FOX's Next New Millionaire: 'Joe Jr.'?

By Stephen M. Silverman

Thursday February 27, 2003 11:06 AM EST

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They're not quite sure what the new gimmick will be, but FOX executives announced Wednesday that there will be a second edition of "Joe Millionaire."

Fooling the contestants may be a little trickier for the next edition. No air date is set, but FOX Television entertainment chairman Sandy Grushow tells the Associated Press, "It can't be done identically to the first one for all the obvious reasons."

Grushow adds that FOX "has come up with a notion that carries all of the same values forward. We're obviously optimistic that it will perform extremely well when it returns."

Shedding not much further light on the subject, FOX entertainment president Gail Berman told TV critics during a conference call: "I can't go into any detail, (but) we have cracked the way to do it."

The first time around appeared fairly easy. Construction worker Evan Marriott was in charge of convincing a pool of bachelorettes that he was worth $50 million.

On the show's Feb. 17 finale, which attracted 40 million viewers, Marriott picked Zora Andrich, 29, and the truth came out -- as did a surprise $1 million check for the two of them to share.

The episode helped lead FOX to its first-ever victory in a ratings "sweeps" month among viewers aged 18 to 49 -- the demographic advertisers crave.