"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Cancelled after 20-Year Run

[JamesG]

"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Cancelled, Ending 20-Year TV Run
by Dave Nemetz
May 17, 2019


"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" is out of lifelines, it seems. The syndicated quiz show has been cancelled after a 20-year run that began on ABC, our sister site Variety is reporting.

The show debuted in August 1999 in ABC’s primetime lineup, hosted by Regis Philbin, and quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon, rocketing to the top of the ratings (it averaged more than 28 million total viewers in its first full season) and eventually expanding to air five nights a week (!) on the network.



But the phenomenon quickly fizzled out, and the series moved from ABC to syndication in 2002, hosted by Meredith Vieira. She was later succeeded by Cedric the Entertainer, Terry Crews and Chris Harrison, who has emceed "Millionaire" since 2015.

“After a successful 17-year run, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? will not return in national syndication for the 2019-20 season,” a show spokesperson tells Variety.

https://tvline.com/2019/05/17/who-wa...hris-harrison/

[Steve_uk]

I think it had had its day..

[Mr. Television]

I didn't even know it was still on.

[Hawkee]

!!! Oh My Gosh !!! I can't believe that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is now cancelled and I am just teary eyed to hear this news. When I lived at my old house I always looked forward to my morning routine of watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and seeing Chris Harrison really made my mornings extra good. Now since I moved out of my house I found it impossible to watch Millionaire because I have to share a TV where I'm at now which I dislike. I don't know what i'm gonna do without a morning show once I move into my house and I don't know what other Chris Harrison show I can watch besides The Bachelor because he is my crush and hearing this news makes me very sad i'm about to break down and sob in tears at this shocking news. Now I won't be able to watch Chris Harrison again. I bet you the producers of Millionaire wanted to give Chris Harrison a bigger extended contract with an even higher salary and Caesar's Palace wanted to evict the Millionaire crew and when Chris Harrison heard about this he freaked out and I think when Caesar's Palace gave the Millionaire crew a warning of moving out of Caesar's Palace they gave ABC two options either to move to a bigger stage in Las Vegas or cancel Who Wants To Be A Millionaire completely. But if you look at "to use a popular favorite phrase of mine" the general picture Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has moved filming studios three times and each time it caused the ratings to collapse but when Meredith Veira began hosting Millionaire in 2002 in syndication it started as a big affair with a mega bus tour around the U.S. trying to find people to audition to play Millionaire as contestants and it was a success but as soon as Cedric The Entertainer replaced Meredith Veira the ratings went downhill and the same thing happened to Millionaire when Terry Crews began hosting it but if it wasn't for Chris Harrison he was the one who saved Who Wants To Be A Millionaire from being cancelled because he was talented at Millionaire and like Regis Philbin Chris Harrison was known as the Show Saver. I can guarantee you that due to this shocking news Chris Harrison's career will go downhill and he will be forgotten and Chris Harrison will be hurt and end up having his game show career go belly up and he will disappear from TV
Thanks for telling me this upsetting news James. I feel like crying right now because it makes me so upset at this shocking news
Bestie

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Bestie! Don't worry, they will have WTBAM back on TV in no time. Remember, a good game show is hard to kill. How many times have they cancelled it already? Hopefully GSN will snap it up for a song. Here is my favorite host of WTBAM.
DTK

[AMackII]

Who Wants To Be Millionaire was very successful during its ABC era but very underrated in Syndication since 2002.

[Hawkee]

I have figured out why Disney Domestic Television had to end the syndicated version of Millionaire. Apparently Disney Domestic Television has planned to replace Millionaire with MSNBC host Tamron Hall's new talk show and I cannot see why Disney chose Tamron Hall's talk show over a renewal of a new season of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire because Millionaire was a huge hit and there are few morning game shows besides The Price Is Right that people watch during the morning while they get ready for work and the most popular times that work for game shows in weekday mornings are between 10AM to 12PM. I really hope Chris Harrison really sues Disney for what they did to his show because I think Chris Harrison is really upset at this and I can predict that ABC will cancel The Bachelor next and The Bachelorette as well because this not has hurt Millionaire fans but also Chris Harrison's career. And I can predict that GSN or Buzzr will gain the rights to show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire reruns but I think Chris Harrison will launch a talk show or like Wayne Brady and Doctor Who/The Chase star Bradley Walsh Chris Harrison will try his hand at a singing career as many game show hosts have tried but I do hope Chris Harrison gets another game show soon or maybe become the new host of the Supermarket Sweep revival if it gets aired. But whatever happens in Chris Harrison's future he can be a Comeback Kid if given the right type of game show that fits him well because he's really the cutest game show host ever
Bestie

[Steve_uk]

