viewership was strong, with the premiere drawing over 12 million viewers. All six episodes were directed by Bruce Ready.

Knoxville, Tennessee

Dani Johnson went to Knoxville, making it one of the most emotional episodes of the season. Johnson had once been homeless herself before building her fortune, so she had a personal connection to what the people there were going through. The episode drew the season’s biggest audience at 12.61 million viewers.

Detroit, Michigan

Real estate investor Marc Paskin spent a week in Detroit, a city that was in the middle of a major economic decline at the time. Detroit had lost hundreds of thousands of residents and jobs over the previous decade. The episode showed the human cost of that collapse on a very personal level.

Gary, Indiana

Motivational speaker James Malinchak went undercover in Gary, Indiana, a small steel mill city that had been hit hard by the decline of American manufacturing. Gary was once a thriving industrial hub. By 2011, it was one of the most economically depressed cities in the country. Malinchak, who grew up in a small steel town himself, connected deeply with the community there.

Los Angeles, California

John Ferber went undercover in one of the most economically divided cities in America. He lived on welfare-level wages in Los Angeles, experiencing firsthand how difficult life is for low-income residents in one of the most expensive cities in the country.

Houston, Texas

Gary and Diane Heavin, the founders of the Curves fitness chain, spent a week in Houston. They found three separate organizations in the city that they felt deserved donations, spreading their money across multiple groups in the community.

Venice Beach, California

Entrepreneur Ali Brown spent her week volunteering and living among the homeless community in Venice Beach. Venice Beach has long been known as a place where homelessness is highly visible, and the episode showed the real stories behind the people living on those streets.

Also Read: Where Was Netflix’s Apex Filmed? Every Real Location Behind the Charlize Theron Thriller

Season 3 (ABC, June 2012–September 2013): All 13 Filming Locations

Season 3 was the longest, running for 13 episodes across more than a year on ABC. Blair Underwood served as narrator for this season.

Newark, New Jersey

Artist Scott Jacobs and his daughter Alexa opened Season 3 with a trip to Newark, one of New Jersey’s largest and most economically challenged cities. Newark has a long history of urban poverty and a community that has worked hard to rebuild and revitalize over the decades.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The founders of Anytime Fitness, Chuck Runyon and Dave Mortensen, went undercover in Oklahoma City. This episode highlighted the struggles of working-class families in Middle America, away from the coastal cities that TV usually focuses on.

Chicago, Illinois

Author Steve Kaplan spent a week in Chicago, a city known for dramatic contrasts between its wealthy neighborhoods and some of the most economically struggling areas in the country. The Chicago episode gave the show a big-city feel with very real stories behind it.

Long Beach, California

Everloop CEO Hilary Decesare went to Long Beach, a port city south of Los Angeles. Long Beach has a diverse population and several neighborhoods dealing with economic hardship. The episode focused on community organizations working to help residents there.

San Antonio, Texas

Self-made millionaire Jeff Usner headed to an impoverished area of San Antonio, the second-largest city in Texas. The city has a large working-class population and many neighborhoods that receive very little attention from the media or government.

Miami, Florida

Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis returned to his hometown of Miami for this episode. The personal connection made it one of the most emotional of the season. Miami has stark economic divides, and Lemonis knew the community well. This is the same Marcus Lemonis who later became famous for the CNBC show The Profit.

Brooklyn, New York City

Sean Belnick, the founder of BizChair.com who built his business as a teenager, went undercover in Brooklyn. At the time, Brooklyn was undergoing major changes, but many of its older communities were still dealing with serious poverty and lack of resources.

Baltimore, Maryland

Anne Beiler, the founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, spent her week in Baltimore. She worked with grassroots organizations in the city, which is known for having some of the toughest economic conditions on the East Coast.

Phoenix, Arizona

BDA CEO Jay Deutsch spent a week in Phoenix, working with community organizations in one of the fastest-growing but also most economically divided cities in the Southwest.

Richmond, California

Debbie Johnston, the owner of health care agency Care Advantage, went to Richmond, California, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area that often gets overlooked by its wealthier neighboring cities. Richmond has faced challenges with poverty and crime for many years.

New Orleans, Louisiana

CyberSynchs CEO Amos Winbush III volunteered in New Orleans, still a powerful location given the city’s long road to recovery after Hurricane Katrina. By 2013, years had passed since the storm, but many communities there were still working to get back on their feet.

Mobile, Alabama

Wahoo’s Fish Taco co-founder Wing Lam traveled to Mobile, Alabama. Mobile is one of the oldest cities in the United States but has long struggled economically. The episode brought attention to a part of the South that rarely gets national television coverage.

Oakridge, Oregon – The Series Finale

The last episode of the entire series took George and Kym Rapier, founders of WellMed Medical Management, to the small town of Oakridge, Oregon. This town in the Willamette Valley had been struggling economically after the decline of its timber industry.

In this finale, the Rapiers donated more than $1 million to the residents of Oakridge, the largest donation in the history of the show. It was a powerful ending for a series that had always put the community first.

All Filming Locations: Complete List by State

About the UK Original: The Secret Millionaire

The American version was based on the British show of the same name, which first aired on Channel 4 on November 29, 2006. The UK version ran for 10 series until 2012.

In the UK show, the format was very similar but the millionaires typically spent 10 days in the community instead of 6. The communities featured were deprived neighborhoods across the UK, including areas of Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, and various cities in Scotland and Wales.

The UK version won the Rose d’Or Award for Best Reality Series in 2007 and was Channel 4’s highest-rated new show in 2006.

Show Facts at a Glance

What made the Locations so important?

Most TV shows pick filming locations for how they look on camera. Secret Millionaire picked them for what was actually happening there.

Imperial Beach was chosen because of its pollution crisis. Detroit was chosen because of its economic collapse. Gary, Indiana, was chosen because of the decline of the steel industry. New Orleans was chosen because of Hurricane Katrina. Oakridge, Oregon, was chosen because of the decline of its timber economy.

Every location told a story that went beyond the show itself. The places featured in Secret Millionaire were real communities dealing with real problems, and the cameras being there gave them a moment of national attention they rarely got anywhere else.

That is what made it one of the more honest reality shows to ever air on American television. It did not travel to beautiful places. It traveled to the places that needed to be seen.

Can you visit the filming locations?

Because this show was filmed in real neighborhoods, all of the communities featured are publicly accessible. They are not estates, private properties, or studio lots. They are actual American cities and towns.

If you are curious about any of these communities, you can visit them the same way you would visit any city. Many of them have active community organizations that were featured in the show and still do meaningful work today.

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Paul Fogarty

Paul is an entertainment news writer and the newest family member of Castalkie who joined in October 2022. His interest is in covering the filming locations of movies and TV shows.

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