Final Answer, Interrupted: The Delayed Demise of WWTBAM

[Loogaroo]

Figured I'd just plop this here and get some discussion going.

http://the-bloog.com/final-answer-interrupted-wwtbam-timeline.shtml

Given the clearances I'm hearing about the new season, it does sound like this is a farewell tour for the show, but still - I honestly thought WWTBAM was going to crater in 2011. Stranger things have happened.

[The Pyramids]

Very good read. I plan on watching for the first time since '11 next week.

[cyclone45]

You don't tweak something that doesn't need it. The only thing Classic Millionaire ever did wrong was overexposure. Any host would have been fine with the classic format. But ABC drove it into the ground with celebrity specials.

[Kevin Prather]

Well written, Tim.

One comment: the first save haven will be worth $5,000, not $2,000. (Eighth paragraph from the bottom.)

[whewfan]

Or as Richard Dawson would've said, word of mouth killed it :-)

[Kevin Prather]

To this day, I wonder what would have happened if Millionaire never went to series, and continued doing their sweeps specials. With the other networks coming out with their own series, wouldn't ABC have been pretty much forced to take the plunge? Certainly the other shows would have done better if they didn't have Millionaire hogging the audience in early 2000, but would they have been hits?

The trick is that once they've gone to series, it's difficult to go back to specials without seeming like you've cancelled the show.

[TLEberle]

Or as Richard Dawson would've said, word of mouth killed it :-)

Why would he say that? What does that even mean?

The more I watch the old shows the less I think of Regis as host--it's not just that as the show wore on he didn't even bother to wait more than a second or two before pronouncing judgment, it's that he would make fun of certain contestants and their hobbies or fascinating facts.

To Kevin's point: I think that if Millionaire stays two weeks every sweeps period that perhaps $1 million doesn't become Pavlov's Grand Prize, and other shows roll back because they don't need to give away a million dollars in response. British contingent: for how long did Millionaire remain a Special Event in the UK before becoming a regular series?

[BrandonFG]

Survivor and Big Brother air, what, twice a week seasonally? And both still do pretty well 15 years later. I do wonder ABC had used that model or Travis's above example with limited celebrity episodes, would the show have made it past 2002? And would there be a daytime version? All moot points, but Tim's article illustrates what killed this show. Super Millionaire and the 10th Anniversary special were enjoyable (minus the celebrity question on the latter*).

I've said this before, but I really wish the 1999-2000 crop of games had left more of a residual effect on the genre, and not so much the post-Deal or No Deal type shows. Even with the gimmicks, at least the shows from 2000 were competently produced and featured everyday people, not sitcom tropes.

/At least the dark rave look is finally starting to die out
//*Patricia Heaton...UGH

[Loogaroo]

To this day, I wonder what would have happened if Millionaire never went to series, and continued doing their sweeps specials. With the other networks coming out with their own series, wouldn't ABC have been pretty much forced to take the plunge?

If they couldn't help themselves enough to turn WWTBAM into a series down the line, at least they could've done something along the lines of what they do with Dancing with the Stars - run the show for several weeks, then rest it, then bring it back a few months later, then rest, and so on. Make the last week of each "season" a celebrity week so that you have a de facto finale rather that just shuffling off to Buffalo with no fanfare.

The trick is that once they've gone to series, it's difficult to go back to specials without seeming like you've cancelled the show.

Not necessarily - if there was some sort of stigma attached to being cancelled and then brought back on a limited basis, Super Millionaire and the 10th Anniversary week wouldn't have happened. Super Millionaire only got nixed because they ran out of timeslots to put it in.

[Joe Mello]

Not necessarily - if there was some sort of stigma attached to being cancelled and then brought back on a limited basis, Super Millionaire and the 10th Anniversary week wouldn't have happened. Super Millionaire only got nixed because they ran out of timeslots to put it in.

But the show was still active in syndication while that was going on. When I think Kevin is saying that if Millionaire went from X per week to just 2-3 weeks every 6 months, it's going to feel really weird.

[TLEberle]

But the show was still active in syndication while that was going on. When I think Kevin is saying that if Millionaire went from X per week to just 2-3 weeks every 6 months, it's going to feel really weird.

It wouldn't have been every six months. Survivor and The Amazing Race do thirteen weeks on, then take three months off, thirteen weeks on, thirteen weeks off. Big Brother is on for three months and then it is shelved for nine. In England I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! is a yearly event around Thanksgiving. Football games happen once a week and then the season is over. There's precedent.

Part of that initial excitement was that if you were invested in the show you were less likely to miss one than if it is on four times a week for an hour each time. If you miss one of those then you catch up next time with the "Previously on Millionaire" opener. As much as Greed or Winning Lines or Twenty-one tried to siphon off some of the excitement, Millionaire could have renewed itself by resting and then returning. I think the same could be said for Deal or No Deal: the more people watched and realized that it's a slight game being dragged out interminably and held up by general silliness and where each game takes up an entire episode and chances are good that the chosen contestant is going to win a pile of money then there's no problem if you miss one here or there because after all it will be there on Friday waiting for you.

[clemon79]

With the other networks coming out with their own series, wouldn't ABC have been pretty much forced to take the plunge?

Without the success of Millionaire, the other networks don't come out with their own series.

[Kevin Prather]

With the other networks coming out with their own series, wouldn't ABC have been pretty much forced to take the plunge?

Without the success of Millionaire, the other networks don't come out with their own series.

Are you saying that the other networks didn't decide to run with Greed and Winning Lines until after ABC decided to make Millionaire a series? I thought they were simultaneous, if the other networks didn't beat ABC to the punch by a little bit. When did those series start? Wasn't Greed a series in November?

[BrandonFG]

Millionaire was August 1999. Greed was October or November, and I think Winning Lines and 21 premiered the same weekend in January 2000. IIRC, Millionaire became a regular series the same night 21 premiered.

Thinking about it now, it really amazes me just how rapidly Millionaire took the country by storm. It truly was a pop culture phenomenon, even after just the two-week trial run. I'm with Chris, though...without Millionaire, none of those exist. I remember watching Greed and immediately dismissing it as a copycat; it quickly grew on me.

[Kevin Prather]

I'm with Chris, though...without Millionaire, none of those exist. I remember watching Greed and immediately dismissing it as a copycat; it quickly grew on me.

Oh, no question about it. I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying that if Millionaire tried to remain as specials, those series still would have come along, and their success (thanks to not having to fight Millionaire) would have forced ABC to make Millionaire into a series.