I believe the original format is the best. The whole point of the programme was that it had no gimmicks and was simply fifteen progressively harder questions for increasingly amount of money up to £1,000,000. The original set was far superior to what they have now, the original squared ends of the staircase bannisters, the 'money' in the box on the side of the monitor stand, the original lighting cues and of course the original graphics and music. Even Chris was better then, he didn't talk as much to the contestants as he does now (or did) and I believe this is why the ratings slowly dropped. People were becoming increasingly tired of waiting for the questions to come up, Chris in the later series even mentions 'we will talk more later' which implied that the viewers wanted to know more about the contestants which they didn't. I believe that every programme will become 'boring' the longer it is on air and I believe Who Wants To Be A Millionaire should have been cancelled circa 2005.
I think the "simple" format only worked because the stakes were perceived to be so high.
We now have daily quizzes giving away £250k jackpots. The £1m jackpot is nothing like the impossibility it seemed back then, and the prizes that are given away regularly are pretty run-of-the-mill for primetime quiz shows.
What once felt unbelievably tense now feels unbelievably slow. I'm all for straightforward question-and-answer quiz shows (which is why I'm a fan of The People Versus v2, Blockbusters, Fifteen-to-One etc.) but for me Millionaire lacks both pace and personality.
I'd personally like to see this. I watched the last series for the first time in around eight years and enjoyed it thanks to the speed of the clock. I just don't think the live shows work - they're not produced very well and Chris Tarrant is, erm, shall we say, less competent live...
Perhaps the show should be axed from prime-time and find a slot in the day, perhaps up against Pointless?
