Like NBC's "The Apprentice," ABC's "The Benefactor" features a billionaire presiding over a sea of eager reality show hopefuls, all out to make a buck. ABC, still smarting from FOX's theft of "Wife Swap," hopes that the similarities end there.

Certainly the producers of "The Benefactor" think that the shows will be as different as the billionaires who star in them. They're going to great lengths to prove that eccentric Dallas Mavericks owner and Broadcast.com co-founder Mark Cuban is nothing like NBC's catchphrase wielding mogul Donald Trump.

"If you look at Trump's show, you watch him and you don't see anything there," says Todd Wagner, who partnered with Cuban on Broadcast.com and is now producing "The Benefactor" through their 2929 Entertainment banner. "With Mark, the charisma is part of what comes through in this show. And it's kind of like -- I don't know if anybody watched the ['Apprentice'] finale and you saw the pain of watching Trump read off cue cards? I mean, you see a guy that's tortured in his own life."

On the surface, at least, Cuban is anything but tortured. Best known to the public as one of the NBA's most fined, most volatile, most enthusiastic and most unpredictable owners, Cuban claims that he was actually approached last year about possibly stepping in for Trump on "The Apprentice" at some point down the road. Since "The Benefactor" was already in development at ABC, Cuban tells reporters at the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour that he had to turn down the opportunity.

"I told them, 'Look, you don't come after dogs. You don't come after kids. And you don't come after The Hair,'" Cuban notes.

While his partner is eager to talk trash about The Donald, Cuban refrains, even though his blog has recently contained some inflammatory comments. Instead, he tries to explain how the differences between the men will inform their shows.

"In reality, he's a deal guy. He does deals," Cuban says. "I'm an entrepreneur. The foundation of the show, all the tests, all the challenges, have a foundation in just that, the American spirit, taking something from nothing and creating and making dreams come true."

Certainly it sounds as if "The Benefactor" will offer a more free-flowing, existential version of reality challenges. In one test, for example, Cuban sends the contestants out into Dallas in pairs and their only goal is to make people smile. The groups that make the most people smile get to stay. The group that fails to produce the necessary number of grins is gone. In the cutthroat world of reality television, asking people to go spread happiness seems both tame and ephemeral.

"I wanted to make it clear in everything we did that part of being successful was never forgetting that, you know, money helps, money's important, but being able to wake up in the morning with a smile on your face and being able to go to bed with a smile on your face was just as important, if not more so," Cuban says of his basic ethos.

With an entirely subjective set of rules, the winner on "The Benefactor" will ultimately simply be the person Cuban feels most deserves to win. That person will receive a million dollars, which is a pretty solid prize for making a billionaire like you for a couple weeks.

At a press tour session over the weekend, Trump bluntly described how his life has changed since "The Apprentice" premiered.

"Look, I thought I was the biggest star before, but now I'm bigger," Trump declared.

Cuban eschews that kind of swagger.

"I don't need my stature enhanced," he says. "It's not going to win me a trophy in the NBA. It's not going to make me jump any higher or run any faster. And unlike some people, I'm not going out there trying to make my next nickel. I'm thrilled to death with my life and it's about the experiences."