How “Million Pound Drop” Became “Million Dollar Money Drop”, Plus Behind the Scenes Video

It’s not often we get pretty solid quiz shows on American television, so I know many of you are eagerly awaiting Fox’s Million Dollar Money Drop, debuting Monday, December 20th, at 8:00PM ET.  We have extensively covered the British version so you’re aware of how that goes.  We’ve recently posted some teasers and previews for the American version, and there’s a very noticeable change in style.  We talked to the show’s executive producer, Jeff Apploff, today and asked how these changes came about.

Jeff explained, “When they came to me from Fox and Endemol and said, “Listen, we’ve got this great show and we want you to Americanize it.” So part of what we did…you know, the UK is different from America and they want to see people losing every show. It’s not the same thing here.”  In nineteen episodes and dozens of teams, only five have won anything and the most won by any team, out of a possible £1,000,000; is £75,000.

Jeff continues, “It’s not like what it was in the UK version where it’s just loser-loser-loser-loser-loser…and it’s a different tone and feel of questions. You watch some of the questions of the UK version…it’s not as relatable. There are a lot of great questions that are relatable but there are some that aren’t. On our show almost every single question is so relatable where you go, “Oh my god I know that! I think…”.”

Very slight format changes were made in order to give the show a more American feel.  Jeff Apploff commented on the changes, saying, “We came up with…our questions are a little different. The feel and tone of the show is different. We changed it from eight questions to seven. We gave them something called a Quick Change which gives them a chance anywhere in the first six questions to change their mind if they want to. We really created this game for this country because we know what Americans love.”  Quick Change is an element unique to the American show.  ”The Quick Change gives you an opportunity anywhere, once the clock runs out and you’ve…risked your money on any drops you want, of course always leaving one drop clear…Kevin then says, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you an opportunity for a Quick Change right now.”"

“It’s 30 seconds to make any move that you want to do right now and you can move your money anywhere you want as long as you leave one drop clear. So it gives people a chance to reassess because the pressure is incredible and people fall under that pressure but it gives them a chance to go, “Oh wait, I think we made a mistake. I think we want to move some money.” Kevin then says 30 seconds on the clock and they can move it wherever they want and then we see how it falls.”

Million Dollar Money Drop is the opposite of most quiz shows.  On essentially every other show you start with nothing and work your way up to a million.  On Million Dollar Drop, you start the million and, odds are, work your way downwards.  Jeff is hopeful that Americans will accept this, saying, “Listen, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen but you’re not just going to see people losing every single week. It’s not easy to win, but you’re going to see some great moments.”

Fox provided us with a behind the scenes look at the show.  See some of the show from the perspective of the audience.  Also, check out the assembly of one of the drops on the set.