what rules who wants to be a millionaire
Contents
- 1 Host
- 2 Broadcast
- 3 Synopsis
- 3.1 The timing
- 3.ii The rules
- 3.3 Lifelines
- 3.iv The host
- iii.five Marks for style and technical merit
- three.6 The showtime millionaire
- iii.7 A new beginning or the beginning of the stop?
- three.8 20th Anniversary
- four Cardinal moments
- 5 Catchphrases
- 6 Inventor
- 7 Theme music
- 8 Trivia
- 9 Merchandise
- 10 Web links
- 11 Pictures
- 12 See besides
Host
Chris Tarrant (1998-2014)
Jeremy Clarkson (2018-)
Broadcast
Celador for ITV, four September 1998 to 28 July 2007 (477 episodes)
Co-produced by Carlton, 1998
2waytraffic for ITV, eighteen Baronial 2007 to 2 April 2011 (88 episodes)
Victory Television for ITV, fifteen July 2011 to 11 February 2014 (27 episodes)
Stellify Media for ITV, 5 May 2018 to present
Synopsis
Well, it had to happen at some stage, merely perhaps even we didn't expect this go-for-the-pharynx show to be such a huge success. The previous unconvincing "let's enhance the stakes" testify, Raise the Roof, was yet fairly fresh in the memory, and this new testify might take been merely the same simply with an actress "0" on the stop of the budget. Thankfully, not so.
The timing
Still, at that place were a few things that were intriguing before the programme was even broadcast which made things look distinctly promising. The major inkling that something special was on its way was that ITV was clearing some closet infinite for this baby. The idea was that the program would announced at roughly the same time every night for 12 consecutive days, bulldozing through whatever scheduled episode of Inspector Wexford or The Neb was supposed to announced there instead. Practiced grief, even the ITV gold goose of Coronation Street was once rescheduled because of information technology!
The rules
X contestants from around the U.k. take role in each programme. From the ten qualifiers, one contestant is called via a timed question. This contestant plays for the £ane,000,000 pinnacle prize.
The contestant must answer 15 multiple-choice questions correctly in a row to win the jackpot. The contestant may quit at whatsoever time and keep their earnings. For each question, they are shown the question and four possible answers in advance before deciding whether to play on or not. If they do decide to offer an respond, it must exist correct to stay in the game.
If at whatever stage they respond incorrectly, they autumn back to the terminal "guarantee signal" - either £ane,000 or £32,000 - and their game is over. For example, a contestant failing on question xiii would win £32,000. Answering incorrectly earlier reaching the first guarantee point (£1,000) loses everything. A new histrion is picked from the remaining pool of 10. If time runs out on a detail programme, the next programme continues that role player's game.
When the coin starts getting actually serious (£32,000 and over), the host volition reach for the appropriate cheque and sign it. Whilst this is mainly used as a theatrical device, the cheques can be cashed in by the contestants for existent.
Lifelines
At whatever point, the contestant may use upwards i (or more than) of their three "lifelines". These are:
- 50:50 - two of the three wrong answers are removed. Originally, these answers were chosen in advance by the question-setters (and and so would invariably be the two you lot knew it couldn't exist), just this was later changed to a random selection.
- Phone-A-friend - the contestants may speak to a friend or relative on the telephone for 30 seconds to talk over the question.
- Ask the audience - the audience votes with their keypads on their option of respond.
Each lifeline may only be used in one case during a contestant'south entire game.
The host
Chris Tarrant (pictured) is one of those game show hosts whose job it is not simply to get up your nose, only to tickle your nostrils and play with the nasal hairs while he's in in that location. He has perfected the fine art of getting people to scream "WILL You Only DAMN WELL GET ON WITH Information technology!" at the radio through his years of running promotional games on Capital FM (his 9-to-5 chore is a disc jockey - shouldn't that exist 6-to-10 job?)
While Who Wants... was a very simple idea, it needed a good host to carry it off and Tarrant was that host. For case, if the producers had plumped for Richard Madeley, Les Dennis or even Brucie it's almost certain that the ITV audition wouldn't have been anywhere as captivated.
