Who wants to be a Russian Meeyonaire?
Millionaire: Russian Roulette is hoping to be bigger, better, faster, shorter and possibly even cooler.
- Published by David Knox
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As revealed first on TV Tonight, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire went back before the cameras this week in a revamp pilot with Eddie McGuire at the helm.
Two stories this week emerged on the pilot (one in The Age and another in the Sunday Herald Sun) which adds that the title of the show is Millionaire: Russian Roulette.
TV Tonight tips that the faster-paced version involves a ‘musical chairs’ element, requires faster answering of the questions and could try to be a cooler, looser version of the show.
But it’s not Russia that is the inspiration for the show. Variations of the format have been staged in other European countries.
Millionaire has a bit of a spring in its step after Slumdog Millionaire took out the Best Film at the Oscars.
If this gets the go-ahead, don’t be surprised if this becomes a “stripped” show for Nine, possibly at 5.30pm.
McGuire files his second story on 60 Minutes tonight.
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- Tagged with 60 Minutes, Academy Awards, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
18 Responses
I am not a fan of Eddie what so ever. So whatever he does, I definitely wont be watching. Get some real, genuine and talented hosts back on our screens. He is just a typical ‘Boys Club’ arrogant and patronizing personality in my opinion.
I don’t think it will be on at 7pm. Don’t channel Nine have some new renovation show ‘Home Run’ coming in April or something? 5:30pm is an okay timeslot. I certainly prefer Eddie over Andrew. However, Monday 8:30 would be safer, after Underbelly finishes. Why not put it up against Packed to the Rafters? People will change the channel between ad breaks and then decide to watch the rest of Millionaire because it might be interesting.
7pm would be a more convenient time for it to air and maximise revenue, given that it would be more expensive than a chat show. However i doubt it will be put there while 2.5 men is pulling halfway decent ratings.
Won’t work at 5.30. Would be better at 7pm – a once traditional quiz show time for 9, and yes, must be fast, like the American version, and with contestants that can be anybody – not just hard luck stories, etc…
If McGuire is hosting I don’t think it can be faster-paced, the two are mutually exclusive.
I attended a taping of 1 vs 100 and before going in we got to watch a tape of the Bob Saget version in the adjacent sound stage, the difference could not have been more pronouced – Saget was quick, witty and kept the whole thing moving, while Eddie, although charming, seemed to meander, take his time, and focus the show more on him rather than the game.
In one 100 minutes of taping (what should have been a 44 minute show!) I learned more about McGuire’s peccadilloes than I have about Andrew O’Keefe in 4 or 5 years of his show.
I’m not saying it won’t be popular, but I doubt it will be fast!
Yes as people said on her (self included) as long as there are enough questions and little padding the show can have a second life. Otherwise even at 5:30 it will get beaten by Deal Or No Deal, the satanic game show for idiots.
Eddie filing for 60 Minutes?!
What next… hosting Mornings with Kerrie-Anne!?
In the economic downturn, great to see a millionaire working three to seven jobs in an already oversupplied industry!
Why not just return to the normal version, which was rating fine until it ended because McGuire was to become CEO?
The only problem I see is that one day someone will die by russian roulette and they’ll find some way to blaming Millionaire or calling it insensitive.
i say just get the gun and the bullets and see if people would really try there luck at winning a million. if you hear a click you win if not you lose everything now how are you waging and how muchmuch tension is that ! lol
(ps i am being sarcastic here!)
If its done properly this could really work well for 9, they need to go down the ‘less talk, more action’ route for it to work, I feel they killed the golden goose with 1vs100 spending too much time about how each ‘battler’ (including that episode with the 21 year old uni student, who had done more o/s travel than anyone I know, not sure how he slipped into the ‘battler’ category) could and what they would do with the money they won, it should be right, here’s the contestant now lets play and none of this lame after the break stuff unless they hit the big money.
Slumdog Millionare is an epic film. Believe the hype, its awesome. I went into it with low-ish expectations because I’m not usually a fan of award-winning films (I saw No Country for Old Men and it was horrendous…an old man walking around in the desert for 2 hours), but Slumdog was fantastic. As for Millionare, I’d actually watch this, apart from an aging Deal there’s no game shows on at the moment. Although I may as well just buy Slumdog on DVD, it’d be more satisfying
Millionaire at 17:30? Does that mean Nine already scrapped plans for their late afternoon talk show?
Cool, can’t wait.
Russian roulette combined with a game show…
I think I’ll stick with Underbelly.
Fantastic!! Can’t wait to have Millionaire back on screens, although I hope they don’t mess with the formula too much – one of the things that made it great was how slow and tense it was.
No TV Tonight did not reveal it first – it was in Mediaweek’s email waaaaaay back in very early January. Bad luck.
Actually Mediaweek on Jan 13 wrote about a possible return of WWTBAM with Regis Philbin to mark 10 years since it started and because of the buzz os Slumdog Millionaire. It also asked “could it be back with Eddie here?” but that’s it. I’m comfortable a story here spelled out a lot more of what became reality this week in the Nine studios.