“The Money Drop” Updates Around the World
The popular British game show The Million Pound Drop finished its first series a few months back, but it’s international presence has been felt. The show is being exported around the globe right now. Some are preparing to tape, and some are getting ready to air. Let’s take a look at what’s going on with the show around the world.
*Starting with the original Channel 4 version, the second series of The Million Pound Drop has just been announced. The network says the Davina McCall hosted quiz show will return in October for a new series of episodes. It looks like it will be live like before and I’d expect the same casting methods (through Twitter and Facebook) will stick around, so stay tuned for details regarding that.
*We announced a bit ago that Fox is casting for their own version of the show that we’re guessing is called The Million Dollar Drop (or the more vague title of The Money Drop). The show will tape in Los Angeles and if you want involved in that you can click here. It’s a good show to try for. I heard from sources, though, that Fox may try to put their own stamp on the show. They are allegedly looking at ways to adding a Lifeline element to the show, which is clearly in response to the fact that only one team ever won the first series of the British version. However, the point of the show is to lose so what they are doing defeats the purpose of the show a bit. We’ll see if they actually stick through with it.
*Russia is getting ready for their own adaptation of the show as well. Thanks to our Russian informant Alex Romanov for all the information. Instead of making it for a million rubles, the show will increase the prize to a big ten million rubles. That’s around $330,000. By comparison their Millionaire offers around three million rubles so it’s a very large prize for them. The show will be basically the same exact thing as the British counterpart, just not live. Here are some pictures from Alex.
A pilot has also been shot for TF1 in France, as they’re looking for a new game show. The rumor says they’re balancing between this and “Minute to Win It”.
do you know the name of the French version?
I like the look of the Russian version, even the Steve Coggan looking host.
With Fox trying to “Fox-anize” the show, let’s just hope it’s not you know who saying “It’s time to face the DROP!”
Mark Thompson
Agreed. I hope that the Fox version copy the Russian version to the T, especially the Men In Black-type guys that carried the money.
The “Show Ten Millions” (as it called in the Rus. Fed.) format was bought to replace failed “WWTBMaximGalkin” (an adaptation of “5 gegen Jauch”, launched in two months and “killed” in eight). That’s why Maxim Galkin is the host of the Russian Drop
PS. The first show is to be aired on Sept. 4
you can watch the first episode here:
http://www.vidachok.com/2010/09/05/37417/
PPS. And finally – the show promo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDcXdKArkg , when the host asks when will the show be aired for the first time
Awesome, thanks for the information.
Two lifeline ideas: Play the field (you get to put money on all the options, guaranting you get through the round but obviously you’ll lose money covering all the options.) Double Down (If under half a million, you can put ALL your money on an answer and if you’re right you get to double your money pot back up).
Absolutely no lifelines, and absolutely no help from anyone or anything. That’s what made the original UK version exciting. It’s not Millionaire with 12-15 questions, it’s only 8 multiple choice questions to win a million (or ten million, in Russia’s case). The game is supposed to be deceptively simple, and adding lifelines or whatnot defeats the idea of the game. I should also point that adding lifelines makes it easier to win a million (which is something Fox clearly doesn’t want to happen, wouldn’t it?).
I wish that the show were live (on the East Coast at least), because then they could incorporate questions pertaining to the day’s events, or questions pertaining to what just happened during the commercial break (I recall a question about the SATC2 movie trailer that played during the last commercial break on the third UK show).
I hope FOX is wise and heeds my suggestions. I also hope the contestants play with Benjamin Franklins and not Mr. Moneybagses.
Or the Skip option.
Skip that question and move on to the next (obviously this can’t be played on the last one), but, next question you have to put all the money remaining on at least 2 trap doors
Thanks for the link to the promo.
Same music as the UK version and same graphic design – does anyone know if the series was recorded in East London rather than East Moscow?
It was recorded in Moscow, and not on the East part of it – I’ve been on filming. There was pretty nice atmosphere in the studio, and I’ve got a lot of pleasure looking after the game. It’s so wonderful feeling when you share emotions with players when they’re winning or losing a lot of money at the moment, so I’m pity it won’t be live.
I would like Kevin Pollak to be the host for “The Money Drop” to redeem himself from the unaired “Our Little Genius”..
The Russian Millionaire is fighting the 35% of each sum role by making it 3,000,000 rubles, But the Russian Money Drop is making it 10,000,000 rubles to make the prize 3,500,000 ruble to fight Millionaire.
From 2002 it’s only 13%.
WHAT THE **** 13% Good thing i live in america.
I think you understood Alex wrong… The tax is 13%, so the player keeps 87% of the money won. Not vice versa.
Whew.
The Million Pound Drop is coming to Germany as well. The Show will be called “Rette die Million” (Save the Million) and will use the British rules (two people play as a team, 8 questions, no lifelines). It will be broadcasted on ZDF on Oct 13, Nov 10 and Dec 15. Jörg Pilawa will host the 90-minute shows.
Israel will launch on October as well, it will air on Keshet – Channel 2. The Hebrew title is “אל תפילו את המיליון” pronounced: “Al Tapilu et Ha’Million” meaning “don’t drop the million. The prize is 1 million NIS. Currently no other game show offers this amount of money.
Exact Launch Date TBA.
I beg to differ.. the Israeli 1 vs. 100 offers 1 miilion NIS. Also: Erez Tal will be hosting the local version.
Hey FOX or any network considering syndicating this game! I know that when I first heared about his show (the million pound drop), I made a variant of it with lifeline points/chips. Basically it follows the British version of the show, except there were 100 wads of $10,000 each (because wads in america are 100 bills & the highest denomination still being printed is $100). one answer must be selected throughout unless they payed for a lifeline (which they start out with 5 lifeline chips).
The player can divide (split their money up among the answers) for 1 lifeline chip, to divide among the answers any way the player saw fit. Anyway like in the British version you could choose among two questions, unlike the British version you could decide to pay 3 chips to switch the current question with the other question offered at the beginning. The last lifeline (in my version) gave two choices for the correct answer & would cost the player 2 lifeline chips. Note: the player couldn’t use a lifeline on the last question.
Now if the player answered all 7 questions correctly (according to the British model) they win whatever they hung on to. while in my version “whatever they hung on to (in wads)” + they would win a bonus of “$100,000 per lifeline chip huing on to” = what they would win.
now if for uniqueness you wanted to make it bigger money go for $2,000,000 (in wads)+ 5 lifeline chips worth $100,000 each for a $2.5 million dollar prize.
Now, I know I will be watching FOX for this format (even if it is not my version). Yea!!! Please don’t screw this up like NBC screwed deal or no deal or 1 vs. 100 fox. Please!!!
The first episode of “The Ten Million Show” was broadcast last Saturday, September 4th.
You can download it from here: http://quizzies.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=92