Yesterday on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, contestant Carlos Giron ended up walking away from his $500,000 question after using three lifelines to try and determine the answer. Even though "Ask the Expert" and "Ask the Audience" both steered him towards the correct answer, he didn't feel confident enough to risk dropping back to $25,000 if he got it wrong, and instead walked away with $250,000.$250,000 is a lot of money and I'm sure Carlos is pleased with his winnings. However, a reader here suggests that the time restrictions, new to this season of Millionaire, are to blame for contestants choosing to walk away.
Reader andrew b says:
"How many places have I said that the timer just does not work? Carlos would have almost certainly gone for that 500K if he’d had time."Following that logic, which I tend to agree with, Carlos likely would have gone with the correct answer on that particular question, and ended up with at least $500,000. There have been other cases of this happening during this season, most recently with Roger Storm walking away at the same payout level. And I know that one member of this community has been burned by the timer as well.
So what do you think? Would we be seeing more big winners this season if the show hadn't added the timer? Or would that only result in more people going for more cash, only to be disappointed after getting the answer wrong? The time restrictions to seem to make the game go by faster, but maybe that's coming at a cost of fewer big payouts.
Image courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.
Comments
I don’t think the clock, per se, is a problem, but the ability to use “banked” time on the LAST question, which very few people ever see, pretty much guarantees that time can’t be used. Some change to the rules that would allow people to access “banked” time on earlier questions (under certain restrictions, I’m sure), would lead to more risk-taking, IMHO.
We would not have had Ogi win 500K, and we certainly would not have had Joe Trela win 1M, if they had to decide in their given time.
This is one reason why Speed DonD didn’t work too well, because you simply cannot make the decision to risk $300,000 while your family is desperate for money and you have student loans to pay off, you need a new car, etcetera etcetera – if you have just 20 seconds to decide!
This timer takes away from the original spirit of Millionaire, which was about deduction, weighing risks, and just pure nerve. Watch one of the early episodes, and imagine how it would have gone with these time limits. David Honea’s “Creel”, known as the 18th most memorable game show moment by loogslair, would be gone, guaranteed. Joe Trela, 27th on that same list, would likely not have won. Doug Van Gundy, 12th, might have gotten pressured out. Kati Knudsen, 32nd, would not have gone for her 500K question, or lost earlier based on extra pressure, and while she might have won more, the impact of the game would be greatly reduced.
Pretty much it would have been reduced to John Carpenter, because nobody else was that quick.
I really, really liked what they tried to do to make the timer work when I watched Carlos play, and I love the new graphics, but the timer is just something that does not work, and it ruins what made such a simple quiz show so special.
Some say hiring Carrot Top would have been a worse change…it’s debatable.
I have been strongly against the timer from the moment I was told about it being implemented. I myself feel that I was a victim of said timer when I was on the show. But I won’t get into that.
I agree whole heatedly that Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and a Clock simply DO NOT mix. Millionaire has always been a show where you are encouraged to talk out the answers and take your time and 45 seconds isn’t enough time to make a life changing decision as to risk a fortune to answer a question.
Michael Davies if your ever see this please reverse your horrible mistake to change the show.
In short, I agree with what andrew said above.
Jason, it was you I was referring to when I mentioned that at least one person in this community had been burned by the timer – didn’t know if you wanted to be “outed” or not.
Andrew, you make excellent points about past winners.
I think a timer works when there are contestants competing against one another – a la Jeopardy. The problem here is that there’s only a single contestant, so there can only be one single reason for the timer, and that’s to speed up the game.
Here’s a question then. Were people complaining that WWTBAM was too long or drawn out before this change was implemented? I never heard any such complaints, but perhaps the powers that be thought it needed to be done?
