Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show)

In the United States, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (also known simply as Millionaire) is a television game show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million dollars for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The show is based on the format of the original British version, and follows the same general format (see Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?).

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire debuted in the United States on August 16, 1999 on the ABC television network, and was hosted by Regis Philbin. The first contestant was David Korotkin, who won States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*1,000.

The network version, whose episodes were originally shown just a day after their taping in New York, became explosively popular in 1999, and at its peak was airing in prime time four nights a week on ABC. The show was popular enough to find rival networks creating or reincarnating game shows of their own, and created a brief renaissance of sorts for United States based game shows as well as a flurry of American versions of UK originals such as The Weakest Link.

ABC used Who Wants to be a Millionaire in so many prime time slots that when the show's popularity faded by the fall of 2001, it was left with a dearth of original programs. ABC's overall Nielsen Ratings suffered as a result of the show's decline in popularity. But ABC's sister company, Buena Vista Television, revived the show as a daily syndicated offering with Meredith Vieira. This version, also taped in New York, is currently in its fourth season, and has already earned Vieira an Emmy for best game show host.

Specific U.S. format

Before the million dollar question, past millionaires sit in the audience and get interviewed by the presenter to give advice on the best way to face the final question. If the person wins the million dollars, confetti (in the color of gold squares) comes down from the studio ceiling. At the bottom of the screen; the person's name comes up on the screen labeled "millionaire." Sometimes the host does a small follow-up with the contestant and guest, if applicable. Afterwards, the game continues normally, except with confetti remaining on the floor.

The show has had various special editions such as: Celebrity Edition (where winnings go to a charity), Champions Edition (where big winners come back and split their winnings with a charity), and Family Edition where, for example, a father may be with his son who face the questions together. Also notable is an edition aired in February 2001 in which H&R Block calculated the taxes of winnings so the contestants could earn their stated winnings after taxes, called Tax-Free Edition. In recent years, special contestant episodes such as Play to Pay for Your Wedding Edition (featuring engaged couples), College Edition (featuring undergraduate college students), Teacher Edition (featuring schoolteachers), and Walk In & Win Edition (featuring audience members who haven't taken the audition test) have aired annually.

Themed question shows featuring questions concerning professional football (Super Bowl Edition), celebrity gossip (Celebrity Scoop Edition), and the movies (Netflix Million Dollar Movie Edition; Academy Awards Edition) have aired on occasion as well.

The prime time show began as a half-hour show aired over several consecutive nights, but was made into a multi-weekly hour-long show when it was added permanently to the schedule in January 2000, allowing more Fastest Finger contestants to reach the Hot Seat in each episode. In special events it may be extended from half an hour to an hour. Episodes of the syndicated show run 30 minutes in length every weekday.

Rule changes

By January 2001, the U.S. edition of the show struggled from not having a States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*1 million winner for over five months, so producers instituted a one-time "skins game" type bonus of $10,000 per episode retroactive from the last episode the top prize was awarded. The bonus started at $1,710,000 and increasing by $10,000 in the next hour show that was not won. With this bonus instituted, the top prize grew to $2 million (over 100 shows), making the first attempt at the million dollar question (by Gary Gambino in February 2001) actually worth twice its value. Eventually, the bonus grew to $2.18 million, when Kevin Olmstead won the eventual prize on April 10, 2001. However, two such prizes were awarded due to a questioning error during the time the bonus was in place. Ed Toutant was called back after the aforementioned error, when the bonus was at $860,000 on January 31, 2001. When he continued in an episode not aired until September 7, 2001, he also answered all 15 of his questions correctly, and was given $1 million and the $860,000 bonus. It has not been reinstituted since.

In 2001, contestants (from previous primetime episodes) who missed a question in the first tier and left with no winnings were invited back for a special edition of "Millionaire". This was repeated in 2003 for contestants from the first season of the syndicated program.

In the 2004-2005 season of the syndicated program, the format of the game was changed in the United States edition. The $32,000 lock-in was decreased to $25,000, and the prize pattern changed to $50,000 (down from $64,000); $100,000 (down from $125,000); $250,000. This is meant to encourage contestants to continue playing.

Also, after reaching the $25,000 level, contestants are given a new lifeline, Switch the Question (also known as a Flip), which appeared in the UK program in a number of celebrity editions, and most recently in its 300th episode in 2002, which was broadcast live to mark that landmark. The idea seemed to have been taken from the UK show The People Versus, also produced by Celador. It allows them to dismiss the current question, see the answer, and to play a new one worth the same dollar amount. However, they will not have any lifelines used on the discarded question returned to them.

Finally, the Ask the Audience lifeline has been expanded. Instead of just the studio audience giving answers, users of the AOL Instant Messenger (sometimes referred to as AIM) can participate too. If they have asked the screenname MillionaireIM to allow his or her participation, then they will receive an instant message if a contestant uses his or her Ask the Audience lifeline. The message will contain the question, and four possible answers, and they will send their answer back. This is the first time in history that the public has been able to interact with a game show while it is being taped. When the tape is shown, the results of the poll will first show the studio audience's response, then the IM users' response. The AIM side of the lifeline has failed to work at times. In these instances, the game show's policy is to allow the contestant to only rely on the studio audience's response.

In 2003, officials announced on the U.S. version the $500,000 and $1 million bonuses would be paid by an annuity.

