Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (WWTBAM) is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television, contestants tackle a series of multiple-choice questions to win large cash prizes in a format that twists on many game show genre conventions – only one contestant plays at a time. Similar to radio quizzes, contestants are given the question before deciding whether to answer and have no time limit to answer questions. The cash prize increases as they tackle questions that become increasingly difficult, with the maximum offered in most variants of the format being an aspirational value in the respective local currency, such as £1 million in the British version, €1 million in most European versions, $1 million in the American version and 70 million (7 crore) in the Indian version.
The original British version debuted on 4 September 1998 on the ITV network, hosted by Chris Tarrant, and ran until 11 February 2014. A revived series of seven episodes to commemorate its 20th anniversary aired in May 2018, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, and ITV renewed the show for several more series.
Since its debut, international variants of the show have been aired in around 100 countries, making it the best-selling TV format in television history, and is credited by some as paving the way for the boom in the popularity of reality television.
History The format of the show was created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, who had earlier created a number of the promotional games for Tarrant's morning show on Capital FM radio, such as the bong game. Tentatively known as Cash Mountain, the show took its finalised title from a song written by Cole Porter for the 1956 film High Society, starring Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm. Since the original version launched, several individuals have claimed that they originated the format and that Celador had breached their copyright. While many pursued litigation, they were all unsuccessful, and each claim was later settled out-of-court on an agreement/settlement.
In March 2006, original producer Celador announced that it was seeking to sell the worldwide rights to Millionaire, together with the rest of its British programme library, as the first phase of a sell-off of the company's format and production divisions. British television producer Paul Smith first had the idea to franchise the UK programme internationally. He developed a series of standards for international variants that ensured they mirrored the British original closely. For example, all hosts were required to appear on-screen wearing Armani suits, as Tarrant did in the UK; producers were forbidden from hiring local composers to create original music, instead using the same music cues used by the British version, and the lighting system and set design were to adhere faithfully to the way they were presented on the British version. Some of Smith's rules have been slightly relaxed over the years as the franchise's development has progressed.
2waytraffic ultimately acquired Millionaire and all of Celador's other programmes. Two years later, Sony Pictures Entertainment purchased 2waytraffic for £137.5 million. Sony Pictures Television currently owns and licences the show's format.
Gameplay Rules A group of contestants on each episode play a preliminary round called "Fastest Finger First". All are given a question by the host and four answers which must be placed within a particular order; in the first season of the original version (1998) and the first four seasons of the Australian version (1999–2002), contestants have to answer a multiple-choice question. If any contestants are visually impaired, the host reads the question and four choices all at once, then repeats the choices after the music for the round begins. After time's up, the computer and the host will reveal the correct order (or the correct answer in the latter's case). The contestant who answers correctly in the fastest time goes on to play the main game. In the event that no one gets the question right, another question is given; if two or more contestants answer correctly and with the same time, they are given a tie-breaker to determine who will make a start into the game. This round is only used when a new contestant is being chosen to play the main round, and can be played more than once in an episode among those remaining within the group seeking to play the main game. In celebrity editions, the round is not used; celebrities automatically take part in the main game.
Once a contestant enters the main game, the host asks increasingly difficult general-knowledge questions, each with four possible answers. Correct responses increase the contestant’s prize fund. Contestants also have a set of lifelines, each usable once, and two safety nets that guarantee a minimum prize if they answer incorrectly after reaching designated cash values.
The early questions are generally straightforward, but later questions may prompt the host to ask whether the contestant’s answer is their final answer. Once confirmed, it cannot be changed. Contestants who are unsure can choose to walk away with their winnings. The host asks them to confirm this decision and usually invites them to state the answer they would have chosen, then reveals whether it was correct.
