{"id":408446,"date":"2026-05-02T14:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408446\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T14:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T14:02:12","slug":"million-dollar-secrets-showrunner-on-crafting-clues-agendas-and-intrigue-mystery-fairness-reality-blurred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/408446\/","title":{"rendered":"Million Dollar Secret\u2019s showrunner on crafting clues, agendas, and \u2018intrigue, mystery, fairness\u2019 \u2013 reality blurred"},"content":{"rendered":"

Netflix\u2019s Million Dollar Secret season two ended with a thrilling final face-off<\/a> that capped a season of dramatic deception and dapper dopiness from host Peter Serafinowicz. <\/p>\n

Some of those lies emerge from clues about the player in possession of the money, and the secret agendas that are assigned to the millionaire (and, only once this season, a player). One of those almost got eventual winner, Nick, eliminated, while another led to the exit of a player, Umeko, who was playing one of the strongest games.<\/p>\n

How exactly did the producers decide what to reveal about players? That\u2019s one of the questions I asked Charles Wachter<\/a>, showrunner and executive producer. If you haven\u2019t already read my pre-season interview with him and EP Glen Hugill<\/a>, do that, as we build on some of those questions here. Or don\u2019t! There isn\u2019t a test afterward.<\/p>\n

Wachter was generous in noting that he\u2019s just one member of a creative team that crafts Million Dollar Secret. Together, they debate and then decide upon clues and secret agendas, ensuring makes these decisions together, and they do so with standards and practices and legal working to make the game as fair as possible\u2014even when the final version may seem differently to us.<\/p>\n

I also talked to Wachter about how the show is filmed, from the schedule to game-free time, like an evening pool party where the players are told no agendas will be completed.<\/p>\n

We also discussed rules for the millionaire\u2019s agendas, if clues are crafted in advance, and who the staff of The Stag actually is (answer: a mix of actual staff members at the hotel and actors hired to do things like serve drinks).<\/p>\n

Read on for all the delightfully nerdy details about how Million Dollar Secret captures its beautiful visuals\u2014and films the entire season in just 13 days.<\/p>\n

This interview has been condensed and edited to clean up human speech.<\/p>\n

\"ACharles Wachter<\/p>\n

Andy Dehnart: Let\u2019s dive right in and talk about the finale and your winner. Obviously, when you set up a game like this, you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. Watching from behind the scenes and seeing Nick go from kind of this shy, quiet persona and at the first table, revealing the first millionaire, all the way to the win\u2014was this a surprise to you?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles Wachter: I think the strategy gets a lot of attention, because people like to game theory themselves, what they would do or wouldn\u2019t do. <\/p>\n

But one of the less-obvious things I\u2019ve seen come into play\u2014and I think Nick\u2019s performance relates to it\u2014is EQ [emotional quotient], knowing how to read the room, and how to operate with different personalities, and when to push and when not to push. <\/p>\n

I think Nick was a strong player from the very beginning. He was observant. And even though he was dominant at times, he was never threatening. I don\u2019t think anybody ever felt threatened by him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Especially in season two, we saw some pretty\u2014I don\u2019t want to say aggressive players, but we saw some players who were very forward with their strategy. And that needs to be mixed with a really keen sense of other people to see how that plays and how it\u2019s playing. Based on who got eliminated when, it was evidence of how well they were able to navigate that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019re ultimately limited to what you can put into episodes. I\u2019m curious if there was anything with Nick\u2019s gameplay\u2014the relationships he had, what you\u2019re talking about there\u2014that you would have loved to have shown us more of but weren\u2019t able to fit.<\/p>\n

