So yeah, we knew about these changes for a while, but it was finally made official today: Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is getting a mega makeover for the new season. 50:50 and Switch the Question are gone. I could care less about Switch, it never quite did what it was meant to do. People kept using it at the $50,000 free guess. 50:50, I’m still iffy about. In its place are Double Dip, which allows you to answer the question twice but you are committed to going for it, and Ask the Expert, which becomes available on the $2,000 question and lets you ask an expert in a way close to Phone a friend.

The time limits are coming, and I still don’t think it’s enough. 15 seconds for the first five is fine. Then for the next group of five, you get 30 seconds. Finally, for questions 11 through 14 you get 45 seconds. On the million dollar question, you get 45 seconds plus any time remaining from previous levels. I think this concept would have worked better if they carried the million dollar question clock idea through. Just let the player carry over any time to the next question. The “Millionaire Menu” is also in play, which shows you the categories for the next questions. This change will get people to carry on a bit more most likely, so I’m for it. If I see my next question will be about my specialty subject, I’d be more willing to gamble on this current one.

And as you can see we have some new graphics which looks better than the European new ones. It still looks like our Millionaire which is nice. We were also told that music would change but I haven’t heard anything about that. Just hopefully no dance remix. So there we have it: all new Millionaire in a few weeks. It’s going to be an interesting season for sure.