Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

[JayC]

The move to 8pm Thursday definitely helped the ratings -- Millionaire rose to 6.22 according to Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/parks-rec-young-sheldon-tv-ratings-thursday-april-30-2020-1292806

[Trevor Tuominen]

I’m thankful for that. I expected ratings to go down due to the Glazer fiasco.

[Grand_game2004]

so what's different about this new version of WWTBAM?

[imhomerjay]

I’m thankful for that. I expected ratings to go down due to the Glazer fiasco.

It’s really not a fiasco because most people really don’t over analyze that kind of thing. It’s essentially only something a small group cared about.

[JayC]

so what's different about this new version of WWTBAM?

Same money scale as the original primetime version, gameplay is basically the same. The biggest difference is there is no audience so no Ask the Audience lifeline, it is replaced by Ask the Host. It's also celebrity contestants only, and they have a guest with them to help them with the first ten questions. After the first ten, their guest can help them with one more question if they swap him/her for an available lifeline.

[Mr. Weatherman]

‘Ask the Host’ is taking the place of ‘Ask the Audience’ in lieu of there being no audience; however, the UK offers the lifeline as a fourth option in addition to the standard three (with the audience present, obviously).  If I was a betting man, I would say future iterations that do feature an audience, regardless of celebrity or non-celebrity contestants, will still retain ‘Ask the Host’ as a fourth lifeline, just as the UK has done.  I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me given how extensively this version is borrowing from the UK reboot.

/side note: I’ve added a ‘?’ to the thread title since it should technically be there 🤓

[Reloaden]

Everything is pretty much the same as the Uk Version.

I hope the show returns with cillvillan contestants, The celebrity specials get boring after a while.

[goldroadfanatic]

I do wonder if they intended to have Ask the Host as the fourth lifeline, but replaced Ask the Audience with it due to the lack of an audience when these shows were taped.

I was really enthralled at Catherine O'Hara's performance. This is the first time since December 2017 that anybody has won $250,000 on the show. Celebrities who faced the $250,000 question on this version all decided to walk away not risk losing $93,000 for their charity, but Catherine was a risk-taker. I loved how she said she promised her charity $32,000 and she will provide that to them even if she loses before locking in her final answer.  I was really hoping Catherine would trust her gut instinct again to win $500,000, but she played it smart and walked away when she could.

Seeing the "5:00 minutes later" graphic during Dr. Phil's $32,000 question was hilarious. Imagine if they did that for other contestants who took such a long time to decide how they wanted to proceed (see Kati Knudsen, who spent almost an hour deliberating on her $500,000 question).

[jude_este]

Sharing some news this afternoon, the revival has been renewed for Season 2.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/abc-renews-the-bachelor-stumptown-blackish-rookie-schooled-single-parents-canceled-1234613327/

[jlgarfield]

^ Very great news.

On a personal note, I <3 both Millionaire and Press Your Luck. When I found out that Millionaire was coming back, I realized that it and PYL will be on the same network (but not the same time), it was a freakin' dream come true for me.

So, in celebration, I made this mock movie poster with my artistic skills: https://i.imgur.com/7dMWk6U.png

Enjoy.

[GameShowsRule95]

I don't know about y'all but I'm not all for this Millionaire revival mainly because there are more than a few game shows that deserve a revival more than it does.

Examples of shows I feel are much more deserving of a revival than Millionaire include: Password, Hollywood Squares, Tic Tac Dough, The Joker's Wild (one that is actually closer to the original Jack Barry version, not that TBS/TNT one that might as well be called "The Dogg's Wild"), $ale of the Century, Blockbusters, and Body Language.

[urbanpreppie0004]

Just because there are other shows that could have been revived doesn't mean people shouldn't be happy that Millionaire was brought back. There's only so many shows that an audience can take at one time.

[Mr. Weatherman]

Let’s also not forget Who Wants to be a Millionaire was designed from the very beginning to be a primetime show, and it’s one whose basic format has held up quite well over the years with only slight modifications needed to bring the set into the 2020s — everything else just...works, music and all. 

There’s a reason why (at least the way this article reads) WWTBAM is getting a full season of episodes, whereas the ‘classic’ game shows are primarily just summer filler.  And given that we’re (probably) getting a full season, it’s safe to assume we’ll see actual contestants and not just celebrities.

Heck, we might even see multiple nights of airings per week like the old days just because this show is so much easier to tape given the circumstances than scripted programming will be...

And random side note: it wouldn’t surprise me at this point if NBC finally gives the green light to a second season of Deal or no Deal to air on the main network, especially since it tapes in Florida and can have an actual audience present.

[gamesurf]

Let’s also not forget Who Wants to be a Millionaire was designed from the very beginning to be a primetime show, and it’s one whose basic format has held up quite well over the years with only slight modifications needed to bring the set into the 2020s — everything else just...works, music and all. 

There’s a reason why (at least the way this article reads) WWTBAM is getting a full season of episodes, whereas the ‘classic’ game shows are primarily just summer filler.  And given that we’re (probably) getting a full season, it’s safe to assume we’ll see actual contestants and not just celebrities.

I think it's too soon to assume that we're getting a full season, or that they won't be celebrity episodes. At least, this Deadline article seems to imply they're just more celeb eps.

I don't know about y'all but I'm not all for this Millionaire revival mainly because there are more than a few game shows that deserve a revival more than it does.

Examples of shows I feel are much more deserving of a revival than Millionaire include: Password, Hollywood Squares, Tic Tac Dough, The Joker's Wild (one that is actually closer to the original Jack Barry version, not that TBS/TNT one that might as well be called "The Dogg's Wild"), $ale of the Century, Blockbusters, and Body Language.

Deserve's got nothing to do with it. It's not like all the game shows are waiting in a line for their turn and the most patient one gets it.

The question isn't "Which should we renew, Millionaire or Password?" The question is more like "Millionaire, or literally any other show in existence that we could put in that timeslot?". Considering the other options (more crime dramas, sitcoms, reality), I'm happy that a decent game show is getting look at all.

(Plus, most of those shows just aren't natural fits for network primetime TV if you're worried about making them loyal to the originals--although I would about kill for a decent Sale of the Century revival with a primetime-sized budget...)

[JayC]

Most likely the next set of Millionaire eps will be used as a mid-season replacement.