Super Millionaire

[adamjk]

Does anyone know if Super Millionaire will be back for another run following tomorrow night?

[tvwxman]

No announcement yet.....ABC meets with the affiliates in 2 weeks....perhaps news then, but don't count on it.

[leszekp]

Too soon to say. SM's ratings were down from February, but in just about every case were higher than the lead-in show. And it's not like ABC has all that many options, and Millionaire is cheap to make.

Two ideas to improve the ratings:

1. Schedule it at an earlier hour, similar to its time slots in 2000 and 2001. Millionaire is a family show, and they lost a large part of that audience by scheduling it at 10 PM every night.

2. Make it more likely for somebody to win big bucks. The questions got really difficult at $500K, and most contestants didn't have either the knowledge or enough lifelines to get them past that point (and the 3 Wise Men aren't really helping all that much. Either make the questions easier, or re-institute a second phone playoff round to get better qualified contestants on the show. You can't promote the idea that someone might with $10 million, and then have a show where it quickly becomes clear that no one stands a reasonable chance of doing so.

Better promotion might help as well ...

[weaklink75]

It depends on what happens in September most likely. If their new shows do well, the show may not be needed for November, if one or more of their shows tank early, they might pull them for part of November and do SM for another run. The ratings are down from February, but I've read May is actually the weakest sweeps month in the regular TV season (because of the weather, people tend to go out more in May than in November and February).

I do agree that the 10PM showings aren't the best for a show like this. Hovever, one of the reasons it was put there was because the affilates were complaining of the weak lead-ins to their local news, and if it helps them, that's what counts.

[Craig Karlberg]

I may've gone haywire about my comment on the 10PM airings, but still if ABC wants to show SM, have it run at a decent hour like 8 PM on 1 or 2 nights per run while leaving the 10PM slots available for the other nights.  As far as Sundays go, revert to 7 PM if it means not showing the ABC Sunday movie that day.

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'leszekp\' date=\'May 25 2004, 11:31 PM\'] Either make the questions easier, or re-institute a second phone playoff round to get better qualified contestants on the show. You can't promote the idea that someone might with $10 million, and then have a show where it quickly becomes clear that no one stands a reasonable chance of doing so.
 [/quote]
 I think this is the best idea of em all....As tough as it is now to get picked for the show...weeding out the pack with another phone qualifier would seperate the wheat from the chaff a bit better...

After watching two players last night bail in the mid-tier questions, ABC must be kicking themselves... The slower pace editing of the show now isn't helping this....there isn't as much time to get to a player in the ring of fire who may have a better chance of getting in there...

Matt

[SRIV94]

[quote name=\'Craig Karlberg\' date=\'May 26 2004, 04:00 AM\'] I may've gone haywire about my comment on the 10PM airings, but still if ABC wants to show SM, have it run at a decent hour like 8 PM on 1 or 2 nights per run while leaving the 10PM slots available for the other nights.  As far as Sundays go, revert to 7 PM if it means not showing the ABC Sunday movie that day. [/quote]
 And counter 60 MINUTES?  While the old grey mare ain't what she used to be, it's still a little formidable to stick SM up against.  Just one man's opinion, though.

At the moment I can't remember who it was who said this in another thread, but SM doesn't work as a May sweeps show because of season finales and other big events (while there are some big events in November and February, networks tend to go all out for May).  Personally, I would've waited for July or August before bringing it back after its good February tryout.  And I wouldn't rule out SM coming back in August anyway (let's not even discuss November yet).

Doug -- and the countdown to 500 continues

[Ian Wallis]

After watching the finale, I agree with bringing back the second phone game.  I really expected to see a $2.5 million win on this set of shows, but we didn't come close.  

I don't agree with making the questions easier.  Even $1 million is a lot to give away on a game show, so if they made it so easy that anyone could win the top prize, what would be the point?  That kind of diminshes the achievement.  It would have been exciting to see a really smart contestant play the upper tier with at least three lifelines.  I don't think anyone in the two runs of shows even had one original lifeline left after $100,000, did they?

Part of the problem might be with the amounts of money we're dealing with.  If I was on there and had even $500,000 in my pocket, I'd be hesitant about guessing on the $1 million question even if I thought I knew it.  Certainly at $1 million I don't think I'd take the chance at all.  I can't imagine what it would be like at $2.5 or higher.  I know we said this about the show when it originally came on, but I think it's much more true now.  

One thing that occured to me that they could do - move the second "safe" level to question 11 - make $500,000 the beginning of the "new demension" and make that a safe level.  That might encourage more people to go for it once they get there.  Or, is that too high a level to make it a safe haven?