Tarrant's style was essentially his usual zany/wacky persona, just unusually in this game, he showed that he could be professional and accurate when the demand arose (e.g. when reading out the initial qualification question, where the time of response was critical). Yes, he was annoying when he took about a minute before telling the contestant that they had now won "...10 THOUSAND POUNDS!!!", but that'southward the point - no-one else in the business organisation could take built up this suspense. He made you lot care.
Marks for style and technical merit
Putting the easy-to-pick-up format and the host bated for one moment, it's clear that some T.L.C. went into the making of the show. In fact, the whole theme of the program seemed to have the essential classic elements of a quiz but present them using modern metaphors. For case, the synthesizer fanfare theme music was dramatic, but if you listened closely you could brand out more than than a passing semblance of the actual famous "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" vocal - then famous, we can't remember what film it appears in. [High Society - Ed.] At that place was even some extremely squeamish Pet Store Boysesque background music while the contestants pondered nearly the questions, with deep, gothic-sounding choirs intermixed with high-pitched electronic arpeggios. The entire musical score is fifty-fifty available on CD (see Trade beneath).
The set is one of those "in the round" numbers. Perhaps not the most original idea in recent times, just it's so nicely constructed (with its suspended Perspex floor with a huge dish-shaped underneath covered in mirror newspaper) you could tell Terence Conran would approve.
The lighting also deserves a passing mention, with the spotlights zooming downwards on the contestant afterwards each major question answered. Fifty-fifty the logo is smartly and wittily executed, mixing the traditional intricate bank note patterns with question marks and pound signs.
The showtime millionaire
After 122 programmes, Judith Keppel became the kickoff person to answer all fifteen questions correctly in the original UK version of the show. Allegations of a ready (unsubstantiated, to our eyes) raged in the newspapers because the episode happened to coincide with the terminal ever episode of the popular situation comedy One Foot in the Grave on rival channel BBC one.
The question Judith answered to win the money was:
Which king was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine?
A: Henry I
B: Henry II
C: Richard I
D: Henry Five
Judith correctly answered B. Because of the pound'south exchange charge per unit, her win was the highest ever win on the quiz show anywhere in the earth.
Despite the large win, there'southward no doubt Chris Evans spoiled the party a niggling past beating Tarrant to giving away £1,000,000 on air. His Aqueduct 4 TFI Friday amusement show gave away £ane,000,000 in a spoiler slot during Dec 1999 called Someone's GOING to be a Millionaire (subtle, no?), which wasn't a patch on the real Millionaire except in ane regard - namely, there was a guaranteed payout.
Millionaire has opened many doors for British TV producers. With this show now signed upwardly to over 100 countries, there's no doubt that the world will exist watching the tv set emanating from this off-white state more closely in the futurity.
A new beginning or the commencement of the terminate?
On 18 August 2007, Chris Tarrant'south world turned upside downwards as the format - 1 of the few things that hasn't changed in all these years - was altered significantly. The beginning three easy peasy questions were gone and a new - decidedly odd - money ladder was put in place: £500, £1,000, £ii,000, £5,000, £ten,000, £xx,000, £l,000, £75,000, £150,000, £250,000, £500,000, £1,000,000. The theme music was seemingly remixed for a nightclub, though gone is the aureate standard recall music to be replaced by some decidedly boilerplate bangs and thumps. The new titles were welcome, the new question graphics are OK but gone is Mark van Bronkhorst's lovely Conduit font to exist replaced by, of all things, Verdana. Truly this is a Millionaire for the Microsoft Powerpoint generation.
From 3 Baronial 2010, more changes were introduced to the format, starting with the scrapping of the "Fastest Finger First" circular. Instead, contestants were chosen through an off-screen audition process. During the game, if a histrion reaches the £50,000 level, a new lifeline becomes bachelor to them called "Switch", which allows them to swap a question they were unsure of for a dissimilar one worth the same monetary value. Possibly the biggest change was the introduction of a time limit on questions. Contestants are now given xv seconds to answer questions up to the £one,000 level and 30 seconds to answer questions up to the £l,000 level, merely the last five questions are non timed. The clock temporarily stops when a lifeline is being used. When the time runs out, the contestant is treated as having given an incorrect answer and drops back to the last safe haven.
