A Simple GS Question

[J.R.]

Sometimes my family get confused when I show them \"$1M Chance of a Lifetime\" and inform them it was the first American show to offer a top prize of $1,000,000. But I'm starting to have doubts myself.

So, here it is. I don't want any \"Daytime/Nighttime\" spacifics or any of that. Simply...

Was Jim Lange's \"$1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime\" the FIRST American Game Show to offer a top prize of $1 Million ?

-Joe R.

[Kevin Prather]

yes, but it was kinda whacked out.

The contestants were couples, as you know. I think i read somewhere that the first couple to win won $1,000,000. Sometime after that, they changed it to offer about $900,000 cash, plus cars, trips, and other stuff. I could be dead wrong, though.

[TheInquisitiveOne]

The contestants were couples, as you know. I think i read somewhere that the first couple to win won $1,000,000. Sometime after that, they changed it to offer about $900,000 cash, plus cars, trips, and other stuff. I could be dead wrong, though.

Actually, you are spot on. In fact, our own Chris Lambert! has the site that I think you are talking about...

Rules of the $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime, Courtesy of Chris Lambert!

The Inquisitive One

[Kevin Prather]

yep. that's it!

[Matt Ottinger]

The asterisk to the question, though, is that the million dollar prize (or however much of it was cash) was paid out in the form of an annuity.  The couples that won received (and, apparently, are continuing to receive) $40,000 annual payments spread out over 25 years.

The first game show to simply pay a million dollars to the winner (less taxes, of course) would be Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.  As has been discussed here already, the current syndicated version of WWTBAM has reverted back to annuity payments, but the original series payouts were lump sums.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Aug 21 2003, 09:53 AM\']The asterisk to the question, though, is that the million dollar prize (or however much of it was cash) was paid out in the form of an annuity.  The couples that won received (and, apparently, are continuing to receive) $40,000 annual payments spread out over 25 years.[/quote]
Considering that Telepictures is now part of AOL Time Warner, despite that parent corporation's recent woes I have every reason to believe that the annuity checks have come at the same time every year without fail and will continue to come until the end of the annuity period.

(Meanwhile, the format is owned by Carlton's Action Time division, who has staged the format in the UK as \"All Clued Up\" while using the \"Chance of a Lifetime\" title for their own big-money quiz creation (which had that unfortunate week on Fox in 2000 that also killed off \"Greed\" and set the stage for the beginning of the end of the Great Quiz Show Revival of 1999-2000).

[chris319]

Considering that Telepictures is now part of AOL Time Warner, despite that parent corporation's recent woes I have every reason to believe that the annuity checks have come at the same time every year without fail and will continue to come until the end of the annuity period.

I very much doubt TW-AOL administers the annuity.

[Matt Ottinger]

I didn't mean to imply that the payments aren't still being made (although, to be honest, I've wondered about that in the past).  I just wanted to point out the difference between winning a million dollars in an annuity and winning a million dollars all at once, as the ABC WWTBAM winners did.