The Will is an American reality television series on CBS that lasted only one episode, shown on Saturday, January 8, 2005. It centered on the "Benefactor", a multi-millionaire from Arizona named Bill Long. Ten of his friends and relatives competed in a series of challenges to win the right to inherit his "prized possession", a huge Kansas ranch.
The show was created by Mike Fleiss, who produced The Bachelor for ABC. The Will is one of only a handful of series in American history to be pulled after one episode.
In the case of The Will, cancellation was due to very low ratings. Despite receiving a heavy promotional push from CBS, the program averaged only 4.2 million viewers during its 8:00-9:30PM ET/PT time slot, which made it CBS's lowest-ranked show of the week. The following Saturday, the network replaced it with a re-run of Cold Case, a crime drama.
The quick cancellation of The Will was lampooned on an episode of the ABC late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a montage of clips from the show, and the message "Will Miss You--January 8, 2005 - January 8, 2005."
Although it was initially reported that the five remaining episodes could appear on an American cable network, they eventually did air on the Fox Reality Channel not long afterwards, and all six episodes aired in New Zealand beginning in December 2005. In the final episode, Long's wife Penny became the overall winner.
Is The Will on Netflix? Unfortunately this serie is not yet available on Netflix.
Title | Air Date | Duration | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Season 1 | Episode 1 | The Estate of Kitty Tipton-Oakes | 2009-12-17 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 2 | The Estate of Joan Crawford | 2010-11-03 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 3 | The Estate of Hank Williams | 2010-11-10 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 4 | The Estate of Wilbur Robinson | 2010-11-17 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 5 | The Estate of Mary Sheehan | 2010-12-01 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 6 | The Estate of Joey Bishop | 2010-12-08 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 7 | The Estate of Peter Dumaine | 2010-12-15 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 8 | The Estate of Doris Duke | 2010-12-22 | 60 min |
Season 1 | Episode 9 | Outrageous Final Wishes | 2011-01-12 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 1 | Outrageous Final Wishes 2 | 2011-10-19 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 2 | The Estate of Howard Hughes | 2011-10-19 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 3 | The Estate of Frankie Lymon | 2011-10-26 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 4 | The Estate of Conway Twitty | 2011-11-02 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 5 | The Estate of Art Hadly | 2011-11-09 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 6 | The Estate of Johnny Taylor | 2011-11-16 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 7 | The Estate of Lillian Garis Booth | 2011-11-30 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 8 | The Estate of Rock Hudson | 2011-12-14 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 9 | Outrageous Final Wishes 3 | 2011-12-21 | 60 min |
Season 2 | Episode 10 | The Estate of Wayne Perry | 2011-12-28 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 1 | The Estate of Tammy Wynette | 2012-10-18 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 2 | The Estate of Ritchie Valens | 2012-10-25 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 3 | The Estate of Ted Williams | 2012-11-01 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 4 | The Estate of Andy Warhol | 2012-11-08 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 5 | The Estate of Etta James | 2012-11-15 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 6 | The Estate of LaTanya Haggerty | 2012-11-29 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 7 | The Estate of Robert Johnson | 2012-12-06 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 8 | The Estate of Steig Larsson | 2012-12-13 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 9 | The Estate of Norman Otto Hipel | 2012-12-20 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 10 | The Estate of John Kennedy Toole | 2012-12-27 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 11 | The Estate of James Brown | 2013-01-03 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 12 | The Estate of Jimi Hendrix | 2013-01-10 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 13 | The Estate of Jerry Garcia | 2013-01-17 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 14 | The Estate of Gary Coleman | 2013-01-24 | 60 min |
Season 3 | Episode 15 | The Estate of Brooke Astor | 2013-01-31 | 60 min |