Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK game show)
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| Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? | |
|---|---|
| Image:WWTBAMuk.png Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (UK) titles | |
| Format | Game show |
| Created by | David Briggs |
| Presented by | Chris Tarrant |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | 2waytraffic, (previously Celador)[1] |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 (1998-1999), 16:9 (1999-present) |
| Original run | 4 September, 1998 – present |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
In the United Kingdom, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a television game show which offers a maximum cash prize of one million pounds for correctly answering successive multiple-choice questions of increasing difficulty. The show was exported to many other countries, all of which follow the same general format (see Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?).
The programme is hosted by Chris Tarrant and produced by 2waytraffic, (previously Celador) for the ITV network. It is based on a format devised by David Briggs, who, along with Steve Knight and Mike Whitehill, devised a number of the promotional games for Chris Tarrant's breakfast show on Capital FM radio. The original working title for the show was Cash Mountain.
When it first aired on 4 September, 1998, it was a surprising twist on the gameshow genre. Only one contestant plays at a time (similar to some radio quizzes), and the emphasis is on suspense rather than speed. There is no time limit to answer questions, and contestants are given the question before they must decide whether to attempt an answer.
Rights to both the format and all UK episodes of the show were put up for sale by Celador in March 2006, as the first step toward the sale of Celador's formats division. These have been acquired by the Dutch company 2waytraffic, which has now begun producing the show.
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[edit] Broadcast details
Originally broadcast on successive evenings over several weeks, it now appears weekly on ITV in a primetime slot on Saturday evenings. The show lasts for one hour (including commercial breaks). The first contestant was Graham Elwell, who won £64,000.
As of January 2006 it is in its 19th series, over 400 shows have been screened. At its peak in 1999 the show pulled in up to 19 million viewers (an astonishing one in three of the British population), often when it only had a half-hour timeslot, before declining to around eight million by 2003.[1] Current ratings as of 2006 are around six million.
The show is pre-recorded, but gives the impression of being shown live, for example by showing the broadcast date on close-ups of the cheque, and suggestions that the contestant's family will be watching their progress from home.
Older episodes of the show are shown every weekday on the digital TV channel Challenge (and Virgin 1) under the title of "Classic Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?".
In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was placed 23rd.
[edit] Specific UK format
The show follows the usual Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? format, but has some specific differences.
Members of the public apply to appear on the show by calling a premium rate telephone number or sending a premium rate text message. Applications can also be made at the ITV website, via a system of £1 "credits" as well as through a contestant casting audition. Such auditions are held around the UK at various locations. Contestants are chosen from the large number of applicants through a combination of random selection and ability to answer test general knowledge questions.
In one series the audience were asked to vote (secretly) on every question, and their answers were revealed, for interest only, after the question had been answered. This feature now seems to have been abandoned. The host does, however, sometimes reveal the answer chosen by the contestant's friend sitting in the audience ("I can tell you that your friend so-and-so thinks that it's such-and-such".)
Tarrant's catchphrases on the show include "Is that your final answer?", "But we don't want to give you that" (meaning that he would like the contestant to go on and win even more money), and more recently at the end of the show, "But the cashpoint is now closed for tonight". Tarrant is also famous for his "inscrutable" face – a quizzical grimace designed to give the contestant no clue as to which answer is correct.
Notably, unlike most other versions of the show around the world, whenever a contestant crashes out and wins nothing, there is no on-screen text stating it.
[edit] New format
In the summer of 2007, it was announced that the format has been changed for the new series. Where in previous series contestants have had to answer 15 questions to get to the £1 million, in the new series contestants have to answer only 12 questions with the first question be worth £500 instead of £100. After reaching £1,000 by answering only 2 questions which are considerably harder than in previous series, five questions will take a contestant up to a £50,000 "safe haven", previously £32,000. The format was unveiled in the first of seven celebrity charity specials beginning on 18 August on ITV, and will continue throughout the new series.
[edit] Text game
Since 2004, the UK version has included a feature called the "Text Game". Played before some commercial breaks, a question to which the contestant has given their final answer, but the correct answer has not yet been revealed, is offered as a competition to viewers. Entry is via SMS text message at a cost of £1 per entry, and the competition runs through the commercial break, after which the answer is revealed and the game continues. One viewer who answered the question correctly wins £1,000.
