WHEN ITV launched Who Wants to Be a Millionaire back in 1998, it soon became a worldwide phenomenon. However in January, after a successful 12 year run, it was axed by the channel that launched the format.
From its humble beginnings in September 1998, its tense moments and putting contestants under pressure quickly had the nation gripped. In its heyday, it usually pulled in over 10 million viewers per show. The format of the show was both simple and complex. After a race to see who answered a question in the quickest time, the selected contestant had to face 15 questions to win the £1 million jackpot. As the questions got tougher and the money kept climbing, they were given three ‘lifelines’ at their disposal. 50:50 which eliminated two wrong answers, Phone a Friend, where the contestant was able to call a relative at home for 30 seconds to help and Ask the Audience, where the studio audience would vote on the question. One year later, the qualifying question was replaced by the more challenging and popular ‘Fastest Finger First’ and the contestant that got to play was the one that put a sequence of answers in the correct order in the fastest time. The show made host Chris Tarrant a household name, particularly for his use of the phrase “But we don’t want to give you that?” when contestants gradually won the bigger prizes and his annoying coy to always call for an ad break when the ongoing game reached a very tense point.
Despite the temptation of a life-changing cash prize, most people were chicken and quit when ahead of the game plan. Then in November 2000, 58 year-old Judith Keppel became the first winner of the million pound prize in Britain, exactly a year after the US had generated its first winner of the top prize. Only four contestants would ever hit the million in the rest of the show’s run. David Edwards and Robert Brydges would both hit the mark in 2001, Pat Gibson in 2004 and Ingram Wilcox in 2006.
There was theoretically, a sixth winner of the prize, Major Charles Ingram. However his win in 2001, was executed by cheating. After his game went into a second episode, on the eve of its recording, he telephoned a contestant that was on the Fastest Finger bench for that night and arranged a huge scam. Ingram won the million thanks to the contestant using a cough technique to prevent him from going for an incorrect answer. The recording was subsequently investigated and Ingram, the contestant helper and Tarrant were all guilty. Ingram was stripped of his prize and he and the contestant helper were given suspended sentences whilst Tarrant was reprimanded and fined for not detecting this behaviour in the first place. Furthermore, the recording was pulled from being shown on ITV1 and it has never been broadcast since.
Of course like other gameshows, it came in the firing line many times for several controversies and mistakes. In its latter years, the format was dying through being outfoxed by bigger and better shows. Celador, the original owners of the show put it up for sale and in 2007, ITV decided to revamp the format by reducing the amount of questions from 15 to 12 by which point, the show had become more prominent with celebrity editions than normal versions. Then they introduced a radical overhaul last year by axing the Fastest Finger First segment, introducing a clock for the early questions and an extra lifeline for the latter stage where contestants could swap a question with a new one.
However, this didn’t improve its fortunes and in January, the show was given the expectant axe. ITV has insisted that the show will live on as it is set to adopt similar style to Top of the Pops by returning for special editions at Christmas, after its success of live celebrity episode last festive season. It is no doubt the end of an era. Millionaire had served ITV well and I hope they will keep true on their word by bringing it back for one-off specials from time to time.
www.themillionairethree.com/
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