Celebrity Players Announced for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”
We teased it this morning on our Twitter page, but here it is now: ABC has announced the celebrities that will take part in the 10th anniversary edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Each celebrity will answer one question at the end of the show, able to use only one of the available lifelines. A right answer gives the celebrity $50,000 while a wrong answer is worth $25,000. Not bad either way. Here’s the list. Who are you looking forward to?
Lauren Conrad (“The Hills), playing for the M. Powerment Fund
Rapper Snoop Dogg, playing for the Snoop Dogg Youth Football League
Patricia Heaton (ABC’s new comedy, “The Middle”) playing for the Westside Pregnancy Clinic and Lighthouse Medical Missions
Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist and champion of “Dancing with the Stars” playing for Blank Children’s Hospital
NBA star Steve Nash playing for The Steve Nash Foundation
Chart-topper Katy Perry playing for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital
Rachael Ray, TV personality, author and cook, playing for Yum-O Organization and ASPCA
Sherri Shepherd, co-host of “The View,” playing for the March of Dimes
Vanessa Williams (“Ugly Betty”), playing for The Maria Torres Emerging Artist Project at the Amas Musical Theatre
Country star Wynonna playing for Backpack Mission Ministries
A special surprise guest is also going to be included. Who is it? You’ll have to watch to find out, but throw out your guesses for fun regardless. We’ve got a quick interview with Regis Philbin we’ll post soon.
I was at the taping Thursday night. Sherri Shepard was the celebrity guest, but I'm not going to tell you how she did.
You're just going to have to see "night 3 of the return of Millionaire!"
Vanessa Williams was at the Thursday morning taping.
I'll bet that the guest is Meredith Vieira. She's the only real logical choice that I could think of.
My guess is that it will be one of three Celebrity half-millionaires: Drew Carey, Rosie O’Donnell, or Norm MacDonald. I’d put my money on Rosie!
Shawn Johnson was the guest on "Night 5" Friday evening taping.
My guess for the special guest? Dev Patel
The Reverend Jessie Jackson–he could be on the same night as Al Sharpton and they could argue about the answer in rhyme!
OK, really, I will say Barack Obama–since there doesn't seem to be any way I can turn on my TV without seeing him somewhere, my bet is on him.
Who?
I put my guess in for Kelly Ripa :)
Perhaps Christ Tarrant, the host of the original Millionaire? That'd be awesome!
Perhaps Christ Tarrant, the host of the original Millionaire? That'd be awesome!
errr, I mean Chris…lol
Dev is of Slumdog Millionaire
Dev is of Slumdog Millonaire
Whoopi Goldberg
I would guess that this "special guest" will probably culminate the aniversary event on August 23. Could be Vierra, but since she's an "expert" on that show, I doubt she'll answer one question for $50K.
Maybe my namesake maniac Craig Furguson :)
I'm thinking the "special guest" is Kathie Lee Gifford, Kelly Ripa, Joy Philbin, or Meredith Vierra. They're the only sensible ones.
Oh, and Michael Davies also makes sense.
My guess is that it's Regis — and that there will be a special guest host who comes in to ask the question. I doubt it could be Meredith due to her contract with NBC and "Today." Maybe they'll get Norm MacDonald to come back and terrorize Regis for his $1 million loss — they just replayed that episode last night on GSN.
Meredith would be cool. I know she has contract issues with NBC, but crazier bookings have happened before. And if its just for one question, it probably could be negotiable.
Looking at the celebrity line up though, we might have more than a few $25,000 winners. Hope Im wrong though.
From various reports the celeb guests for each so far are:
Night 1 – ?
Night 2 – Vanessa Williams
Night 3 – Sherri Shepherd
Night 4 – Lauren Conrad
Night 5 – Shawn Johnson
Anyone out there went to the Night 1 taping?
I'm not sure. With no risk, I see Double Dip as being used a bit, and for the celebrities who can get other famous people to agree to appear as a PAF that could be used with the most famous PAFs, and if the celerity has no idea it's likely ATE will be the choice, so with one lifeline… I think it could turn out alright. Plus they'll probably make the question absurdly easy.
Adding to this, I was at the Monday late taping on August 3rd. The celeb segment was done out of order. Patricia Heaton will be the celeb on Show 7, which airs on August 17. However, she did her segment earlier that day, apparently she couldn't stick around. They did bring in the celeb who will be on show 8, and did his segment. That celeb is Snoop Dog.
So to update the list:
Night 7 – Patricia Heaton
Night 8 – Snoop Dog
A couple of other tidbits without giving anything away;
Snoop asked the audience for help with his question
The celeb questions are not timed – they can also "ask the expert"
The Night 6 celeb is Rachael Ray.
Maybe it'll be John Carpenter the first Millionaire?
Doubt it; Carpenter is listed among the former contestants that are in the studio audience.
Why isn't Norm McDonald appearing, since Regis screwed him out of $1,000,000 last time on the show.
I would love to see him win $50,000, or, to make up for it, give him a new $1,000,000 question.
He better be the surprise guest