Are ITV phasing out Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

It's been done live before and I don't think it lasted 4 hours. It can quite easily be live, or at least parts of it live - like The Vault. It's not exactly that complex.

They could always bring in some sort of time limit for each question or set of questions, but half the boredom of the show is waiting for someone to choose an answer anyway. And the phone-a-friend issue? Why not bring along 5 friends, sit 'em in a sound-proof box with a telephone?

The only down-side to these kinds of adjustments to the show is that it starts to become like any other gameshow, when originally it was quite unique.

Their big mistake was starting something big, looking at the ratings and thinking "oh, people must like this, we'll show it again, and again, and again..."

The US Super-Millionaire version introduced two new lifelines - used only for the final 5 questions (I think):

THREE WISE MEN: A panel of three strangers give their answer

DOUBLE DIP: The contestant gives two answers instead of one(presumably this can't be used in conjunction with 50/50)

No, it was deliberately designed so if you still had your 50:50 you could get a free answer. Nobody had saved their 50:50 up to that point though.

Also, if you did use it, you had to follow through with it. You couldn't pick one answer and then walk away if you were wrong.

I agree that Millionaire needs a revamp. I wonder why they can do who WTBA Billionaire special in the US but not here?

The problem is if you revamp it to look more modern or something, you will make it "another quiz show".
When WTBAM first started I used to watch is often, now I only watch it if it happens to be on the television. They need to do something though, the OFAH special which was orginally going to do the quiz on WTBAM i'm sure would have given it some good publicty, shame ITV pulled the plug.

I think ITV should replace WWTBAM with the show they actually made up in Only Fools and Horses, what was it? Golddust or something?

That would be great, imagine Johnathon Ross hosting that!

"COMEON THIS IS CLASS!"

lol yeh, although it did seem to be a very similar format to WWTBAM with lifelines such as "Shot in the dark" or you could "Drop One".

Still would have been very entertaining to see Del Trotter on WWTBAM!

But could we stand another show featuring Jonathon Ross?

Colin

Which if my memory served me correctly - the 3 wise men, just happened to be employees of the programme sponsor!

Conflict of interest, anyone?

Super Millionaire IMO is the American version saying "anything you can do, we can do better." It's just plain daft and I really don't think anybody really *needs* £1Billion (or £10Million or whatever it is). There's lots they can do to the show now without overdoing it.

(Deep breath)

The opening titles aren't as good as they used to be, it's been sparkled up too much. Things needs to be done to give it more suspense. Make it slicker, animate the questions onto the screen, more metal, more darkness, make the studio look taller by using lower camera shots.

http://www.leeseaman.com/tvmocks/itv/millionaire/5AUG04/set.jpg
The left image is the 1998 set mocked up to look like the current set. There's no suspense in it, it looks like just another gameshow with its blues and purples. On the right image, it's mostly dark and slightly smokey - more mysterious. Would work a treat with those original WWTBAM titles from 1998.

A little idea with the lighting - As you win more money the audience fade away, and the lower lights turn purple. When the contestant comes into the centre at the beginning, the low lights follow the contestant, but when he leaves the stage they stay pointing upwards.

The music score also needs updating. As you get closer to the million, the sounds get more darker and mysterious - not really backing music anymore, but an atmosphere. Not really a beat to the music anymore, but maybe low echoing sounds, although the heartbeat could stay. Well thats what I think anyway!

I thought Super Millionaire was £10million, not a billion!

IMO the biggest problem with Millionaire is that it's lost all of its novelty, mainly because of its regular time slot. When it only appeared once every few months, it was like an event. And the fact that it was on night after night meant that sometimes you actually cared about contestants that had been carried over.

Another thing that bothers me about Millionaire is that, unless you've read about it in the papers, you know no-one's going to win the million. It takes any element of surprise out of the programme. I appreciate how difficult this is, but the leaks have got to stop. Maybe if the programme was recorded the night beforehand.

As for gimmicks such as larger prizes and new lifelines, I think that would be a ridiculous idea. Millionaire's genius is in its simplicity, and messing with that would be a mistake.

Also note that Saturday night is the least watched night of the week.

I'd suggest swapping Wednesday night's edition of The Bill with Millionaire - giving Millionaire an audience to inherit from Corrie and giving Saturday night a show that pulls in the ratings.