For ten years, Who Wants to be a Millionaire had been either the brightest light on ITV's schedule or a reliable banker to bring in the viewers. By at present, information technology was clear that information technology was no longer a significant depict, and ITV allowed us to think that they were only keeping the bear witness alive for contractual reasons. The public was phased out and only celebrities participated; a few "The People Play" specials made the new priorities sharply clear. One-half of the glory prize fund was diverted from charity to a premium-rate phone-in question, and live episodes came to a hurried and abrupt cease.
There was no tremendous surprise when we heard in Oct 2013 that Chris Tarrant was leaving the prove. The producers decided that he was an impossible human activity to follow, and the program came to a conclusion in February 2014. For a chip.
20th Anniversary
ITV announced that there will be a special vii-episode revived serial circulate from May 2018 with Jeremy Clarkson equally the new host, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the programme. The prove returned to the 15 question format, with Inquire The Host existence introduced. Contestants are now able to fix their ain 2d safety net amount anywhere from £2,000 to £500,000 before they meet the question, which saved ITV a lot of money in the first series as people were a trivial too brave; many episodes in the first series ended with four-figure total payouts despite the brisker pace (presumably designed to match the pace at which Challenge airs them). However, we do miss Chris' extended reveals, which Clarkson simply does not practise, and bizarrely and so, since he'southward proved himself quite capable of extended reveals in the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment of Top Gear. (Listen you lot, towards the end of the run, Chris seemingly lost interest in them every bit well…)
Key moments
When Judith Keppel won the £ane,000,000 jackpot, the pyrotechnics man (who'd been sitting in on every show since the beginning of the series), whose chore information technology was to gear up off the foil streamers, pressed the button and... cypher happened. This is despite several rehearsals that the director had carried out in previous weeks and months to ensure everything went smoothly when the big day came along. So instead they tried once more (successfully) at the end of the plan.
1 of the show'due south nigh memorable episodes came in January 1999 when two contestants won £125,000 on the aforementioned show. Martin Skillings, a quantity surveyor from Brancaster, became the first person ever to interruption the £100,000 barrier, just for Ian Horswell - the very next contestant - to repeat the feat effectually 40 minutes subsequently. This produced a globe tape at the time for the near money given away to one contestant on a game evidence. It besides produced the world record for the most money given abroad in a single episode (£266,000).
On the show afterwards Judith Keppel'south £i,000,000 win, the Fastest Finger Start question was "Starting with 'Stop', put the traffic low-cal sequence in social club according to the British Highway Code." It turned out that none of the contestants got the right answer. Another question was played instead about Roman Numerals, to which the contestants further demonstrated their thickness in that merely i got it right!
Non one of the prove'due south highest winners in terms of money, only certainly one of the most effervescent was Fiona Wheeler, famous for her wish to bathe in a bath of chocolate (something she later did do in a Tv set Times photoshoot). The question that won her £32,000 (What is the everyday proper name for the trachea?) was a gift - she happened to be a fan of the medical drama series Casualty.
On the episode aired on 8 March 1999, Tony Kennedy, a warehouseman from Blackpool, was asked the post-obit question for £64,000:
The computer told Chris Tarrant that the correct answer was indeed B, and Tony likewise went on to win £125,000 by answering the next question correctly.
However, minutes later viewers began ringing ITV and the newspapers to complain. It turns out that the answer to the question is A (12). This is because you could serve 12 aces to win games one, 3 and five, then your opponent could double-fault 12 times, and then you win games two, four and half-dozen without hitting a shot and hence win the set after 12 shots.
This blunder made forepart-page news, and the side by side mean solar day an apology was broadcast. Tony was immune to keep his money.
In that location was a comedy moment on 12 April 2001 when contestant Richard Deeley, on receiving the £32,000 cheque, scrunched information technology up and threw information technology across the studio - before having to pick it upwards off the floor when he got the £64,000 question wrong. Richard afterward claimed that he had intended his throwing away of the cheque every bit a joke, inspired by Chris Tarrant's "But nosotros don't want to give you that!" and simultaneous snatching abroad of cheques.
