Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Saw the first ever USA show of this at beginning of September 2014. One of the questions was: which painter painted The Scream which sold for over 119 million USD in 2012. Then it gave 4 answers but the right answer was not there. The contestant just took the money without answering. The Show said it was painted by Picasso. And they were right up to a point but it was not Picasso's painting called The Scream that sold for $119 million in 2012. It was The Scream painted by Edvard Munch. And that artist's name was not in the 4 options given to the contestant. That's very sloppy research.

Any cursory look on the web will show exactly that it was Edvard Munch who painted The Scream which sold for the astronomical amount to financier Leon Black.

A great show, it's great that they decided to keep the top prize $1,000,000 considering it's syndicated and usually the budget is tighter. It's still exciting, although I do miss Regis as host, Meredith is good (and better at pronounciations) but a little too dull at times for such a high adrenalin show like Millionaire.

In order to keep the budget to a minimum, they decided to nix the Fastest Finger round and keep the top prize going. Meredith is the greatest host than Regis is, and had newer top right graphics for those entering the $16,000 level and used a "classical" ending if someone won a million bucks. This show is always a keeper at 4:30 on channel 24 before the 5 o'clock news come on.

I didn't care for Regis Philbun as host. He seemed to make the contestants feel so uncomfortable. However, Meredith Viera is a wonderfully funny woman, and she is very comfortable with the contestants, and her smile is as warm as the noon time sun. So I hope that the show lasts for a long time, and Meredith stays on my television at 8:30/9:30 C until she decides that it is time to move on.

OK... nobody gets everything right. The Producers forgot that people at home are actually TRYING TO PLAY ALONG IN THE GAME. The announcer... Chris... is excellent and perfect for the show. The lights and music and noise... is way too overproduced. The camera motion is enough to make Dramamine noneffective. The Titanic had less sickening motion.

OK... if we were just looking for a pretty light show... well done. Except its all blue.

If you are looking to play along, being that mostly smarter more intellectually oriented people will be attracted to such shows... good luck. The constant breakaways and sweeping lights and momentary question viewing makes it almost impossible to be there with the contestants. Rookie mistake. Always keep in mind the viewer point of view.

I would love to see the dollar ladder and the question in a box in a corner of the screen... all the time. It's very hard to read and concentrate on long questions when they are only on screen for five seconds. Same mistake as Family Feud... you can't see the answer board long enough.

Yes, I play along at home with both Millionaire and Family Feud... but the Producers only want you to look at the people and be distracted by the pretty lights. Sigh.