The scene took place this week in a US television special called Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?
As in Britain, the success of the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? has changed the landscape of television in the US. And the Fox network's show on Tuesday proved that variations on that theme can reach similar ratings heights.
The two-hour programme featured a parade of would-be brides competing to be chosen by a multi-millionaire, and it culminated in an on-air wedding. Some 22.8m viewers tuned in for the final half hour. This included more than a third of all women under the age of 35 watching TV in the US that night.
The show also provoked widespread revulsion - the kind that apparently helps, not hurts ratings - that women were willing to marry an unknown man on television. The day after, women around the country were discussing the programme animatedly.
Fox's website for the show (whowantstomarry.com) got so many requests from women wanting to be on the next millionaire-marriage edition that the site crashed on Wednesday afternoon.
"It took something like this to make the Miss America pageant look good to me," Patricia Ireland, the president of the National Organisation for Women, said. "At least with the Miss America pageant you get scholarship money and the guarantee of a year-long run. It perpetuates some very limited stereotypes that men are success objects and women are sex objects."
But Mike Darnell, the Fox executive who created the show, defended the concept, saying that he planned to do another show "the other way around", with a female millionaire choosing a husband.
"If you looked at these people at the end of the show, you could tell it was less about the money than it was about the relationship. If they don't get along, it won't work - no matter how much money is involved."
Fox said that a "standard pre-nuptial agreement" covering what happens to the couple's assets in the event of divorce was signed, but it would not specify its contents.
Mr Darnell said more than 1,000 women had signed up for Tuesday's show, a number that was pared down to the 50 contestants in the pageant, which was taped in Las Vegas last week. The format included parades in evening gowns and beach wear, and interview segments in which the women described their backgrounds.
The multi-millionaire, who was shown only in shadow, then pared the group down to 10, with the help of his friends and family. The 10 semi-finalists were further interviewed to bring the number down to five finalists.
The contestants then appeared in wedding gowns. The multi-millionaire made his choice, kneeling to propose. The wedding, conducted by a Nevada judge, followed.
The contestants underwent medical examinations. The winner received - in addition to the husband - a two-week holiday in the Caribbean (the honeymoon), an Isuzu Trooper car and a $35,000 (£22,000) diamond ring.
Mr Darnell said of the happy couple: "They are taking it very slow, trying to find out what their relationship will really be."
The bride was Darva Conger, a 34-year-old nurse from Santa Monica, California. The groom was Rick Rockwell, 42, a property developer who came to California intending to be a stand-up comic. Fox investigated his finances and said he had assets worth many millions of dollars.
Asked why he believed there was such willingness on the part of both single women and a single millionaire to take part in the programme, Mr Darnell said: "Obviously it's hard to meet people."
New York Times
