ITV1
9pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Yeah, wooh! The public.
Three special live editions where not only do members of the public get to sit in the hotseat, but everybody playing along at home can get their name and lights and even help out the contestants in the studio. Here’s the Millionaire site where you should be able to play along.
Edit: Although it sounds like Ask the Nation has been ditched.
It’s a sad day indeed when the special episodes of a show become the regular ones and a regular episode is the special.
The playalong game seems to be quite a bit ahead of the actual show.
I couldn’t tell if the game was that much ahead of the show or if it was just because I was watching online so my stream was behind!
Oh, that is a good point… I hope it’s just the game. I really hate having all the results spoiled by the game every time. It’s just as bad as MPD.
Tactical play coming up here if the klaxon doesn’t sound before the buzzer comes up…But it probably will.
*before the question comes up
If they had showed the question she could have very quickly decided if she knew the answer or not…if not basically a free extra Switch lifeline as they have to ditch the question due to her coming back tomorrow…
According to Broadcast, there was supposed to be a full app version of the playalong game – which seems to be where the Ask the Nation bit would have come in – but that was also dropped.
Apparently staff cuts at ITV Online are to blame.
You could tell last night that the online game barely served any purpose on the show. I think Chris quoted the online folk for a couple of percentages and that’s it.
He didn’t say how many people were playing the online game but someone on twitter said they were around the 150,000th figure.
Last night’s rating.
3.91m (16.97%), +1: 164k (0.91%).
Apparently it won the timeslot against against the other main channels, although the competition was weak.
Kudos for the producers preparing for the eventuality that the Ask the Audience buttons wouldn’t register in a live show. They have coloured cards under the seats for the audience to hold up.
Technical failure on tonight’s show! The Ask The Audience keypads didn’t work, so they had to resort to Plan B…have all the audience members hold up their choice of answer on large cards! 😀 Low-tech, but it worked!!!
Quite amusing
Let’s try again…
Quite amusing to what they did. For those who follow me on twitter, our friend Endemol Joe had this to say.
“You never see technical faults on MPD. This is unprofessional by the Millionaire makers, they should be fined by Ofcom”
Obviously I had to set the record straight.
I’d be fascinated to hear what code “Resorting to a low tech solution that works after a high tech solution fails to work on live television.” violates.
The Bar’s non-resident OFCOM expert pipes up to note:
* Clearly, this incident falls under section 2.1, as it violates the generally accepted standard that all productions must be at least as slick and polished and incomprehensibly edited as an Endemol production. (Note: this standard is generally accepted in the Endemol production offices and has not been tested elsewhere.)
* I never see technical faults on the television show related to , and that’s because I never see the television show related to , and that‘s because I’ve got better things to do with my weekends.
On the substantive topic, I agree with James downthread: this last couple of nights has been thoroughly enjoyable television. More, please.
Ummm, MPD HAS had technical faults. I remember one of the answer monitors didn’t work for a few questions, so Endemol Joe’s talking out of his derriere on this one.
Hence why Travis had to set the record straight, presumably.
I wonder how much The Bank Job would have been fined if OFCOM had regulations against appearing ‘amateurish’.
I’ve never got through an episode of MPD without the game disconnecting on me. Millionaire game worked like a charm tonight (as did the Bank Job online game too)
I have to say, I’ve really enjoyed Millionaire this week. If ITV have sense they’ll strip it every night for a week in October/November and do it live.
Playalong game has been an excellent addition, and despite the slight blooper with ‘Ask the Audience’, it’s been enjoyable.
It’s that or they do regular pre-recorded editions and bung them out on Tuesday nights as filler programming between football (ITV have a Tuesday night Champions League game as of the upcoming season).
Given the ratings of High Stakes and Exit List, it makes sense for them to put something proven in the slot, and game shows do work as filler programming. Although Millionaire, ironically, probably less so because of straddling. So yeah, a stripped live week in the autumn would be better.
But isn’t that the nub of the problem for ITV1 Le Grand Fromage de Entertainment? (note to self – dont have Tour De France highlights on in the background when posting on the interweb)
High Stakes and The Exit List were commissioned to try and become the eventual replacement for Millionaire – or at the very least the main long run entertainment commission to try and surpress the over-reliance on WWTBAM.
At the moment The Cube is ITV’s only breakout peaktime hit – and some would say that’s only because of the shows propping it up around it.
And oddly, time and time again Millionaire pulls it out of the bag and the new contenders to the throne, wilt away with hardly anyone noticing.
I so wonder just how strong the temptation is down at Kent House to run a series of The Chase deeper into peak with a bigger cashpot, and try that one. Right now something like that would seems to be the strongest card in a ever increasing weak hand of three’s and four’s.
Chris Tarrent did an interview with Digital Spy the other day and he hit the nail on the head. Game shows and quiz shows today are too complex, where as Millionaire is simple. 12 questions, 3(4 after £50k) lifelines and a time limit.
Having said that The Cube is also simple. 9 lives, simplify and trial run are easy to follow. In retrospect, shows like Tipping Point are quite complex with their rules.
The key to creating a new game/quiz show is to keep it simple!
From the perspective of a US viewer, all I can seem to think is “Hey, ABC! Need a show to bring back? Millionaire still works great in primetime.”
Of course, if they were to run it regularly they couldn’t run it three nights a week as they used to. But there’s got to be an hour for them that’s not rating well and Millionaire could do better than in. Maybe two times a week but that would be stretching it.
Also, I’m curious how long that Plan B has been around for ATA. Maybe it just came about for the live shows? Maybe it’s been sitting there for about 14 years.
I will say it was fun to play along with Millionaire these past 3 nights but, as I read from one of Brig’s tweets, it IS a sad state of affairs when special shows are the norm and what was regular for the show are now called specials. Why can’t they go back to how it used to be? 10 contestants, Fastest Finger First, then playing the game as normal.
I haven’t watched Millionaire for a LONG time, since all they wanted to focus on was the celebrity shows, so it was a refreshing change to see members of the public in the hot seat for once.
And also 60% as popular as the average celeb Millionaire shows, interestingly.
Was going to upload this last weekend but fell unwell. Here is the first live Millionaire show from November 2002.
http://buzzerblog.com/live-who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire-how-it-began/
If you didn’t tell me that was Live I would have never have guessed! Ironic how they can get the production values perfect for a Live show 10 years ago but seem to struggle in 2012!
The ask the nation did seem a bit of a waste of time though and wasted a lot of time explaining the numbers and such (especially for the first guy considering the question was worth £300 yet they took £9000 worth of phone calls!)
The benefit then was the contestant could come back on the next recorded show!
How much did that last guy end up winning?
He reached £64,000 then questioned himself whether the £125,000 question was a trick question as the four options were Australian States with one of them he never heard of. He went for it but dropped back to £32,000.