LAST EDITED ON 07-14-03 AT 06:58 PM (EST)

Long-time TV critic Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times says lump sum was $465k... and I'll believe Phil over the NY Post any day (and that's not just because he had good things to say about us in the past!)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/rosenthal/cst-ftr-phil14a.html

And listen to NBC try and weasel off the hook about how cheap they are:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/6279598.htm

Eagle-eyed readers of closing-credit fine print Monday, when the series concluded, noticed that program rules state the cash prize ``is payable in a financial annuity based over 40 years, or the contestant may choose to receive the present cash value of the foregoing annuity.''

In other words, the winning contestant, Erin Brodie, would have been paid $25,000 a year through 2042 or received a considerably smaller sum, the same sort of payout offered California lottery winners, although the state's payment is spread over just 20 years.

Brodie, 31, instead chose to star in a sequel that begins airing next week, For Love or Money 2, offering her the chance to double her money and claim $2 million -- although, as has been established, it actually would be markedly less than that, unless she wants to wait until she is a septuagenarian to receive it, if she wins.

Representatives at other networks say such a payment system is at best unusual. The couple who emerged at the end of Fox's Joe Millionaire, for example, received a $1 million lump-sum payment. CBS shows such as Survivor and Big Brother also pay their winners just once.

An NBC spokeswoman said the credits accurately describe how the prize is paid and that participants were informed. ``Our understanding is that other prizes, including some state lotteries, are paid out in similar fashion,'' the network said. The program's producer, Bruce Nash, declined to comment.

-SB