Carrie: Ah, lol. I suspected it might be me. I don’t mind being “outed”
I remember asking one of the handlers why the new clock was added and the answer I got was what I perceived as the ulterior motive behind it. In the studio, each episode was taking a long time to tape that sometimes taping of 5 episodes a day ended really late at night and so the producers wanted to find a way to make things end quicker. “We want to go home and see our families…it was hard for the staff and Meredith” (that’s probably not an exact quote). I was appalled when I heard that. Sure I’m sympathetic toward them wanting to go home at a reasonable hour but why not just tape 4 episodes or 3 episodes a day and just work everyday thoughtout the year rather than starting in like June through November.
In fairness, though, a ‘handler’s’ comment may not reflect the actual…or complete…reason the executives made the change. The staff may like it for those reasons…heck, they may have lobbied for it…but many factors can go into it.
I’m the exception in the fan community I guess–I like the clock and have no issues that it may lead people to bail out. I like the pressure it adds, and if that means the staff also gets to see their kids on taping days, well, great too. If anything, I’m less impressed by folks who took crazy amounts of time to answer.
A contestant could, in theory take 10 minutes to think about a question. I think that’s fine. But you’d never see that on TV they edit it down, way down, maybe less than 15 seconds.
To be honest with you I’m not really sure who told me that. It was either one of the handlers or it was the guy who approved me as a contestant on the show (sorry I can’t be more exact), who might of had a hirer position. But yes, I agree, they wouldn’t of made a change to the show based only on selfish reasons because they wouldn’t want to risk losing viewers.
I hope they are losing viewers, so that they will take a hint and take away the clock. I have nothing against the Ask the Expert or Double Dip, but the clock is just terrible.
Oh, they easily could take 10 minutes…maybe much more, but as a viewer, even the two minutes of hemming and hawing didn’t build suspense for me–just one person’s tastes. I knew, or could reasonably guess, the actual process went on considerably longer when there was that much shown (as opposed to the “see-the-question-don’t-know-it-walk-away-immediately” type scenarios).
The clock, to me, is what makes the tension real. Though admittedly an exaggeration, it’s like a game show version of life-or-death decisions–life doesn’t always come with unlimited time, so I enjoy seeing it play out in real time (or a darned close representation of it).
I don’t think there’s any evidence of a big decline, and research could easily determine if any decline out there is or isn’t realted to a clock (and my hunch is there isn’t some mass hatred of the clock among everyday viewers). The ratings have largely mirrored the rest of the syndicated pack when you look at the season as a whole, showing some down periods comparable to the other programs, and some up periods as well.
I THINK WHEN CONTESTANT REACHES THE TOP LEVEL PRIZES STARTING AT THE $250,000 THE CLOCK SHOULD GO AWAY! LET THE CONTESTANT USE AS MUCH TIME AS THEY NEED TO ANSWER THE QUESTION! THAT WAY EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY! PRODUCTION WON’T TAKE AS LONG AND THE VIEWERS WON’T HAVE TO WATCH A CONTESTANT PONDER ON THE RIGHT ANSWER FOR THE $200 FOREVER!
One thing to keep in mind re: the desire of staff to have shorter days. Just making the days shorter, but working MORE days (or through a larger amount of the year) is probably not especially viable. As I recall, the “finish it all early” aspect is dictated by Meredith’s availability. They already do more “guest hosts” than pretty much any other game show as it is. If they taped for a larger part of the year, they may as well just hire a different host. It’s probably not considered a viable solution as long as they want to keep Meredith.
(Of course, there are rumors that they may well be getting a new host soon, so we’ll have to see.)
We’ve also seen several llamas because the contestant just couldn’t figure the answer out in 15 seconds, easy or not.
So the clock did the unthinkable within one year. But I was never in doubt it would happen someday.
If I see the future and it happens, it’s a sign of guaranteed decline. All unbelievers only have to look at the carnage of Deal or No Deal.
Repent and sin no more, ABC.
I would say the timer is okay for the sake of showing more…but I think the upper-level questions need more time than just 45 seconds. Maybe like 2-5 minutes. Or, as Mr. Baker-Wright said, that the ability to use “banked” time anywhere should be a feature.
Either that, or ABC just needs to do a lot more editing to make long questions feel much shorter.