“Who Wants to be a Millionaire” Plans the “Tournament of Ten” for $1,000,000

Who Wants to be a Millionaire begins its eighth season on September 7th and they’ve got a new gimmick that’s almost assured to give away $1,000,000 for the first time in about seven years.  The syndicated game show, hosted by Meredith Vieira, will begin the “Tournament of Ten” on the first episode.  Every player for the 45 first episodes will be seeded on the leader board based on how much money they won and how quick they were to answer questions.  The preliminary segment will end on November 6th and the actual tournament will take place from November 9th through the 20th.

Each of those days one of the contestants who placed on the top ten will have the chance to answer one $1,000,000 question, starting with seed ten and going up to number one.  No lifelines can be used.  The contestant has the option of walking away and not answering the question, keeping all previous winnings.  However, if the contestant answers and loses, that person loses whatever he or she won previously and goes home with the last milestone achieved.  If the contestant answers correctly he or she is in the running for the $1,000,000 prize but has the chance of being knocked out by the next contestant.  It comes down to the final game on November 20th where the top seed has the chance to answer the $1,000,000 question and win the top prize. So, for instance (and this will probably be many of the situations), if you have $100,000 and are in the tournament you can take your initial winnings and go home or you can guess.  If you miss you lose $75,000 and drop back to $25,000.  But if you get it right you’re in the running for $1,000,000 so long as no one above you answers it correctly.

So what are we thinking?  It is a bit gimmicky but to be perfectly frank I think the show needs a reminder that it is possible to win the top prize, even if it’s like this.  It’s been an unbelievably long time.  It has to be close to 1,000 episodes since the last winner.  It seems just about impossible to win.  I mean they even dumbed down the questions on the ABC version that just finished and they couldn’t have a winner.  I’d rather see someone answer all 15 questions correct and win, but just seeing someone actually get it is unbelievably refreshing.  Just be careful about being too gimmicky.

The show has also announced the first few Experts in line for the Ask the Expert lifeline.  The first week is John Carpenter, the first $1,000,000 winner, from September 7th through the 11th.  After that is Alexandra Wentworth (September 14-18), Ashleigh Banfield (September 21-25), Mo Rocca (September 28 — October 2), Robin Meade (October 5-7), Rene Syler (October 8 & 9), Cokie Roberts (October 12-16) and Ken Jennings (October 19-23).

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