On a Valentine'due south Day celebrity special shown on 11 February 2006 (which is non Valentine'southward Day), Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen (playing for the Shooting Star Children'southward Hospice) reached the £1,000,000 question. They were asked: "Translated from the Latin, what is the official motto of the United states?" The Bowens went for 'In God We Trust', and in and then doing lost their clemency a stonking £468,000, the correct answer being 'One Out of Many', from the Latin 'E Pluribus Unum'. Nevertheless! It was later decided that the question was cryptic, since 'In God Nosotros Trust', while not from any Latin source, is used as a motto for the US. In fact 'Eastward Pluribus Unum' was never codified past law and was just a de facto motto until 1956 (when 'In God, We Trust' took over), so technically at that place is no correct answer to that question. And then Laurence and Jackie were given another £1,000,000 question ("Who was the first person to go into space twice?") which they did non attempt to answer, leaving with £500,000. The oddest affair about the whole affair was that the incorrect question was circulate, despite the fact that the error had come to low-cal before the show was due to be transmitted.
Ane participant, Charles Ingram, had to be edited out of an episode due to be circulate on 18 September 2001 after being accused and afterward convicted of conspiracy to obtain a valuable security by charade; the previous episode, broadcast 15 September, was extended last-minute by twenty minutes, through the weekend's news message, and resulted in a film being cancelled. His footage would later be broadcast on ITV2 following a Tonight documentary which fix out the evidence against him and his accomplices on 21 April 2003.
On a celebrity edition in 2007, Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi from Status Quo said at that place were two knights on a chessboard when the correct answer is iv. However, the game was restarted when producers claimed that the question had been used on the programme before. (That personal mates of Chris Tarrant had bombed out on question ane had zip to exercise with it, presumably.) They went on to win £fifty,000 for their called charity, the Music Foundation.
One contestant was asked the question "What was the middle name of playwright Richard Sheridan?" The contestant gave the answer Butler, which was accounted incorrect (with the correct respond being Brinsley). Notwithstanding, it turned out that Butler was, in fact, Sheridan's second middle name, and and so the contestant was invited dorsum a few weeks afterward.
Another contestant was asked the question "Which mythical person shares their proper name with a type of insect?". The contestant gave the answer Goliath (which was correctly accepted) - however, one of the other choices was Hercules (which is also correct).
Of annotation during the Clarkson era was his open contempt for the commercial breaks - having presented exclusively for the BBC for thirty years, he had never needed to throw to them - which he typically introduced facetiously. "And now we must know what goods and services are available in the modern world" was 1 such barb.
Catchphrases
"Is that your concluding reply?"
"...only nosotros don't want to give you that!"
"Or y'all could ask the audience... who are nearly always right"
"Hither's what I think" - used by Jeremy Clarkson when a contestant asks to use the "Inquire The Host" lifeline
Inventor
The format was devised by David Briggs, who also devised many of the promotional games for Chris Tarrant's breakfast testify on London radio station Capital FM, forth with comedy writers Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. The same team also brought us Talking Telephone Numbers, Winning Lines and The People Versus. The Fastest Finger Showtime round bears a remarkable similarity to a round from a much earlier Celador/Tarrant show, Everybody's Equal.
Theme music
The much-lauded music, which runs most continuously throughout the whole show, was written past Keith and Matthew Strachan in ten days after it was decided that the music in the pilot show (composed by Pete Waterman) wasn't good plenty.
The 'Time'south Upwards' cue is a French horn glissando played by three French horns. And then now you lot know. There are over 100 other different music cues.
The 2007 rave-alike remix was done by Ramon Covalo.
Trivia
The lifelines were originally going to be chosen "helping hands".
The original promotional trailer featured a fake game show chosen "Win a Wok", with Chris Tarrant in the foreground explaining the show'south concept. He likewise said, "y'all tin can phone a friend, ask the audition or fifty-fifty enquire me for help". However, asking the host for assistance wouldn't develop into the show's rules until Clarkson took over.
