O lucky one who led. Interesting facts about the TV game

TV show plot:

First, players must go through a short qualifying round, in which for the maximum a short time they must put the answers in the correct order. The one who does it faster than others wins. Then the winner of the qualifying round takes a place opposite the leader, the rules are explained to him, and an intellectual duel begins.

• Questions. To earn the main prize - 3 million rubles, you need to correctly answer 15 questions from various fields of knowledge, each of which has 4 possible answers and only one is correct. All questions have a specific value. The first five are jokes and are fairly easy to answer. From the 6th to the 10th - general topics, and therefore more complex, and from the 11th to the 15th - the most complex, requiring knowledge in certain areas.
• Amounts. There are 2 amounts called "fireproof" - this is 5,000 rubles. (for the answer to the 5th question) and 100,000 rubles. (for the answer to the 10th). These amounts will remain even if the answer is incorrect in the subsequent stages. If an incorrect option is selected, the winnings will be reduced to the nearest “fireproof” amount reached and the participant will be terminated from the program. The player at any time has the opportunity to refuse to continue the game and take the money earned.
• Hints. The player is offered the following hints: "50:50" - the computer removes two incorrect options, "Call a friend" - within 30 seconds the player can consult with one of the previously declared friends. "Audience Help" - the audience in the studio votes for the correct answer, in their opinion, and the results are provided to the participant. Starting October 21, 2006, a new clue "Three Wise Men" was added to the game show.

First time transmission was seen by viewers of the British channel ITV1 in September 1998. Then no one could have guessed and could not that the phrase of Chris Tarrant, the host of the show: “Is this your final answer?” takes on a global dimension. The game instantly gained popularity and took the top lines of the ratings. Initially, the project was supposed to be called "Mountain of Cash", but the name was not chosen due to insufficient emotionality.

A week after the pilot release, changes were made to the rules of the game, the design of the studio and the musical accompaniment changed. Filming of the program took place in more than 100 countries of the world, but only in half of them it is still broadcast. At the same time, it is enough for a long time Maxim Galkin maintained the status of the youngest host of this game. To date, the format has won about 70(!) awards, including Emmy ®, BAFTA, as well as multiple national awards In Great Britain.

In one of the episodes of the program, Maxim allowed the participants, who played in pairs, to use the "Call a friend" prompt twice. It is worth noting that of all the countries, only two of the leaders were women. Starting from the 2008-2009 season, participants in the filming use remote controls to vote, which in turn are issued on the security of a passport. As regards the initial musical accompaniment transmission, it received several prestigious awards from the American Composers Association.

The British version of the TV game is associated with the most loud scandal. In 2003, Charles Ingram was given a suspended sentence for cheating while filming next issue . A lecturer at one of the colleges, Tikven Whittock, coughed, thus giving Charles a signal for the correct answer. Ingram won a million pound prize, but the teacher's behavior aroused suspicion among the organizers of the program, who called the police. This story served as Vikas Svarup's source of ideas for writing the novel "Question and Answer", the plot of which formed the basis of the melodrama "Slumdog Millionaire".

In addition to Charles, two more players answered correctly to the final question, but they could not receive the prize (in the first case, the rule was violated, which forbade relatives of television companies to take part in the air, in the second, an error occurred in connecting the equipment, as a result of which the player’s computer correct answers are highlighted). And back in 1999, in the English version of the game, an incorrect answer to the question was accidentally counted: “What is the minimum number of innings that a player must make to win a set in tennis?”

John Davidson, one of the members , left his mark on history as the first player to give the wrong answer to the starting question. It is worth noting that the first millionaire player in the United States, John Carpenter, used the “Call a Friend” prompt in a rather unusual way. At the last question, he called his father and said that he would win a million. However, in 2009, this type of assistance was canceled in the United States due to the fact that the respondents were cunning and increasingly resorted to using search engines on the Internet, which caused serious criticism from game fans.

It is impossible not to mention the fact that computer game, dedicated to the program, in the first year alone it was sold out with a colossal circulation of 1.3 million copies. In addition, the game has been mentioned in seven feature films. It is noteworthy that due to the difference in exchange rates, the most big win is in the UK, while in Vietnam it is only 5,200 euros. At the moment, the presenter of the TV show is a Russian journalist, member of the Academy of Russian Television Dmitry Dibrov.