When watch [Million Dollar Secret] with my family, I was reminded of this: Everybody has a theory. I don\u2019t mean the audience, I mean the players. Everybody had a strategy going in every day as to what they wanted to do or not to do. And some strategies fell flat, some strategies didn\u2019t play into eliminations, some strategies didn\u2019t make a lot of sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those are the types of things that don\u2019t make the show because they were dead ends, that either generally weren\u2019t entertaining, but more importantly, didn\u2019t turn the worm, didn\u2019t turn the earth, didn\u2019t create new situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we do when we go into edit with our team is identify those kinds of core strategic plays that arc across episodes. Nick had many that didn\u2019t make the show. A lot of the contestants have lines of attack that didn\u2019t necessarily make the edit, primarily because we can\u2019t do fourteen lines of attack, we can\u2019t do 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We picked three to five that really tell the story of why someone went home or why someone is doing well. Sometimes those are relational, sometimes those are strategic, sometimes those are related to the powers they hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But yeah, in terms of Nick in particular, I think when he took down Altie in episode one, we all felt that he had a level of observation and savvy that would go far. You never really know. He barely survived the mid-season with the clothespins and then the theft of the money by Umeko\u2014that was a big save. She sort of saved him by stealing the money in a way, because I don\u2019t know if he would have survived another episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s fun about this show is that the strategy and the gameplay. It\u2019s always turning. No one ever really has their feet under their center of gravity. They\u2019re always kind of sideways, trying to figure out how to survive another day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of Umeko\u2019s stealing the money and that relationship: One of those things I know from our conversation [from before season two] is that\u00a0 you choose people at random, film it, it\u2019s all above board. But it\u2019s one of those things that, watching it, it\u2019s like, Of course his love interest is the one who\u2019s going to do this. People are saying, Oh, this is staged. It was just fixed for Nick to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From a production perspective, when you saw her [name] come up [at the random draw], is it like, we wish it would have been someone else because of their close relationship?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of game show laws, the lawyers watch us. We pull names from hats. There are long lists of behind-the-scenes-type things that go into making sure it\u2019s fair and equitable. And we work hard for it, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to the game and it\u2019s important for our cast to trust us. Because they\u2019re in the weeds too. They know all the pocket rules, and they\u2019ve read the contracts, and they\u2019ve read all the details, so we actually have to be fair to them so they play the game. Because if they feel the finger of the producers too much on the game, it starts to wobble.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think the more sophisticated answer to this question is that these things feed their own oxygen and become their own story, right? <\/p>\n

So Umeko happened to get the offer. The offer happened to target the millionaire\u2014who, by mistake, was too obvious the day before and happened to be her friend, who was kind of cute, and they had a bit of kismet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That led to them pulling a little tighter because he needed an alliance and she needed to protect him, because she figured it was him. So while it\u2019s easy to get to the end of a show and go, Oh, that made a lot of sense; isn\u2019t that convenient that the producers did this?, the truth is that with each added ember on the fire, you slowly start to get a bonfire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are all sorts of embers that fell sideways that didn\u2019t develop. Natalie didn\u2019t survive. Would there have been a showmance with Natalie? There are all sorts of things that didn\u2019t happen. The Nick\/Umeko arc is evidence of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re aware of these things too. They see the kismet, they put fuel on it. There\u2019s safety in context: if everyone has a shared context, it\u2019s a way to be safe. If you know where you stand and everyone\u2019s got a logic and you know everybody\u2019s going after this person, you can hide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, people seek out to create contextual meaning around who deserves to go home or who doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s when it all breaks apart and everyone\u2019s individual\u2014that\u2019s when everyone panics and you start to see the crazy moves that you see from some people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And we\u2019re also seeing the show you\u2019ve put together, so you\u2019re leading us. You don\u2019t want Nick\u2019s win to come out of nowhere. I think it\u2019s interesting when people [say], I knew this would happen! We know because of what has been show\u2014a story that\u2019s being shaped for our benefit.<\/p>\n

