Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

I'm not going to talk about what the rules are for this show. Everyone knows it's about answering fifteen questions correctly to win £1,000,000.

This has been going in the UK since 1998 and it has spread all over the world. It is presented by the charismatic Chris Tarrant who has a great rapport with the contestants and provides plenty of entertainment. There have been some wonderful contestants over time. Some of them have been reckless gamblers, some of them have been cautious and some of them have just been damn strange.

I like the show because it's not easy. People really have to work for their money. The first few questions are easy but after, that, they are really hard.

There's several puzzling things about the show though. Why are the audience so stupid when a contestant 'Asks The Audience?' Why does 50/50 always leave the least obvious answers? And, why when Chris Tarrant phones the contestants friend, is the phone never engaged?

It is now 2003 and the show has been running for nearly five years. And it's set to get bigger thanks to the notorious 'Millionaire Fraud Trial' where British Army Major Charles Ingram, his wife and another contestant were found by a jury to be guilty of cheating to get to the million. Whether they did cheat or not will be debated for years to come? What we can be certain of is that the publicity arising from the trial will ensure Millionaire's continued success for years.

When visiting my grandmother my wife and I watch this show! My wife and grandmother find the show intriguing . Myself, I get bored half way through the show. All the um's and the contestant talking to himself becomes tedious. Just make a decision already! Like Homer says boring! I like the faster paced contestants, who stick with a decision. At least the viewers would not have to wait until tomorrow to see the results. The final sound to signify the end has to be redone. It has got to be the most annoying sound. Do they do that on purpose? the first questions are so easy and anyone that uses a life line on those questions should not even be on the show. My wife gets so mad when they do that. My grandmother can hardly wait to see the next winner. It is like a soap opera for her. 6 or 7/10

From a group of ten contestants, the quickest to answer a simple question is selected to come to the middle of the studio and play for a million pounds. Starting off with a question worth £100 the money doubles (more or less) with each question – but they also get progressively harder and harder. If the contestant gets a question wrong he drops back down to either £1000 or £32000, depending on which he has passed, however to help him he can select 50/50 (two of the four answers disappear), ask the audience (the audience chose the answer for him in percentage terms) or phone a friend (the contestant can ring someone to ask him the question). As if that wasn't tense enough, Chris Tarrant never lets it lie for a second.

I'm not a big fan of this show because, like many viewers I just saw it too many times. However, at its peak it was the show everyone wanted to be on and was the one everyone watched. The questions start with the obvious and build to the increasingly more difficult and the TV audience generally start out going 'well durr' before then entering the stage where they shout the right answer at the telly and then eventually taking guesses and muttering 'don't risk it, don't risk it' like some sort of mantra under their breath. It makes for riveting viewing even if the first 4 or 5 questions are always pretty dull. The formula is simple but the UK presenter Chris Tarrant is responsible for making it as successful as it was.

Tarrant may be a little smug for my personal tastes but here he found a vehicle that he could use his smarmy character to good effect. 'Are you sure' he repeatedly asks with a rather self-satisfied smirk on his face while the contestants suddenly suffer a crises of confidence and the audience holds its breath. Combined with the atmospheric music, low lighting and the constant heartbeat effect it made it an enjoyably tense quiz show even if it was hardly anything like Mastermind in terms of intellect. However, when ITV found they had a hit on their hands they made the decision to ride it as hard as they possibly could and in fairness I suppose that this was the best decision in the short term. It would be off for a few months while people rang in and sponsors jockeyed for position and then it would be everywhere for a few months – on almost every night of the week, on several times a day at Christmas time etc and this continued for quite a while. But then viewers started to get too used to the formula and turned off. ITV countered with the twists of couples taking part, celebrities, father/son etc but eventually they dropped it down into a teatime slot and now it appears to occasionally turn up on a Saturday afternoon (but I think it is all repeats). I can understand why ITV did this – it gave them a sudden massive boost in the ratings, they were selling advertising space for as high a price as they could and it looked like it would never end – and then it did.

Overall this is not a great quiz show. The questions are not so hard that most people with a good general knowledge couldn't get to £32k without too much stress and really it is only the atmosphere created by the music, lighting and the host that really made this as successful as it was. It was easy to veg in front of this show and think 'I could do that' and also enjoy seeing people get stressed and a) risk it all and win, b) risk it all and lose, c) just take the money or d) cheat and get taken to court! Fun but basically killed off by ITV chasing as much cash as it could get as quickly as possible.

It was a great show in the early years but lost alot of sparkle. Like him or not Clarkson is a great host in this show.

Buy a Casio Calculator - in 1981 for step-daughter - play with it for five minutes, multiply 1x2, 2x2, 4x2 and so on.., realize that got past one million quick - with just twenty multiplications, recheck, what a great idea for a board game, I'll call it 'Millionaire'. Start with a £ or a $ and become a Millionaire.

There will be Q&A., Chance it Cards, Bank it Cards, Risk it Cards and Lifelines at £1,000, £32,000 and £64,000 - in each corner of the board.

Why not create a format of the concept for TV. Add a few more additions like, Phone-in - to get on the show, FFF., in this case, Fastest Foot First, because there is a floor. Questions and Answers, a Hot Seat - one to one, etc. It's so simple everyone will love it, I'll send it to a couple of TV companies to see if they are interested, how about, Celador and ITV? No, no luck there. Oh! It looks like they did like it in the end, but my name is not on it, why is that? Oh! I see, someone else created it, in fact, three others known as the the 'Dream Team' created it, at the same time as me. What a Bummer! What a coincidence as well? They must have some real un-doctored documents to prove they created it BEFORE me surely, don't they? Lets' ask them. No. Well that is strange don't you think? Not even one credible document? No, you were told no, but, they did create it. Well, I suppose, three against one, and of course, Celador and ITV say it was them. Not a lot one can do because they now have all the money earned from it and some even have had awards bestowed upon them.

It wasn't such a bad idea in the end was it? Thank you John, lots of people did enjoy it... and thank you Casio.

Incidentally, the Celador and ITV TV Pilot started with One Pound exactly the same as my format. It was painfully slow and needed to change.

The great phrase, 'Phone a Friend', did not come from me. I wish it had.

The person who coined that phrase was Mr Tim Boone. It was taken from his TV format called 'Help' which was presented to ITV at the same time as my concept, 'Millionaire', ITV used it, without his say-so, I believe.

Thought I should try to put the record straight - as no one else will.

And life goes on...