Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is a British quiz show, produced by Celador. In May 2008, the Dutch company 2waytraffic bought the license for the international format.

History

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? aired for the first time on 4 September 1998 in the United Kingdom. The UK show was previously hosted by Chris Tarrant from it's start in 1998 until 2014. It had its biggest ratings in March 1999 when more than 19 million were watching the show. The first millionaire on the show was Judith Keppel who appeared on 20 November 2000.

The show was praised for its simple game structure, and has had a massive impact on game shows that followed, with future game shows using darker, tenser music like Millionaire, along with darker lighting in studios. Additionally, the game structure of Millionaire is often copied, with many formats introducing a money ladder or variants of lifelines.

National variants

More than 100 countries around the world have bought the license and air local versions of the show, including Australia, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Russia, United States. The United States version became a big hit when Regis Philbin started hosting it in 1999. John Carpenter, a man who worked for the IRS, became the first person to win the grand prize of $1,000,000 in 1999. Philbin hosted the show until 2002. A syndicated version of the show has aired since 2002. It is hosted by Meredith Vieira. The ABC revival stars Jimmy Kimmel.

Each country airs the show under similar rules. They all have the same studio design.

In Italy, a spin-off called Fifty-Fifty aired in 2008, but was unsuccessful in all countries to date. The show had questions with two answer options. To win, one player had to select an answer, and their partner has to decide if the answer is right or wrong without seeing the answer the first player locked in. It's sometimes debated the show was actually created in the UK, but this is not proven.

In Australia, a spin-off called Millionaire Hot Seat has aired since 2009, based on a New Year's Special of the Italian version. The show was a fast-paced version. Players in this version had no lifelines, players would line up in a queue, and whoever answered the final question correctly would win the prize money. It was cancelled in 2023 in favour of an Australian version of Tipping Point, however Ten Network announced a reboot in 2025, set to air in 2026.

In 2010, America massively changed the rules of the main show in what became known as the "Shuffle Format" (also referred to as the Supermix Format in a promotional video for 2waytraffic). In this show, the first 10 questions were small sums of money that would be in random positions, and a correct answer would add the money to a total prize fund. The money was hidden until after the question was revealed. In this version, a new lifeline called "Jump the Question" was introduced, forfeiting the hidden money to skip the question. The last questions on the money ladder were played the same way the classic version was, with their round 1 winnings acting as a safety net.

In the UK, a spin-off called Fastest Finger First aired in 2022 based on the initial round of the show, referred to by the same name. Winners would get to play Millionaire in it's next series without going through Millionaire's Fastest Finger First round. It was cancelled due to criticism that it repeating the Fastest Finger First game makes it even harder than just going on the main show.

Also in Italy, a spin-off known internationally as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?: The Tournament aired. This version of the show uses 15 Fastest Finger First questions to eliminate contestants who have performed the worst every 5 questions. Then, the finalists play the game one after the other, going from worst to best in the Fastest Finger First rankings. The player who got the most money in that episode returns the next episode. At the end of the series, only the finalist with the largest total winnings gets to keep their winnings. Losing finalists keep a qualification bonus they earned for qualifying, and people who didn't pass Fastest Finger First win nothing at all.