Yeah, and I think one reason why people appreciate the show is that this really happened. You could tell they\u2019re really playing this game. And we were in the game with them, creating agendas, creating challenges, creating clues. So we are a part of the game, just behind the scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But they very much were living this experience. I don\u2019t think any of them would watch this and go, that\u2019s not exactly what happened. Then it\u2019s our job to take what really happened, make it entertaining. Package it up with beautiful visuals and shocking reveals, and deciding when to tell you that Umeko was an intelligent analyst: Is it in minute one? Is it in episode two? Or is it right before she starts her work in the game? That\u2019s our storytelling across it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the truth of what happened was Nick survived a series of executions. Daisy flew too close to the sun. Kevin didn\u2019t have enough leverage. All of those things were what really happened, and what makes it really fun to produce. It\u2019s not scripted. We don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win. We didn\u2019t know until Kaleb made his last decision [about] what to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Absolutely, and the drama of those final moments is incredible TV! I was literally on the edge of my seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"YoungNick Pellecchia, Million Dollar Secret season 2\u2019s winner (Image via Netflix)<\/p>\n

You mentioned the secret agendas and clues, and I\u2019d like to dig into that a little bit, in part because of what we talked about earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Umeco\u2019s experience as an intelligence analyst, for example, do the players know that there\u2019s certain biographical information that you will give out as part of clues, so they know to withhold that? Or are you holding biographical information that you are aware they haven\u2019t said to anyone, and then you can use that as a clue knowing that they haven\u2019t revealed it?<\/p>\n

They all came in having watched season one. And they saw Cara dodging Sam\u2019s question about how many sisters she had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So they came in with a very heavy dose of skepticism around what they should be sharing or not sharing, because they saw season one that we would reveal clues about their who they are for real\u2014especially if they haven\u2019t been honest about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think if someone had said, Hey, I\u2019ve got three sisters to 12 people, a clue would never be like, This person has three sisters, whereas that could be a completely reasonable clue for a different millionaire\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think they were savvy to the fact that they had to seem honest. Honesty is a form of currency in a game of trust and information. And so you want to be honest to gain trust. But honesty can really hurt you if you get caught in a lie or if you reveal too much in the face of a clue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a balance they play in terms of what they reveal and what they don\u2019t reveal. Guys like Hunter never reveal that they were a poker player. They tend to err on the side of completely lying. Daisy doesn\u2019t have three kids! She\u2019s got two kids. So that\u2019s the fun of the game: figuring out what\u2019s real and what\u2019s not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just to clarify, are you going into the season with a list of possibilities for each player, or is it something that develops along the way based on what you\u2019re seeing them do and not do?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking [in this interview] now, but I\u2019m very much one of the tips of a very core group of creatives who work on the show. Every day we sit down, and we have to make sure we don\u2019t come up with a clue that completely nukes somebody, but it\u2019s a clue that creates some opportunities for some leads. It maybe narrows the field from 10 to four or from six to three, and gives them something to work off of.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We never really have clues written well in advance, because we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to be said. If somebody reveals everything about themselves in episode one, can we use those as clues? They said all these things, and that\u2019d be unfair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re always balancing the clues based on the immediacy of what happened last night, what happened in the day. We\u2019re trying to create intrigue, mystery, fairness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We run those clues by S&P [standards and practices at Netflix] and legal as well. And we all decide, and work on making sure it\u2019s fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes those meetings take an hour or two. It\u2019s just all of us sitting at craft service around a table, five of us, six of us, just debating. And then eventually, we know. Usually, when all the the heads of [departments], the families, all nod, then we know. We know Brent [Montgomery ] has said yes, and Glenn [Hugill] and myself and Russ [Friedman ] and Amy [Bean] and all the key people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, I appreciated when you and Glenn mentioned that this is something you all really think about, give a lot of weight to, talk about a lot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious, looking back at the season now, is there any clue you thought just maybe went too far, was too narrowing, like giving a birth year [1999] that eliminated all the older players? Or was there anything that\u2019s just like, Yeah, we calibrated that one a little off, and we wouldn\u2019t do that version of it again.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any one clue that we think went too far. I think that there\u2019s a lot of noise. Our fans, when they see a clue, with perfect information of watching the series, like the 1999 clue, they\u2019re like, Oh, it\u2019s too obvious. They forget that the money can move, and that we\u2019ve got new plans for the next episode, et cetera, et cetera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So while clues could seem unfair because they narrow it right down, we\u2019re aware that a money steal is about to happen, potentially, and that we\u2019re not just pinging these three people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In season one, Lauren was crying at the end of episode one, because she does the math and she\u2019s like, Well, there\u2019s only six of us and they\u2019re just and there\u2019s more than six episodes left, so they\u2019re just gonna hunt me down and I can\u2019t win. I think some viewers thought that as well. But they don\u2019t know that we\u2019re going to be offering the power to move money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So I think the short answer is: I don\u2019t think so. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any one clue I would say was unfair. I think there are clues that generate more content and are funner to watch. I like clues that cause people to be forced to lie on the spot, those are my favorite kind of clues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah. I found, for example, the Umeco one was fascinating when\u2014I think it was Daisy who said something about Virginia, and that just seems so random! Like, the government isn\u2019t in Virginia; what are you talking about? But that got momentum anyway, which is wild to see. And [Umeko\u2019s] got to figure her way out of it, if she can.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the really fun parts about the show, too, is when they create an alternate universe around a clue or an agenda, right? They build this whole hill up that has nothing to do with the reality of what\u2019s going on. And then someone\u2019s at the receiving end being like, What are you talking about? I just was talking about ribbons\u2014colored ribbons!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Exactly, yeah. That was an amazing moment as well. For the secret agendas: We hear Peter talk to them about [when they] have to finish it by.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m curious if there\u2019s other rules around them\u2014when they may or may not do them. Is there downtime? Are the challenges usually off-limits?<\/p>\n

