Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Australian game show):

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is an Australian television game show which currently offers a maximum prize of $5,000,000 for correctly answering 16 successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The show is based on and follows the same general format of the original version of the show from the United Kingdom, and is now part of the international Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.

As of 26 November 2007, there have been 298 episodes, 641 contestants, 6,945 questions and the show has given away $29,205,000 cash.

History

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? debuted in Australia on 18 April 1999 on the Nine Network and was hosted by Eddie McGuire.

Beginning with an eleven question format starting at $1000, this was later changed to 15 and offered a top prize of $1 million. However, in the 2007 revision of the show, the new maximum prize money on offer is $5 million. The show ran in the Monday 8:30 pm time slot between 1999 and 2006 except for a brief two week period in 2004 where a shortened half hour edition was put up against Seven's Deal or No Deal in the 5:30 pm time slot leading into the 6:00 pm evening news.^[2]

This was the very first country to have a fastest finger round where two people answered the fastest at the same time. As a result, another question was asked but neither of them got it right, so another question was asked. The fastest finger later on, instead of giving out one answer, two answers had to be given out to avoid any random guessing from happening. Laster on after that, the contestants playing the fastest finger had to answer all four but in the correct order.

On 9 February 2006, it was announced that McGuire would become the new CEO of the Nine Network,^[3] filling a vacancy created by the departure of David Gyngell in May 2005.^[4] As a result of this, McGuire had to sacrifice his on-air commitments. However, unlike the The AFL Footy Show where McGuire was replaced with Garry Lyon and James Brayshaw, the network could not find a suitable replacement.^[5] The final episode aired on 3 April 2006.^[6]

Return of Millionaire

On 29 January 2007, McGuire returned to the working in front of the camera, hosting the Australian version of the quiz show, 1 vs. 100. This was followed up with McGuire announcing on 18 May 2007 that he would be resigning as CEO of the Nine Network, and would be taking on a new position in programming services, as well as more on-screen roles.^[7] With the resignation officially taking effect on 30 June 2007, McGuire continued hosting 1 vs. 100 until poor rating forced the hiatus of the program in October 2007.^[8]

On 20 August, it was announced that Nine's nightly quiz show Temptation would be rested for the remainder of the year and replaced with nightly half hour editions of Millionaire to be aired between 7:00 and 7:30 pm^[9] However, with the return of David Gyngell to the CEO role in September^[10] he immediately announced that a new version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? would be broadcast live to air from 7:00 pm for 90 minutes on Monday night and that Temptation would be run on Tuesday to Friday nights from 7:00 pm.^[11]

Rule changes

With the program's return comes an additional lifeline which is obtained once a contestant reaches the second safe level of $32,000. The lifeline is called "Switch the Question" (also known as a "Flip"), where the contestant may 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.

The lifeline first appeared in the UK program in a number of celebrity editions, and most recently in its 300th episode in 2002. It is also used the American syndicated version of the program which began in 2004. The idea was taken from the UK show The People Versus.

In the past, contestants that use the phone a friend lifeline had to give out three phone numbers to choose from. However, in some cases, their friends sometimes were ready to look up the answers (such as asking people around for them, or going online for the answers). In the 2007 version, since the show was live, whenever a contestant was in the studio, their three friends would be seated in another studio room (in a Channel 9 studio in their nearby city) and not see or hear any questions or answers. This prevented any unfair advantage as they can watch the show live and look up the answers online.

Also, if McGuire believes the contestant is taking too long to make a decision, the contestant may be put on a shot clock of 60 seconds. If the shot clock expires, the contestant is forced to walk away with their current winnings.

Another notable change is the elimination of the preliminary Fastest Finger First rounds, similar to the syndicated US show. McGuire simply calls out the contestant's name and he or she comes into the set and immediately sits in the hot seat, as opposed to before when 10 contestants had to answer a question correctly in the fastest time to get into the hot seat.

Notable contestants

Celebrities

$1 million winners

$500,000 winners

Some $250,000 winners

DVD

On 27 October 2004, a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? interactive multiplayer DVD game was released.^[14]

References

^ Gordon-Stewart, Samuel (4 April 2006). "Salute To Eddie!". Retrieved on 20 October 2007.
^ Warneke, Ross (2004-06-23). "No big Deal for Nine", The Age. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ Hogan, Jesse (2006-02-09). "McGuire CEO show live on air", The Age. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ "Gyngell resigns from Nine", APP, The Age (2005-05-09). Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ Fidgeon, Robert (2006-04-12). "Millionaire host – you decide", Herald Sun. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ Gibson, Joel (2006-04-04). "No McGuire, no Millionaire", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ Harrison, Dan (2007-05-18). "'I wasn't given the flick'", The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ "Eddie's quiz 'boned' by Nine", The Courier-Mail (2007-09-29). Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ Connolly, Fiona (2007-08-20). "Temptation axed for McGuire", The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ "David Gyngell to run Nine again", The Daily Telegraph (2007-10-25). Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ "Nine boss David Gyngell puts Eddie McGuire to work", Herald Sun (2007-10-05). Retrieved on 22 October 2007.
^ "Our first quiz show millionaire", The Sydney Morning Herald (2005-10-19). Retrieved on 20 October 2007.
^ "Second Aussie 'Millionaire' winner emerges", The Sydney Morning Herald (2005-11-15). Retrieved on 20 October 2007.
^ "DVD details". Sanity. Retrieved on 20 October 2007.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Australian game show)

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