NEWSOK! Exclusive: Money From Strangers' Jeff Dye on Getting Rejected, Hanging With Teen Moms And Why He'd "Never Win" His Own Show
Don't lie: sometimes, when you stumble upon MTV late at night, you watch 10 episodes of Money From Strangers in a row. True story? The hidden camera show, where host Jeff Dye approaches strangers on the street and offers them $1,000 to do embarrassing things in public, returns tonight with season 2, but it's even bigger and better this time around. See what Jeff told me about how often he gets rejected by random New Yorkers, secrets and tricks that go into filming the show and which Teen Mom he'd want to get on the show with him. Well, fine, I kinda had to help him out with that last one...
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OK!: Hi Jeff! You’re in Chicago, right?
Jeff Dye: Yep, I just woke up. It's 4 pm. I like to sleep in, you know what I'm saying?
OK!: Totally get it. So congrats on season 2! How are the challenges going to be different this time around?
JD: We just went bigger and edgier this year, which was a natural progression with us because when we first started the show, anything was crazy to us. But then we got a little more jaded and by season 2 it took more for us to think it was crazy so we naturally started bigger.
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OK!: When you approach someone on the street to participate, what’s the percentage of yes to no?
JD: For every person that says yes, I’d guesstimate that 500 people say no. I get rejected before 9am more than most people get rejected in their lifetime. There’s no mic or cameras so people don't know it’s a show. I just literally look like some moron on the street trying to get someone to do something they don’t want to do so it takes a long time. Sometimes you see me say, "Hey there’s a hidden camera over there!" because I’m just so exhausted of people not believing it’s a show.
OK!: But did you find that a lot of people recognized you from season 1?
JD: Absolutely. We had that a few times, but for some reason people weren’t eligible. The more people that were like, "Hey I know you you’re from that show" were either younger kids we couldn’t use because they weren’t 18 or people from different countries that, I’m not sure where our show airs, but they’ve seen it but weren’t eligible.
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OK!: If you were approached by you, would you do it? Would you win?
JD: I always think about this. I think I’d do everything from the first challenge to the end of the $100 challenges. Then after that there’s certain things that I’m like, "Oh my gosh I’d never do that," which is great because I’m in a van blocks away. I’d be a decent competitor on the show but I’d never win.
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OK!: How do you find your locations? Do you just go to random delis in NYC and say like, "Oh, this place looks cool."
JD: I don't know if I’m allowed to say that, but...we talk to the owner ahead of time but he doesn’t tell any of his employees or anything. If we suspect that they’ve somehow found out that this is a show then we don’t use it and we also kick the person out immediately and don’t waste our time. But we have location scouts that go and contact the owners and ask if they want to be on it. The only person in on it is the person who isn’t there who owns the place.
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OK!: When this is all happening you are in a van egging the person on into their earpiece. Is there another celebrity you’d like to have in the van with you?
JD: I’d like to get more people like Jenni and Nicole from Jersey Shore in the van. People have reached out to me like Judah Freidlander from 30 Rock, he personally reached out to me because he wanted to be on the show but we were already done taping. There are a ton of real funny, goofball people who I’d love to have on the show. Let’s reach out to them.
OK!: Any other MTV stars you'd love to see? I feel like the Teen Moms would be hilarious.
JD: I would like to say I’m familiar with the Teen Moms, but I don’t really know any of them. Do you have one you could recommend?
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OK!: I mean, I’d love to see Jenelle Evans. She’d be amazing.
JD: Let’s get her in the van. I don’t know who she is. I’ll get a sitter and then she can come be on the show if she wants.
OK!: Thank you! I'm excited to see that happen. You can go back to your nap now.
JD: I don’t need no nap, baby! I’m up for the day. I slept till 4. I’m good to go.
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Money With Strangers premieres tonight at 11pm on MTV! Are you excited for season 2? What celebs do you want to see perform these tasks? Tweet us @OKMagazine!
