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

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Bestie! I agree with you that WWTBAM will be bcak someday. It is too good a game show not to. How many times was DOND cancelled? All the good ones come back. I also agree with you that people who planed vacations, etc. around seeing WWTBAM in person must be very upset. I think it was very crappy the way they cancelled it. But we all know hollywood people are heartless monsters who love the dollar more than anything. But keep the faith Bestie!
DTK

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by 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

Now what are you on about... "roll with the flow"?

LaBestia's posting things that are flat out wrong, and "as a fan" should know what she's talking about.

[80sTrivia]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

I didn't even know it was still on.

Same here. I thought it was cancelled years ago...

[DadTheKing]

Originally Posted by JamesG

Now what are you on about... "roll with the flow"?

LaBestia's posting things that are flat out wrong, and "as a fan" should know what she's talking about.

Well, if you don't get it, I feel sorry for you. I will also remember how you think and lambaste you for every spelling error, every fact you get wrong, even belittle any favorites you might have. As you enjoy adversarial discourse.
DTK

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by DadTheKing

Well, if you don't get it, I feel sorry for you. I will also remember how you think and lambaste you for every spelling error, every fact you get wrong, even belittle any favorites you might have. As you enjoy adversarial discourse.
DTK

I don't get what? Please tell me.

I don't "enjoy adversarial discourse", but I will say something when someone's posting nonsense. Do whatever you like, but it's wise not to start any crap with me.

[opus]

I still recorded and watched everyday. (You could get thru an ep in about 15-20 minutes, depending on how much contestant talk you sat through).

One thing LeBestia has right is eventually the show will resurface. Most long running game shows tend to.

Oh well, at least I still have Jeopardy to prove my stupidity....

[Impressions]

Good grief.

[TMC]

Game Show Garbage Induction #249 - Millionaire's Clock Format

Syndication (September 2008 - September 2010)

I don't think we've ever seen a show that has had a more agonizing and lackluster limp to the finish line as the current version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has. Once a massive force for game shows, leading into the game show renaissance of the early 2000s, is now just a hollow corpse of its former self. I could talk about how after Meredith left the show that they decided to chase trends instead of reforming its own identity. Steve's buddy Cedric The Entertainer and Terry Crews were not the answers that the show was looking for. Chris Harrison brought some stability but the damage would have already been done, especially with the move to Caesar's Entertainment Center aka a tent in Caesar's Parking Lot aka the home of WrestleMania 9. Man isn't there anything that piece of asphalt and concrete can't kill any enjoyment out of.

But all of those are symptoms of the original course of action the show took in order to pop the ratings. The original cause for the show's slow, painful demise was in the invention of a certain format that was made to stop long production times because of people wanting to think out an answer and add more drama to the game. Instead all it did was drop the winnings and chase away more viewers. After years of teasing it and not being able to come up with enough coherent thoughts to write out the script for it, here it is in 2009 Vintage...The Clock Format.



Possibly the reason why the format was finally axed was the week hosted by Steve Harvey. While he proved to be a great host on Family Feud, Millionaire proved that he wasn't cut out for this style of show, especially with the clock format. While he was personable to the contestants and was a great salesman...notably for his book, his ability to pronounce the questions or the answers led to stuff of legends. It ate up the contestants time to answer the questions and it made the show even more of a slog than it was. So much so that the show got the most publicity it had since it was on Primetime on ABC...being parodied by SNL and Kenan Thompson. Check out the video of his time hosting above for more.

The mea culpa for this would reverberate throughout the show at the end of the season. An overhaul of the production staff happened, the set would change, the classic music would be dumped and a new score would be put into place, and a new format would be put into place. That would become the Shuffle Format. It would last until Chris Harrison took over in 2015. The Clock Format would turn out to be the canary in the coal mine as the show was on its last legs. So many gimmicks started with the clock format that it made Millionaire lose the identity that it once had. It took the show 5 years to try to get the format back to it once was, even surviving cancellation because of stations not wanting to pay the licensing fee the show was charging. But by then it was too little, too late. The last couple seasons of the show felt lifeless as hardly anybody even reached six figures. Hopefully the cancellation will allow the show to get rebooted in primetime and become the special event it once was. If shows like The $100,000 Pyramid, Match Game and The Joker's Wild can do this, then Millionaire can.

[loaferman]

Originally Posted by 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

I am at work when 90% of game shows are on unless I catch one on vacation, so I am not very attached to any of them. I watch Wheel of Fortune a couple nights a week and Jeopardy recently for the winning streak. But everything eventually ends and gets canceled. The Big Bang Theory just ended after 12 years, Deadwood is finally getting a wrap-up TV movie but that show got canceled out of nowhere. It just happens. I see where people are mad at GOT for investing years into it and the ending was not to their liking. At the end of the day these actors and hosts see it as a job and time to find a new one.

When I was a kid, game shows were on a lot more in the mornings. Now they all want talk shows because they are cheap political propaganda and can get celebrity guests in return for promotion. Howard Stern was on The View last week, I watched the Youtube clip and Howard lied his butt off and everyone (especially Whoopi) knew it but nobody dared say anything. Stern is in the most protected class in the business.

