The folks over at Who Wants to Be a Millionaire have decided to bump up one of the weeks that will feature a guest host. While Meredith Vieira took a couple of weeks off, guest hosts Regis Philbin and John Henson each took a week at the helm of the show. Philbin's week, which was originally scheduled to air next spring, has been bumped quite dramatically, and will now air the week of November 30-December 4.

These shows were recorded earlier this month, and as we originally reported, Regis had confirmed on his talk show that he was headed out to start taping the episodes.

We haven't been given a reason for the bump, but I can only assume that they're trying to ride the wave of increased viewership, which resulted from the Tournament of Ten.

What's more puzzling, however, is whether or not these episodes will include the Phone-A-Friend lifeline. We were told by Vieira herself that P-a-F was a goner as of January 2010. Since these episodes with Regis were originally intended to air after that, it's likely that we'll be down to three lifelines as soon as next week, with P-a-F returning the following week. That should make for some confusion amongst viewers.

Either way, it's going to be a great week. After the Millionaire prime time event, it'll be good to see Regis back on the show again.

Photo courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.

If you're a fan of Howie Mandel, you'll want to make a trip to the book store (or add this title to your Christmas wish list). His new book, Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me, hits the shelves today.

The book is autobiographical, documenting his struggles with OCD and ADHD. It's well known that Mandel is a germaphobe, and according to early reviews, his book not only lists all of his neuroses, but examines exactly how he deals with each of them. As the host of Deal or No Deal and a successful standup comic, he interacts with strangers on a regular basis. The book addresses this but also goes deeper, examining the effects of Mandel's struggles on his family.

Of course Here's the Deal is a funny book. You can't expect anything less from the guy who gave us Bobby's World. But it also has a serious side, and allows fans a brief glimpse of what Howie Mandel deals with on a day-to-day basis. He's got some dates scheduled for a book tour (with more to come as far as we know) listed on his website, and you can follow him on Twitter or Facebook as well.

If you're interested in picking up Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me, you can compare prices here.

Photo courtesy NBC

By Chad Mosher

This week, we're going to break from the usual audition advice to provide a couple of stories with a tip and message. I've been on two big national game shows: Jeopardy! and Million Dollar Password. Both were very nice and accommodating; the best part about both was the free, catered lunch in the middle. With Jeopardy!, we were driven to the on-set restaurant, The Grill, while on Password we had the studio's catering brought to us in the green room. You must learn that it is very important to get along with food during your game show experience.

It should be made known that I'm a pretty uncoordinated, clumsy person. I might have a solid brain upstairs but the rest of the body is flimsy. So if I can screw something up, it's likely that I will. I've come to know, love and get along with Murphy's Law ("Anything that can go wrong will go wrong") very well during my time on earth.

In the case of Jeopardy! I played in the Kids Tournament, so you can see where having a practically unsupervised 12-year-old order a hot dog with ketchup and mustard could possibly go wrong. Of course, I spilled a drop of ketchup right in the upper middle of my shirt. I quickly cleaned it up and thought it was no big deal, thinking I had eliminated any remnant. Apparently, I was wrong and I didn't know how wrong I was until it about two minutes before I was set to tape.

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Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has wrapped up its inaugural Tournament of Ten and crowned a winner. Eighth seed Sam Murray, who was the only contestant to follow his gut and answer his million dollar question, received his souvenir giant check on Friday, with the real check for a million dollars to come.

Many viewers had high hopes for Jehan Shamsid-Deen, who took home $250,000 earlier this season and was seeded at the top of the leaderboard. She is easily one of the strongest contestants the show has seen in quite some time, and she faced her million dollar question yesterday. The question was:

A rare example of a word that rhymes with "orange," the Blorenge is a what?
A: River in Ireland B: Forest in Scotland C: Mountain in Wales D: Desert in Australia

Shamsid-Deen did seem to know the answer, but a quarter of a million is a lot to risk without being 100% certain. She walked away from her question, handing Murray the win.

With only one person going for it throughout the course of the tournament, it didn't turn out to be quite as exciting as it could have been - of course, this is beyond anyone's control. Still, we've finally got a new millionaire on the show, even if the route to the million was altered. Our congratulations go out to Sam Murray and all of the rest of the contestants in the tournament. If you missed any of the questions, you can get caught up with this Tournament of Ten Results Guide.

On Thursday, production held a short conference call with Shamsid-Deen and Murray. It was very apparent that all of the contestants in the tournament had bonded, and there are even plans for them to all get together socially in the future. The experience itself was obviously a good one for everyone involved.

I asked the PR rep who was handling the call if she knew if there were plans to continue the tournament into next season. The short answer was that it's a possibility. There's also the possibility that we could see Sam Murray and/or Jehan Shamsid-Deen as experts on the show for the Ask the Expert lifeline next season, as both said they would love to participate.

Now that the tournament has wrapped, with a nice little bump in viewership too, what is your overall impression? Are you happy to see a new millionaire on the show, or would you rather they had plodded along until a millionaire could be "earned" the traditional way? Would you like to see the Tournament of Ten return next season, and if so, what changes would you make?

Photo courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.