Previously, the text game was called "Walkaway" (as it is still referred as such to on the ITV website)[2] and was played when a contestant elected to keep their current prize rather than offer an answer to the current question.
[edit] Top prize winners
Six contestants have correctly answered all 15 questions and won £1,000,000 (Charles Ingram had his prize withheld due to suspicions of cheating, see "Controversies" below)
- Judith Keppel, November 20, 2000
- David Edwards, April 21, 2001
- Charles Ingram (Show scheduled for September 18, 2001 but not actually broadcast until April 21 2003.)
- Robert Brydges, September 29, 2001
- Pat Gibson, April 24, 2004
- Ingram Wilcox, September 23, 2006
[edit] Specials
Variants on the format are screened from time to time as specials – such as celebrities playing for charity, couples games (where both partners must agree on the answer), Mother's Day specials, etc.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Incorrect answer to question accepted
In March 1999, contestant Tony Kennedy faced the question "Theoretically, what is the minimum number of strokes with which a tennis player can win a set?", with the answers 12, 24, 36 and 48. He worked out that you need 4 shots to win a game, and there are 6 games in a set, so the answer is 24. He declared this, and won the £64,000 question.
However, this answer proved to be wrong. Eagled-eyed tennis followers noticed that a player can win a game without playing a shot if their opponent is serving, as he may double-fault every time - as a result, the correct answer is technically 12.
The Daily Mirror newspaper reported this the next day, with the pun headline 'Fault!'. The programme acknowledged the mistake and apologised for it, but Kennedy was allowed to keep the money he won (£125,000, as he got the following question correct as well).
[edit] The Major Charles Ingram affair
In an episode of the British show recorded on 10 September 2001, Major Charles Ingram won the £1,000,000 prize. During the recording it was noticed that a suspicious pattern of coughing could be heard. The Major's unusual behaviour in the hot seat also drew attention. Analysed, it was believed that another contestant sitting behind him was offering him prompts in the form of coughs, indicating the correct answers. On some of the questions the Major read aloud all of the four answers, until a significant cough was heard, before choosing his answer. In one case he dismissed an answer, read aloud the answer again, and then picked the answer which he had earlier dismissed. It also appeared on the tapes that one of the contestants, possibly Tecwen Whittock, said 'No!' while someone was coughing at the same time as Ingram was repeating an incorrect answer.
After the Major won the million, Tecwen Whittock won the next Fastest Finger First game and so took to the hotseat. He reached the £8,000 mark, but dropped back to £1,000 after answering a cookery question incorrectly.
The Prosecution suggested that the Major's wife, Diana, (who had won £32,000 on a previous show, as had his brother-in-law) had organised the scam. Pager telephone records revealed what appeared to be a practice session for another plan to cheat the system that was not subsequently carried out. The Prosecution claimed that this, the first, plan was for Major Ingram to hide four pagers on his body that would vibrate when an accomplice called the pager indicating the correct answer.
Following a trial at Southwark Crown Court lasting seven weeks, Major Ingram, his wife Diana and Tecwen Whittock were convicted of "procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception" on 7 April 2003. Major Ingram and his wife were each given suspended 18-month prison sentences and fined £15,000, while Tecwen Whittock received a 12-month suspended sentence and was fined £10,000. Together with legal costs, the Ingrams had to pay £115,000.
Despite the conviction, the Ingrams and Tecwen Whittock continue to deny that they colluded or acted dishonestly. They appealed the conviction. An ITV documentary entitled Millionaire: a Major Fraud, presented by Martin Bashir, was broadcast in Britain on 21 April 2003 with a follow-up two weeks later, Millionaire: The Final Act. The first advert in the first advertisement break in Major Fraud was for cough medicine, after a brainwave in the broadcaster's advertising department. Excerpts from the recording were broadcast but with enhanced audio highlighting the coughs emanating, the Prosecution alleged, from Tecwen Whittock. Immediately after Major Fraud the uncut recording but again with enhanced audio was broadcast on ITV2. Major Fraud included additional video recorded during the programme of Mrs Ingram sitting in the audience and apparently prompting Major Ingram with her own coughing and making glances in the direction of Tecwen Whittock. Major Fraud also contained interviews with production staff and some contestants present at the recording describing how they felt that something unusual had been happening. Notably, none of the defendants were interviewed. Major Ingram described Major Fraud and the programme broadcast on ITV2 as "one of the greatest TV editing con tricks in history".