"50 to 50"

Participants of the Russian version of the TV quiz "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in most cases, they prefer not to speak aloud the intended answer before using this hint, as they believe that the computer will "do" so as to confuse the player even more.

"Call a Friend"

This hint was first used in the pilot episode of the English version of the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The participant's conversation with the prompter took place according to regular phone, but starting from the second release, communication began to be carried out by speakerphone.

"Help of the Hall"

Each spectator present in the hall has a remote control at his disposal, with the help of which the entire audience votes for the correct answer in their opinion. After that, a chart is displayed on the screen, which shows the results in percentage terms for each proposed option.

From radio play to the most watched TV show in the world.

The birthplace of the most famous TV show is Great Britain. The author of a brilliant idea initially embodied the prototype of the now popular television program on the air. The game was called "Double the Stakes" and came out as part of the morning program "Breakfast Show" on "Capital Radio". It all started with meager amounts, for example, from one pound, then the stakes increased, and often the winner could get quite a solid jackpot. Several times the stakes in the game reached 12 thousand pounds. The management of the radio station was in a panic, not knowing where to get the money to pay the winnings. As a result, a conflict arose with the authorities, and Briggs had to quit. After some time, he got a job on television and there he offered to realize his idea of ​​\u200b\u200ban intellectual show. His project was approved, moreover, the size of the main prize amounted to one million pounds (an unprecedented cash prize for British TV).

The pilot release of the game, which was called "Mountain of Money", was considered unsuccessful by the management of the ITV channel and sent "for revision". It was originally assumed that in order to
to get a million pounds, the player will need to answer 25 questions (from 1 pound to 1 million), but, apparently, such a “way to a million” seemed to the television authorities to be too long. It was also recognized as unsuccessful and musical arrangement show: apparently, the music written by Pete Waterman did not create the desired atmosphere, and in less than 2 weeks, composers Keith and Matthew Strachan (father and son) wrote more than a hundred musical themes, which are used in TV shows to this day (although in some countries - for example, in India - they are stylized as national music).

On September 4, 1998, the game was released on the ITV channel in its already familiar form and with the usual name - "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" (By the way, the name is taken from the song of the same name by Frank Sinatra, sounded in the movie "High Society"). Subsequently, the same name will be used in many other countries where the game will go on the air (including Russia).

A year later, the program attracted almost 20 million viewers. At one time, "Millionaire" was created specifically for its host - Chris Tarrent, and the popularity of the program is largely due to his merit. Currently, more than 100 countries around the world own the rights to produce the game.

To Russia with love.

In Russia, the first release of the game went on the air a year after the premiere in the UK -
October 1, 1999 on the NTV channel. The game was called “Oh, Lucky!”, and Dmitry Dibrov became the host. Almost immediately became the most popular on TV among entertainment programs, and a year later she was awarded the main television award "Tefi". According to the vast majority of fans of the quiz, Dmitry Dibrov was ideally suited for the role of the host of this show; he felt exactly how to behave in a certain game situation: he could try to persuade the player to the right answer, or he could lead him on the wrong path, while Dmitry himself found out the right answer only after the participant chose one of the options.

All good things come to an end: it so happened that after a year and a half of being on NTV, the program had to move to Channel One. Dmitry Dibrov refused to leave the NTV team at a difficult moment for him, and a new presenter was found for the show - linguist Maxim Galkin (by the way, for a long time he was the youngest presenter among all his other colleagues). The program changed not only the channel and presenter, but also the name: now it has become known as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", like in most other countries of the world. By the way, a paradoxical situation developed on Russian television at that moment: the NTV channel was still broadcasting the remaining episodes of “Oh, lucky!” (and later replays of games), and on Channel One since February 2001 a similar game has been released, but with a different name. Unprecedented hype was at that time in the press: interviews with the old and new presenters, comparisons, etc.

Before the journalists had time to compare the manner of conducting Dmitry and Maxim, like no other x, a new reason for the hype appeared: the first winner appeared in the game (under Dmitry Dibrov, a million rubles was never won) - he became a resident of St. Petersburg. Since then, three more participants have managed to give the correct answer to the last question: a married woman from Kirov, from the Moscow region and from Pyatigorsk. By the way, the last two won not a million, but three.

It won't be enough!

