I do.....But I Can Think of Better Ways (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?)

Member Name: piffles

Product:	Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
Date:	24/06/01 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of tension, Huge cash prizes

Disadvantages: Repetitive , Often dull

When ITV introduced the quiz show 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire about 2 years ago it gained massive media coverage and became an instant ratings winner with audiences numbering nearly twenty million for almost every show. It saw many people screaming the answers at the screen, something that had never happened with another quiz show. At the time these figures were probably deserved as it was something new, like nothing that had ever been seen before, but now I can't help thinking that ITV may be wise to quit while they're ahead and scrap the show.

Just in case you have never seen the show, which I very much doubt, I will run through the basics of the quiz. Each show starts with the ‘Fastest finger first' round. Here ten contestants attempt to put four ‘things' in the correct order in the fastest possible time. For example they may have to put words in alphabetical order or put events in the times they happened.

The winner of the this round will then go onto to play the main, money winning part of the quiz. Here each contestant can win up to £1,000,000. Pretty impressive I'm sure you agree. However to do so they must answer correctly 15 questions of increasing difficultly. Each question has 4 possible answers from which the contestants can choose. The contestant starts will no money in the ‘kitty' but upon answering each question correctly their bank balance will increase. The money increases in the following way £100 - £200 - £300 - £500 - £1,000 - £2,000 - £4,000 - £8,000 - £16,000 - £32,000 - £64,000 - £125,000 - £250,000 - £500,000 and, finally (thank God), £1,000,000. If at any point you should answer a question incorrectly you will lose all the money you have earned. However once the £1,000 or £32,000 marks have been reached if you are to answer a question incorrectly you will still win that amount of money. Contestants are also allowed to take the money at any point if they are unsure of an ans
wer and it will then go back to the fastest finger round.

The questions start of ridiculously easy but after the first 5 or 6 they soon become a lot more difficult. This is shown through the fact that only 2 people have ever reached the £1,000,000 mark. If you are to get stuck you have the option of using one of your three lifelines. These are phone a friend, where you can ask a friend if they know the answer to the question, ask the audience, where they vote as to what the correct answer is and 50-50 where two incorrect answers are taken away.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire is presented by Chris Tarrant (who also presents the comedy show Tarrant on TV). He plays the role as a harsh, but fair, quiz master excellently as he drags out the answers for as long as is physically possible. This can however become annoying on the hundredth viewing which is possibly why popularity for the show has waned in the last few months.

There is also the fact that as two people have recently reached the million mark that have made the show less compelling viewing. Before this mark had been reached it was something that everyone was waiting for and you would watch every show because of it but now it has occurred I can't help but think it would be wise if ITV thought about ending the show.

However despite this on occasions it can still be a good view and sometimes you just can't help but shout at the ‘idiots' who don't know the answer to a question you do. Its a good view that I would have to recommend if you haven't seen too often but can become fairly tedious after a while.

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