On 24 July 2003 the British Army ordered Charles Ingram to resign his commission as a Major.
James Plaskett has argued in favour of the innocence of Ingram, his wife and Whittock.[3] Plaskett's essay led to journalist Bob Woffinden, who had a long time interest in miscarriages of justice, publishing a two page article in the 9 October 2004 edition of the British newspaper the Daily Mail entitled Is The Coughing Major Innocent? Jon Ronson, who attended the trial and had written two articles about it in The Guardian wrote a piece published on 17 July 2006, entitled Are the Millionaire three innocent?.[4]
In January 2006, Plaskett himself made it into the hot seat and won £250,000. An unusual ambience between player and host was noticed and remarked upon in the media. He subsequently donated £25,000 to a charity of Major Ingram's choice.
[edit] Phoney a Friend
In March 2007 various UK newspapers reported that an organised syndicate had been getting quiz enthusiasts on to the show in return for a percentage of their winnings. The rate varied between a quarter and a half depending on the stage reached by the contestant. For this the contestant received help in getting onto the show. In many cases the initial calls were made on their behalf. In other cases the contestants made the calls and had the costs refunded but received help with the call back tie-breakers via Skype. In most cases when the contestants were in the hot seat they again received help with the phone a friend question which involved the syndicate googling for answers.
The person behind the syndicate was Keith Burgess from Northern Ireland. Burgess admitted to helping around 200 contestants to appear on the show since 1999, for which he estimates to have made around a half a million pounds. The show producers are believed to have been aware of this operation.[5]
An earlier version of a Phoney a Friend syndicate was reported in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo during 2003.[6]
[edit] Spoofs and parodies
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was spoofed on an episode of Dick and Dom in da Bungalow on 4 March, 2006. The Chris Tarrant impersonator, Chris Muckey, asked the contestants a variety of 'hilarious' questions with rather obvious answers (e.g., What are you sitting on? A) Chair, B) Tree, C) Hippo, D) TV?). Those contestants who got a wrong answer were 'gunged' with Creamy Muck-Muck.
Whilst not exactly a spoof, since the real set was used and Chris Tarrant did appear, the show appeared in a sketch on the BBC Northern Ireland comedy sketch show Dry Your Eyes, starring the Hole in the Wall Gang. The paranoid "Irishman" character Gerry Murphy was in the hot seat and accused Tarrant and the English producers of deliberately making it hard for him just because he's Irish. He won the million pounds in the end, but when Tarrant said "I know someone who'll be having a few celebratory drinks tonight!", he ranted "Just because I'm Irish, I must be an alcoholic? Wee Gerry Murphy can't wait to spend half a million pounds on the Guinness, and blow the other half-million on a horse!" He then tore up the cheque, shouting "Well, let me tell you, I want no more to do with your English million pounds, you can stuff it!", and he stormed off, before returning and saying "I still get to have a pint of Guinness in the green room, don't I?".
BBC wanted to use Tarrant and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? for part of the plot of If They Could See Us Now, the 2001 Christmas special of Only Fools and Horses. However, ITV wanted in return the rights to show old episodes of Only Fools...; the BBC refused, and the agreement was not made. (Instead for the episode, a generic game show with strong Millionaire influences, "Goldrush", hosted by Jonathan Ross, was created).
[edit] Spinoff
ITV are planning a spinoff called 50/50 and is going to be based on the 50/50 lifeline on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ "Millionaire: A TV phenomenon", BBC News, 3 March, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Millionaire - Walkaway Game", itv.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Playing the Game", portia.org, 3 December, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Are the Millionaire three innocent?", The Guardian, 17 July, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Phoney a Friend", SundayMirror.co.uk, 18 March, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
- ^ "Millionaire syndicate is probed", northamptonchron.co.uk, 23April, 2003. Retrieved on 2007-10-05.
- ^ "ITV opts for 50/50 spin-off", The Sun, 30 August, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