Popularity

The show initially drew in up to 30 million viewers a day three times a week, an unheard-of number in modern network television. In the 1999-2000 season, it averaged #1 in the ratings against all other television shows. The next year, it also frequently placed within the top three or top five programs. The show was immensely popular in that one could qualify for the show by competing in a telephone contest with hopefuls across the country by dialing a toll free number and answering three questions by putting things or events in order by using your telephone keypad. The 10,000-20,000 people who answered all three questions correctly were entered into a random drawing in which approximately 300 people would compete for 10 spots on the show using the same phone quiz method. Using this method, most of the contestants winning spots on the show were middle-aged white males. Women represented about 10-15% of the contestants and black contestants were virtually non-existent. Only one African-American player in almost a thousand contestants ever made it to the famed hot seat in the year and a half that this contestant selection process was used. People came up with unproven theories on why women had a hard time making the cut, from their "long fingernails" making it difficult to compete with men on phone contests, to men's experience with video game joysticks giving them a competitive advantage. In the syndicated version, however, without the Fastest Finger, women enter the hotseat as frequently as men.

Episodes of the ABC version have been rerun on GSN since September 2003. Prime time Who Wants to be a Millionaire is still the highest-rated program on GSN.

Spin-offs

Celebrity versions

The show began to dabble in celebrity versions of the game in mid-2000, at the height of its popularity. The first version featured stars such as Drew Carey, Rosie O'Donnell, Sean "Puffy" Combs, Ray Romano, Gene Simmons of the rock band KISS, and Lance Bass of 'N Sync. Talk-show host/actress Ricki Lake's father, Barry, also appeared on the program. The show was a huge hit in the ratings, and since they were playing for charity, and for fear that celebrities would be too embarrassed to miss an early question, all players were allowed to receive help from their fellow players to attain the States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*32,000 level, resulting in some humorous exchanges when a celebrity player got stumped. However, this quickly got old, as ABC started to rely heavily on celebrity episodes to the point where the network resorted to "B-List" celebrities, further annoying the show's hardcore fans, who complained that these minor public figures were taking up spots in the hot seat that they were trying to win for themselves.

By the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks most of the celebrity episodes had already been aired two or even three times. The network had to resort again to celebrity show repeats due to difficulties in air travel when the network finally got around to inviting regular people on the show again. The excessive use of the celebrity format is blamed for the cancellation of the prime time show in 2002.

It was announced in 2005 that the syndicated show would bring back celebrities for a special edition to air in November 2005, but the show did not air at that time and has not yet aired.

Syndication

In 2002, Disney's Buena Vista Television started selling a new version of the show for daily syndication, with a new host, Meredith Vieira. It was initially proposed and developed under the assumption that the prime time show would still be airing on ABC, but the prime time show was cancelled a few months before the syndicated show premiered. The syndicated version does not include the Fastest Finger competition; contestants are brought out individually during each half-hour show after passing contestant auditions, which are similar to most game show auditions.

As of September 2004, questions 10, 11, and 12 have decreased to $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000, in order for the show to add an additional lifeline, Switch the Question, once a player reaches the $25,000 level.

Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire

In February 2004, Regis Philbin returned to ABC for five episodes of Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire (aka Super Millionaire), which offered a States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*10,000,000 top prize; the series returned for seven additional episodes in May. The series may return again in 2006, however it seems unlikely, as ABC has removed all Millionaire references from its website, and the deadline to renew the contract draws near; in all likelihood, it may expire altogether. The $10,000,000 prize offered by Who Wants to Be a Super Millionaire is the largest prize offered by any game show worldwide, although unlike in the original program, the top prize is not paid in one lump sum but paid over 20 years.

Two new lifelines were added in Super Millionaire: Three Wise Men and Double Dip. However, those could only be used after a contestant reached the $100,000 mark. Three Wise Men consisted of the contestant asking a panel of experts a question. The panel would then have 30 seconds to come up with the answer. The panel was kept in darkness until the player made it up to $100,000. If no player had made it up to that level within the hour show, the Three Wise Men would be revealed to the audience to see who they were. The Double Dip lifeline was a chance to guess at a question twice (meaning that if the player got a wrong answer in his first attempt, he had another chance to find the right one). Once a player chose to Double Dip, he could not back out of answering the question. An incorrect guess on the first try did not cost the player any money, but if he got it wrong again, he'd go back to the $100,000 level.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It!

A version of this game named Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! is an attraction at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida and was formerly an attraction at Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, California. The game is very similar to the television version. On each question, the audience, using a keypad attached to the back of the seat in front, chooses A, B, C, or D. When a contestant chooses to stop playing, the next contestant is picked from the audience member who answered the most questions correctly and most quickly. This version is not played for cash. For every question answered correctly, the contestant receives a pin, and after reaching the "safe havens", a baseball cap and polo shirt. The top prize is a three-night cruise for four aboard the Disney Cruise Line. The Orlando version of the attraction will close in August 2006.

Million winners

Winners of the major prize:

John Carpenter, 19 November 1999
Dan Blonsky, 18 January 2000
Joe Trela, 23 March 2000
Bob House, 13 June 2000
Kim Hunt, 06 July 2000
David Goodman, 11 July 2000
Kevin Olmstead, ($2.18 Million) 10 April 2001
Bernie Cullen, 15 April 2001
Ed Toutant, ($1.86 Million) 07 September 2001
Kevin Smith (First winner of the syndicated version.), 18 February 2003
Nancy Christy (First and only woman, to date, to win the million dollars in the U.S. version.), 8 May 2003

In addition, Robert Essig won States dollar|$" target="_blank" >^*1,000,000 on Super Millionaire on 23 February 2004, but didn't win the top prize of $10,000,000.

Trivia

In The Simpsons, a show simliar to this was Me Wantee. The game contestant was Moe Szyslak.

External links

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