EXCLUSIVE Set Report

Who Wants to be a Millionaire will be getting an all new look when the new season debuts September 13th in syndication. The long running quiz show hosted by Meredith Vieira is nearly getting an all new game, allowing contestants to win more money than ever before with an unpredictable first portion consisting of the first ten questions. If the contestant makes it that far, though, the Millionaire everyone knows comes into full force, placing the contestant just four questions away from the $1,000,000 top prize. With anything like this I’m expecting some sort of knee-jerk reaction and I’m hoping it doesn’t happen because after you dissect all the information and think about it, it sounds pretty good. I have to be honest…I think I really like this. Reasons why I do after the rules.

First off, the dreaded clock is removed from the game. The first round of the game will consist of the first ten questions valued from $100 to $25,000. The values specifically are $100; $500; $1,000; $2,000; $3,000; $5,000; $7,000; $10,000; $15,000; and $25,000. Before the game the order of the questions and the dollar values attached to each is randomly shuffled. So that means each contestant will be getting a different game each time. That first question may be for $100, or it could be for a huge $25,000. It could be the easiest question or it could be the hardest. No one knows the value of the question until the player has given his or her Final Answer. If a contestant answers correctly the value of the question is added to the contestant’s bank. If a contestant does not know the answer, that person can walk away with half of the bank during the first 10 questions.

To help the contestant out, three Lifelines will be given. The only surviving Lifeline is Ask the Audience. The other two are called “Jump the Question. If the contestant is afraid of the question the contestant may “Jump” it, which will bypass the question but he or she can’t bank the question value.

If the contestant can make it through the first 10 questions, the contestant is guaranteed $25,000 to fall back on like always and is now just four questions away from the top prize. This portion is called “Classic Millionaire” and runs like always The $50,000 question has been removed and the Final Four are $100,000; $250,000; $500,000; and $1,000,000. The contestant can leave with his or her bank (or whatever dollar value that person is on), but if a wrong answer is given the contestant drops back to $25,000.

Another huge change is the iconic set is getting revamped. Some new lights and large 18 foot wide high definition monitors are placed around the set. The most startling change is the removal of the Hot Seat, so contestants and Meredith are on their feet in the central hub the entire time, moving about the set. As a side note also, the show will celebrate its 1,500th episode on November 5th, 2010.

So that’s the new game. And again, I have to be honest, I really like it I think. This is coming from a big fan of the show, too. The show reached a point of no return last season. No one was winning much. The contestants constantly walked away early because of the larger money chain so it never got to the exciting part. People were too afraid to use Double Dip. Ask the Expert was completely useless. Something had to happen. Do I think it’s as good as the original ABC game? No, that’s nearly impossible. But I do think this is better than what we’ve had the past year or two, which got extremely stale and predictable.

I like this because it does add a lot of excitement and unpredictability. The Jump does this especially, because you have to be really careful and play the odds of what dollar value you’re getting rid of. Ask the Audience was the only useful Lifeline left so I’m glad they kept it. The main game, while mixing it up, is still the Millionaire standard of answering multiple choice questions. That hasn’t changed. You just don’t know what you’re getting and it makes the walk-away decision much more crucial because staying in the game just one more question could net you well over $10,000 more. The only thing that confuses me is getting rid of something as iconic as the Hot Seat, but it’s not like that matters in the long run so that’s far from a deal breaker.

“I feel as though we’ve really upped the ante this year on Millionaire. Every question counts and contestants will have to apply more strategy to see which risks they’re willing to take,” said Millionaire host Meredith Vieira. “Millionaire will look a lot different this year, but the foundation of the show remains intact. Millionaire is the show that gives regular folks a chance to win extraordinary money and we’re staying true to that premise,” she added.

So what do we think? Again, I honestly do like the sound of it and it does interject new life and energy into the show. I’ll be on set on Thursday to see it first hand and I really can’t wait. It’s drastically different than anything else, I think it fixes a ton of the problems the stale last season had, and I’m really hoping we don’t have a ton of knee-jerk reactionary comments. This Millionaire fan thinks it’ll be just fine.