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, for quite a long time, Maxim Galkin retained the status of the youngest host of this game. To date, the format has managed to win about 70(!) awards, including Emmy ®, BAFTA, as well as multiple national awards in the UK.
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 for the original musical score of the show, it won several prestigious awards from the American Composers Association.
The most notorious scandal is associated with the British version of the TV game. In 2003, Charles Ingram was given a suspended sentence for cheating while filming an 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 inspired Vikas Svarup to write 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 the computer game dedicated to the transfer was sold out in the first year alone with a whopping 1.3 million copies. In addition, the game has been featured in seven feature films. It is noteworthy that due to the difference in exchange rates, the biggest gain is in the UK, while in Vietnam it is only 5200 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 on a regular phone, but starting from the second issue, communication began to be carried out over the 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.
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TV show plot:
"Who want to be a millionaire?" is an analogue of the most popular British show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Until 2001, the program was called "". Until September 2005, the maximum winnings of the program were one million rubles.
In order to earn in the program "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" three million rubles, you must correctly answer 15 questions from various fields of knowledge. Each question has four possible answers, of which only one is correct. Each question has a specific value. All amounts are replaceable, that is, after answering the next question, they are not summed up with the amount for answering the previous one. The amounts received with the correct answer to the 5th and 10th questions are "fireproof" (if the player chooses a "risk" game, only one amount is "fireproof" and the player sets it himself before starting the game). The “fireproof” amount will remain with the player even if one of the following questions is answered incorrectly. At any time, the player can stop and take the money. In case of an incorrect answer, the participant's winnings are reduced to the nearest “fireproof” amount reached, and he stops participating in the game.
During the entire game, you can use four tips once: "Help the audience", "50:50", "Call a friend" and "The right to make a mistake" (introduced in 2010). From the fall of 2006 to 2008, there was also a "Three Wise Men" hint - within 30 seconds, the player could consult with three famous personalities located in another room.
From 2001 to 2008, the parodist Maxim Galkin was the host of the program, then he was replaced by Dmitry Dibrov, who previously hosted the show “Oh, lucky!”.
A few years ago, these people were unknown to anyone, led a normal life, but today, if not everyone, then very many residents of not only the Russian Federation, but also the CIS countries and even neighboring countries know about them. These people did not dream of wealth, they worked and earned money in order to support their family. Little did they know that one day their lives would change drastically. Who are they - ordinary residents of our country who have become real millionaires thanks to the television quiz "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Was winning the show a turning point in their lives? What has changed since then, and what was the fate of national heroes?
1999 The Russian national channel NTV broadcasts the popular show "Oh, lucky!" with permanent host Dmitry Dibrov. In 2001, Channel One (former ORT - Public Russian Television) bought the program and changed the presenter - the still little-known young humorist Maxim Galkin became it. And already in the first edition of the television quiz on Channel One, Igor Sazeev from St. Petersburg becomes the winner and receives one million rubles as the main prize. Until today, skeptics claim that the management of Channel One decided to make this man a winner in order to attract even more viewers to this program on Channel One, as in the program “Oh, lucky!” in the two years of its existence on NTV, no one has won a million. However, be that as it may, Igor Sazeev played with dignity and got his win quite deservedly.
Igor Sazeev is a man who was 39 at the time of winning and has six children. According to him, he was preparing not so much for the game itself, but for the qualifying round, which he was afraid not to pass. To do this, he studied the history of the Russian Federation, and also looked through a large number of reference books. His zeal and work were not in vain - luck smiled at Igor. That's just for a short while. After receiving a prize of one million rubles, he was forced to give three hundred and fifty thousand to the state treasury as a tax on the prize. The information that the money prizes from the program are not advertised and for Igor Sazeev the news of the need to pay a 35 percent tax was a real shock.
As for the game itself, Igor Sazeev was confused only once - when he was asked a question regarding the work "Eugene Onegin". In subsequent interviews, the man honestly admitted that this question took him by surprise, since many years had passed since he had read Pushkin's work. And he answered all other questions clearly and confidently, as he knew the correct answer. However, despite the fact that Igor Sazeev is the first winner of the program who wants to become a millionaire and did not hope that he would become the owner of such a serious prize, he still expected that he would reach at least the tenth question, since he had enough knowledge in various fields of human activity.
