“Phone A Friend” Lifeline Removed from “Millionaire”

Edit: I’m sure I made it clear in the post, but I wanted to specify that this is really not the end of the world or the downfall of the show like many are claiming it is. I just think it’s a bit of a cheap way of solving a problem, whatever that problem may be.

Yeah, I defend the show a lot through the changes it’s made when others hated them. I’m not sure I can defend this much. I can’t give you the date yet, but the ever-popular Who Wants to be a Millionaire lifeline Phone A Friend is being removed from the show. Nothing will replace it, and Ask the Expert will be available at the start of the show. So, again, from the beginning your three lifelines are Double Dip, Ask the Expert, and Ask the Audience (the only thing really surviving from the original show ten years ago). And it kinda sucks. I wish I could defend like I’ve defended other changes, but I can’t. There’s really nothing positive from getting rid of it. I can understand why they are doing it from a production standpoint, but from my fan standpoint it’s a bit lame.

I’m just going to take two wild guesses at what this could be about so we can think from a production standpoint before we move into critical mode. The first thing (and the more probable) is that they have to do some extra production work with Phone A Friend which, you guessed it, costs money. They have to get all these people, make the graphics, organize it all, keep them on the phones, and then they have to edit down the dead time on set between when the lifeline is activated and when you actually see it on TV. The second is about Googling. At least half the Phone A Friends Google the answer which guarantees a right answer. So that’s a lot more money than they’d give away normally, thus saving money. So either way it boils down to money. I wish I had the right answer but I’d have to Phone A Friend for that and apparently it’s not allowed anymore.

It’s the only thing I can think of, though. It’s not like it wasn’t that popular, like 50:50. It is basically a cultural catch phrase. If they are going to keep toying with it in an effort to save money, whether that be production costs or prize budget or both, I’d really just like to see the show play around with the Australian Millionaire: Hot Seat format and bring it here. It only has one winner each show and that win averages around $20K usually, with $50K+ some other days. This is not, “That’s it, I’m done watching!” change. This is just more, “OK this is a bit dumb,” change.

I feel dumb for complaining about something as small as a lifeline, but it makes it so much harder to win money now. Ask the Audience stops being helpful at around the $12,500 or $15,000 question. People don’t like to do gambling with Double Dip much so that’s left on the table later. Ask the Expert is completely useless half the time when we get celebrities and Entertainment Weekly editors on the panel. I’d rather see the show start from scratch with the Hot Seat show than continue the endless stream of $15,000 or $25,000 winners with basically no one having a remote shot at a million dollars except for tournaments like the Tournament of 10.