Millionaire Question

[tommycharles]

The story that goes with the new Super Millionaire phone number on tvgameshows.net mentions that (in Beverly's opinion I guess) Millionaire's demise was caused more by the lack of phone game and too many celebrities than over exposure. Do you folks here believe that that's true, or was it just overexposure??

T

[Jay Temple]

If the overexposure hadn't done the show in by itself, the celebs would have pushed it over the edge.

[Craig Karlberg]

OK, here's really what happened to Millionaire:

First off, the celeberty editions were too commonplace back in 2001.  Therefore, the ratings reflected it.

Second, the scheduling went downhill when it went to 4 nights a week.  This also showed in the ratings.

BUT, the big reason for its imminent demise in 2001 was the dismantling of the qualifying phone game.  It was that aspect that led to the disposal of the original Millionaire in the first place.

Hopefully, ABC will learn from this by keeping the show as civilized(no celeberties), timely(sweeps only events) and more inportantly, effective(a new qualifying phone game).

[Timsterino]

I still believe that the onslaught of cheating celebrity editions was the ultimate downfall of the original show. By the time they decided to go to two times per week it was too late to fix anything.

Millionaire was always a show that should be seen in spurts (a couple a weeks at a time). I agree, however,  that the over exposure hurt the show eventually. The 4 day a week ratings were still strong for quite a while.

Tim :-)

[starcade]

Celebrity edition and it's trying to make the stars look somewhat intelligent (HA!) was the main factor -- but I think the lack of a phone game really did the rest of it in since a lot of people no longer could identify with the every-man situation.