Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is celebrating its tenth season in syndication this year, kicking off with the season premiere on September 5th. There are lots of theme weeks, game twists, and other surprises in store this season.One of the most interesting twists is the introducation of special "Double Your Money" episodes. Beginning September 26th and running sporadically throughout the season, contestants will have the opportunity to double the amount of prize money for a single question in the first part of the game. Qualifying questions will be randomly selected at the start of the contestant's game. Other games will have not only cash but also prizes attached to them, things like Maytag appliances and Disney Cruises.
Another great addition is called "Club Millionaire," which gives viewers the chance to win prizes from home - and at least three viewers will win the chance to play the game as a contestant. Club Millionaire will launch in a few weeks and offer sweepstakes and daily deals. To play, watch the show and look for daily keywords. Enter those keywords online for a chance to win. We'll have more details on this when it goes live.
In addition to the potential for more cash and prizes, there are also a number of theme weeks and episodes coming up. Some of these include:
- Celebrity Week - From September 19th to 23rd, celebrities will appear on the show to try and win money for the Alzheimer's Association.
- Ghost Hunters - Ghost Hunters stars Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson will return to Millionaire this Halloween. In an interesting twist, Meredith Vieira will join Jason, Grant, and their team on a special episode of Ghost Hunters on October 26th.
- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - In another crossover, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team members Paige Hemmis and Michael Maloney will appear on Millionaire to try and win cash for charity. Later on in prime time, Meredith Vieira will show up on Extreme Makeover to present the check for their winnings. Both shows will air on Friday, November 18th.
- Mike Rowe - One of my favorite TV stars, Mike Rowe, will also be playing Millionaire this season, with his winnings going to his charity the mikeroweWORKS foundation. The air date for this one is yet to be confirmed.
- Deadliest Catch - Deadliest Catch stars Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand will play Millionaire as a team in an upcoming episode, donating their winnings to the Seattle Fisherman's Memorial.
Here's a question to you though: if you were going to plan something for the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 10th season, what would you do? I don't mean permanent game changes, I'm talking about temporary twists, one-off additions, special bonuses, and that kind of thing. Comments are open!
Photo courtesy Valleycrest Productions Ltd.
Comments
I want a special that they might call, “The Audience goes for a Million week” or something more cleaver, where instead of having a contestant in the hot seat. The audience answers every question with the ATA interface and the winnings are split. Of course the final answer would be the majority answer.
They should do a special, Who Wants to Be A Super Millionaire week, which would resemble the original special with Regis but be in the fashion of the new rules. To be fair I would have some special way of deciding which contests get to play in the Super Millionaire week.
And of course a special week in which they invite me back for some bizarre reason
lol
Sorry to double post but of course I know that there is no “hot seat” anymore, and to add to my idea about “the Audience goes for a Million week” maybe to make it less impersonal an audience member is randomly selected to stand where the contestant would normally stand and would be the voice of the audience, but would not get any more money than the rest. This person might even have the responsibility of choosing when to jump the question if they decide to preserve those life lines in my theoretical special week.
I like that idea; of course I would like to see anyone who passes the test 8 times gets on the show right away…they should start that policy with the afternoon taping on August 31st :p
When will the Hillstrands be on? Anybody know the date? Must watch
I’m interested in watching the Hillstrands play Millionaire too….my favorite Deadliest Catch guys on my favorite game show….nice !
This is the most difficult show to win money on in television history. From the first question to the last one, a contestant would need to be an computer. Most contestant walk about with only the $1000 for appearing on the the show. CBS is a cheap network.
(First of all, it’s not CBS, it’s in syndication. For example, for me Millionaire airs on ABC.)
While the questions ARE indeed more difficult than they once were, you have to compare the budget of a syndicated show offering up to $1 million per contestant vs. the hugely popular primetime show offering the same amount. The latter could afford to practically give away $32K+ for each contestant; the former cannot. And, out of the 294 contestants on season 9, “most” do not walk away with $1,000; rather, the exact number is 110. That’s around 37%, which is a significant amount, but not close to a majority. Actually, that’s DOWN from the 38.5% who walked with $5,000 (the first safe haven) or less in season 8. (The average for seasons 1-8 is 34%.)
Also, contestant winnings aren’t way down or anything: $20,472 in season 9 vs. $20,652 in season 8. Combined with the greater number of contestants per show in the shuffle format, season 9 has an average of $37,153 in winnings per show vs. $36,111 in winnings per show from season 8. (And 4 contestants in S9, as opposed to just one in S8, won $250,000.)
Thanks for that data analysis Ryan it was quite interesting. I myself am very aware that a syndicated show has a much smaller budget for prizes but I have to say that it would be really nice to see another Million dollar winner soon. We still haven’t had one since Nancy Christy. (No Sam Murray you don’t count, sorry).
this change last season is great because its better,but unfortunately the hot seat what i like the most is gone and has been retired i miss them so i’ll going to watch the new season in 4 days 50 minutes & 34 seconds.
When are the Hillstrand’s going to be on the show?
Havn’t watched it since they changed the show last year and won’t watch it until they return to the original format with the hot seat. The show sucks now.