Кто хочет стать миллионером? (English translation: Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, transliteration: Kto khochet stat' millionerom?) is a Russian game show based on the original British format of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The show is hosted by Yulianna Karaulova and Dmitry Dibrov (earlier by Maxim Galkin).

is broadcast from February 19, 2001 to today. It is shown on the Russian TV station Channel One on Saturdays at 4:55 PM. The show is set in an original format.

Broadcast history The Russian version of the series premiered on October 1, 1999, on NTV. Initially, the program was called, "O, schastlivchik!" ("Oh, Lucky Man!"), presented by Dmitry Dibrov. The game combines the simplicity of the rules to provide an opportunity to win the top prize of 1 million rubles. The series gained enormous popularity among Russian audiences, and in 2000, was awarded a Taffy award for Best Entertainment Program.

On February 19, 2001, the program moved to channel ORT (Channel One) and was renamed to its current title to reflect the name of the franchise. Dibrov departed the show, and was succeeded by comedian Maxim Galkin. On September 17, 2005, the money tree was revised, with the top prize now worth 3 million rubles.

On December 21, 2008, Dibrov returned to hosting the show once more and presented the show until June 18, 2022.

Production of the program was suspended in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine after format owner Sony Pictures Television chairman and chief executive officer Tony Vinciquerra announced Sony was ceasing all work, including licencing of formats, in Russia. In 2023, the show returned with Yulianna Karaulova as the host replacing Dibrov of an unauthorised, unlicenced version without permission from Sony, which refuses to do work with Russia.

Rule of game Fastest Finger First

Main game The main goal of the game is to win 3 million Russian roubles (originally 1 million Russian roubles) by answering 15 multiple-choice questions correctly. There are three lifelines: Fifty Fifty (, 50 na 50), Phone A Friend (, zvonok drugu), and Ask the Audience (, pomoshch' zala).

Payout structure Question numberQuestion value (in Russian Rubles) (Yellow zones are the guaranteed levels)Classic format Risk format2001–20052005–20112023–present20082010–2022110050050050022001,0001,0001,00033002,0002,0002,00045003,0003,0003,00051,0005,0005,0005,00062,00010,00010,00010,00074,00015,00015,00015,00088,00025,00025,00025,000916,00050,00050,00050,0001032,000100,000100,000100,0001164,000200,000200,000200,00012125,000400,000400,000400,00013250,000800,000800,000800,00014500,0001,500,0001,500,0001,500,00015

Old game's version

Earlier, the game was called (O Lucky Man!) and it was shown on NTV.

It was broadcast from October 1, 1999, to January 27, 2001. It was shown on the Russian TV station NTV. In 2001, the show was superseded by a second adoption named and aired on public Russian broadcaster Channel One. For a while TNT broadcast reruns of episodes.

Special Events The first game was shown a special project for a few days before the new year 2000. The game was attended by leading NTV journalists and Leonid Parfyonov, Andrey Norkin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Victor Shenderovich, Lev Novozhenov, Yevgeny Kiselyov, Alexander Belyayev and others. In the same game was born the concept of «zone of Shenderovich» - questions after the sixth and the «zone of the Kara-Murza» - after the tenth question. A month before the 2000 presidential election in a game attended by the four presidential candidates: Stanislav Govorukhin, Ella Pamfilova, Yevgeny Savostyanov and Umar Dzhabrailov. At the end of the first season held a special issue devoted to the eighth birthday of the tax police in Moscow, which was attended by employees of departments. A few months before the New Year 2001, the production team conducted a poll among the audience, whom they would like to see in New Year's special edition of the game. The poll has been won for Russia's on-going President Vladimir Putin, but for obvious reasons, he refused to participate, but he sent a letter. The New Year's special was attended by prominent journalists, politicians and artists: Svetlana Sorokina, Sergey Shoigu, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Detsl, etc. When Svetlana Sorokina ended her game, she offered the host, Dmitriy Dibrov, to switch places, and he failed to answer the eleventh question correctly and won 32,000 rubles.

Notable contestants

Top Prize Winners Igor Sazeev () from Saint Petersburg. (12 March 2001) Irina Chudinovskikh and Yuriy Chudinovskikh () from Kirov. (January 18, 2003)http://www.1tv.ru/owa/win/ort5_pressa.pressa?p_pr_title_id=16414&p_date=04.06.2003&p_list_pagenum=25&p_search= Svetlana Yaroslavtseva () from Troitsk. (February 19, 2006) Timur Budayev () from Pyatigorsk. (April 17, 2010) Bari Alibasov and Alexander «Danko» Fadeev (). (November 23, 2013) Yulianna Karaulova and Timur Solovyov (). (December 2, 2017)

Top Prize Losers Galina Semyonova () lost 468,000 rubles on January 22, 2005. Vladimir Yefremov () lost 700,000 rubles on April 30, 2011. Dušan Perović and Yekaterina Andreyeva () lost 1,100,000 oubles on April 1, 2017. Viktor Verzhbitskiy and Andrey Burkovskiy () lost 1,300,000 rubles on May 27, 2017. Viktor Vasilyev and Gavriil Gordeyev () lost 1,100,000 rubles on November 11, 2017. Keti Topuria and Vladimir Miklosich () lost 1,300,000 rubles on February 17, 2018. Alexander Druz and Viktor Sidnev () lost 1,300,000 rubles on December 22, 2018. (Druz cheated.) Irina Pudova and Vasilisa Volodina () lost 1,100,000 rubles on October 9, 2021. Anna Mishina and Gennady Smirnov () lost 1,100,000 rubles on December 11, 2021.

Top Prize Walkers Sergey Strokin () from Moscow (June 10, 2000). Gennadiy Sostrovchuk (November 24, 2001). Konstantin Fedchenko (December 10, 2001). Olga Krayushkina (November 4, 2002). Leonid Agutin and Anzhelika Varum (January 8, 2005). Valentin Smirnitsky () (March 6, 2005). Sergey Bobris () from Belgorod. (February 5, 2011). Aleksandr Kuzin () from Oryol. (March 24, 2012). Leonid Panyukov () from Kostroma. (September 29, 2012) Mikhail Boyarsky and Valentin Smirnitsky () (May 16, 2015) Dana Borisova and Alexander Gudkov (). (June 24, 2018) Anna Kamenkova and Yury Grymov (). (August 18, 2018) Ilia Averbukh and Roman Kostomarov (). (March 23, 2019) Victoria Lopyreva and Mikhail Grushevsky (). (December 21, 2019) Anton Komolov and Viktor Vasilyev (). (January 8, 2020)

References

External links Official website of the new version Behind the scenes of Russian Millionaire