Super Millionaire payouts

[Lemonjello]

From the Super Millionaire rules...

"Winners of cash prizes of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) or more, who meet all requirements of Game Sponsor, will be awarded One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) approximately thirty (30) days following the broadcast of the episode in which the Contestant completed Main Game play and the remaining amount will be paid in equal annual installments over the following twenty (20) years."


20 years?!? Let's face it, $1,000,000 to ABC is like $1 to you and me. I think it's pretty lame that they don't pay out in one lump sum instead of making you wait 20 years before you get it all.

I think I'll buy an ABC t-shirt and ask if I can pay in 15 installments of $1.

[whampyl03]

I don't see why you think that's suprising...

Syndie Millionaire and those PCH-like sweepstakes have been doing that type of payout for a short while now for the big winners. (Also assuming that $1MCOAL and Play For a Billion did the same thing too.)

That, and ABC probably assigned WWTBASM? with a production budget that they must stick too, which is probably why the paid installments rule was instigated.

I'll end this post with a question to toss out to the peanut gallery...

Were there any other shows that I left out which paid out in multiple installmens?

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 02:14 AM\']

I'll end this post with a question to toss out to the peanut gallery...

Were there any other shows that I left out which paid out in multiple installmens? [/quote]
 Play for a Billion would have done that for the Billion if it were won, not sure if they're doing annuity payments for the million that was won. Million Dollar CoaL used an annuity system. Greed(for prizes over $200K), Kennedy NTT($10K a year for 10 years), and TJW paid out $25K a year for 10 years for the $250K prizes won by the contestants in their 1979 and 1980 TofC's(1980's TofC also awarded a like amount of money to the charity of the contestants' choice)

[Ian Wallis]

Million Dollar CoaL used an annuity system.

Do you think the winning couples on "$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" are still getting their payments this long after the show went off, or would the producers find a way to "bankrupt" the company?  Not incinuating anything...just curious.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 07:01 AM\'] Do you think the winning couples on "$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" are still getting their payments this long after the show went off, or would the producers find a way to "bankrupt" the company?  Not incinuating anything...just curious. [/quote]
 I would think said annuities were backed by some kind of insurance policy.

Isn't said annuity set up through a bank (or other financial institution), anyhow? That is, when you win it, you sign for and receive the appropriate bank documents, and then it's out of the producer's hands from that point forward?

[thgames65]

[quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 02:14 AM\']

I'll end this post with a question to toss out to the peanut gallery...

Were there any other shows that I left out which paid out in multiple installmens?[/quote]
My prize from FOX's "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" was 200K up front, then the remaining 840K over 10 years.  They still owe me 7 more payments.  The checks are made out by FOX, not any 3rd party.  As long as American Idol is on the air, I don't think I have any worries.

Tim Hsieh

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 01:24 PM\'] [quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 07:01 AM\'] Do you think the winning couples on "$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" are still getting their payments this long after the show went off, or would the producers find a way to "bankrupt" the company?  Not incinuating anything...just curious. [/quote]
I would think said annuities were backed by some kind of insurance policy.

Isn't said annuity set up through a bank (or other financial institution), anyhow? That is, when you win it, you sign for and receive the appropriate bank documents, and then it's out of the producer's hands from that point forward? [/quote]
 That's how it's been explained to me.  For the longest time I thought the same thing Ian thought -- Why would a production company long since out of business or swallowed up by someone else go to the trouble of guaranteeing that a not-insubstantial amount of money would keep going to its winners twenty years later?

I still wish I had concrete evidence, specifically a couple coming forward to say they're still getting their annual check.  At one point I though Beverly was going to have an interview with one such couple, but I never heard any more about it.  Still, most of the smarter folks here seem to think that the bank would control the pursestrings and the money would keep on flowing, and I guess that's what we'll go with until we hear otherwise.

[Terry K]

I believe most GS payments are done by a third party insurance company (I know Pepsi did that on the $1 billion show, they had an insurance policy in place should anyone have hit it, and they made sure it was difficult to do)

As for Super Millionaire, you can bet they have insurance policies in place to pay the winners.  As I said in an earlier thread, what happens if several someones hit the $10 million this week?  

ABC would have to come up wtih 20-30 million right off the bat.  By doing annuities, they can afford $10 millon at a whack.

As for if the production co went out of business or whatever, I strongly suspect the major 4 networks all require producers of shows to have the insurance policies in force and/or annutities in place so they can avoid liability if a show is cancelled, the company goes OOB or whatever.  

In today's world, most of the shows in production owned by a network, or a very large studio (eg, Sony), so this isn't as big of a problem as it was 20 years ago.

(This might be a Randy question)  IF someone hit the $1 million on TPIR, would they be paid all at once or over time?  And wouldn't the check come from Fremantle vs. from CBS?

[ezbidder]

[quote name=\'thgames65\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 01:53 PM\'] My prize from FOX's "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" was 200K up front, then the remaining 840K over 10 years.  

Tim Hsieh [/quote]
 I'll put my star-struck hat on for a moment: Wow, a real million dollar game show winner posting to this board!  Cool. Must be nice having that bit of "insurance" each year to add to your yearly salary.

[goongas]

Super Millionaire rules say the show has the right to give the responsibility for the annuity to a subsidiary of Allstate.

[thgames65]

[quote name=\'ezbidder\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 04:49 PM\']Cool. Must be nice having that bit of "insurance" each year to add to your yearly salary.[/quote]
It is comforting to know that if anything happens to my "day job" I can still pay the mortgage, etc. for a while.

Tim

[starcade]

I think it's a bit ridiculous to not kick in the annuities at question 13...  ($2.5 M)

It would almost appear that I would've had to go for question 12 -- and would've missed it, thinking the prefrontal was for behavior control, so the panic attack answer was the only applicable one -- because I need $250K with the taxes to get a lot of past-due stuff done...

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'Terry K\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 02:19 PM\'] As for Super Millionaire, you can bet they have insurance policies in place to pay the winners.  As I said in an earlier thread, what happens if several someones hit the $10 million this week? 
 [/quote]
We know this for certain (in fact part of me wants to say that at least at one time it was Lloyd's of London) because at one point during the original series there was some bitching on their end about threatening to pull their policy because they felt the questions weren't as difficult as they were represented to be when WWTBAM took out the initial policy.

[zachhoran]

[quote name=\'Ian Wallis\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 09:01 AM\']

Million Dollar CoaL used an annuity system.

Do you think the winning couples on "$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime" are still getting their payments this long after the show went off, or would the producers find a way to "bankrupt" the company?  Not incinuating anything...just curious. [/quote]
 While we're on the topic of annuities, is Leszek still getting his yearly chunks of the Million Dollar annuity prize he won on Goldpocket.com's short-lived Sunday night Live Trivia game in 2000?

[gsnstooge]

[quote name=\'thgames65\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 01:53 PM\'] [quote name=\'whampyl03\' date=\'Feb 23 2004, 02:14 AM\']

I'll end this post with a question to toss out to the peanut gallery...

Were there any other shows that I left out which paid out in multiple installmens?[/quote]
My prize from FOX's "It's Your Chance of a Lifetime" was 200K up front, then the remaining 840K over 10 years.  They still owe me 7 more payments.  The checks are made out by FOX, not any 3rd party.  As long as American Idol is on the air, I don't think I have any worries.

Tim Hsieh [/quote]
 What did you think of Gordon Elliott?