In the beginning series, if anybody was struggling in the early questions Chris would give a inkling to the reply for the contestant to save their lifelines such as "I don't know only B looks adept". This also indicated that Chris saw the reply when the question appeared. This led to future shows saying the reply won't appear on his screen until the contestant says "final answer", thus forcing the contestant to use their lifelines early on.
Originally, the money tree involved 20 questions ranging from £10 to £5,242,880 (2^nineteen 10 10). They as well considered structures for £25 to £13,107,200 and £100 to £52,428,800. All the same, after audience research showed that people liked the concept of beingness a "millionaire" nigh then the tiptop prize was actually reduced.
Afterwards on, during the format development, the intended idea was for the contestants to starting time at £1 and answer 21 questions. However, ITV amusement boss Claudia Rosencrantz through that thought was too boring so they started at £100 in the final format.
When Chris Tarrant hosted the Capital breakfast radio evidence, he was commuting betwixt cardinal London, the WWTBAM studio in Wembley (or Elstree) and his home in Surrey. As such, he'd simply get a few hours of slumber a day. He had a second bedroom in the studio so he can get some kip before rehearsals.
WWTBAM is the simply UK game testify to have been honoured with a stamp stamp. It is one of six ITV programmes featured in a fix issued in September 2005 to mark ITV's 50th birthday.
Via the US version, Who Wants to exist a Millionaire? producer Paul Smith (no relation to the fashion designer) brought such good ratings to the otherwise flagging ABC channel that information technology was said he was held in such high esteem in the Disney-owned network that he was second just to Mickey Mouse.
If you go to Disney-MGM Studios in Florida, you could (until 2006) play Who Wants to be a Millionaire? live in a mock studio for a take a chance to win a cruise - and anyone can win! The youngest person e'er in the chair was two years sometime.
Up to and including 21 June 2013, 30 series and 588 episodes take been transmitted.
In the first 25 serial, 1178 people take sat in the hot seat, winning a full of £50,762,000 - an boilerplate of £43,091 each.
There take also been 270 celebrities competing, winning a total of £6,431,000 for charity.
Nine glory contestants take played both the xv and 12 question formats within the show'due south history. Eamonn Holmes (with Sir Alex Ferguson in 2004 and Kay Burley in 2007), Piers Morgan (with Ann Widdecombe in 2006 and Emily Maitlis in 2007), Judith Chalmers (with £ane Million winner Robert Brydges in 2003 and her son Mark Durden-Smith in 2008), Penny Smith (with Andrew Castle in 2004 and Anneka Rice in 2009), Jo Brand (with Ricky Tomlinson in 2004 and Nick Hancock in 2009), Andrew Lancel (with Kika Mirylees in the 2004 Cops and Robbers special and Gary Lucy in 2009), Angela Rippon (with Dermot Murnaghan in 2004 and Martin Lewis in 2009), Sir Terry Wogan (with Tim Radford in 2005 and Chris Evans in 2009) and Gabby Logan (with Ally McCoist in 2002 and Katherine Jenkins in 2010).
Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave and wife Lady Ann Redgrave originally appeared on a celebrity edition in 2001 but failed to win Fastest Finger Showtime on three attempts. They finally managed to reach the hot seat, six years later, winning £ane,000. This besides happened to Emma Forbes. She appeared on the same celebrity special in 2001 (with her father and histrion Bryan Forbes), also failing to win Fastest Finger Offset. Emma managed to reach the hot seat in 2010 with Andi Peters.
In rehearsals, Sir Terry Wogan and Chris Evans managed to achieve £1,000,000 but ending up winning £1,000 (losing £4,000) on the actual recording.
There take been vi £ane,000,000 winners – Judith Keppel, a garden designer from Fulham on 20 November 2000; David Edwards, a instructor from Staffordshire on 21 Apr 2001; Robert Brydges, a banker from London on 29 September 2001; Pat Gibson, a software developer from Wigan on 24 April 2004; Ingram Wilcox, a civil servant from Bath on 23 September 2006; and Donald Fear, a instructor from Telford on 11 September 2020.
The most money lost on the show - and as well the greatest loss on a UK game testify - was £218,000, past Duncan Bickley on 21 October 2000 when he got the £500,000 question incorrect and left with £32,000. On 1 November 2003, Rob Mitchell took the aforementioned run a risk and besides lost £218,000.