The odd thing about this whole second run is it didn't seem a "magical" to me as the first run did - and I don't know why.  Some of the excitement just seemed to be missing.  Maybe it's because the show's biggest winner - "Bobo" - was the second or third contestant they ever had, and nobody seemed as memorable this time around.

Having said that, I really hope we'll see this again soon.  It has the kind of tension and spontaneous humor that definately make it a worthwile hour.  When Tuesday's "finger" question came up, for example (teasing part of the body), those kind of unexpected laughs make me yearn to see the show again.

Maybe third time's the charm for a big winner!

[DrJWJustice]

[quote name=\'leszekp\' date=\'May 25 2004, 11:31 PM\'] 2. Make it more likely for somebody to win big bucks. The questions got really difficult at $500K, and most contestants didn't have either the knowledge or enough lifelines to get them past that point (and the 3 Wise Men aren't really helping all that much. [/quote]
 I can certainly see why questions are harder, but did anyone pick up on the fact that there hasn't been a single contestant who had one of their original three lifelines intact before attempting the $500k question?

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'DrJWJustice\' date=\'May 27 2004, 12:24 PM\'] [quote name=\'leszekp\' date=\'May 25 2004, 11:31 PM\'] 2. Make it more likely for somebody to win big bucks. The questions got really difficult at $500K, and most contestants didn't have either the knowledge or enough lifelines to get them past that point (and the 3 Wise Men aren't really helping all that much. [/quote]
I can certainly see why questions are harder, but did anyone pick up on the fact that there hasn't been a single contestant who had one of their original three lifelines intact before attempting the $500k question? [/quote]
 I have noticed that all throughout--anyone think that ABC might suggest to Davies & Co. to make the questions a little easier next series?

[Steve McClellan]

...or modify the qualifying process to get better contestants into the Hot Seat?

[Don Howard]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'May 27 2004, 01:03 PM\'] [quote name=\'DrJWJustice\' date=\'May 27 2004, 12:24 PM\'] [quote name=\'leszekp\' date=\'May 25 2004, 11:31 PM\'] 2. Make it more likely for somebody to win big bucks. The questions got really difficult at $500K, and most contestants didn't have either the knowledge or enough lifelines to get them past that point (and the 3 Wise Men aren't really helping all that much. [/quote]
I can certainly see why questions are harder, but did anyone pick up on the fact that there hasn't been a single contestant who had one of their original three lifelines intact before attempting the $500k question? [/quote]
I have noticed that all throughout--anyone think that ABC might suggest to Davies & Co. to make the questions a little easier next series? [/quote]
Considering the ton of money we're talking about at that level of play, I'd say no.

[JTFriends1]

Marc Berman is reporting in today's Mediaweek daily Programming Insider that Super Millionaire will indeed return next season as a series of specials.  However, I have yet to see any firm articles of confirmation from the network or any other source.  While not stellar, SM's ratings have built considerably on its lead-ins.

[Michael Brandenburg]

My suggestion would be to keep the current scheduling of 5-7 programs on ABC during each of the "sweeps" months, but bring back about 10-15 of the recent top winners from the daily syndicated version as the contestants for these programs as they once did for a "Tournament of Champions" during the "regular" Millionaire's prime-time run on ABC.

These contestants would be on for the entire series during that particular "sweeps" month and 10 of them would start out in the "Fastest Finger" chairs (which were eliminated from the current syndicated version).  Winner of the first "Fastest Finger" question plays the game, and then his empty FF chair would be filled by the next player in line for the next FF question, etc.

I would also make a slight change in the money progression and the guaranteed "plateau" amounts as follows:

$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$5,000 (plateau)
$7,500
$10,000
$25,000
$50,000 (plateau)
$100,000
$250,000
$500,000
$1 million (plateau + 2 additional lifelines)
$2.5 million
$5 million
$10 million

(A little more logical progression, in my opinion -- I feel that with the current amounts, there is too big a jump from $100,000 to $500,000 from the 10th to the 11th question in the stack, while the current progression tends to run too slowly up to the $100,000 level.)

I'd also keep the current question difficulty -- more logical for "returning champions."


Michael Brandenburg
(Now if we could just keep Martha Stewart from messing things up here!)

[tvwxman]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'May 27 2004, 01:03 PM\']
I have noticed that all throughout--anyone think that ABC might suggest to Davies & Co. to make the questions a little easier next series? [/quote]
 I stand by my earlier suggestion....Pick up the pace!

The show runs much slower than it used to. Too much time goes by just getting up to question 10, that's assuming the dolts that were lucky enough to get into the hotseat made it that far.

ms