Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to end

Bothers Bar reporting this, itself referencing The Mirror.

Respected industry blogger Brig Bother states....


http://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=7758

It's hard to disagree with that. To me it's the single most important gameshow format for a very long time.

It's probably the one show that at any stage, in which ever country you go to, if you were to see any given 10 seconds it's clear what it is. Even with the format changes that have taken place in different locations I think it would be hard for that statement not to stand true.

You can indeed see something pioneered by Millionaire in nearly all gameshow formats these days, to be fair UK variant of Deal or No Deal deserves a lot of respect, because that show has done the most to rip up Millionaire's rule book but there are still things it owes to that show.

I think anyone who's British and has an interest in television should be very proud and appreciative of Millionaire and what it's achieved.

NOT a gamshow its a quiz show...... its in the same league as 15 to one. I dare say its help create eggheads etc.

Im glad to see the back of it.

Well I count quizzes as a form of game. I'd count all quizshows as gameshows, but not gameshows with no quiz element as quizshows.

It's fair to say it's been a bit of a beast and outlived it's main rival of the time - The Weakest Link - both domestically and internationally.

Not the first time it's been axed of course - it pretty much was a few years ago - and arguably it's been allowed to drag on too long. I still think it could have success once again with the Hotseat format, either in daytime or as 30-minute filler in primetime, but sadly the days of the 30-minute quiz show on commercial TV at least seem to be over.

I think a lot of credit has to go to ITV. They took a big risk, calculated I'm sure, but a risk nonetheless. It was a great idea to strip it every night, allowing it to build an audience through word of mouth very quickly, and schedule it after Corrie (wasn't Corrie even moved from its regular timeslot on one night?). There's only so many times you can twist and play with a formula before it's time to call it a day. It was a great show for its time and did a lot to lift the quiz/game show quality level.

Agreed. It is time for it to go though, it should have went in 2010 to be honest.

I would say ask a cross section of the regular TV audience and many would be surprised that it was still running at all.

It's absolutely astonishing to think that back in early 1999 it was gaining close to 20 million viewers an episode , which for a regular, non one-off programme are figures I don't think have been matched since. I was 10 at the time and a huge fan, to the point where when they scheduled an episode running against Comic Relief that year I had to get one of my aunties to video record the episode in Aberdeen and then post the tape to me, which I still have somewhere (Grampian TV continuity in full NICAM stereo, nice). That year was one of the few when ITV actually beat BBC1 in the Christmas Day ratings, and what did they show? Non-stop soaps and Millionaire, basically.

Ratings remained strong right up to Judith Keppel's first million win in 2000, and Charles Ingram-gate got pretty huge figures when finally shown in 2003 too, but from then on it began a gradual slow slide down the ratings until few even knew it was on anymore. Although it ends after a fifteen-year run, to me all my memories absolutely define the end of the 1990s when it was absolute must-see television.

Yes - it essentially had 5 very good years then a decade just struggling on and tampering with the format which didn't really need tampering with.

It seems we have still got a couple more special episodes to come. I wonder when they're to air and whether the last one will be anything notable.

But yes, it should have really been put to bed a long time ago, but I did enjoy the series in 2010 with the clock.

Deal or No Deal didn't really rip up the rulebook - it was just a personality-led show like Strike It Rich. It's a basic format embellished with "interesting" people. And it took the constant tension music from Millionaire.

Can Deal or no Deal be next please? Give it a few years and I reckon Millionaire might come back with a new host etc...now how about a non-celeb version of Family Fortunes?

R.I.P for now Millionaire...

I think it never really found new form ever since the reformat of the money tree. Let's face it, people are happy to bail out once they reach a five figure sum, so when they changed £8,000 to £10,000 you found there were a lot more people bailing once they reached that 5 figure sum. In the old days you would have had a lot more going for a punt from £8,000 to £16,000 and then you have them tempted by the guarantee amount.

There's no doubt that it has earned a place as one the biggest Television shows of all time.
Despite inflation £1Million is still a prize that nearly no other game/quiz show dare touch over here. And those that have haven't fared very well.