Who Wants To Be A Super Millionaire?

ABC Bringing ‘Millionaire’ Back for Limited Run

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Regis Philbin, once America’s most-watched television personality, is coming back to ABC’s hot seat, and the network is hoping he’ll bring a ratings lifeline.

“Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” the onetime game show gargantuan that powered ABC to No. 1 in the ratings before withering in the glare of overexposure, will return for a brief run next month with host Philbin asking questions worth a lot more money, the Disney-owned network said on Monday.

ABC plans to air a souped-up version of the quiz show, retitled “Super Millionaire,” in five hour-long segments during the final full week of the February ratings “sweep.”

Like the original show, the new format will present contestants with 15 multiple-choice questions that escalate in difficulty as the size of potential winnings mount. But the value of the correct answers will be higher — ranging from $1,000 to $10 million. The old show started at $100 and built to a $1 million jackpot.

And new “lifelines” will be added to the three original last-resort assists the show was famous for offering its players — calling a friend, polling the studio audience and removing two incorrect answers from the multiple-choice list. As before, each contest will open with 10 players competing in a “fastest-finger round” to advance to the hot seat.

“For months, we have been carefully monitoring the environment to determine if the time is right for a new, totally amped-up version of ‘Millionaire,’ broadcast in its original, event-like form. We think this is the time,” ABC Chairman Lloyd Braun said in a statement.

The “Super Millionaire” sweeps gambit comes just after ABC announced plans to return to the game-show genre with another prime-time offering, “Deal or No Deal,” which will be added to the network’s schedule this spring.

Embracing the quiz show format is a risky move for ABC, following its experience with the original “Millionaire.”