Comments on: “Phone A Friend” Lifeline Removed from “Millionaire”

By: bgluckma

bgluckma — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:32:53 +0000

That's it. I can't take it any more. I've removed Millionaire from my TiVo season pass. Since the show has removed the Phone A Friend lifeline, I'm getting tired of watching a parade of contestants walking with between $5K and $15K. What bothers me is not only that the $1M now becomes even more unreachable, but I never get to ponder the answers to the most challenging questions because the contestants rarely get beyond $25K. I'll miss Meredith, but since the lifeline change the show has become much less entertaining and challenging for me.

By: bgluckma

bgluckma — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:32:53 +0000

By: AKG

AKG — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:44:18 +0000

I thought for a long time they should remove phone a friend and let people have 30 seconds to google the answer. It's not as easy as it looks to google something in 30 seconds, and most people's phone a friends couldn't get them any answers at all anyway.

By: AKG

AKG — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:44:18 +0000

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:06:17 +0000

The reasoning Meredith gave for removing phone a friend is weak. She said the answer should be what is in your mind. Well, asking the audience is not in the contestant's mind, as well as asking the expert is not in their mind.

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:06:17 +0000

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:44:13 +0000

PAF became a lot less helpful over the years despite the emergence of Google. Half of the contestants spend 10 seconds reading the question and then the rest repeating the answers, while the other half expects the PAF to look up the answer (to the person who said they're sequestered, much of the connecting phase is edited out for TV). Even in the latter group, you get a lot of "I don't know"s and other unhelpful responses. Removing PAF isn't a JTS moment if it's not the worst of issues.

I do think they could sequester the PAF somewhere or let contestants use banked time if they're stuck, but the removal of PAF alone isn't going to kill the show.

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:44:13 +0000

I do think they could sequester the PAF somewhere or let contestants use banked time if they're stuck, but the removal of PAF alone isn't going to kill the show.

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:43:48 +0000

2. The lifelines. Specifically, the misuse of them. Of course, the Ask the Audience becomes useless after the first 10 questions, but a lot of contestants either use it on a question people don't know or they don't trust a high number. Double Dip tends to be used just to confirm an answer they're not sure about. Even if their instinct is wrong, that sometimes is their only thought and they're stuck taking a wild guess almost. They also compound it with another lifeline sometimes which really annoys me. Ask the Expert is used on a lot of questions that don't match their expertise, so they get mostly vague answers. A lot of them don't present certain answers, which only makes the contestant uncertain.

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:43:48 +0000

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:43:29 +0000

Here are the problems with the current setup of Millionaire:

1. The contestants. They're not as smart because there are less (and easier) stages to pass in the audition process and some of them are recruited. Number of contesants shouldn't be an issue because the primetime version ran two/three hours a week at some points, which comes out to about the same number per week. In fact, if they sifted through and found people willing and able to go far, more time would be spent per contestant. There are also a lot who don't trust their gut and want to check with the audience/expert or use Double Dip and get it right on the first try. The primetime version not only had smarter contestants, but contestants who made an educated guess if they needed to and didn't have to be 100% sure of their answer. You can blame that on the timer, but it's possible to take a few seconds to think and save a lifeline.

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:43:29 +0000

Here are the problems with the current setup of Millionaire:

By: Sasha

Sasha — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:37:09 +0000

The german version actually has a lifeline similar to your "ask a stranger" that would work pretty well I think. When used, the lights come up and anyone in the audience that thinks they know the answer stands up, the contestant gets to talk to one of them. In Germany, that lifeline is only available if you play the "risk version" of the game which does not have a 2nd safe haven.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:57:12 +0000

I agree with most of what you said except WoF isn't a good example since it is still thriving.

By: ChadF

ChadF — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:30:27 +0000

Ask a Stranger didn't work at the Disneyland attraction. Anyone who's been there can tell you that much. And who's to say that a random New Yorker knows more than a random Disneyland patron?

Pit Stop seems like it should have been naturally added along with the clock. I've seen about a dozen versions of this lifeline suggested here. I think if the show finds the right variation, it will add it as a successor to Phone-a-Friend.

Risk… is WAAY too complicated. If you need 303 words to explain how a lifeline works, it's too complex.