Hollywood & Crime: The “Megan Wants a Millionaire” Murder

Reality TV has always been an ethical and cultural minefield. How do you create narratively satisfying entertainment from the so-called truth? The business has drastically changed since its impetus, and today’s reality television is almost as brazenly artificial as daytime soap operas, something audiences seem to have embraced wholeheartedly. The wild west of the early 2000s feels like an entire lifetime ago. So, let’s go back to 2009 and look at the story of a dating show, a fake rich guy, and the murder that changed the entire genre.

Megan Hauserman was a model who had posed for trading cards and Playboy's website. She landed her first major reality TV role with the third season of Beauty and the Geek, a WB show billed as "the ultimate social experiment" that was mostly an excuse to laugh at hot "bimbo" women and dorky dudes. It was about as interesting as that sounds. Megan was paired up with Alan "Scooter" Zackheim and they ended up winning $250,000.

The following year, Hauserman got the call from VH1 to appear on the second season of Rock of Love, a dating show where women competed for the, uh, honour of dating Bret Michaels from Poison. In season one, Bret had chosen Jes Rickleff as his beloved, but she then admitted in the reunion episode that she had no romantic feelings for him and he probably should have chosen the runner-up, Heather Chadwell. Megan competed with 19 other women for Bret's love. Her fellow contestants included adult film star Angelique Morgan and Daisy de la Hoya. Megan placed fifth, but she was a memorable contestant thanks to her willingness to be brash and play the game (although she would maintain that her feelings for Michaels were authentic.)

By this point in time, dating shows had become a major part of VH1’s programming slate. Flavor Flav, following an appearance on The Surreal Life, had kicked things off with Flavor of Love, which birthed so many memes, most of them the work of Tiffany “New York” Pollard. Eventually, an entire ecosystem of spin-offs was formed from this show.

Flavor of Love birthed Charm School, wherein various former contestants were put through a shambolic version of etiquette training. Rock of Love got its own Charm School. Pollard earned her own dating series, I Love New York. Real Chance of Love followed brothers Ahmad and Kamal Givens (nicknamed Real and Chance) on their quest for romance after their appearances on I Love New York. Ray J., Brandy's brother and the guy in the Kim Kardashian sex tape, headlined For the Love of Ray J. Daisy de la Hoya had Daisy of Love (a pun that does not work.) Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair followed Frank Maresca, another I Love New York contestant. In that one, all the contestants lived with Frank and his parents in a house close to their real home. Eventually, a bunch of these shows were moulded together into a non-dating competition show titled, fittingly, I Love Money.

Everybody got that?

Megan was on a few of these shows. She turned up for the first season of I Love Money, which saw her quit the competition in the season finale when it was revealed that she would have to face a jury of former contestants. At Charm School, host Sharon Osbourne threw a drink in her face and yanked her hair when Megan made a comment about her career. That mess ended up in court, with Hauserman suing for battery, infliction of emotional distress, and negligence (the case was settled out of court in 2011.)

This era of VH1 (and also MTV post-The Real World, leading into stuff like A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila) birthed the first generation of reality show stars who could make a full-time living from being full-time reality TV contestants. You could go from failing to pull Bret Michaels to starring in the spin-offs and then landing your own headliner show. From that, you could build a solid foundation for work in other areas, usually club appearances and the like.

This is a pretty standard setting for celebrity in 2026. Consider how many Survivor contestants or Real Housewives are on The Traitors U.S. Every season of that show has featured at least one Big Brother, Survivor, or Bachelor/ette figure. It makes sense, as reality TV has grown more constructed and willingly performative, to bring back people who are skilled in that space. You want fun, appropriately staked drama from people who won’t feel burned by the prospect of becoming the villain of the week. Fresh blood can be risky. Someone who is untrained or too “real” can be damaging (hello, Taylor Frankie Paul.)

Nowadays, reality TV is kind of respectable. Critics enjoy talking about Vanderpump Rules and the Bravo-verse. VH1’s reality programming never garnered such earnest enthusiasm. It was there to be laughed at, and its contestants to be treated as fame-hungry losers who didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. Watch The Soup and just listen to how flagrantly Joel McHale talks of the many women in these series as being sluts and bimbos. These were seen as shows that were dumbing down the populace, particularly teenagers, and birthing a whole new Z-List of celebrities that were pointless and talentless. Not that the press was any kinder to the A-Listers. This was the era of Britney’s breakdown, after all.

Hauserman was offered her own reality series, another dating show where 17 men would fight for her love. The catch? They all had to have a net worth that exceeded seven figures. The show would be called Megan Wants a Millionaire, with Hauserman hungry for a future as a trophy wife. Money dictated the challenges. As The Futon Critic wrote at the time, "Megan's millionaire suitors will compete in challenges ranging from going head to head in a high roller Las Vegas tournament to shelling out money in a date auction. Whoever wins the challenge will win a date with Megan. But, it won't just be any date. The millionaires will be given the chance to "upgrade" their date. How about driving Megan to dinner in an Aston Martin, instead of an Escalade? Or why not take a helicopter ride to Catalina Island instead of the ferry? One by one, Megan will eliminate the guys who can't shell out the dough, until the ultimate millionaire is left."

Said, uh, millionaires were pretty paltry figures. One guy was eliminated in the first episode when it was revealed he'd lied about his finances. Another had a sex toy empire (he’s now a crypto bro.) Another is a pro-wrestler who is now a Republican politician in the Arkansas House of Representatives (and, of course, is also super into crypto.) Each man was given a nickname, keeping in line with the VH1 dating show formula. There wasn't much to differentiate Megan Wants a Millionaire from its predecessors. These shows were meant to be somewhat interchangeable, an endless cycle of treachery and schadenfreude. But then there was Ryan Jenkins.

His nickname was the "Smooth Operator". He claimed to be an investment banker with a net worth of around $2.5 million, although nobody seemed to take that number very seriously. He was okay to look at, but no Casanova. Still, his competition was weak on that front, and he was game to be a player on the show. He would eventually come in third place before being plucked out of the crowd by VH1 to join the third season of I Love Money, where his co-stars would include contestants from Rock of Love, Daisy of Love, and I Love New York. Shortly after the completion of filming on Megan Wants a Millionaire, Jenkins met Jasmine Fiore.