[TMC]

Who Wants to be a Millionaire, "the most consequential game show in television history," paved the way for the reality TV boom and Jeopardy!'s James Holzhauer

The syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire was canceled last Friday just three months shy of the ABC primetime version's 20th anniversary breaking ground with massive ratings in the summer of 1999. "There’s a decent case that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the most consequential game show in television history," says Justin Peters. "Though Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have longevity on their side, and though O.G. quiz programs like Twenty-One conceived the language that 1,000 game shows speak, Millionaire changed the landscape unlike any other televised trivia contest before or since. The show’s glossy aesthetic and superhigh stakes attracted unprecedented audiences—at its peak Millionaire was more popular than Monday Night Football—and ignited a game show arms race. No Millionaire? No Greed, no Weakest Link, no Deal or No Deal. Jeopardy! likely wouldn’t have ditched the pre–Ken Jennings rule that limited contestants to five consecutive victories. There would have been nothing to inspire Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?—a harbinger of the reality TV boom."

[simmytbone]

Well none of the stations in my area carried Millionaire after Meredith left the show and so, I didn't even know the show was still on ever since KLFY-TV 10 in my area pulled the show after Cedric left the show

Yes, it was very underrated on syndication, but also, you gotta remember, Millionaire was a BIG Hit on abc and it helped put the network BACK on top of Prime Time Television and it had a longer run on syndication and Meredith did a great job with the show

The difference between the Prime Time Version and the syndicated version was the abc version was an hour show and it had the Fastest Finger Questions while the syndicated version was a ½ hour show and they only sent players out one at a time to sit in the hot seat

I think the reason abc cancelled the show in the 1st place was real simple:

Too much Celebrity Millionaire Shows

I mean hey, it works when you have sweep weeks only and it also worked with Celebrity Family Feud, but not in this case for Millionaire and I guess the only reason why the syndicated version was cancelled is real simple:

They were losing too many stations

also, Regis may have given away more Millions than any other host of the show, but Meredith did something that no one has done not even Regis and that's crown the 1st woman Millionaire on a Quiz Game Show and NOT Reality Shows

So long Millionaire, Thank You for 20 years, God Bless You and hey,

You'll be back

[simmytbone]

Originally Posted by TMC

Who Wants to be a Millionaire, "the most consequential game show in television history," paved the way for the reality TV boom and Jeopardy!'s James Holzhauer

The syndicated version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire was canceled last Friday just three months shy of the ABC primetime version's 20th anniversary breaking ground with massive ratings in the summer of 1999. "There’s a decent case that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the most consequential game show in television history," says Justin Peters. "Though Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have longevity on their side, and though O.G. quiz programs like Twenty-One conceived the language that 1,000 game shows speak, Millionaire changed the landscape unlike any other televised trivia contest before or since. The show’s glossy aesthetic and superhigh stakes attracted unprecedented audiences—at its peak Millionaire was more popular than Monday Night Football—and ignited a game show arms race. No Millionaire? No Greed, no Weakest Link, no Deal or No Deal. Jeopardy! likely wouldn’t have ditched the pre–Ken Jennings rule that limited contestants to five consecutive victories. There would have been nothing to inspire Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?—a harbinger of the reality TV boom."

Speaking of Greed, I would LOVE to see the show back, but I guess that would either be up to either Dick Clark Productions or 20th Century Fox Television or better yet, Disney since they finally own 20th Century Fox Television

Personally, I like Greed better than Millionaire

[Hawkee]

What an amazing finale to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and I just saw the finale on Youtube a few minutes ago and it was so great and it just was also the finale of Second Chance Week and it was so cool to see Chris Harrison let someone be a thousandaire for the final time. All it was such a great farewell show for Millionaire and I cannot to see what game show Chris Harrison will host next in his future
Bestie

[TMC]

Originally Posted by 80sTrivia

Same here. I thought it was cancelled years ago...

The real reason Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was canceled

Originally a hit British game show with the same name, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was imported to American audiences in 1999 — and at first, they couldn't get enough. The built-in tension as host Regis Philbin uttered the now-iconic phrase "Is that your final answer?" kept audiences coming back for more, several times a week.

Each hourlong episode was unique, featuring anywhere from one to half a dozen contestants selected from the studio audience vying to win the ultimate prize. This element of surprise kept the show fun and edgy, while the production, complete with music that mimicked a human heartbeat, put the contestant in an almost literal hot seat.

But when Millionaire went into syndication in 2002 and Philbin was replaced by Meredith Vieira — and the runtime cut to fit a 30-minute timeslot — viewers slowly started tuning out. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aired its last episode on May 31, 2019, ending its run with a surprising lack of fanfare for a show that had been an American pop culture staple for 20 years. Why was Millionaire canceled, though? Let's explore.

Read More: https://www.looper.com/155680/the-re..._campaign=clip

[Schmoopie]

Can we not argue, please? I have been known to get very upset over a favorite show being canceled. I was never a fan of Millionaire b/c I always thought that it was ridiculous how the contestants are given so many ways to find the answer when on Jeopardy, they either know it or they don't. Still I did watch it a lot on occasion and it is a surprise to hear that it's been canceled. I honestly thought that it had been revived several times over the course of the years and I can't believe it started in 1999.

That being said, someone's opinion and the fact that they are upset is no reason for this silly arguing back and forth.