We try to keep it organic. We find that the more we set rules\u2014public or even just with the millionaire, the more artificial it gets. And a lot of the creativity about how to achieve an agenda can start to go away if you\u2019re like, You\u2019ve got to do it right now. There\u2019s only one way to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The beach ball one that Umeko had to do, that was very specific to that moment, but it was the second agenda. We like agendas that travel over a half day or a day, primarily, because it gives them an opportunity to strike when it works. They can play the game a bit more than maybe necessarily a really tight kicking clock [wouldn\u2019t allow].<\/p>\n

If we\u2019re going to lunch, and we\u2019re not going to film, or we\u2019ve got to stop down for rules, or travel to a site, we always tell them there\u2019s no agendas happening. The producers who handle our cast and story, they\u2019ll put boundaries on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, to be honest, we want them to sleep. So we\u2019ll say, We\u2019re going to do a pool party tonight. There\u2019ll be no agendas. And so we actually want them to relax and just have a bit of fun and reconnect. So we\u2019ll tell them the game\u2019s off, occasionally, to allow them to be themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AnThe Stag\u2019s swimming pool hosted one of Million Dollar Secret\u2019s the final challenges, and was one of the many stunning visuals (Image via Netflix)<\/p>\n

That makes me think of something I was just wondering about as I was watching: How long did it take to film this season? And are you always operating on like a two- or three-day schedule, from new millionaire to dinner? Or is it varied based on the episode?\u00a0<\/p>\n

No, every episode essentially follows the same process, whether it\u2019s a new millionaire or not. It\u2019s wake up, it\u2019s reality. There\u2019s a new agenda every episode, even if there\u2019s not new millionaires.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We always start with reality [that\u2019s the non-competition, non-vote time of competition shows] into the agenda meeting with Peter while everyone\u2019s in their rooms. And they actually are in their rooms! They\u2019re all on lockdown, essentially, so we can shoot with Peter and they have no idea who\u2019s left their room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then there is an agenda beat, reality beat into the challenge, and then usually we\u2019ll have an overnight, and the next day we\u2019ll have the trophy room. Then we\u2019ll have more reality and then the elim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re essentially, on a typical episode, on a day and a half schedule\u2013which is very tight and challenging. And the first episode, we usually shoot for a day, and then a day and a half, so it\u2019s somewhere between two- and two-and-a-half episodes to get the top of the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I get a lot of flack from our team because I always sneak the top of the series into the end of the rehearsal day, which makes it not a rehearsal day, but it\u2019s a way to get a little bit more firepower into the open for\u00a0 the gala and stuff like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But yeah, essentially, we\u2019re on a day and a half, and it gets a little tricky because we\u2019ll be starting an episode midday, and there\u2019s changes of wardrobes and stuff. So there\u2019s a little bit fiddling we have to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the series, our shoot is about 13 shoot days, roughly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wow, that\u2019s incredible. It seems much longer just because the show breathes a little bit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, we work really hard. A lot of my shows\u2014and this show in particular\u2014there\u2019s a lot of parallel action, photography going on.<\/p>\n

