Who Wants to Be a Millionaire returned to prime time last night, with Regis back in his familiar seat. I have to admit, I got goosebumps watching the intro, and couldn't stop smiling while Regis entered the set, commented that he'd been standing there in the dark since 2004 waiting for the lights to come back on, and started up the first Fastest Finger round in five years. How great was that moment?
Three contestants ended up in the hot seat, and one, Rob Placek, walked away with $25,000. Even though the rules of the game have changed (and a brief explanation of things like the categories and the clock might have been a good idea for anyone who hasn't kept up with the syndie show), it still felt quite a bit like the old Millionaire that many of us loved.
Of course there were a few drawbacks: the celebrity bit at the end is quite obviously a stunt, and doesn't really add much to the show. Giving money to charity is always nice, but that's really time that could have been used to give more "real" contestants a shot at playing. It was also a bit of a waste that "Ask the Expert" personality Sam Donaldson wasn't called upon, although he seemed to be a good sport about it. Finally, maybe it's just me, but Regis just doesn't seem to fit with the timer/clock. I missed his banter with the contestants.
All that said, however, the game was truly enjoyable and I was surprised at how quickly the hour went by. This is Regis Philbin at his best. Three Millionaire millionaires, Robert "Bob-O" Essig, Joe Trela, and Ed Toutant, were in the audience, and the brief clips of their winning moments along with the short discussion with Regis was really a nice touch. I loved it, and will be watching faithfully throughout the next two weeks.
If you'll be tuning in tonight, the celebrity contestant will be Vanessa Williams, and the expert is George Stephanopoulos. In the audience will be the first poor contestant to ever lose the game on the first question: Robby Roseman.
Did you watch the premiere of this 10th Anniversary special event last night? What did you think? Would you rather have seen the show revert back to the "classic" rules, without the clock?
Photo courtesy ABC
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Kicks Off Once Again in Prime Time
By Carrie Grosvenor, About.com GuideAugust 10, 2009
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Comments
Praise first, I loved the whole thing despite the fact that it was exactly like the syndicated version. It was so cool to see Regis come back.
Now criticism:
I noticed that the signature Horn sound never went off, Regis just told the contestant that they would come back next time because the celebrity was about to come out. I think they should use the horn to signal the end of normal contestant time and the start of the celebrity’s run.
Also I think it wouldn’t have been a bad idea to reduce the number of people playing the Fastest Finger Round to eight because they have less time then they used to so more contestants are disappointed to not get in the hotseat.
I still think it was a mistake not to restore most of the game play, graphics and money amounts back to the original version but I really liked everything anyway and will be watching until the end.
I respectfully disagree with Jason on a couple of points.
1) Ten or eight players for the Fastest Finger wouldn’t make a lot of difference, especially if there’s only time to get to two or three players a night.
Now, if the leftover contestants would be allowed to carry over to the next night, having new players fill the vacated seats…that would be cool.
2) Clearly, part of the strategy with these specials is to beef up the audience for the weekday syndie version. (Regis even told viewers to catch the daytime show with Meredith Viera.) So it makes sense to use the weekday format, graphics, etc.
So yeah…it wasn’t the same as the old show. But it was good…until Katy Perry. WHY does ABC insist on dragging millionaires into the hot seat to play for charity? Do they not learn from the past?
This makes sense as well. The celebrities they have booked are legitimately a bit more famous than Regis’ celebrity editions, and finishing the show like that compared to 5 nights in a row with the same people… it doesn’t overdo it. Overall, it makes sense to get the fans of Katy Perry to watch to give up those 10 minutes, and I really kind of enjoyed it. When they get around to people like Sherri Shepard that will be interesting to see the ratings for that quarter hour, because she won’t bring in as many people.
When you consider that one woman, when Regis hosted it, took 52 minutes to answer one question, the clock makes sense to reduce production costs, and keeping the syndie rules is good for promotion like the previous commenter said.
At some point you realize the horn is meaningless and I’m glad to see it go. The one thing to me is the questions seemed ridiculously easy. I’m 17 and I knew all but 2 or 3 of the questions. The first contestant screwed up bigtime, the second contestant was a college kid and I think $25,000 was a good result for him—if he had used ATE he may have won $50,000—and with questions this easy I expect that we will see another $1,000,000 winner. That last $2,000 question did seem ridiculous but I think it was a fluke and the producers must have had some reason to think it was easy.
Actually, I would have liked to have seen (heard?) the horn as well. Would have been another nice little nod to the original.
I agree with you completely, Brandon, that Rob Placek would have had a better shot at his $50,000 question if he had asked Sam Donaldson rather than use the Double Dip. Excellent use of the PaF on his part, though.
Myke, at least we’re not getting a celebrity tournament or something. As fun as it was to watch Drew Carey/Norm MacDonald/Rosie O’Donnell etc play the game, it’s a huge relief that celebs are only appearing for a few minutes each episode this time.
That’s why I dislike the Double Dip life line, the 50:50 is much less risky. I also enjoyed seeing Katy Perry in the hot seat for a few minutes. It was a good solution to having celebrities play for charity without having a whole episode or week devoted to celebrity episodes.
Myke, you are right I think it would be a nice idea to have the fastest finger people carry over to the next day. At least the people who don’t make it into the hot seat can still audition for the syndicated version with Meredith.
Hi, I loved the show and felt the same way as the reporter did. What I noticed was that there were so many commercials. I can’t wait till they have commercial free TV. Also I don’t like the clock but I am glad they got rid of the fast fingers in the new game they play now. At first I couldn’t see anyone else but Regis in that position but after all the years of watching Merideth, I really like her. It is nice to see Regis again. No one can say “Let’s play Millionaire”like him.
thanks,
Rose Timmerman
They do have (marginally) commercial free TV. It’s called PBS. When’s the last time you saw a $5,000 game show on PBS, much less one for $1,000,000? There are very few exceptions to the rule that advertising is the only way to make money with TV.
There really weren’t more commercials with Regis (discounting the fact that as an hour long show, it will have twice as many commercials) as much as it seemed just because the game goes slower with Regis because he talks more.
And the other reason, Carrie, that I don’t get the horn is if they need a sound to signal the end of the show, why is there no sound to signal a commercial break? If a host can just say there is a break, why can’t he or she say it is time to end the show?
hi the show is good dose any remember aug 10th show i missed it and i want to know the names of the poeople that played on tues aug 10th show