Today, Igor Sazeev does not hide the fact that an accident brought him to the program - during the joint viewing of this television quiz, he often correctly answered those questions to which other participants left the game or gave incorrect answers. The wife, seeing such abilities in her husband, advised him to go and take part himself and win a million rubles for the family. So Igor Sazeev ended up on the program “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”.
As mentioned above, many skeptics believe that Igor Sazeev's victory in the television quiz is a good PR for Channel One. However, the winner believes that he honestly won his million. He does not believe that the questions he answered were too easy, they fully complied with the rules and regulations of the program and were divided into three blocks - comic (easy), medium and questions of increased complexity. It just so happened that for Igor the questions turned out to be convenient and nothing more.
According to psychologists, a serious test of a person's moral "strength" is quick and unexpected wealth or power. Igor Sazeev became richer by a million rubles for one television program. And, even despite the need to pay taxes, he became the owner of a huge amount of money. However, the winner of the TV quiz does not belong to the category of people who spend their winnings on various banquets and festive events in the very first months, and then discover that there is no trace of the winnings. After several years, Igor believes that he spent the money worthily and did not squander the winnings. He has a negative attitude towards those people who do not want to work, but prefer to receive money "just like that", but at the same time he does not believe that winning in such a serious intellectual program is a dishonest or unworthy way to earn money.
Today, Igor again dreams of taking part in the program. To the question that maybe this time it is worth trying your luck abroad, the newly-made millionaire replies that, in his opinion, he will not even be able to pass the qualifying round, since this will require answering questions regarding local features, the history of the country in which he will play.
The second winner of the program, who has already managed to take away three million rubles, was Viktor Chudinovskikh, who took part in the program together with his wife.
The fate of Yuri is similar to the fate of Igor Sazeev - Yuri was a talented boy from childhood, took part in all kinds of events that were held at school, participated in intellectual quizzes, olympiads in various subjects. In a word, Yuri Chudinovskikh possessed such knowledge that allowed him to study not in an ordinary secondary school, but in a special boarding school for gifted children. By a coincidence, Igor Sazeev graduated from the same secondary general education institution at one time. However, the fate of Yuri was not easy - despite the large number of various talents, it was difficult for the modest Chudinovsky to find his place "under the sun". He worked hard and earned little. Until the moment he got on the program as a participant, the family saved on almost everything, but there was still not enough money. However, oddly enough, having got to the doubles game, the husband and wife made a mutual decision already directly in the studio - to take risks and go to the end.
Irina and Yuri Chudinovskikh are sociable people who have many friends. In order not to lose the opportunity to win the maximum amount of money, they put several of their intellectual acquaintances at the phones at once, one of which was the director of the secondary school where Irina works. This man teaches history in high school and they planned to contact him if they came across a difficult question on history in the program. However, fate decreed otherwise - the spouses began to doubt the issue that concerned astronomy. I had to call a specialist in this matter from Moscow. However, he could not answer this question either, only at the last second one of the friends who participated in the “brainstorming” remembered that we are talking about Venus, which has a gaseous shell and therefore is the hottest on it. However, despite the fact that friends helped the Chudinovsky couple win three million rubles, Yuri and Irina did not consider it necessary to thank them for this.
Today, Irina and Yuri Chudinovsky are called people who, in fact, became the prototypes of the heroes who took part in the filming of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire. In addition to the fact that Yuri and Irina moved from one city to another for a long time, wandered, trying to find a better life, childhood memories surfaced in Yuri's memory while participating in the program. Yuri Chudinovskikh honestly admitted to reporters after his victory on the show that he did not know the exact answer to the last question. However, despite this, at the very last moment, when he and Irina were about to take the money and leave the program, he remembered the children's animated film "Well, wait a minute" and the answer was found.
After winning the program, the life of Yuri and Irina Chudinovsky changed for the better - after the program went on the air, Yuri was invited to work for a good position in a serious banking structure, where he works as deputy general director to this day.
However, the win did not radically change the lives of these people from Kirov, since, according to Yuri, three million rubles is too little to radically change something - the money earned by their own mind on the program dispersed too quickly.