In the old days when we were doing reality, we\u2019d shoot the show and then we\u2019d shoot some B-roll, because we need B-roll. Now, the way I do these shows is I have a team of two or three people. That\u2019s all they do. All that beauty, the getting-readies, all that stuff. That\u2019s their full-time job for two weeks: shoot the most beautiful stuff on the most beautiful lenses, all those lens flares.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our DPs\u2014Shane and Vid [Peter \u2018Vid\u2019 Vidulich] and Fog [Ben \u2018Fog\u2019 Fogarty], that\u2019s the the trio\u2014they\u2019re out there just upgrading, upgrading, upgrading, and shooting the little Netflix plates [that say \u2018a Netflix series\u2019], and stuff like that. That\u2019s all happening simultaneously to all the big shooting and reality and challenges that we have to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So when we see, say, Nick looking out over the water before the dinner, he actually just left his room? \u00a0<\/p>\n

Yeah, we do it every episode\u2014the walks and the looks. So much of the show exists in strategy and in their heads, and you don\u2019t want to just cut across two people talking on the couch and then playing that bite and just using general B-roll, because really they\u2019re talking about their hopes and dreams. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s at stake is a million dollars. This is life-changing money. So being able to step away from the mechanics of the format, into a space more reserved for these more emotional, intellectual thoughts was a big thing that we pushed for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are you doing interviews every episode too? Or is that later?<\/p>\n

No, later it doesn\u2019t really work because they sort of forget\u2014they don\u2019t forget what happened, they forget how they felt. So we\u2019re interviewing constantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, we\u2019re adding an interview room\u2014knock on wood, if we get season three, we\u2019re going to add an interview room or two to get more even more high volume through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We\u2019re pulling them [to] interview constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly. What\u2019s going on? What does that mean? What does that clue mean? They\u2019re our narrators, right? They construct the logic of why they do what they do. And we really need all that interview to make sense of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You mentioned [crew] rehearsals, and there\u2019s a large on-screen staff. Are those actors? Are they your crew members?<\/p>\n

Half of them actually work at The Stag. We actually have a chef who just cooks beautiful food for the cast, for real\u2014they actually eat that. It\u2019s not just for camera. That\u2019s how they eat for two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ch\u00e2teau Okanagan\u2014which is the real name of The Stag\u2014we chose because it came with a staff and a chef, which we thought was really important to create this sense of the value of being the millionaire, and then what it\u2019s like to lose that money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being a millionaire isn\u2019t just having a nice car; it\u2019s having people look after you, it\u2019s people catering to you, which is why we built the staff around Peter. To get the sense of what you could win and what you could lose if you\u2019re the millionaire and you get sent home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We bring in some actors because we have such a long shoot; we can\u2019t just rely on the staff at the chateau. <\/p>\n

And to be honest, we don\u2019t over-direct them. We\u2019re actually just like, Hey, can you go serve drinks? We don\u2019t time it. We\u2019re not a movie where we\u2019re like, All right, go in and we\u2019re going to have a cross shot. We actually just let them do their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They just look after the cast just like their guests. They just ignore the cameras and they serve them drinks and clear their plates and make beds. We\u2019ll pull them for B-roll and we\u2019ll do specialty stuff to kind of give The Stag a bit more of a world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my time. Anything you want to mention that I didn\u2019t ask you about?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nice to get to talk about in-the-weeds of things because there are a lot of really, really talented people who I\u2019m blessed to work with on the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of reality blurred\u2019s content is independently selected, including links to products or services. However, if you buy something after clicking an affiliate link, we may earn a commission. Learn more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s Million Dollar Secret season two ended with a thrilling final face-off that capped a season of dramatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-408446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}