Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

For other uses, see Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (disambiguation).
This article is about the franchise. For the original British version, see Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (British game show). For other versions, see International versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Created by
Original workWho Wants to Be a Millionaire? (British game show)
Owners
Years1998–present
Films and television
Television seriesWho Wants to Be a Millionaire? (see International versions)
Audio
Original musicScores composed by Keith and Matthew Strachan
Miscellaneous
Theme park attraction(s)Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It!
GenreGame show
First aired4 September 1998; 26 years ago (1998-09-04)
DistributorSony Pictures Television[1]

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and licensed by Sony Pictures Television, contestants tackle a series of multiple-choice questions to win large cash prizes in a format that twists on many game show genre conventions – only one contestant plays at a time, similar to radio quizzes; contestants are given the question before deciding whether to answer, and have no time limit to answer questions; and the amount offered increases as they tackle questions that become increasingly difficult. The maximum cash prize offered in most versions of the format is an aspirational value in local currency, such as £1 million in the UK or ₹75 million (₹7.5 crore) in India.

The original British version debuted on 4 September 1998 on the ITV network, hosted by Chris Tarrant, and ran until 11 February 2014. A revived series of seven episodes to commemorate its 20th anniversary aired in May 2018, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, and ITV renewed the show for several more series.

Since its debut, international variants of the show have been aired in around 100 countries, making it the best-selling TV format in television history,[2] and is credited by some as paving the way for the boom in the popularity of reality television.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Sony Formats.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference guinness was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". Gameshow Hall of Fame. 21 January 2007. GSN.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference cnn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).