Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? More heart, tougher questions than in Regis' day

****1/2 (out of 5)


In 1999, my wife Barbara played darts for a local bar team. I'd go to hang out and cheer her on, but when she wasn't playing I'd watch one of the TVs. Tired of sports I'd turn to one of the other TVs. Not much for game shows, I was surprised when I came to love the new primetime sensation, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? It was especially fun to watch in a bar, because you didn't need the sound up. You had the questions and multiple choice answers written in front of you and not only was it fun knowing the answers, but also beating the contestants to the answer.

Being a huge trivia buff, I could not believe how easy the questions were, especially when compared with Jeopardy. And the fact that the money was so much bigger than on Jeopardy and that you only competed against yourself, with no time limits was a slam dunk. But ABC/Disney knowing they had a ratings bonanza did the unthinkable and started to run the show every night of the week. Capitalizing on its early success, but also burning it out for the people at home. The early round questions remained easy, but the later round questions were so incredibly hard that few did well on the show thus killing its purpose, to make ordinary people millionaires. By the time the first guy became a millionaire I had already stopped watching the show.

When I heard last summer that there was going to be a week devoted to movie trivia I attempted to become a contestant on the show, but failed to pass their exam. But Barbara, our friend Paul and I did get to be audience members for two shows and they will be broadcast on January 24th and 25th. Since that time I have watched the show every day via my Digital Video Recorder. I think it is a better show now without host Regis Philbin.

For those who didn't realize it was still on, ABC airs Millionaire at 12:30 PM on weekdays here in New York City and syndicates it throughout the country. The host for the last 6 years has been The Today Show's Meredith Vieira. She used to be one of the original hosts of The View. Never having seen The View, I knew very little about her, but after nearly six months of watching her on Millionaire, she has become one of my favorite television personalities. She's genuine which is something you can never accuse Regis of being.

Vieira's the Rhode Island daughter of Portuguese immigrants and despite having wealth now, she wears her humble, New England upbringing like a badge of honor. And she doesn't have a great poker face. When she likes the contestant it shows and when she doesn't it shows. A Boston fireman was on the show and Meredith was a little flirty in that safe, middle-aged married way. When a struggling Queens barmaid/actress was overacting between answers, Meredith looked relieved when she finally lost and left the set.

When people come on the show, sometimes they are there to make money for a cruise or something less serious like that. Sometimes they are desperate and down to their last few bucks. When those people are on, Meredith doesn't give them clues, but subtly hints in which direction they should go. Meaning, if they are not sure of an answer and seem willing to bet the ranch on a guess, she might coax them to take their winnings and go before they leave with nothing. It's a great gesture and fortunately most are smart enough to pick up on her cautiousness. Sometimes they don't and when they lose, you can see the pain in her face for them. Her show might be funded by Capital One, but she never let's her job get in the way of her humanity.

On the other hand, when the Boston fireman was trying to win enough for a Corvette he hesitated on a question and said, "Well, I guess this is where they separate the boys from the men." To which she replied, "Well, which one are you?" Which drew unusually loud boos from the crowd. Usually the crowd loves her, so she laughed at how quickly they turned on her, but she explained herself with a Cheshire smile: "It depends on what you think a man would do. A man might see he's reached his limit and be able to walk away with what he's already made. And a boy might be too aggressive." But we knew she didn't mean that. LOL

My favorite moment on the show was with a young, Oklahoma mother. She had graduated college recently, but already had a one-year-old at home and was looking to marry her live-in fiancee. They had a two-room apartment with two mismatched twin beds sitting side by side. They were scraping by without a couch, with his old dinosaur curtains on the windows and other signs of a poor, young couple starting out. Despite TV-quality good looks, she had a sweetness and innocence that could only come from the Midwest. She wasn't on the show for fun, like others, but to change her family's life. Every answer she got right she would cheer with a whoop and raised fists. Despite the notorious "hot seat", as the show's producers call it, the girl showed her smarts by knocking down the answers with ease, never using a lifeline.

Now the structure of the show goes that you answer five questions to get to the $1000 milestone, from there you cannot win less than a $1000. You answer five more to reach the $25,000 milestone, again you can't leave with less than 25 grand. Now you have five more to a Million. In six months, I've only seen one person get to see the Million dollar question, most others win at or below $25,000. Very few win more than that.

When this contestant won her $25,000 she started crying tears of relieved joy. That's when she explained what the money meant to her, which was pretty cool. Because when you fill out the audition form, your reasons for wanting to be on the show are supposed to be on there, so Meredith can have something to talk to you about. The fact that this girl kept this part of her life to herself meant she didn't use a sob story to get on TV. Meredith was as surprised as the audience at what this girl's life was like and she broke down with her. The girl finally left with that 25 Grand and Meredith gave her one of the biggest hugs and wished her well on her new life.

Maybe this same scenario would have played out with Regis there, but somehow I think it would have come off less sincere.

The Freditor