Bear in mind When Who Desires to Be a Millionaire? Was the Coolest Factor on TV?

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In 1999, the thought of placing a high-stakes recreation present anyplace on tv, not to mention on primetime, was sufficient to get you laughed proper out of no matter room you dared make the suggestion.

Certain, stalwarts like The Worth is Proper, Jeopardy, and Wheel of Fortune had been nonetheless kicking of their respective arenas (daytime and syndication, respectively), however they weren’t precisely thought of cool. And their audiences weren’t regarded as the type of demographic that prompts advertisers to throw cash their manner—aka the coveted 18-34 demo. They had been exhibits your grandparents watched.

And the format over all had, by and huge, long-since fallen out of favor. 

In primetime, the idea of “various tv” was relegated to newsmagazines (suppose 60 Minutes or Dateline) and goofy clip exhibits like America’s Funniest House Movies or Candid Digicam. Actuality TV as we all know it in the present day was merely a twinkle in some bold producer’s eye. Scripted programming, be it drama or comedy, nonetheless dominated the airwaves. 

So when the considered adapting a slick new British quiz present referred to as Who Desires to Be a Millionaire? for American audiences crossed the desks of execs at ABC, they hardly knew what to do with it.

Regardless of being completely uncertain of the trail to success, and remaining completely cautious of the older viewers such a present would possibly usher in, Michael Davies, the London-born government in command of various sequence on the community, knew this present was one thing particular. ”I mentioned to myself, That is one of the best quiz present format, maybe one of the best format, I’ve ever seen,” he instructed The New York Occasions in 2000. 

So he started distributing tapes of the British model at ABC company conferences. Michael Eisner, chairman of the community’s mother or father firm Disney on the time, appreciated what he noticed. ”I bought this e-mail from Michael saying one thing like, ‘I am unsure if I am embarrassed by this, however I actually, actually like this program,'” Davies recalled.

Regardless of the admiration for the present, the community was nonetheless uncertain about whether or not it may flip it into successful Stateside. However when Davies stop his submit to grow to be the manager producer of the present, risking his whole profession on what he believed would work, he made it his precedence to discover a movie star host to connect to the pitch. When Regis Philbin, identified finest on the the time because the co-host of Reside! with Regis and Kathie Lee, gained the gig, ABC gave Davies’ present the inexperienced gentle.

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Subsequent got here what to do with it. The final new recreation present the ABC had taken an opportunity on, The Large Second, aired within the spring of 1999 and it wasn’t a hit. Turned out nobody needed to observe folks try duties like pulling a tablecloth out from a desk with none gadgets being knocked over or figuring out 12 random ice cream flavors whereas blindfolded. Go determine!

After a decent 5 months to complete improvement, Who Desires to Be a Millionaire? was launched on August 16, 1999, a time of 12 months that networks tended to burn off stuff they’d no concept the way to promote or had little religion in. The premise was overwhelmingly easy. One contestant solutions a sequence of questions, incomes an increasing number of cash as they bought tougher and tougher. There have been lifelines accessible to them in the event that they bought stumped. Philbin would all the time inquire if that was, actually, their ultimate reply. 

Initially supposed for use sparingly as a sequence of specials all year long, the present was a shock smash hit out of the gate. There was one thing in regards to the slick set, the dramatic music stings and lighting, and the concept that anyone particular person would possibly win one million bucks—a prize that had by no means earlier than been supplied in tv historical past—that drew everybody in. With out actually making an attempt, ABC had successful.

The results of the present’s utter domination on the TV panorama and popular culture as an entire had been virtually rapid, wide-ranging, and nonetheless being felt to at the present time. ABC rapidly turned the present into virtually its whole programming technique for the autumn, airing it 4 nights per week for a time and drawing almost 30 million viewers per episode in its first season—a quantity virtually extraordinary on the time and one which networks would kill for in 2019. It propelled ABC to first place within the rankings. And rapidly, rival networks started both reviving previous recreation exhibits or mounting competing British and Australian imports of their very own. NBC has Weakest Hyperlink, CBS has Profitable Strains, Fox had Greed. And we are able to solely keep in mind one of many three.

Whereas Philbin’s monochromatic fits had been inspiring males’s vogue—Van Heusen even launched a short-lived clothes line based mostly on the look referred to as Regis—and his catchphrases had been changing into a part of the popular culture lexicon, community exec had been waking as much as the concept that TV did not should be costly to succeed. You may draw a straight line from Who Desires to Be a Millionaire?’s success to the arrivals of Survivor, American Idol, and the proliferation of actuality TV as we all know it. Actually, within the case of Survivor, you will have Davies to thank for that, as nicely. He helped introduce the format Stateside within the mid-’90s, the place it virtually landed at ABC earlier than Mark Burnett offered it to CBS. 

ABC’s over-reliance on the present—they aired it 5 nights per week throughout its second season—led to the luster to put on off fairly rapidly. By the 2001-02 season, rankings had fallen significantly and, by season’s finish, it not even ranked among the many high 20. Because of this, the community fell from its perch as essentially the most watched community and the present was canceled. Certain, it lived on in daytime syndication till earlier this summer season when it too was lastly canceled, however when the hammer fell on the primetime model in 2002, it was clear second in time was over. However its impact on tv—the way in which it ushered in a wave of low-cost, various programming that proved simply as addictive as conventional scripted programming, if no more—continues to be being felt 20 years later.

And sure, that’s our ultimate reply.