UK Millionaire Scandal Story on Thursday on ABC

[Pavan]

A DIANE SAWYER EXCLUSIVE: INSIDE THE “WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE” SCANDAL WITH THE TRIO WHO ALMOST GOT AWAY WITH A MAJOR ON-CAMERA CRIME, ON A TWO-HOUR “PRIMETIME THURSDAY, AIRING MAY 8 ON ABC

ABC News Secures U.S. Rights to Record-Setting Documentary about British Quiz Show Scandal ABC News’ Diane Sawyer will anchor a two-hour edition of “Primetime Thursday” about the game show scandal that rocked Britain -- an attempted million-pound robbery on national television. Sawyer interviews the three people who conspired to cheat the system and run away with the grand prize on the U.K.’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” In March, Major Charles Ingram, his wife, Diana, and professor Tecwen Whittock were found guilty in a British court of devising a rather low-tech criminal plot. Prosecutors said Whittock, sitting in the studio during the taping of the quiz show, used well-timed coughs to signal Mr. Ingram the correct answers to a series of increasingly difficult trivia questions -- including the final, millionpound- winning response. The Ingrams and Whittock maintain their complete innocence, insisting to Sawyer that the plot they were convicted of hatching is pure fiction. The expanded two-hour edition of “Primetime Thursday” airs THURSDAY, MAY 8 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
Major Ingram struggled during his first day on the quiz show, and raised suspicion among the production staff on day two when his performance improved and his behavior became odd -- including
frequent repetition of the answer choices and sudden changes in his answers. Amplification of microphone recordings made during the taping showed that Whittock -- on hand as a so-called “fast finger” contestant -- would cough after Ingram uttered the correct choice. Ms. Ingram also appears to make repeated eye contact with Whittock. Whittock tells Sawyer the coughs weren’t signals, merely the symptom of his allergies.
“I never, ever discussed any kind of system of cheating with Mr. Whittock, at all,” Ms. Ingram tells Sawyer. But detectives and the program’s staff say the evidence is all there on videotape. A British jury took five days to find the Ingrams and Whittock guilty. They received fines and suspended sentences.
ABC News has secured the exclusive U.S. rights to the British documentary “Millionaire: A Major Fraud,” portions of which will air – in addition to the interviews -- during “Primetime.” The documentary about the scandal, narrated and produced by British journalist Martin Bashir, was the highest-rated non-fiction
program in the U.K. since a 1997 documentary about Princess Diana. It was seen by some 17 million viewers - - almost 56 percent of those watching television in the U.K. -- when it aired last month. Celador International is the producer of “Millionaire: A Major Fraud.”
ABCNEWS.com, the 24-hour news service of ABC News and part of the ABC Internet Group, will provide companion programming to Thursday’s broadcast.
Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson are the co-anchors of "Primetime Thursday." David Doss is the executive producer. (CLOSE CAPTIONED)