Since September 17, 2005, the format of the game has been slightly changed: now the main prize is not one, but three million rubles, and the game has become more interactive (an SMS game for TV viewers has been added, and viewers in the studio have been given the opportunity to vote on each of the questions, and not only when the participant asks them to do so). It is noteworthy that the level of difficulty of the questions remained unchanged.

Over the long years of its existence, the program has changed the rules several times; basically in better side for participants. For example, in 2006, a new clue "Three Wise Men" was introduced, borrowed from the American version of the game (however, this clue was available in our country from the first question, and not from the tenth, as in America). Three well-known people were invited to each game and watched the game from a special room; one at times during the game, the participant could turn to the "wise men" for help. With the advent of an additional hint, the players did not reach higher amounts, so this hint can be regarded rather as an opportunity to once again show famous people on TV.

And here are the stars!

During the entire existence of the game, many special projects have been carried out, in which famous TV presenters, actors, musicians, politicians ... The first such releases appeared back in the days of "Oh, the lucky one!", But this was an infrequent occurrence, which, no doubt, increased the audience's interest. Since 2004, a special project has been filmed for almost every holiday that is more or less significant for our country: the day of solidarity of workers, the tercentenary of the founding of St. Petersburg, the day of the police, the day national unity, last call and so on.

The first time such special editions and enjoyed increased interest among viewers, however, with the appearance on almost every channel of various shows with "stars" ("Stars on Ice", "Stars in the Ring", "Stars in the Circus", "Two Stars", etc.), audience interest in such games began to fall. Many even began to doubt the honesty of such games: all winnings were transferred to charitable purposes, so a famous person should not be allowed to lose face.

From the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2009, games with ordinary participants were not filmed at all. Today, the situation has not changed: now games with ordinary participants from the people, and not with "stars", have begun to be perceived as special projects. By the way, stellar participants do not show stellar results in the game: for many years only twice famous people managed to get to the last fifteenth question, to which no one dared to risk answering.

Who is bigger?

In 2005, the owner of the game format, Celador International Limited, announced that it sells all game formats (the company, in addition to Millionaire, which was the most famous teleform
produced such games as "The smartest", "People against" and others), and henceforth will be engaged only in the production of films. An auction was announced, in which even the host of the British "Millionaire", Chris Tarrent, participated. It is not known how the fate of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and other gaming projects, if he won, but the Dutch company 2WayTraffic offered the highest price.

Almost immediately after the acquisition, the company began to make its own adjustments to the format: so, already in the same year, the original British version also changed not for the better. From now on, the number of questions has been reduced from fifteen to twelve (exactly 3 easy questions have been abolished), in many versions the Quick Fingers selection contest has been canceled, the graphic design has also completely changed, and instead of the usual musical accompaniment, mixed ones by Ramon Covallo have been used musical themes. The program was ruined in just a few months, and no changes made to the game format helped it survive to today. At present, the original version, which gave life to all the rest, is aired only two or three times a year, on certain holidays.

Return…

Until 2008, the changes did not affect the Russian version (however, in some countries the game comes out without any special changes to this day: for example, in), however, the rights to produce the game were bought by Channel One (previously they belonged to WMedia), after which it was announced viewers vote: who they would like to see in the chair of the new host of the updated game. The audience themselves offered their candidacies, but, nesmo
Although there were quite a few candidates, several leaders could be distinguished among them: Ivan Urgant, Dmitry Dibrov and Maxim Galkin. In November 2008, it was officially announced that Dmitry Dibrov, who had already hosted this program on the NTV channel several years ago, would become the new host of the game. Only star players also took part in the updated version of the game (until mid-2009), and many of them had already participated several times in this show when it was hosted by Maxim Galkin.

The audience's interest in the game increased again after the premiere of the film "Slumdog Millionaire", whose hero wins the main prize in this show. The host of a similar show in this film was voiced by Dmitry Dibrov. Since then, he often draws parallels between the players of the Russian "Millionaire" and the hero of "Slumdog Millionaire". The premiere of the first non-star release of the new "Millionaire" was timed to coincide with the broadcast of "Slumdog Millionaire" on Channel One: long before that, separate dialogues about this film were recorded with the game participants, so that the audience had the impression that the participants also watched the film the day before. games.

Currently, the game is released every Saturday at 18:15 on Channel One, and I really hope that all the changes that will continue to occur in the program will affect in a positive way on the program.