How Much Do You Know About "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"?

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: A Long-Running American TV Game Show

• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is an American television game show adapted from the British program of the same name.

• The game features a quiz competition where contestants try to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering multiple-choice questions.

• The original U.S. version premiered in August 1999 on ABC, with Regis Philbin as the host.

• The show has had numerous format and gameplay changes over its runtime.

• A daily version of Millionaire produced for syndication began airing in September 2002 and was initially hosted by Meredith Vieira.

• Chris Harrison was the final host of the syndicated series, which ended in 2019.

• In January 2020, ABC renewed the show for a twenty-first season, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

• Over the course of the program's history, twelve contestants answered all fifteen questions correctly and won the top prize.

• The show made television history as the first U.S. network game show to offer a million-dollar top prize.

• The U.S. Millionaire won seven Daytime Emmy Awards, and TV Guide ranked it No. 6 in its 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time.

• The show has had several hosts, including Regis Philbin, Meredith Vieira, Cedric the Entertainer, Terry Crews, and Chris Harrison.

• The original executive producers of the U.S. Millionaire were Michael Davies and Paul Smith.Production and Audition Process for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire US

• The US version of Millionaire was a co-production of 2waytraffic and Valleycrest Productions.

• The show was distributed by Valleycrest's corporate sibling Disney-ABC Home Entertainment & Television Distribution.

• The show was taped at ABC's Television Center East studio on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York from 1999 to 2012.

• Tapings were moved to NEP Broadcasting's Metropolis Studios in East Harlem in 2013.

• Production moved to the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford, Connecticut, in 2014.

• In 2016, production relocated to Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

• The original prime time version had contestants compete in a telephone contest, which had them dial a toll-free number and answer three questions by putting objects or events in order.

• The syndicated version's potential contestants were required to pass an electronically scored test comprising a set of thirty questions.

• Contestants who passed were interviewed for an audition by the production staff.

• The U.S. Millionaire's basic set was a direct adaptation of the British version's set design, which was conceived by Andy Walmsley.

• The lighting system was programmed to darken the set as the contestant progressed further into the game.

• The Hot Seats and corresponding monitors were replaced with a single podium when the shuffle format was introduced.The Rise and Fall of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and Its Syndication

• "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" was launched by ABC as a half-hour primetime program on August 16, 1999 and became the first U.S. network game show to offer a million-dollar top prize to contestants.

• The program reached an audience of 15 million viewers by the end of the show's first week on the air and expanded to an hour-long format when it returned in November.

• The show was so popular during its original primetime run that it aired on ABC five nights a week and rival networks created or re-incarnated game shows of their own.

• The nighttime version initially drew up to 30 million viewers a day three times a week, and in the 1999–2000 season, it averaged No. 1 in the ratings against all other television shows.

• However, the show's ratings began to fall during the 2000–01 season, and ABC's reliance on the show's popularity led the network to fall quickly from its former spot as the nation's most watched network.

• The primetime show was eventually canceled, with its final episode airing on June 27, 2002.

• A half-hour daily syndicated version of the show was launched in 2002, with enough stations signed on for a fall 2002 launch.

• The syndicated series initially struggled with ratings, and some stations began to look for other options to place in the slots where they had initially plugged Millionaire.

• Millionaire was eventually picked up by ABC-owned stations and remained part of the station's daytime lineup for the rest of its run.

• Despite its renewal, many stations airing Millionaire added the talk show FABLife for 2015, and when FABlife failed to gain an audience and was canceled at midseason, Millionaire was able to return to many of its former airing times for 2016.

• The show was renewed through the 2018–19 season but was canceled on May 31, 2019.

• In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, many stations airing the rerun package of Cops were offered reruns from the final season of the syndicated version of Millionaire as a replacement.Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: A Look Back and Forward

• Guests played one question for a chance at $50,000 for a charity of their choice, with the option to use four lifelines, but still earned a minimum of $25,000 for the charity if they answered the question incorrectly.

• Nik Bonaddio won $100,000 with the help of the audience and his expert, Gwen Ifill, before using the proceeds to start the sports analytics firm numberFire.

• Ken Basin became the first contestant to play a $1,000,000 question in the "clock format" and lost $475,000 after asking the audience, but still became the first contestant to answer a $1,000,000 question incorrectly.

• A tournament was conducted in fall 2009 to find a third million-dollar winner, with the winner being Sam Murray.

• The 2020 reboot featured celebrity guests and a new lifeline, "Ask the Host," and was produced by Jimmy Kimmel, who was also the host.

• The second season of the reboot featured both celebrity contestants playing for charity and "frontline heroes" playing for the $1,000,000 prize.

• The U.S. Millionaire broke new ground for game shows, revolutionized the look and feel of game shows, and is one of the most popular game shows in U.S. television history.

• The show made catchphrases out of various lines used on the show, including "Is that your final answer?" and "Watch yo' wallet!"

• The original primetime version of the U.S. Millionaire won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game/Audience Participation Show in 2000 and 2001.

• Merchandise, including board games and video games, has been released throughout the course of the show's U.S. history.

• The attraction Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It! was an attraction at the Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and at the Disney California Adventure park in Anaheim, California.

• The ABC launched a streaming channel consisting of episodes from the 2020 reboot on January 23, 2023, exclusively on the ABC app and ABC.com.