Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (colloquially referred to as simply Millionaire) is an American television game show based on the format of the same-titled British program created by David Briggs, Steven Knight and Mike Whitehill and developed in the United States by Michael Davies. The show features a quiz competition with contestants attempting to win a top prize of $1,000,000 by answering a series of multiple-choice questions, usually of increasing difficulty. The program has endured as one of the longest-running and most successful international variants in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? franchise.
The show has had numerous format and gameplay changes over its runtime and, since its debut, twelve contestants and four separate teams of two contestants (twenty people combined, seven of which were celebrities) have answered all the questions correctly and won the top prize (two other contestants also won one million dollars in special editions of the show). As the first American network game show to offer a million-dollar top prize, the show made television history by becoming one of the highest-rated game shows in the history of American television. The American Millionaire won seven Daytime Emmy Awards, and TV Guide ranked it No. 6 in its 2013 list of the 60 greatest game shows of all time.
Gameplay Core rules
At its core, the game is a quiz competition in which the goal is to correctly answer a series of 15 (14 from 2010–2019) consecutive multiple-choice questions. The questions are of increasing difficulty, except in the 2010–15 format overhaul, where the contestants were faced with a round of 10 questions of random difficulty, followed by a round of four questions of increasing difficulty. Each question is worth a specific amount of money; the amounts are not cumulative. Many questions from number 6 onward often prompt the host to ask if the answer they gave is their "final answer" – if it is, then it is locked in and cannot be changed. If at any time the contestant gives a wrong answer, the game is over and the contestant's winnings are reduced to $0 for tier-one questions, $1,000 for tier-two questions, and $32,000 for tier-three questions. However, the contestant may choose to walk away after being presented with a question, allowing them to keep all the money they have won to that point; afterwards (in most cases) the host will usually ask them to state what answer they would have gone for if they had continued, and reveal if it would have been correct or incorrect. With the exception of the shuffle format, upon correctly answering questions five and ten, contestants are guaranteed at least the amount of prize money associated with that level.
Contestants giving an incorrect answer see their winnings drop down to the last milestone achieved. From the show's launch in 1999–2010 and again from 2015–2017, a contestant would leave with nothing if they answered a question incorrectly before reaching the first milestone. In the shuffle format, which from 2010–2015, contestants who incorrectly answered a question had their winnings reduced to $1,000 in round one and $25,000 in round two, regardless of how far they had progressed into the game. Beginning in 2017, contestants answering a question incorrectly before reaching the first milestone question would leave with $1,000, even if the incorrect question is worth a lower amount. For celebrities playing in the syndicated version, the minimum guarantee for their nominated charities is $10,000. Beginning in 2020, all contestants are guaranteed $32,000 either for themselves or for their chosen charities, even if the incorrect question is worth a lower amount (from 2020 to 2021, the show featured a hybrid of celebrity and non-celebrity contestants, though the show became celebrity-exclusive when it returned in July 2024).
Format history Original format (1999–2008; 2020–present) From 1999–2002, 10 contestants played a round of Fastest Finger to determine who played next. The participants were presented with one question and four answers and attempted to put the four answers in a certain order (ascending, chronological, etc.) in the fastest time. The contestant who did so correctly in the fastest time played. If no contestant got the correct order, the round was played again, and when a tie occurred, the tied participants answered a second Fastest Finger question. This round was removed when the syndicated version began in 2002, though it returned in 2004 for Super Millionaire. The format remained unchanged, except for changes to the money staircase and the addition of a new lifeline, until 2008. When the show returned to ABC in 2020, the original format used from 1999–2004 was used, albeit with slightly different lifelines and the Fastest Finger round once again being removed.
The guaranteed amounts for correctly answering questions five and ten were $1,000 and $32,000, respectively, for the entirety of the network run and the syndicated version from 2002 to 2004. The Super Millionaire specials in 2004 had guarantees of $5,000 and $100,000, respectively. Beginning in 2004 on the syndicated version, the upper guarantee was decreased to $25,000 at the same time a fourth lifeline was added; the 10th Anniversary specials also followed suit.
Clock format (2008–2010) In 2008, the format was altered to include a time limit on each question. The amount of time for each question was as follows: Questions 1–5: 15 seconds Questions 6–10: 30 seconds Questions 11–14: 45 seconds Question 15: 45 seconds, plus the total of all unused time from the previous 14 questions
Unlike past formats, the four answer options would be revealed simultaneously, and the timer would begin to run immediately afterward (while the host was still reading the answers). The contestant had to give a final answer before the timer reached 0. The timer temporarily paused if the contestant used a lifeline and restarted once the lifeline ended. If time ran out, the game ended and the contestant left with whatever money they had won up to that point, in the same manner as walking away. However, because contestants cannot walk away while using the Double Dip lifeline, running out of time during Double Dip would instead be treated as a wrong answer and the contestant's winnings would be reduced to the last safety net. (Using the Double Dip lifeline during the clock format would stop the clock during the first answer and resume it during the second answer.)
