The "Who wants to be a Millionaire?" phenomenon
'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' has broken all the television rules and taken the country by stormIf anybody ever tells you they expected "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" to be the hottest thing on television in decades, they're lying. Nobody saw this coming -- not even the people at ABC who put it on the air.
"Six months ago, we were wondering if stripping a quiz show for 10 nights straight in August was going to work," said ABC Entertainment co-chairman Stu Bloomberg. "And it just seems that there is no stopping it."With the exception of the Super Bowl, nothing has been viewed by more people this season than episodes of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" -- and that includes ratings juggernauts like "ER," "Friends" and "60 Minutes."
Even at ABC, they can barely believe what's happening. "Millionaire" has mowed down the competition, even on Thursday nights against the long-entrenched NBC lineup. (ABC has done its best numbers on Thursday nights in almost two decades.)
"The fact is, the phenomenon that is the 'Millionaire' is truly remarkable," said ABC president Patricia Fili-Krushel. "When everything in your programming experience tells you that a show's performance has to be affected by the knock-offs and the number of shows per week, it's humbling when the show continues to shatter all conventional wisdom."
"Millionaire" has already passed from being just a TV show to being a cultural phenomenon. Phrases like "Is that your final answer?" and "I'd like to phone a friend" have become part of the vernacular. And, in addition to the TV show, there's the "Millionaire" book and the "Millionaire" CD-rom and the "Millionaire" Internet site (at abc.com)and "Millionaire" apparel and so on.
The big question is -- why? The broadcast networks have spent the past two decades watching their viewership levels decline, so how did a quiz show become so incredibly popular?
The format of the show itself drives both viewership and audience participation. The multiple-choice questions are very much in the Trivial Pursuit mode, covering a wide range of topics (and leaning heavily on pop culture).
Contestants make it to the "hot seat" opposite host Regis Philbin by being the first to correctly put four items in order -- from state capitals east-to-west to Robert DeNiro movies first to last.
Once in the hot seat, contestants must climb the ladder toward $1 million by answering 15 questions. Five correct answers and they're safe at $1,000; five more and they're safe at $32,000; other than that, you miss and you drop back to the lower level. If, for example, you've won $500,000 and you miss the $1 million question, you go home with $32,000. However, if you don't know the answer, you can stop before replying and take home the $500,000.
Contestants also have three "lifelines" to help them with the questions -- they can poll the audience, phone a friend or have two of the four multiple-choice answers taken away, giving them a 50/50 chance of getting that one right.
It's the sort of show you find yourself sucked into. The show's first million-dollar winner, John Carpenter, said he had no interest in "Millionaire" until he was "forced to watch by my friends. It was just a pure quiz show, which really attracted me to it."
Apparently millions of Americans have had the same experience, as the show's ratings have continually grown since its August debut.
Different -- and big money
Part of the answer has to be that in a network TV landscape that featured half-hour comedies, hourlong dramas and newsmagazines, a prime-time quiz show stood out.
"Frankly, I think the American public was dialing around, surfing around every night looking for something more interesting than your basic talk show or sitcom -- the proliferation of all the sameness on television," said longtime game-show host Wink Martindale. "And they found this thing one evening, they found it to be interesting, and like 'Wheel (of Fortune),' people at home found that they could play this game.
"The easy questions, kids 7, 8, 9 years old could play it. And then, as it got progressively harder, it brought the whole family in. So you've got a family viewing situation, which has made great numbers for 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?' "
Indeed, one of the most amazing things about "Millionaire" is that families are sitting down and watching it together -- something that hasn't happened much with any show in the past decade. In the age of two-, three- and more-television households, adults have been watching in one room while kids watch something else in another.
"First of all, you're talking about a show that, for the first time in a long time, young people and their parents can watch together," said Maury Povich, the host of rival quiz show "Twenty-One." "But I think what we're
finding is, in this particular type of show, mothers and fathers will stay with their children to watch the show. And now you can get the entire family around a television set the way it was when these game shows were popular in the '50s."
And "Millionaire" is a show that viewers can participate in while they watch together as families -- answering questions, debating whether they'd risk the money to go on to the next level.
There are also those who believe that the show's appeal has everything to do with the exorbitant prize money.
"The name of the game is a million bucks, let's face it," said Bob Stewart, the producer/creator of classic game shows ranging from "Password" to "The Price Is Right" to "To Tell the Truth."
"I think, clearly, they have caught on to something -- that people really want to get rich," said CBS president Leslie Moonves. "I think the economy is great, people are feeling good about themselves, people think that the rainbow is possible. And I think they've keyed in to that."
And, no doubt, the money plays a big part in the show's success. But "Millionaire" executive producer Michael Davies insists it's more than that, pointing to the relative lack of success other big-money game shows have experienced on other networks.
"I think the other networks have completely misread the success of 'Millionaire' by thinking that it's just a game show and that you can rush any other game show into development very quickly," Davies said.
He sees the true entertainment as the contestants and "the way they react to the pressure."
"Our show works on nights when we give away hardly any money, not only on the nights of a million dollars," Davies said.
Others disagree.
"I think that Michael (Davies) is kidding himself," said Stewart. "Let's take the same show and make the top prize $10,000. . . . The audience will be a lot less and the interest in the show will be a lot less."
But big money alone doesn't make a show into a phenomenon. NBC's "Twenty-One" recently made a contestant the richest in TV game-show history without gaining much headway in the ratings or much attention in the media.
"I watched 'Twenty-One' and saw somebody get $100,000 for showing up," Stewart said. "I'm not going to argue with that, but that kind of content is not going to make a successful show. I think 'Millionaire,' in addition to the money, is done very, very well."
Host with the most
Philbin himself deserves at least some of the credit for "Millionaire" mania.
"I think a lot of the success of that show has got to be attributable to Regis," Martindale said. "He brings the perfect talent to that show in what he does because he's got a great sense of humor, he can be dramatic when he needs to be, and I think he's just great."
There's no underestimating Philbin's contributions. He's proven to be the perfect host for "Millionaire," not only because of his wit and aplomb but because his genuine enthusiasm for the show translates to the audience -- as does his genuine desire to see the contestants win.
"It's terribly exciting to be with them as they proceed and progress through the levels," Philbin said. "I feel terrible when they lose. Lately, we've had a couple of people who just have trouble getting beyond the $1,000 or $2,000 area, and it's a heartbreak, really, for me to have to tell them that, yes, indeed, you've lost. You've been reduced down to $1,000. And I hate it.
"I love it when they win and I want more winners."