Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Australian game show)
Australian adaptation of the global quiz franchise.
It follows the same format as the original UK program.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Game show
- Creator
- David Briggs
- Steven Knight
- Mike Whitehill
- Director
- Peter Ots
- Producer
- Michelle Seers
- Presenter
- Eddie McGuire; Rebecca Gibney
- Composer
- Keith Strachan (1999–2006, 2021)
- Matthew Strachan (1999–2006, 2021)
- Ramon Covalo
- Nick Magnus (2007, 2010, 2021)
- Country
- Australia
- Language
- English
Facts from the source article.
History
Eddie McGuire hosted the Australian debut of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on the Nine Network, which first aired on 18 April 1999. This change aimed to boost Nine's declining ratings in Sydney, where its once-dominant news bulletin faced growing competition from Seven News. The half-hour edition failed in the ratings and lasted only one week. Australia became the first country where the fastest-finger round saw two people answer correctly at the same time, requiring an extra question. When neither got that right, a third question was asked. Later, the fastest finger required two answers instead of one to prevent random guessing, and eventually contestants had to rank all four options in the correct order. In early seasons, some questions included a joke answer for option D, such as a question about the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood offering "Collingwood" as a choice, referencing McGuire’s role as president of the Collingwood Football Club.
Lifelines
During a contestant's game, they may use a set of lifelines to assist on a question, each usable only once.
Notable contestants
This was the first live episode of Millionaire to air anywhere in the world. Other celebrity contestants included Molly Meldrum, Shane Warne, Pauline Hanson, Alicia Molik, Murray Cook, Dame Edna Everage, Paul "Fatty" Vautin, and Richard Hatch. Seven people have got the million-dollar question wrong on the original version of Millionaire Hot Seat, including Barry Soraghan, Jeff Tarr, Paul Wolfenden, Jim Graham, Alan Edwards, Kevin Short, and Craig Anderson. Others who missed the top prize on the original show include Red Symons, Mickey Pragnell, Stephen ?, Michael O’Conner, Trevor Sauer, William Laing, Dave and Denise Moser, Maria McCabe, Molly Meldrum, Andrew Lockett, Scott Smith, Shane Warne and Trevor Sauer, Clifford Plumpton, and Yael Blinco.
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