While the clock format was in use, the contestant was also shown the categories of all 15 questions in the order they were to be asked.
For the first season of the clock format, the guarantees for answering questions five and ten were $1,000 and $25,000. For the final season, the lower guarantee was increased to $5,000, commensurate with a change in the money tree. In August 2009, Fastest Finger returned for the 10th Anniversary primetime special. Fastest Finger has not been used on the American version of Millionaire since then.
Shuffle format (2010–2015) The format was overhauled in September 2010, splitting the game into two rounds. The first round consisted of 10 questions, each in a different category and worth a different amount from $100 to $25,000. Both the category order and the amounts were randomized at the start of the game, with the latter hidden from the contestant's view (from 2014, the categories to the questions were no longer presented to the contestant). The difficulty level and value of each question were not tied to one another. The value of each question was revealed only after the contestant answered it correctly or chose to jump (skip) it; a correct answer added the money to the contestant's bank, while a jump put the value out of play. The maximum bank from this round was $68,600. If the contestant missed a question in the first round, they left with $1,000, even if their bank was lower than this total. Choosing to walk away allowed the contestant to keep half their bank.
The second round presented four questions of increasing difficulty in the traditional format, each of which augmented the contestant's total winnings to a set value. A miss in this round reduced their winnings to $25,000, while choosing to walk away allowed the contestant to keep all winnings accumulated thus far. Categories for these questions were not given ahead of time.
From 2011–2014, some weeks were "Double Your Money" weeks, in which one first-round question was randomly designated as being worth double its value. The maximum potential bank from this round thus became $93,600.
Beginning in this format (in 2010) and lasting until 2019 was the audience contestant round. If a regular contestant left the game close to the end of a half-hour episode and there was not enough time to introduce a new contestant, a randomly selected audience member would be invited to answer one question with no lifelines. A correct answer would display "Thousandaire" on-screen and the audience contestant would win a $1,000 prize.
Classic Resurgence format (2015–2019) With the hiring of new host Chris Harrison, the format was changed once again to resemble that of the original Millionaire format. Each contestant faces 14 general-knowledge questions of increasing difficulty, with no time limit or information about the categories.
The guaranteed amounts for correctly answering questions five and ten were $5,000 and $50,000 respectively. Originally, contestants who failed to clear the first five questions won nothing. However, beginning in 2017, a contestant who missed any of the first five questions left with $1,000, even if the missed question was of a lower value.
Payout structure Five different ladders have been used over the course of the series (bold values indicate guarantees):
QuestionnumberQuestion value1999–2004; 2020–present2004–20092009–20102010–20152015–20191$100$500$100, $500, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, $7,000, $10,000, $15,000, and $25,000$5002$200$1,000$1,0003$300$2,000$2,0004$500$3,000$3,0005$1,000$5,000$5,0006$2,000$7,500$7,0007$4,000$10,000$10,0008$8,000$12,500$20,0009$16,000$15,000$30,00010$32,000$25,000$50,00011$64,000$50,000$100,00012$125,000$100,000$250,00013$250,000$500,00014$500,000$1,000,00015$1,000,000
The $500,000 and $1,000,000 prizes were initially lump-sum payments, but were changed to annuities in September 2002 when the series moved to syndication. Contestants winning either of these prizes receive $250,000 thirty days after their show broadcasts and the remainder paid in equal annual payments. Winners of $500,000 also receive $25,000 per year for 10 years, while $1,000,000 prize winners also receive $37,500 per year for 20 years; all prizes are subject to taxes.
From 2017 to 2019, contestants who answered one of the first five questions incorrectly received a $1,000 consolation prize. On the original primetime version and in earlier seasons of the syndicated version prior to 2010 (and again from 2015 to 2017), contestants who missed one of the first five questions left with nothing.
Lifelines Forms of assistance known as "lifelines" are available for a contestant to use if a question proves difficult. Multiple lifelines may be used on a single question, but each one can only be used once per game (unless otherwise noted below). Three lifelines are available from the start of the game. Depending on the format of the show, additional lifelines may become available after the contestant correctly answers the fifth or tenth question. In the clock format, usage of lifelines temporarily pauses the clock while the lifelines are played. +1 (2014–2019): The contestant may invite a friend onstage from the audience to assist with the current question. After the question result, the friend must return to the audience.