Original format During the British original, between 1998 and 2007, the show's format focused on fifteen questions. The payout structure was as follows (questions at guaranteed levels are highlighted with a bolded text): Question numberQuestion value1£1002£2003£3004£5005£1,0006£2,0007£4,0008£8,0009£16,00010£32,00011£64,00012£125,00013£250,00014£500,00015£1,000,000
Between 2007 and 2014, the number of questions was reduced to twelve; the overall change in format was later incorporated into a number of international markets over a period of four years, including the Arab world, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Spain, and Turkey. The payout structure, as a whole, was subsequently changed as a result, with the second safety net relocated to £50,000 at question 7 (questions at guaranteed levels are highlighted with a bolded text): Question numberQuestion value1£5002£1,0003£2,0004£5,0005£10,0006£20,0007£50,0008£75,0009£150,00010£250,00011£500,00012£1,000,000 The game show's revival for British television in 2018 reverted to the original arrangement used before 2007, but with one notable difference, in that the second safety net was made adjustable – once a contestant reached £1,000, the host asked them, before each subsequent question until a second safety net was set, if they wished to set the next cash prize amount as the second safety net, with this allowing them to set it as high as £500,000 in their game.
American format The American version premiered on ABC in August 1999 as part of a two-week daily special event hosted by Regis Philbin. After this and a second two-week event aired in November 1999, ABC commissioned a regular series that launched in January 2000 and ran until June 2002. The syndication of the game show was conceived and debuted in September 2002. The only difference between it and the British version was episode length – 45 minutes, as opposed to the 60-minute length of the original version. The change meant that the preliminary round of the show Fastest Finger was eliminated, and contestants had to pass a more conventional game-show qualification test. After passing the qualification test and being chosen, when the show began, the host invited contestants to the studio. Exceptions to this arrangement, in which it was used under the name "Fastest Finger" included: primetime special editions of the program, the 2004 series that was dubbed Super Millionaire, in which the final prize was increased to $10,000,000, and for the 10th-anniversary special of the American edition, which ran during August 2009 for eleven episodes. The decision to remove this round later occurred in other international versions, including the British original, and several versions likes Russia, Holland and Costa Rica before its reinstatement in the renewed series.
Clock format In 2008, the American version changed its format so that contestants were required to answer questions within a set time limit. The limit varied depending on the difficulty of the question:
Question number Time limit 1–5 15 seconds 6–10 30 seconds 11–14 45 seconds 15 45 seconds(+ any accumulated remaining time from the previous 14 questions)
The clock started immediately after a question was given and the four possible answers appeared. The clock paused when a lifeline was used. If the clock ran out with no answer locked in, the contestant walked away with any prize money won up to that point, unless the "Double Dip" lifeline had been used, in which case a failure to give a second answer was treated the same as a wrong answer. This format change was later adopted into other international versions with several minor changes; the British original, for example, adopted this change for episodes from 3 August 2010 to 2014. The Indian version followed suit on 11 October 2010, the Egypt version followed suit on 20 July 2012 to May 15, 2013, the Turkish version followed suit on 2 August 2011, and the Israel version followed suit between 2020–2021.
Shuffle format On 13 September 2010, the American version adopted another significant change to its format. In this change, the game featured two rounds. The first round consisted of ten questions, in which the cash prize associated to each value, along with the category and difficulty for each question, was randomised per game. As such, the difficulty of the question in this round was not tied to the value associated to it, and a contestant did not know what amount they won unless they provided a correct answer or chose to walk away. As part of this format, the amount of money a contestant won in this round was banked, but if they walked away before completing the round, they left with half the amount that had been banked; if they gave an incorrect answer during this round, they left with just $1,000. If they answered all ten questions correctly, they then moved on to the second round, which stuck to the standard format of the game show – the remaining questions were set to general knowledge and featured cash prizes of high, non-cumulative values. The contestant could, at this point, walk away with the total amount banked from the first round; otherwise, an incorrect answer meant they left with $25,000. The format was later modified for the fourteenth season of the American version but retained the same arrangement for the last four questions.
In 2015, the so-called "shuffle format" was scrapped and the show returned to a version that closely resembled the original format.
Other international formats Risk format In 2007, the German version modified the show's format with the inclusion of a new feature called "Risk Mode". During the main game, contestants are given the choice of choosing this feature, in which if they choose to use it, they gain the use of a fourth lifeline that allows them to discuss question with a member of the audience, in exchange for having no second safety net – if they get any question between the sixth and final cash prize amount wrong, they leave with the guaranteed amount given for correctly answering five questions. This format became adopted in Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Switzerland and Venezuela.