Svetlana Yaroslavtseva is a person who managed to win three million rubles on her own. Unlike the couple Yuri and Irina Chudinovsky, she did not take part in the pair program - she decided to rely on her own strengths and talents. She was born and lived in the city of Troitsk (Moscow region), unlike previous winners, Svetlana did not study at prestigious educational institutions, preferring self-education to studying at Moscow universities.
Svetlana Yaroslavtseva answered fourteen questions of the presenter with dignity and was only one step away from three million rubles, but the last - the fifteenth question - baffled her. "Which writer in the time of Catherine II was a page?". Svetlana did not know the answer - this was evident from her facial expressions, gestures and serious excitement, reflected on the face of the future millionaire. Despite the fact that she tried to remain calm, the audience in the studio, and then the viewers, noticed the internal struggle - to take 500 thousand rubles or go to the end. The choice was not easy. Svetlana Yaroslavtseva, who managed to keep the hint until the end of the program, asked the audience a question and it was the people who came to the program who helped her win three million rubles.
With the money won, Svetlana Yaroslavtseva bought a summer house near Troitsk, as well as a one-room apartment for her elderly mother. A few months after her victory, the woman fulfilled her old dream - to visit the Dead Sea, Netanya, Jerusalem, Eilat.
She speaks of Maxim Galkin with a gleam in her eyes, speaks of his charisma and incredible charm. The only thing that really surprised her during the game was the look of a tired person, eyes full of longing. However, to the surprise of Svetlana Yaroslavtseva, this was absolutely not visible on TV.
Today, yesterday's millionaires lead a normal life. They live among us and continue to work, study, reach new heights and open horizons. These people were lucky and gave a lot of positive emotions, but today their life is practically no different from the previous one - everything passes, money is spent, but the memory of such a gift of fate remains forever.
Records of millionaires
My own game
WHO WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?
TV game "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" appeared in the UK. Its premiere took place on September 4, 1998 on the ATV channel. The famous English showman Chris Terent became the host of the program. The game very quickly became the most popular program on English television - already in the first months, the ratings of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" began to "overlap" the ratings of the leading television channel in the UK "BBC-1".
During the first year of the game's existence, a license for its production was acquired in 77 countries of the world, today already 100 countries own a license for the production of this transfer. And the game goes on air in 75 countries. Among them are Russia, USA, India, Japan, Colombia, Venezuela, Malaysia, Australia, Greece, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan and many others. In some countries, such as Singapore, there are not one, but two versions of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? broadcast on different channels and in different languages.
On Russian television, the premiere of the program took place on October 1, 1999, on the NTV channel. It was called "Oh, Lucky!". Dmitry Dibrov became its host.
Since February 2001, the program has been broadcast on the ORT channel. Now the Russian version of the English game is called Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and is led by Maxim Galkin.
MILLIONAIRE RECORDS
"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" - the only foreign game, the production rights of which were bought by in Japan- and most of all millionaires (27) live there. There are 3-4 winners every year.
In second place in terms of the number of winners is the United States (11 millionaires), in third place are Germany and Austria (6).
The biggest prize in the history of the show was offered to the participants of the American version of "Super Millionaire" - $10 million. True, the jackpot was never won (the maximum win was a million dollars). Also, the winners live well in England (a million pounds sterling), in Ireland - a million euros (previously - a million pounds, which is also not a little), Germany, Italy, France.
MY OWN GAME
quiz show Jeopardy!- An international game originally conceived by Merv Griffin and aired March 30, 1964 to September 7, 1975 on NBC Wire; in 1978 it was renewed and aired (in new versions) on other channels and in different countries. In September 2007, the 24th season of Jeopardy! will begin.
In the Russian version, the TV quiz has been broadcast on the NTV channel under the name "Own Game" since January 1994. The permanent host is Peter Kuleshov.
The essence of the game is that three participants race to answer questions of different cost, which depends on their complexity. In case of a correct answer, points are awarded to the player's account, in case of an incorrect answer, points are removed. Until 2001, there were only three rounds (“Red”, “Blue” and “Own Game”), now there are 4 of them. In the first, the cost of questions varies from 100 to 500 rubles, in the second - from 200 to 1000, and in the third - from 300 to 1500.
Only those players who have a positive amount on their account are allowed to the final round. Only one question is played in it, and all three participants are required to answer it. First they choose a topic, then they place their bets, after which the question itself is heard.
The topics of the questions mainly concern culture, history, literature, science, etc.
