Disney's role in the production of the show

Note that this thread is about both the primetime and the syndicated versions of the show.

When original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire production company Celador brought the show to the United States, they licensed it to the Walt Disney Company. Valleycrest Productions is a subsidiary of Buena Vista Television (which is now Disney-ABC Domestic Television). Both Buena Vista Television and the ABC television network were owned by, and are still owned by, the Walt Disney Company. Disney was also responsible for the former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Play It attraction at its Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks. Celador made Disney the primary distributor of Millionaire in the United States.

Celador was acquired by Dutch company 2waytraffic in 2006, which in turn was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2008. Sony Pictures Television distributes the show worldwide, except for the United States, where Disney distributes the show. Because Disney is the primary distributor of the show, it has caused a number of things unique to the U.S. version.

First off, the websites and online games for the show looked significantly different. If you compared the UK website and the U.S. website, you would see that they looked significantly different. Their video game adaptations were significantly different, too; just look online for the UK versions vs. the U.S. versions and you'll see the differences in the designs of the games. (One notable difference was that the UK and European versions gave you unlimited time to answer questions, whereas the U.S. versions gave you a strict time limit of only 30 seconds to answer questions.) There was also a lot of Millionaire-related merchandise released in Europe that has never been released in the United States, due to what I'm calling a "Disney lockout." Very few Millionaire-related merchandise released in Europe have been released in the United States due to this Disney lockout.

Regarding the show itself, making Disney the primary distributor of the show allowed Disney to overexpose it, causing it to crash and burn out. (Disney has a tendency to overexpose "cash cow" franchises if they hit it big in popular culture.) In the UK, game shows can last 10 years or more on primetime television, but in the U.S., game shows are lucky if they last just 3 years on primetime television because of overexposure, along with giving away outcomes of the game in trailers. There were also several other quirks associated with the U.S. version of the show. For instance, when introducing the lifelines, Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend were reversed in order from the UK version for the show ("50/50, Ask the Audience, Phone a Friend" instead of "50/50, Phone a Friend, Ask the Audience"); the show's catchphrase, "Is that your final answer?", was shorted to "Final answer?", and later just "Final?"; and during the syndicated show's run, the show would simply be referred to as "Millionaire", and almost never by its full title; i.e., Meredith Vieira, Cedric the Entertainer, and Terry Crews would say "Let's play Millionaire" and not "Let's play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"; however, current host Chris Harrison does say the full title of the show. In more recent seasons, Disney has changed the music, the graphics, the lifelines, and the format. In terms of lifelines, the U.S. and UK versions had different ways of addressing Phone a Friend lifelines who used online search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) to find the answers; the U.S. version decided to get rid of the lifeline altogether, and replace it with Ask the Expert, and later Plus One; the UK version, however, stuck with the lifeline, but instead changed how the lifeline worked; instead of leaving the friends at home, the contestant selects the friends ahead of time and brings them to the studio, and place them backstage in isolated sound-proof booths, where they have no access to the internet, nor can they see or hear the action that is unfolding in the main set until they are called for help. And in terms of the soundtrack, initially, they hired Keith and Matthew Strachan to compose new music cues for the soundtrack, but in 2010, they scrapped the Strachans' score altogether in favor of a completely new score written by a duo named Jeff Lippencott and Mark T. Williams, who form the duo Ah2 Music, a company who composes music for various reality television shows. And the addition of time limits to questions was a Disney invention, not a Celador one; Celador wanted the game to be based on suspense and drama. I should note that in the former Walt Disney World Play It attraction, the clock only started after all four answers were read (the four answers were revealed one at a time, and the clock stated only after answer D was revealed), but in the 2008 syndicated season, as well as the 2009 10th anniversary celebration, the clock starts when all four answers appear all at once. And they also got rid of the hot seat in the U.S. version; the game is now played standing up. Also, celebrity editions in the U.S. version are played solo, rather than in teams of two like in the UK and European versions. And in the U.S. primetime version, the celebrity editions used the fastest finger round, whereas the UK and European versions did not.

Now, I may be criticizing Disney, but that does NOT mean that I don't like Disney; in fact; I happen to be a fan of a lot of their works. I like the fact that they acquired Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. I happen to like Disney movies. However, I don't like what they did with Millionaire. I would like it if Sony Pictures Television would buy the rights to Millionaire from Disney, so that the show would more closely resemble the European versions. Then again, I would still like Disney to have a role in the production of the show as well. Currently, Sony and Disney made a deal to share the movie rights to the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man in movies, so I'd like to see Sony and Disney share the rights to Millionaire as well. I would like to see celebrity editions modeled after the European versions, but using actors and singers from Disney movies, Pixar movies, Marvel movies, Lucasfilm movies, Disney Channel shows, Disney XD shows, Freeform/ABC Family shows, and ABC shows. I want Disney to remodel the show's website, online and video game adaptations, and merchandise after the European versions, and I want Disney and Sony to share 50% rights each to the distribution of the show in the United States. I would also like to see a video game adaptation of the game focusing on questions about Disney media.