Nine people have had a look at the £1,000,000 question and decided to leave with £500,000 – Peter Lee on 19 Jan 2000, Kate Heusser on 2 November 2000, Jon Randall on 27 November 2000, Steve Devlin on 20 Jan 2001, Mike Pomfry on 12 March 2001, Peter Spyrides on 16 October 2001, Roger Walker on 26 Feb 2002, John Robinson on 4 March 2019 and Davyth Fear on i September 2019.
Nine people have left with no coin at all – John Davidson on 10 Jan 1999, David Snaith on 5 March 1999, Michelle Simmonds on 17 Feb 2001, Peter and Valiene Tungate on a couples testify on 26 March 2001, Martin Baudrey on the live 300th programme on 30 November 2002, Emma North on 28 Dec 2002, Beak Copland on 3 April 2004, Dave Scholefield on 29 January 2005 and Harry Redknapp on xix November 2021.
The highest ratings were recorded on 7 March 1999 when 19.2m people tuned in to watch the unfolding drama.
The show's format has been licensed or optioned to 109 countries. The 100th country to continue air was Kenya. An unexpected spin-off from the international success of the format was that the Indian version inspired an accolade-winning novel (Q & A past Vika Swarup) which in turn spawned the BAFTA-winning, Oscar-winning, everything-winning striking movie Slumdog Millionaire.
For a testify that was a mainstay of ITV's schedules for a decade, there were surprisingly few spin-off programmes. A behind-the-scenes documentary, Is That Your Final Answer?, went out on Christmas Eve 1999, and there was a retrospective edition, Chris Tarrant'south Final Answer on 11 February 2014, a week after the primary series ended. An edition of the Tonight programme on 21 Apr 2003 set out the evidence that convicted the Ingrams and Whittock, as did Quiz, a 2020 drama. Another 2020 serial, The Million Pound Question, was an around-the-houses await at the six one thousand thousand pound wins.
Repeats of Millionaire aired in a 5pm slot during the summers of 2003 and 2004, initially topped and tailed by brusk pieces from Chris Tarrant. Repeats are also sold to the Challenge channel and have consistently been amidst the nearly popular shows on that network.
A special live edition marked its 300th show, where Ask the Audience became Ask the Nation, and over 250,000 phone calls were received in less than two minutes.
The Who Wants to be a Millionaire? board game sold more than 1,000,000 units during the outset two years on the market place.
Not only has the show been voted ane of the tiptop five game shows non once but twice by the esteemed readers of this very site, it was too named the nation's favourite game show in a 2008 survey for Churchill Insurance, and again in 2009.
During Tarrant'due south reign - or at least, the part of his reign before it was done away with - Fastest Finger First was tackled past ten contestants. Clarkson'south tenure, well information technology was all a bit half-hearted really, Arial font-face money ladder, incorrect cue usage. They could only bring themselves to rent six contestants, rather than ten. Spare a thought and so for the poor chap on the episode dated 15 September 2019, Mehboob Lakhany, where a particularly inept set of contestants meant that all five of the other contestants got a turn in the hot seat. We believe this is the highest turnover of contestants on any edition of the show.
On fourteen Baronial 2021, ii contestants - Jerome Singh and Glen Bunn - answered their fastest finger beginning questions at the same speed, 3.56 seconds, and had to be asked some other question. Both won £125,000.
Merchandise
Dreamcast version
Macintosh version
Playstation version
PC version
PC version
Playstation version
PC version
Playstation version
Original book
The Ultimate Challenge
WWTBAM - Junior Quiz Volume
Bumper Quiz Book
Bumper Quiz Volume - Edition 2
Web links
ITV'south Millionaire site
Serial 1 - results list
Serial 2 - results list
Series three - results listing
Series 4 - results listing
Off the Telly review from September 1999.
Andy Walmsley's set design
The show publicised the hashtag #millionaire.
Pictures
See also
Weaver's Week obituary (2013)
Feedback
Source: http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Who_Wants_to_be_a_Millionaire%3F#:~:text=The%20contestant%20must%20answer%2015,to%20play%20on%20or%20not.
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