Originally Posted by LaBestia

!!! Oh My Gosh !!! I can't believe that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is now cancelled and I am just teary eyed to hear this news. When I lived at my old house I always looked forward to my morning routine of watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and seeing Chris Harrison really made my mornings extra good. Now since I moved out of my house I found it impossible to watch Millionaire because I have to share a TV where I'm at now which I dislike. I don't know what i'm gonna do without a morning show once I move into my house and I don't know what other Chris Harrison show I can watch besides The Bachelor because he is my crush and hearing this news makes me very sad i'm about to break down and sob in tears at this shocking news. Now I won't be able to watch Chris Harrison again. I bet you the producers of Millionaire wanted to give Chris Harrison a bigger extended contract with an even higher salary and Caesar's Palace wanted to evict the Millionaire crew and when Chris Harrison heard about this he freaked out and I think when Caesar's Palace gave the Millionaire crew a warning of moving out of Caesar's Palace they gave ABC two options either to move to a bigger stage in Las Vegas or cancel Who Wants To Be A Millionaire completely. But if you look at "to use a popular favorite phrase of mine" the general picture Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has moved filming studios three times and each time it caused the ratings to collapse but when Meredith Veira began hosting Millionaire in 2002 in syndication it started as a big affair with a mega bus tour around the U.S. trying to find people to audition to play Millionaire as contestants and it was a success but as soon as Cedric The Entertainer replaced Meredith Veira the ratings went downhill and the same thing happened to Millionaire when Terry Crews began hosting it but if it wasn't for Chris Harrison he was the one who saved Who Wants To Be A Millionaire from being cancelled because he was talented at Millionaire and like Regis Philbin Chris Harrison was known as the Show Saver. I can guarantee you that due to this shocking news Chris Harrison's career will go downhill and he will be forgotten and Chris Harrison will be hurt and end up having his game show career go belly up and he will disappear from TV
Thanks for telling me this upsetting news James. I feel like crying right now because it makes me so upset at this shocking news
Bestie

I didn't realize you felt so strongly about a television show. Could you not get the repeats on a DVD collection?

[Coffeecup]

This is complete shock. I felt the show had a lot of pep left. Could it be the place where it is taped didn't want the show there.?? This summer I am planning to go to Salt Lake City and take a side trip to Las Vegas. When there in LV thought of sitting in the Millionaire audience. From reading the show is cancelled, I sadly I won't be able to see the show. I wonder what will take it place on the air. In my area it is on at 12:30pm

[MA]

Originally Posted by Coffeecup

This is complete shock. I felt the show had a lot of pep left. Could it be the place where it is taped didn't want the show there.?? This summer I am planning to go to Salt Lake City and take a side trip to Las Vegas. When there in LV thought of sitting in the Millionaire audience. From reading the show is cancelled, I sadly I won't be able to see the show. I wonder what will take it place on the air. In my area it is on at 12:30pm

In my area, the shows airs twice. 3:00 pm and 7:30 pm. We also get the 12:30 pm airing here as well.

The reason why it got cancelled was because of low ratings in recent years and and a lot of ABC stations that were carrying Millionaire committing to a new talk show hosted by Tamron Hall.

[Hawkee]

I truly think Chris Harrison really owes people an apology for cancelling Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and people who got tickets to the next season's tapings will most likely be refunded money. I also think what hurt Millionaire was moving to Las Vegas and as you know when a game show is filmed in Las Vegas you know that Las Vegas is expensive for filming game shows and then the show has to move filming episodes to a better studio for more money. Take for instance when CBS launched Let's Make A Deal with Wayne Brady in 2009 it was originally filmed at the Tropicana Resort Hotel but when the show got too expensive to film CBS moved LMAD to Hollywood where it is still filmed today. I think Who Wants To Be A Millionaire should've been filmed in Los Angeles it would've been less expensive and gained an even bigger fanbase of audience members to fill the seats during tapings of the show. One thing I never understood and this might've also caused Millionaire's death is that they would advertise Las Vegas hotels from Planet Hollywood Hotel and Paris Las Vegas Hotel and this I felt was wrong because it seemed like the show was also used to promote Las Vegas vacations during commercial breaks. But I think had they not promoted so much Las Vegas hotels as their sponsors the show still would be successful. But if you at much of their audience Millionaire's target audience was basically teens and young girls who were also The Bachelor fans who thought of Chris Harrison as not just the host but also as a guy who had a crush factor much like the teen idols of the 50's 60's 70's and 80's. But I also think GSN most likely offer Chris Harrison a chance to host an upcoming game show for them in the future because Chris is a great host and got his start hosting his first game show and his debut called Mall Masters and Chris Harrison would be known as GSN's Comeback Kid. But I do hope Who Wants To Be A Millionaire gets released on DVD soon like Sony did with their awesome Jeopardy DVD set and I also hope BET will air the reruns of Cedric The Entertainer and Terry Crews versions of Millionaire in the future. But I do wish Chris Harrison luck in the future with upcoming projects because he's so cool and handsome
Bestie

[JamesG]

LaBestia, you're not making any sense at all. You say that Chris Harrison should "sue Disney for what they did to his show" and then that he "owes people an apology for cancelling" Millionaire?

What are you talking about? You say a lot, but it's a whole lot of nothing.

[Hawkee]

What I meant is think about all those people who purchased tickets for next season's tapings of Millionaire to get a notice telling them that the next season of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire will not exist anymore. I actually found Who Wants To Be A Millionaire by accident when GSN no longer aired Catch 21 and then I was hooked on it and would watch it every morning at my old house but then I moved and then I lost track of it but it was a fun morning routine of mine. My mother always used to laugh at me for getting up early just so I could see Millionaire and Chris Harrison at 11AM PT and 11:30AM PT every day. But I think Millionaire's legacy will live on in the hearts of devoted fans that started watching it in syndication in 2002. But I believe Millionaire will someday return for it's anniversary in a few years with a new look and Chris Harrison or someone like Tucker Carlson could host it because it was a fun game show in pop culture history that will be missed
Thank you very much for your reply James you are a great friend to me
Bestie

[JamesG]

The tickets were free, so nobody had to purchase them.

People who were able to request tickets were offered discounted hotel rooms where Millionaire? filmed.

[DadTheKing]

Bestie is obviously distraught about the cancellation and needs our help and sympathy. So please roll with the flow till Bestie sorts this out. As her friends here, we should allow her to grieve in her own way and find her way through this. Just think back to when a favorite of your was cancelled.
DTK